Friday, October 25, 2024
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Twitter: Justice denied but never delayed

shivangirai
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Twitter: Justice denied but never delayed

Since yesterday, head of a rising media start up is in the eye of the storm for allegedly sexually harassing a former employee. Since then, several women have made similar accusations against the individual. Accusations have been made on social media websites and as of now no formal complaint has been lodged. As is with anything attention grabbing, social media is abuzz with people taking sides. Some are sure it is done with intent to slander an up and coming young entrepreneur while others say that so many women could not all be lying and there must be a grain of truth in the charges. Basically, social media is doing what social media does best– believing the side of the story that suits their own theories best and being 100 percent certain of it without knowing even 1 percent of the facts. Then there are other twitter celebrities who are contributing their 2 cents (read “Aag mein ghee”) sounding either pious, disgusted, peacemakers or some downright stupid.

The truth remains none of us know what happened. At this point it doesn’t look too good for the accused but at the same time no FIR has been registered and till the time that happens it’s a case of ‘he said and she (they) said’. So why is it so difficult for us tweeple to be reasonable for once? Wait for the facts to come before slut shaming the girls or initiating virtual lynching of the guy.

I believe, that’s because at the end of the day we are all petty gossips. We are more tech savvy than the average neighborhood aunty, I will give us that. But that doesn’t change our real nature which is to have zero concern for facts and only focus on the Masala value of any topic. We don’t want something as silly as truth to ruin our fun. So off we go turning a blind eye to reason and logic, happily gallivanting in our gossip fairy land where every man is avaricious, money grabbing villain out to victimize fair maidens and every woman is a gold digging, ‘must-be-asking-for-it’ slut. And we are “insaaf ka devta/devi” the one who can see all, out to dispense real justice. Which makes me think, how gullible we are to any lie, half-truths that can be peddled to us by someone with an agenda. One just needs to be systematic and persistent and it will eventuality turn into fact. We all are susceptible to a well framed lie. Case in point – demonizing demonetization. That fateful night of 8th November, India as we know it ended. Lines outside ATMs killed people, farmers were ruined, and marriages were broken. And yet the suffering public still overwhelmingly voted for the same man who had subjected them to such horrors. Entities with hidden agendas had us believe that we had been pushed into the dark abyss of an economic disaster. And yet here we are, all ok.

I am digressing. Back to the point which is our gullibility combined with our propensity for gossip, utter disregard for facts amplified by the infinite reach that social media gives us , has turned us into these stupid, unbending, obnoxious, know it alls with a nuclear button in their hands. We can call someone a slut, a whore, pervert, without so much as a thought to how it might affect the other person. I personally do not support Gurmehar’s views for instance. But it was utterly reprehensible how a young girl’s harmless video with friends was circulated shared as a reflection of her “low character” and whatever that means.

So can we at least try to be a little more responsible and humane on social media? Before you start accusing me of supporting curbs on freedom of expression, this is not what it is about. It is in fact about not being obnoxious and taking a moment to feel that whatever I am writing is about another human being and not some digital bot at the other end of the device.

I would also like to mention here that I am in no way taking sides in the case mentioned at the beginning of the article. I solemnly swear that I don’t know any of the party involved from Adam. Neither in anyway is my intent to trivialize the accusations made. It’s a serious charge made by several women and it needs to be thoroughly investigated by competent authority. But at the same time, let’s realize that real people are involved here. There are women who allegedly have been victimized by a man in a position of power and I can’t begin to imagine how enraging that must be. On the other side the good name of a young entrepreneur is allegedly being maligned. Can we for once wait for the truth to come out before we again don our “judge wala blonde wig” to give ruling on the moral low lives of the world?

Between wishful thinking and theological imperatives: The case of Suhana Syed

Shrideep Biswas
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Between wishful thinking and theological imperatives: The case of Suhana Syed

Following her recent performance in a reality show in a private TV Channel, Suhana Syed, a 22 yr old young woman from Karnataka has suddenly found herself shot into the focus of Media limelight. Syed sung a Bhajan (Hindu devotional song) addressed to the Hindu deity Lord Balaji in a contest in Z Kannada channel and under the unanimous verdict of the panel of judges was applauded as the symbol of ‘Hindu-Muslim unity’.

Understandably, a Muslim woman, with her hair covered in a Hijab, in mode Islamique, rendering a devotional song in praise of a Hindu deity was the very picture of the composite India which we all yearn to see. Yet, not everyone took an appreciative view of a matter. A Facebook Group, under the name of ‘Mangalore Muslims’ subjected Syed to vicious trolling and poured vitriolic diatribes upon her for her actions, which, allegedly, were blatant transgressions of Islamic religious principles.

Quite predictably, support for Syed started pouring in from all quarters and her critics were subjected to a barrage of condemnation. Veteran journalist Barkha Dutt cited the tradition of  Sehnai maestro Late Ustad Bismilla Khan performing before the Vishwanath temple at Benaras. Among other instances of the like, mentioned in this context, were Mohammed Rafi’s renditions of Bhajans addressed to  Hindu Gods Ram and Hari. So much so, under this deluge of collective ire, most of the controversial comments and criticisms posted online were deleted by the group.

