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Why BJP may lose Karnataka, once again, in the upcoming 2018 state election

Santosh
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Why BJP may lose Karnataka, once again, in the upcoming 2018 state election

Political party infighting is not a new thing in India as we have seen the family dramas in politics in many states. How Chandrababu Naidu came into power, the current ongoing fight (may be dramatic) in the Samajwadi Party in UP, Aam Admi Party infighting in Delhi (Yogendra Yadav and Prashanth Bhushan saga), how Congress got divided and became Indira Congress, name any political party we have examples of infighting and accusations inside the party. BJP is not new to get into the list of these parties as we have seen how Uma Bharathi went out forming a new party, Keshubhai Patel, who fielded candidates against BJP in Gujarat, Yeddyurappa went out to start KJP from BJP in Karnataka.

But let’s see the current status of political parties in Karnataka and how they are ready to face the upcoming elections in Karnataka. Congress won a majority in Karnataka all because of BJP infighting and Yeddyurappa, who formed KJP and contested election, which made BJP lose in most of the seats in 2013. Later, before Loksabha election in 2014 Yeddyurappa came back to BJP after the change in a central leadership from Advani camp to Amit shah camp.

In Loksabha BJP won 17 MP seats in Karnataka. Thanks to Narendra Modi wave and also an enthusiastic NaMo brigade group which ran a campaign comprising young volunteers. Many took long leaves from office to campaign for Modi and was part of NaMo brigade. People had many hopes from state BJP, which had just come out of infighting to work for the betterment of the state on central level.

In 2017 just a year before assembly election, we see BJP in the same mode as they were at 2012/2103 before state elections. Now the fight is between Yeddyurappa and Eshwarappa. As an opposition party in Karnataka BJP is failing to reach the public with the wrongdoings of current state congress government. It had ample of issues to tackle the current government in the state but it failed. The reason is well known, as there is no interest towards state and party volunteers seen in the current top leadership of state BJP. Any leader who builds boundaries in politics and don’t take critics will start his own end in politics. The so called loyal people of leaders will always praise them and mask leaders to understand the reality. In politics you should always meet new people every day including your critics to grow as a leader. The day you put boundaries is the day you start failing as a leader. Let us just see the issues which state BJP could have taken as an opposition party in Karnataka:

  1. No clarity by the Government has been given on Global Investors Meet Investment, like whether the investment have touched the ground and the status of those investments and the opposition, i.e., BJP has failed to hit hard on this issue.
  2. Bangalore is the city which is known to the world today and also the city which gets revenue to the state. But the state government has failed to give back the share to Bangalore and improve the infrastructure for new investments.
  3. North Karnataka is in the same condition without any improvements and this was not taken up in any legislative session by the opposition.
  4. No one fought for the honest officials who committed suicides. No satisfactory reasons or actions taken later and as an opposition party, BJP could not get justice done.
  5. CM did not go to China when he was invited by the Prime minister and as opposition BJP did not take up the issue and reach people how the state development was ignored.
  6. State government failure in solving Kalasa Banduri issue. Inactive opposition in the state and also lacking in convincing capabilities of BJP MP’s it was portrayed as a central responsibility by state government.
  7. Law and order collapse and series of murder of political activists was not taken seriously and which also shows how serious leaders are about the followers of their party.
  8. Government machinery misused by sons of prominent ministers and appointed advisers. This issue again was not taken up by BJP.
  9. Lack of coordination with a supreme court lawyer and state government in Cauvery issue. BJP, too missed upon this.
  10. The LED bulb project was hijacked by the state government and projected as a state project.
  11. Farmers suicide and state government’s inability in handling draught issue in North Karnataka.
  12. Central ministers behaving like they are central ministers from different state and not taking central government policies to people.

The above few issues are what comes to mind, but there were many more opportunities which could have shown how not-so-serious the BJP is about Karnataka state and their preparation for the upcoming state election. CM Siddaramaiah himself sacked 14 ministers after 3 years of governance, which shows half the number of ministers were not working up to the expectation. Today in Karnataka we don’t have any state leaders who have a vision for Karnataka state in any political party. We don’t see any leader talking about the vision for Karnataka and Bangalore, as to get Karnataka to top position in investment.