So far we have a happy ending to an ideal fairy tale. A young braveheart stands up for a just and honourable cause, she incurs the wrath of a group of extremists and bigots who make her a target of their attacks, the entire nation rushes to the defense of the damsel-in-distress and the perceived villains are rebuked and forced to shut up. Until we have further developments in this regard it would be a futile exercise to add yet another epilogue to this well analysed story. However, a totally different perspective of the incident seems to have been surprisingly overlooked.

Radical Islamists, extremists, bigots, fundamentalists, deviant moral policemen, inter alia, were the standard adjectives employed by the Indian intelligentsia in their knee-jerk condemnation of the tormentors of Syed. As a matter of fact, this binary of ‘extremist vs liberal’ is a popular analytical tool of pundits all over the world while dealing with religious affairs in general and those concerning Islam in particular.

Secularists in South Asia, for that matter are quite fond of celebrating the unique syncretic tradition of South Asian Islam. The Mughal Prince Dara Shikoh who authored Majma-ul-Bahrein (Mingling of Two Seas) on comparative religion and had the Upanishads translated into Persian, Sant Kabir whose Dohas or couplets decried both Hindu and Islamic orthodoxy, the Punjabi Sufi mystic Baba Bulle Shah whose poems reverberated with Vedantic overtones, and many more are hailed as the torchbearers of Hindu-Muslim unity in the subcontinent.

No wonder, Suhana Syed, with the Hijab on her head and the Bhajan in her lips represented, nay, personified this unique composite and catholic character of South Asian Islam. As opposed to this brand of liberal Islam, there is yet another version of Islam in South Asia that is a little less accommodating in character. Once confronted with this exclusivist, puritanical version of the Islamic belief system, intellectuals, by and large, either maintain a golden silence or at the best belch platitudes.

Yet another tactic has, of late, become quite popular in the more articulate quarters of the Literati in this part of the world. Blame it on Wahabism! Thus anything from the Islamic world that comes into conflict with the Shibboleths of the liberal secular establishment is attributed to a the influence of the intolerant Wahabi ideology, a direct import from the Arab world, which, untempered by time and space, found its way in the subcontinent and is alien, and more importantly, dangerous for the communal harmony of  multi religious societies like the ones in India and in her immediate neighbourhood.

It is not the intention of this article to elaborate upon the Liberal-Extremist divide of South Asian Islam. Indeed, it is difficult to provide objective definitions of the terms ‘Liberal’ and ‘Extremist’ without having a thorough knowledge of Islamic philosophy and theology. Some would point at the sheer absurdity of the enterprise, given the fact that Islamic culture itself is not a monolith and is characterized by spatial and temporal heterogeneity.

However, all said and done, the fact remains the Islam is a well organised religion without any ambiguity pertaining to the basics of the belief system. Almost a millennium and half after the introduction of Islam in the Indian subcontinent it was not quite irrational to expect at least the educated sections to have some degree of familiarity with the basics of the religion of their Muslim neighbours. However, from the superficial and juvenile arguments articulated from the learned quarters it appears that far from drinking deep, the wise men of this part of the world did not even care to taste the Pierian Spring of Islam.

Whenever an individual has to embrace the Islamic faith he or she has to recite the ‘Shahada‘ or the declaration of the testimony. The act involves declaration of the fact that no one else but Allah is worthy of worship and acknowledgement of the peerless status of the Almighty. Ascribing any partner (‘Shareek‘ in Arabic) to Allah, in other words, worshiping any entity along with or other than Allah constitutes Shirk, the worst possible crime in Islamic worldview, a crime that deserves no mercy in this life or the next. Over this concept of uncompromising monotheism of Islam, called ‘Tauheed’ (Oneness of God) in original Arabic, there is and never was any shred of subjectivity across the length and breadth of the Muslim community all over the world.

This is exactly the reason why there was a countrywide protest from a large section of Indian Muslims over the issue of forcing Muslims to sing ‘Vande Mataram’, the national song of India. The song, after all, was an ode to the deified Mother India. This is exactly the reason why Muslims consider Jesus Christ a Prophet of Allah and not the coeternal Son of God as Trinitarian Christians do. This is exactly the reason why the new version of the original Ram Dhun, a hugely popular devotional song in praise of the deified Legendary Indian hero Ram (considered to the incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu), endorsed and popularised by Mahatma Gandhi, for having equated Ram, a mortal, with Allah, is pure and unadulterated Shirk from the Islamic point of view.

Despite the best of her intentions, the fact remains that Suhana Syed sang a devotional song addressed to a Hindu deity. If the “Mangalore Muslims”, whoever they were, interpreted this action as Shirk, one wonders where and how they went wrong.

Establishment of communal harmony in the religiously diverse Indian subcontinent is a sacred and desirable goal. This article does not have the slightest intention of contaminating this noble enterprise with any kind of cynicism whatsoever. The sole objective here is to highlight the fact that in most of the inter-religious discourses, especially the ones involving Hindus and Muslims, we rarely put ourselves in each other’s shoes. With all our wishful thinking we construct a reality of our own imagination, seldom congruent with the reality that actually exists. Herein lies the root of all cognitive dissonance.

The Henotheistic Indic worldview and the Monotheistic Abrahamic worldviews are not necessarily mutually incompatible, but they are different nonetheless. As long as these differences remain unacknowledged and unanalysed, confusion and misunderstanding will dominate all Hindu-Muslim discourses and a practical solution will continue to remain a Chimera.

UP Elections and the Secular Conundrum

Nithesh S
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UP Elections and the Secular Conundrum

The discourse in some sections of the media after the results of  UP State assembly elections is quite amusing. The writers and reporters praise the Prime Minister for his stupendous victory. However, they also underscore a rather disturbing and dangerous idea that doesn’t escape the eyes of the reader.

I would like to introduce the reader to a tweet by a certain noted historian named Ramachandra Guha .

Second Class Citizenship

He was quoting from the article The fear of the Hindu Rashtra. Before such a learned person starts quoting such misleading opinions that reinforce a sense of victimization, he must realize that Muslims have been treated at par with Hindus in all spheres of public life.

The three Khans of Bollywood Amir, Shah Rukh and Salman have millions of fans. They are more successful than Hindu actors. The top musician in this country is A R Rahman. The top scientist in ISRO, DRDO and the people’s president of this country, Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam was respected by everyone. The “second- class citizen” theory falls dead with these examples.

However, the learned historians and liberals feel that Muslims will not be respected in India just because BJP won an election and Muslim MLAs were not fielded by the party. The assumption of many of these intellectuals is : Only Muslim candidates can represent the interests of Muslim community.

The is argument is similar to the one made by M.A Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Unfortunately, the Muslim masses bought this argument at that point of time. The Muslims who stayed back, were those who felt that they were safe and secure among Hindus. India, opted for secularism and rejected the accusation of the Muslim League.

Now, it is ironic that the same party, that stood for high values by rejecting such accusations, now echoes the opinions of Jinnah, the creator of Pakistan. Why can’t the liberal bandwagon accept that “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas” involves the development of Muslims of UP as well?

A road, an electricity line or a water tap does not distinguish a Muslim from a Hindu. The BSP, SP and Congress have been given enough opportunities to bring ‘development’ to the state of UP. However, they served their own interests during their term and in the end, went to Syed Bukhari before every elections and sought the transfer of Muslim votes “to keep BJP at bay”. Any liberal who has some integrity would call this a fraud inflicted on the entire state including the Muslim electorate.

Socialism and Secularism

One realizes how muddled our intellectuals are, when one reads the editorial section. They claim the sole authority on the appropriate ideology that is suitable for this country. Anyone who comes up with a better one is “crushing dissent.” This sounds hilarious to me.

I read another interesting article published in The Hindu. The writer claims (emphasis added):

“Think of a few simple facts. Here is a party which even after the Gujarat riots is virtually contemptuous or indifferent to the Muslim, clear that this critical election did not need the help of any Muslim candidates. Mr. Modi has also told Dalits that their politics, like minoritarianism, is doomed.

The two great concepts that created the compost heap of Indian electoral politics, the vote banks which has acquired a reified life of their own, are socialism and secularism. Mr. Modi, in rendering them effete, has also created a set of closures we must understand. It is clear that while mobility is an aspirational dream, dissent today is an almost extinct possibility between the inanity of the left and the liberals and the hostility of the BJP regime.

What we are facing is individual aspiration but a death of the old categories which at one time created the romance and the Utopian around words such as justice and equality.”

For this gentleman, justice and equality are utopian, hence we must opt for socialism and secularism even though they have not delivered any results. I feel glad that the common man doesn’t take such inane theories seriously.

Redistribution of wealth does not result in prosperity. It must also involve creation of new wealth. Negating this basic idea is the fundamental flaw of socialism. Opportunity to earn one’s own bread and opportunities for social mobility are not the priorities of this model. Hence, it has failed and fallen in all places where it was considered a panacea for all problems.

Secularism is a modern concept where in the state dissociates religion from its activities and also encourages public life and law to be equal for all religions. The flagship achievement of the secular bandwagon in India is the reversal of Shah Bano verdict and the endorsement of triple talaq. I rest my case here.

A New India

The Supreme Court has declared that secular nature of the Indian constitution is a basic feature that can’t be modified by the Parliament. Somehow, no one mentions this in their editorials. Anyway, the secular polity of India is safe even in the absence of Muslim MLAs in any ruling party.

Hindus can also work for the betterment of Muslims. Likewise, Muslims can also participate in the nation building exercise. India will never become an orthodox Hindu Nation. Let us all feel glad that distorted versions of secularism are no longer in vogue. I hope that all our intellectuals come out of their secular conundrum and support  progressive agendas.