There is a big anti incumbency in a state which BJP should use if they are serious about the development of the state. Start talking about theier vision which will bring radical development in the state if they win the next election. Infighting will not yield any benefit for the party and state. Yeddyurappa should take along all the leaders as he is the current state chief and central ministers should reach out to people till Taluk level with the central policies.

Central ministers have drastically failed to do any remarkable work, also failing in bringing center’s policies to people. No one from the opposition is questioning them. This failure has to be taken seriously and the same should be rectified sooner for the betterment of the party.

Rohith Vemula case: Consulting Editor of Newslaundry tries to spin the liberals out of trouble

Abhishek Banerjee
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When liberals are caught with their pants down, their last weapon is to try and “intellectualize” the situation. What does that mean? It’s a simple approach:

Step 1: Say something deliberately vague.

Step 2: People demand clarifications because you were so vague.

Step 3: Issue vague clarifications.

Step 4: Back to Step 2.

Infinite loop achieved! After running around the loop a couple of times, the detractors of the liberals will eventually give up and everyone can just call it a draw. Meanwhile, the fact that the liberals were caught with their pants down is forgotten.

Because liberals are so convinced that they are so much smarter than everyone else, they think that they can get away with this trick every single time. So it is no surprise that they went back to their favorite technique to save the blushes once this story broke all over the internet.

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See if you can find shades of Step 1 in the words of Anand Ranganathan, consulting editor of Newslaundry

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The deliberately confusing tweet intended to seed the infinite loop! Now, Anand Ranganathan has a mind trained in intellectual clarity, for he is a scientist as well. He knows *exactly* what  he is doing here. He has no excuse.

And you’ll never guess the illustrative example he provided to make his point.

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The trap was now set. Of course one could ask several questions by playing around with Ranganathan’s  logic. For example:

(1) What if I say I “feel like” a Dalit? Can I get reservations?

(2) What if Sasikala says she “feels innocent”? Is the path clear for her to become CM of Tamil Nadu?

(3) If Ranganathan is so passionate about letting people choose their “real identities”, will he now condemn every single article on Newslaundry and everywhere else that suggest that the RSS is a communal/divisive force? Didn’t he just say that the RSS believes in the oneness of Indian society irrespective of religion?

But, of course, you have to realize that asking these questions only plays into Ranganathan’s hands. He wants you and me to ask those questions. He wants to keep giving “clarifications”. That way he can keep talking about everything except the core issue of liberals caught lying with their pants on fire in the Rohith Vemula case.

And that’s exactly what Ranganathan did. He issued more “clarifications”.

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Excellent. Now people will come up with various other scenarios to counter his clarifications. Now we will discuss everything except the liberal embarrassment. From the plane of fact where liberals have been caught in the headlights, the debate moves to the plane of the hypothetical.

And Ranganathan took great delight in fueling this cycle further:

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What if the university administration never intended to discriminate against anyone for being a Dalit or anything else? Doesn’t that mean they were innocent. I repeat, do NOT ask him this, because that’s exactly what he wants you to do.

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Who condemned Rohith? We only condemned your liberal ilk. But people did take the bait and play into his hands. They went far far off topic just like Anand Ranganathan wanted, until he actually felt confident enough to turn the whole thing around on its head.

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See how a professional does it? For the RW, there is something to learn here.

The right way to neutralize the spin and puncture people like Anand Ranganathan is simple: stick to the facts and don’t play into their hands. Stick to the fact that liberals cynically used a tragic suicide of a young man for exactly the kind of vote-bank politics that Rohith Vemula *pleaded* against in his final letter. 

When caught on the wrong foot, the liberals want you to step into an infinite loop of intellectualism till you get worn out and call it quits. Don’t take the bait.

The American hit animated comedy television series South Park uses exaggerated situations to deliver commentary on society. South Park does an excellent job of pointing out how to stop an intellectual infinite loop before it is set in motion. Sample this dialogue about someone trying to intellectualize their way out of child molestation. It’s between one of the lead characters, a boy named Kyle and an “activist” of “NAMBLA”. Here, NAMBLA = North American Man Boy Love Association (I told you they use exaggerated situations).

NAMBLA activist: Does anybody know their rights? You see, I’ve learned something today. Our forefathers came to this country because… they believed in an idea. An idea called “freedom.” They wanted to live in a place where a group couldn’t be prosecuted for their beliefs. Where a person can live the way he chooses to live. You see us as being perverted because we’re different from you. People are afraid of us, because they don’t understand. And sometimes it’s easier to persecute than to understand.