Should we bother if Ranvir Shorey gets attacked by fellow AAP followers?

Jyoti SNK
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Should we bother if Ranvir Shorey gets attacked by fellow AAP followers?

The recent Ranvir Shorey drama that panned out on twitter, saw quite a few RWs jump in to protect a beloved actor from the evil AAPtards (Ranvir’s terminology not mine).

OpIndia jumped to do a story on this episode. It can be read here:

Actor Ranvir Shorey attacks AAP for inaction against the corrupt, gets attacked in return

As an OpIndia reader and a Hindu RW, Ranvir’s behavior or that of his abusers, did not surprise me. I truly believe that most liberals are opportunists and Ranvir just chose to attack AAP at it’s weak moment, as many deserters tend to do. To me it was a lassic case of ‘ बहती गंगा में हाथ धोना।  ‘

It would be interesting to note, in his tweet citied below and many others he has accepted that he had joined AAP when it was a rising movement. And justifiably, AAP’s performance and Kejriwal’s antics have made him rethink.

He has been a critic of AAP for a while now. So I am not saying he jumped sides now.

Even some hardcore Modi supporters are political commentors now thanks to their interest piqued because of the IAC movement and got disillusioned by Kejriwal, and more importantly, realized his dubious nature to turn around and support Modi ji instead.

Here’s an example:

So anyone, even Ranvir Shorey, changing his opinion and becoming one of RW may not be a surprise. But is this really a case of enemy’s enemy is a friend as many seem to believe? Or to put it differently… has he become a bhakt?

His tweets show… it’s far from it.

As one of the tweets cited in the OpIndia article above shows, he was a staunch critic of RW and didn’t shy away either from name-calling or using labels back in Jan 2014:

If this was from the initial days of AAP, his opinion of RW has not changed over the time as can be seen form this 2016 tweet:

Or this very recent tweet where he criticizes the AAP supporters by saying they are like ‘bhakts’. A term derogatorily used by the left-liberals for the Indian Hindu RW and BJP supporters:

These tweets show that Ranvir, though now is questioning AAP and is being attacked by AAP supporters for the same, has not jumped sides. He still is an abusive critic of RW.

One can argue that he is neither Right nor left in his ideology and hence can be a genuine critic of both side. He dispels any doubts we may have in this case… with his this tweet from March 10th:

BJP’s recent performance in UP, as well as AAP being drummed in Goa and Punjab, has made him act like a typical liberal and he wants to be sure he is not perceived as anti-RW. Hence this tokenism now.

He even made a few congratulatory tweets to the PM and BJP party commander-in chief Amit Shah.

Going by the OpIndia article, one would be tempted  to sympathize with Ranvir as the AAP suppoters attack him on social media, but as one of RW’s very popular handle has put it… mongrels do not change loyalties:

https://twitter.com/IndiaSpeaksPR/status/841827128945610755

I not only share IndiaSpeaksPR’s skepticism, I would go ahead and say, leopard don’t change spots. So we should be careful who we RWers expend our energy and writing space for.

I would not mind being proven wrong. Ranvir, despite his opposing ideology, comes across as an intelligent guy in his tweets. Unlike our average AAP supporters or Bollywood intellectuals. So having him on our side would be an asset. But as shown by his tweets, he seems to be just making hay while the sun is shining. So we RW would do better to be cautious when supporting such liberals.

Time will tell if Ranvir has truly course-corrected or not. If he has, then we can say… “AAP देर आये, पर दुरुस्त आये।”

An Open Letter – ‘Yes, I am a Bihari and I am a Proud Bihari’

Subrat Saurabh
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An Open Letter – ‘Yes, I am a Bihari and I am a Proud Bihari’

Dear Haters,

Over last 2 days, everyone is sharing their view over “Molestation Charges on TVF Boss”.

In fact, they have not hesitated to label him a “Abuser or Rapist”.

I have seen many fake and real molestation charges. We should have Zero tolerance for sexual harassment. But it does not mean that we should defame the whole community.

My hometown is in Muzaffarpur and I have met him once last year. I am not writing this article either to defend “TVF Boss” or to “Prosecute” him.

Before you conclude anything about TVF, remember they are successful and self-made. We are living in a competitive market where everyone is accessing internet and social media and you can’t ignore the fact that they may be getting targeted.

This is a power of Social Media, within a fraction of minute you become a “Serial Abuser” from “Inspiring Entrepreneur”.

While going through those articles, it is disheartening to come across some comments on Social Media where people are abusing “Biharis” and trying to spread hatred against people from Bihar by calling it a “Typical Bihari“.

What is Typical Bihari? If you want to know Bihar, I would suggest you to at least visit it once.

Let me give you some information about “Typical Bihari“, which I am sure you have read it somewhere.

  1. Aryabhatt – We all are aware of his well-known contribution in Mathematics, It’s ZERO.
  2. Ashoka – A Greatest Emperor from Maurya Dynasty.
  3. Guru Gobind Singh – 10th Guru of Sikh religion
  4. Kunwar Singh – At the age of 80 years, he actively participated in 1857 revolt.
  5. Rajendra Prasad – Our First President of India.
  6. Jayaprakash Narayan – He was the face of JP movement
  7. Rambriksh Benipuri – He was a popular activist, Hindi writer and Novelist.
  8. Ramdhari Singh Dinkar – A Notable Poet, Freedom Fighter, Member of Parliament,
  9. Devaki Nandan Khatri – He wrote the most famous novel “Chandrakanta”

The list is too long and it’s difficult to mention everyone here. Other than this, we have also given Presidents and Prime Ministers to other countries like Mauritius and Nepal etc.

We have not only contributed in Politics, Literature, Journalism but also contributed in Art and Cinema. Some of those “Typical Bihari” are

  1. Shatrughan Sinha – He is well known as Shot gun and Bihari Babu. He has played many iconic role in Kalicharan, Vishwanath, Jaani Dushman, Dostana, Kranti, Naseeb etc.
  2. Manoj Bajpayee – From a small village near the Narkatiaganj, Manoj Bajpayee became a big star in Bollywood.
  3. Imtiaz Ali – A well-known Bollywood Director
  4. Prakash Jha – An Internationally acclaimed Bollywood director
  5. Shekhar Suman – He is King of Standup Comedy.
  6. Sanjay Mishra – A well-known Bollywood Actor.
  7. Sushant Singh Rajput -A well-known Bollywood actor.
  8. Akhilendra Mishra – A well-known Bollywood actor popularly known for his character ‘Kroor Singh”

And there are many more.

Yes, Bihar is also known for Jungle Raj and Corruption but does not mean that every Bihari is Corrupt. We have struggled a lot especially many Bihari’s had to emigrate as indentured labourers due to lack of infrastructure and Opportunity.

We have seen many Gangsters from Mumbai but We have never Label it as a “City of Gangsters”.

Cheers

S Saurabh

@ChickenBiryanii

Is this why The Viral Fever founder is being targeted?

Singhasya
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Is this why The Viral Fever founder is being targeted?

Before I start, let me get some disclaimers out of the way:

1) Sexual Harassment at workplace is abhorrent. Just because it is more pervasive in certain professions, doesn’t make it acceptable and its denial is worse than abatement as tweeted by Appurv Gupta:

2) I don’t know Arunabh Kumar of TVF, neither even follow him on social media. Don’t even like him much as an actor but do respect him for the content his company creates.

3) I do like the content created by AIB having called out hypocrisies of their founders on twitter occasionally

This Qtiyapa Guy (that’s Arunabh’s handle on twitter) has been accused first by an anonymous person and then by some more women openly of sexual propositions and harassment. The reaction from TVF, the company he founded and his colleagues has been a classic rookie mistake of denial and possible intimidation (similar to what NRN did in case of Phaneesh Murthy). Reiterating disclaimer #1 here, this needs serious investigation irrespective of whether this is a Start-up or a Bellweather enterprise of its sector. However, moot point of this post is not that.

What I found interesting was what has been happening in this upcoming business of Web-based content start-ups, with two entities having created their mark AIB and TVF. Rather than going too far in past, let me concentrate on what has happened through the weekend. Following the election results on Saturday TVF came out with series of tweets, some compiled in accompanying pic and one such is here:

In contrast, AIB tweeted this pic and put up a video on their FB page:

(Source: https://www.facebook.com/IndiaBakchod/videos/1387772797933377/)

These are to reinforce the proclivities of the creative founders of these entities with respect to contemporary political ecosystem and I am not getting into personal relationships of Rohan Joshi with Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter or Tanmay Bhatt’s with Rega Jha of Buzzfeed.

When I tried to research the news about Arunabh Kumar and his misdeeds, the top searches were returned from The Quint and Buzzfeed (OK I am bringing in Tanmay and Rega here). The Quint is the same platform which in its zeal to paint the Army in poor light (as a means of embarrassing the central government) through, its “Sahayak” system abetted suicide of a soldier recently.

My hypothesis is that Arunabh Kumar would have merrily gone around being a sexual predator had TVF not shown its political proclivities the way it has been doing. And if this is all baseless, as is claimed by his colleagues, however improbable it may be, there is some serious shit going on!

Verdict 2017 and target 2019

Soumitra
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Verdict 2017 and target 2019

The much-awaited results of the assembly elections were announced on Saturday. Defying even the best expectations the BJP with allies won UP with a landslide of 325 out of 403 and Uttarakhand with a landslide of 57 out of 70. As was widely expected Punjab went to Congress. There were people who had thought it will be a neck to neck race between AAP and Congress and SAD-BJP alliance will not even cross the double-digit mark. Even many BJP “Bhakts” had conceded defeat there. However, AAP just won 20 seats much less than the 77 of the Congress.

After having 0 seats in 2012 BJP opened its account in Manipur with 21 seats. It was a hung assembly as no party had the majority mark of 31 with Congress at 28. But BJP got together with smaller parties, who were NDA allies at center and in North East Development Alliance (NEDA) and have staked claim to form the govt.

Goa also had a hung assembly. AAP also contested the state but people rejected them thoroughly and gave them ‘0’ seat. BJP has got support from smaller parties and has also staked claim in Goa.

Overall it looks like a 4-1 verdict in favour of the BJP. The BJP is now likely to have a govt in 16 states directly or in alliance. Congress is now reduced to only 6 states- Punjab, Himanchal, Bihar (as junior partner in Nitish Lalu alliance), Karnataka, Meghalaya and Mizoram.

This election was being billed as the semifinal to 2019 and it was extremely closely watched. These elections have big implications for all political parties as well as other players. Let’s look at some factors which will help in determining 2019 general elections keeping in mind the verdict today.

1 BJP: Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have taken the bull by the horns. Modi did a great gamble with demonetization and the people supported him for the same. He has constantly worked on “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” demonetization, surgical strikes, action on black money, development politics is going to be the winning formula.

Amit Shah has also proved that there is no person better than him in the organizational capabilities. The candidate selection, the booth level management, the coordination with RSS- all prove that he is a master strategist- a real Chanakya.

BJP must continue doing this work and 2019 should be in the bag.

2. Congress: The Congress got the consolidation prize in this election in form of Punjab. But the drubbing in UP and Uttarakhand should worry them. They could not even find 400 people to fight in UP after declaring Shiela Dixit as the CM face. They had to settle to being a junior partner to SP. This was the similar case with Bihar earlier.

I think Congress leaders know internally that Rahul Gandhi is a big failure. Punjab was won because of the hard work of Captain Amrinder Singh though a lot of sycophants will try to give credit to Rahul Gandhi.  The problem is that there is no one to replace him. Priyanka Gandhi dare not step out from Amethi and Rae Bareilly. Other than the Nehru Gandhi family no one can lead Congress. It is a sad state of affairs not only for Congress but for the nation too because a national party in opposition is required. Even hard core BJP people accept this. That is why even BJP were praying for a Congress victory as opposed to AAP in Punjab. Another reason is that we believe Rahul Gandhi is the star campaigner for the BJP.

3. SP: The Samajwadi Party had rocked with a big Pari-War between Akhilesh & Mulayam/Shivpal Yadav. Just before the elections it was said that Akhilesh won a “fixed” fight. But now it seems Akhilesh will lose any power he was supposed to get within the party and it will again revert back to “Mullah Mulayam”. This is kind of sad because here was a person in SP who at least had tried to do some development works howsoever screwed in favour of his core vote bank (Muslims and Yadavs). In 2019 SP will revert again to Muslim Yadav caste combinations and polarization hoping to win back some seats. Remember in 2014 only Yadav family members won seats in their family boroughs.

This election will also mark an end to short livid experiment of SP Congress alliance as SP will know that Congress does not bring anything to the table but just pulls the alliance down.

Just after the Exit Polls there was a talk of a Bua, Bhatija alliance with BSP and SP. This was a desperate throw in case of a hung verdict. I believe that this result has killed that idea at its inception and 2019 SP will fight on its own to get whatever vote share they can.

4. BSP: The Bahujan Samaj Party is last placed in these elections. BSP lost the 2012 elections and could not win even a single seat in 2014. This time Mayawati tried a Dalit Muslim combo by giving 100+ tickets to Muslims but this trick has also failed spectacularly. She said in a press conference that the EVMs were tampered with and hence BJP sweeped. This is a last desperate throw with no results. It is obvious that she has lost the plot and will be a spent force in 2019. She will put a brave face in 2019 but I don’t see her winning anything substantial.

5. AAP: The Aam Aadmi Party was supposed to be a game changer in this election. After their surprise win in Delhi they tried to expand their footprint outside but this experiment has failed. The same was tried by them in 2014 where they fought across the country and came back cropper. The issue is that the people have seen through the “Nautanki” of Arvind Kejriwal. He has spent more time in drama than governance. He had daily fights with the LG and attacks on Modi, calling him “Coward and Psychopath”, that exposed the hollow claims of “Good Clean Governance”. The people have shown him the place.

Before 2017 there was a talk that AAP could be an alternate to BJP in place of the congress. These elections have shown that this is not the case.  AAP will no doubt contest many seats in 2019 but it will be wise to consider it as a regional party and not a national one. The over emphasis of AAP in the media belies its stature.

6. Other Regional Parties: The other regional parties will also be looking at these results carefully. It will be clear to them that BJP is in a strong position to come back in power in 2019 in Lok Sabha as well as in their states. They will feel that the only way to stop the BJP is to form a Bihar like Mahagathbandhan. However, the issue in this is that this will mean allying with their sworn enemies. Allying with the Congress pulls down their value and loses them seats. The 3rd front experiment may again be repeated in 2019 but it has failed many times. There are too many big leaders with big egos to have this as a success. Some regional parties may also be thinking, “If you can’t beat them, join them”. They may look to ally with BJP in 2019 to at least get a shot at power.

7. The Media: That the English language “Liberal” media is against the BJP is very well known. They have put various narratives like demonetization will hurt the BJP. Muslims don’t vote for BJP, people vote on caste lines etc. The tactical vote of Muslims to defeat the BJP is perhaps the biggest narrative which plays out on all channels before the elections, specially in UP which has a substantial number of Muslims.

This myth has been busted previously also but keeps on surfacing. Muslims had supported BJP even in 2014. Winning 73 out of 80 and 325 out of 403 is not possible with only upper caste support. Dalits and Muslims have also supported BJP though the liberal media will not accept that. The era of caste politics in UP is out and development is in. What happened to the so called “Dalit-Muslim” combination of BSP or the “Yadav-Muslim” of the SP? All sections of the society have aspiration and they support development. It is high time the media removes its biased glasses and looks at the trend objectively.

8. Liberal Intelligentsia: The last important factor I want to talk about is the “Liberal” Intelligentsia. These people went to town shouting demonetization is bad for the economy, nationalism and patriotism is bad and is being trust down the throats of the people. The Harvard economists criticized the economic model and said that it would lead to collapse of the economy. Nothing of the sort has happened. Elections after elections the people have supported the move. Even their move to bring controversy using Gurmehar Kaur and Nationalism has back fired.

It is now a clear pattern that just before the elections some or the other issue is raised- Intolerance, Ghar Wapasi, Akhlaq, Free Speech. These are used to try to bring down the BJP but it is failing because the people are now seeing through this and voting for the development model

In the end, I will conclude that these election results are going to propel the BJP towards a massive victory in 2019. Demonetisation, Nationalism, Development, fight against corruption and Black Money, Focus on Internal Security- these are the factors which are going to help BJP and Modi cross the halfway mark again in 2019.

How Trump’s new policy for H-1B visa may effect India more?

Tejaswi
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How Trump’s new policy for H-1B visa may effect India more?

Trump is shortening the window for non-immigrants to save the sheds of his own citizen. Trump legacy is so confusing. He seems to be a big poker player.

There is a question in mind of every person that what exactly is happening with USA. Donald Trump President of United States of America, doing many things which are making No Sense in the eyes of Humanity & Leadership. Donald trump ordered to decode the refugees and immigration out of the country or else they will be executed. Donald trump is destroying diplomatic relations with Maxico, China and now moving towards India. Well as per the statement of the President. He is doing for the sake of America. America use to be the shelter for every small country/nation but now they are destroying what they’ve created. Trump legacy is different and a little bit typical to understand.

Trump legacy started making impact on Indian Economy. Recently Donald Trump passes the order to reduce the H-1B visa Quota to save the jobs for the American citizen. America unemployment rate is 4.9% as per the report of June 2016. According a report the number of unemployed person in USA is 7,63,50,000. Indian economy will be affected by the reducing the H-1B quota. As 70% of H-1B visa is covered by Indians and the outsourcing firm for H-1B visa almost earns about 10% of our country GDP but NOW there is stop in this figure as US President Donald Trump putting a full stop in the number of issuing these H-1B visa. (Read: What is H-1B visa?)

He is reducing the quota of H-1B visas and he is also revoking the visa for the Spouse of the person who had H-1B visa.

My opinion:

“Donald Trump is destroying the image of USA. USA always uses to create relations with the countries and has helped them growing. But suddenly from nowhere they pass an order to execute refugees. It’s like first you invite someone for coffee then ask for ransom. I mean what? Trump is now targeting Economy of the Countries”.

Every year 3,00,000 people apply for this H-1B visa from all around the globe and only 85,000 are selected. In these 85,000 people, 70% are Indians and from these 85,000 selected people 66.66% people make it to the Silicon Valley.

The application consideration time in US court was 45 days but from now on it will be 60 days. There’s still something good for those people who are selected in the reduced quota. Previously the salary of these non-immigrants were $79,000 p.a but now it might increase by 60-70% of the salary

Major Business entities will also face some adverse effect in their business due to this Trump policy. Trump might doing great for his own countrymen but it will affect the turnovers of the major players.

Well, this H-1B visa policy can affect the companies, by this H-1B visa IT companies like Infosys, Wipro etc hire IT guys from India on economic salary, which saves the cost and grows their profit. But after this companies cannot take advantage of this privilege. Cost is going to increase for these companies as their employees will get expensive and quality of their work might also get affected as they will hire employees not on merits but on quota basis. Result of this actions can be seen from now also. Stocks of Indian software exporters plunged on 31-Jan-2017. TCS’ shares fell 4.47%, Infosys’ declined 2% and Wipro’s 1.62%. Well bright days are seems to be gone for these companies as Trump is going to flip the coin for his countrymen.

Recently, Indians are being shot from un-employed immigrants of USA. After Trump policy same picture will not be repeated as it happened in Australia. Though it is turning to that phase but this might stop recurring the same incident, which is a good news because Indians have faith in the diplomatic relations of USA & India.

IT companies and the Silicon Valley might be flooded with other countrymen as IT guys. But it also helps other countries to grow.

If you look the picture from the other side then you might find something good in it. As experts predict, “one or the other way it is going to grow our country”. Well India & China are  famous for one of the best place to invest money. As these 2 countries have the most skilled labour at cheap cost. So this decision might encourage Foreign Investors to India or China as well. Who knows this might shoot up the Startup era in India?

Are you falling for Indian MSM’s Propaganda?

devesh
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It has been well over 2 years that the Narendra Modi led BJP, stormed into the parliament with a thumping majority that stumped the entire political spectrum in and around India. It took a huge anti-incumbency wave, added to the charisma of the former Gujarat CM and prolific political management by his Man-Friday in the most important state of Uttar Pradesh. Business houses were frustrated with policy paralysis, the middle class with rising inflation and in-your-face corruption, the poor with pathetic infrastructure and basic amenities.

Then came stories of Church vandalisms, harassment to cow-leather using media professionals, intolerance and the (in)famous award-wapsi gang. India had suddenly changed into a country of citizens who wouldn’t allow the other to even express his point of view and give an opinion. Suddenly. Our peace loving, ever accommodating, knowledge sharing, progressive thinking country had become a land of war mongers, hateful bigots, all of whom were saffron flag wielding extreme right, Hindu fanatics. But wait, did it really?

Narendra Modi, the man who the entire media and a few political parties held responsible for the riots in Gujarat in 2002, was feared to trigger mass scale islamophobia and turn the “Hindu fanatics” into machines of carnage. Even after the Supreme Court appointed SIT during the UPA rule gave him a clean chit, some of our “eminent” media personalities continued to, not merely suspect him but go to lengths of convincing a foreign MP that Narendra Modi, in fact, had blood on his hands. This, actually was even before Modi took his oath as the Prime Minister.

Religious intolerance and intellectual intolerance reached the zenith during the Delhi & Bihar elections. Churches were being desecrated, intellectuals were “trolled” on Social Media and elsewhere. A promoter of India-Pakistan peace ties had his face blackened, narrowing the intellectual freeway. BJP lost in both the states and India transformed.

Churches were again safe (although the vandalism stories were later proved to be fake) and intellectuals were enthused enough to have their freedom to express back. Awards were no longer being returned.

Then came the season of highlighting solitary incidents as the mood and nature of our country and its people. With no disrespect to either of them, if solitary incidents like Dadri and Hyderabad University suicides are the reflection of the entire region/state/country, shouldn’t Barkha Dutt be representative of all journalists, Harshad Mehta of all businessmen, Mohammed Azharuddin of all cricketers, Lalu Prasad Yadav of all politicians, Bharat Shah of all of Bollywood, etc.?

Insignificant BJP victories later, everyone looked at the biggest Kurukshetra. Everyone initially praised Prashant Kishore and Priyanka Vadera for the scoop-of-an-alliance with Samajwadi Party. Link Here

Then, even after being “25 Saal UP Behaal”, suddenly, “UP ko yeh saath pasand hai”. Economic Times reporters (journalists – let that sink in), predicted that the alliance would do better than expected and BJP was the biggest loser : here. These “reporters” were touring Uttar Pradesh and claimed to know the voter’s pulse. Goa had its share of AAP cheerleaders too like this one. What I’m mesmerised with, after the results in Uttar Pradesh specially, is HOW IN THE WORLD can a neutral journalist FAIL so miserably in his line of duty to identify one of the BIGGEST BJP wave of a generation? I would have still reposed a little faith in the “fourth pillar of democracy” if the results were a close contest. But failing to see a 312/403 can happen only if you’re going out with a prejudiced mind and acting like 2 of Gandhi’s 3 monkeys (the blind and the deaf one, of course).

While AAP had convinced itself of emphatic wins in Goa and Punjab with their “Internal Surveys” just like they did with their “Internal Enquiries” with their Ministers, it was a humble pie eating contest in Goa, at least after this.

In this fast-n-furious age of Information at finger tips, it doesn’t take understanding the concept of escape velocity to sift the information from propaganda. All you need is to think on your own and try and connect the dots. You’ll be amazed!

केसरिया होली

Jyoti SNK
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केसरिया होली

केसरिया होली

वैसे तो सब रंग बड़े सुहाते,
पीले, लाल, नीले रंग भाते।

पर अब चलन कुछ ऐसा चला है,
देश में हवा, कुछ यूँ बदला है।

देशानुराग अब दहक रहा है,
केसरिया रंग अब छलक रहा है।

चहुँ-ओर माहौल ऐसा है,
कोई महायज्ञ या उत्सव जैसा है।

घर घर से एक लहर फूटा है,
‘जय श्री राम’ का गूँज उठा है।

महादेव चाहें जो होगा,
मंदिर अब तो वहीँ बनेगा।

सच है ये, ना की बड़बोली,
फागुन में आ गयी दिवाली।

रंग जाएँ हम भी, सखा-सहेली,
आओ खेलें, केसरिया होली।

– जीतू

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