Kyle : Dude, you have sex with children.

NAMBLA activist: We are human. Most of us didn’t even choose to be attracted to young boys. We were born that way. We can’t help the way we are, and if you all can’t understand that, well, then, I guess you’ll just have to put us away.  

Kyle: [slowly, for emphasis] Dude, you have sex with children. 

See how nicely Kyle avoids getting sucked into the intellectual trap? He stays on course and doesn’t respond to any of the NAMBLA guy’s “arguments”. That’s the right way.

Now, if Anand Ranganathan reads this, he is going to accuse me of comparing him to a child molester. And I won’t be stepping into his trap, FYI. I will stick to pointing out how liberals cynically exploited a tragic suicide.

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That is Sujata Anandan, political editor of the Mumbai edition of the Hindustan Times. And no, she isn’t celebrating the fall of a wicket in an India– Pakistan cricket game. She is talking about the suicide of a young man who had his whole life ahead of him, but chose to give it all up before he was 30 years old.

Era of Labellism, by tagging dissent against left as Modi Bhakt

Abhay
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Era of Labellism, by tagging dissent against left as Modi Bhakt

Nowadays we live in times of “Labellism” i.e., either you are Modi Bhakt or Anti National, if you dared to give your view on national issues. Then you will definitely have to go through these labels.

These labels are restricting free speech that everyone advocates, thus less no of neutral people are speaking on the important issues that are being discussed on daily basis concerning our great country. As left wing of our country are the champions of free speech barring JNU, and also the low level mentality of right-wing fringe is out and lie naked in the open and everyone knows about these extremists but there is another lot of sane extremists, which are less known. Thus, I want to discuss about hypocrisy of most of our leftism following liberal fellows.

There hypocrisy needs to be questioned because it is restricting us to support good initiatives of our Govt and our PM, each time he/she supports a good policy, Modi Bhakt tag is waiting to be awarded to him/her, liberal media neither back these people who support Govt nor raise their issues like they do for their fellow ideology gang or cozy club. This bias of pseudo intellectual media is not good for our democracy.

No one expects this intolerant behaviour of a section of people, who are well educated, used to be proud of their intellect by debating and reasoning with the people who differ to their opinion. But ever since, Narendra Modi got elected as a PM, in 2014, it seems that the patience quality of the left wing people has deteriorated. Criticism based on facts of any incumbent government should be cherished and it is desirable to have a healthy democracy. But since when trolling every supporter of a Govt is has become a healthy sign? So if you want to troll an ordinary citizen for supporting a good move, good luck! But what about the following famous Sports persons, Business men, Bollywood stars, Artists, International news agencies, World’s unbiased Economic Institutions, have also praised this Govt and PM Modi unabashedly? You guys should also tag and troll all these legends as Modi Bhakt.

Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir many other players of team India.

Sania Mirza, Mary Kom and other great female sportsperson of India.

Rajnikant and Amitabh Sahab.

CEO’s of Multinational companies and Tata, Birla, Ambanis etc

Lata Mangeshkar

Foreign country heads

Neutral Media and the Foreign survey agencies

Best Economic institutions like IMF and world bank

Balaji Viswanathan

These people have also committed the same sin of praising the policies of the prevailing government, like an ordinary citizen. So I urge to all of the watchdog of free speech, please don’t spare them! Tag them with the highest civilian honour of our time, given by leftism i.e as Modi Bhakt. Best of luck in labeling them.

Thank you for reading and please don’t mind the blunt writing, as some of you guys may have already labelled me as a Modi Bhakt. Koi ni, Lal Salam.

Engineering student to celebrate valentines day with the poster of his favorite actress

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Engineering student to celebrate valentines day with the poster of his favorite actress

A Mechanical Engineering student of Aaya Ram Gaya Ram Institute of Technology was eagerly looking forward to celebrate a romantic Valentines day with the poster of his favorite actress. The boy has been in a relationship with the poster of the actress (a well known Bollywood diva) since he was a young teenager.

We spoke with the boy near the college pond as his hostel room was reported to have highly radioactive and hazardous materials, “You see being Valentines day today, I have decided to provide her with a magical experience. I have taken a bath, shaved, changed my shirt for the 1st time this year to give her a huge surprise. I just hope she doesn’t fail to recognise me. Also this evening I am going to treat her to a romantic candlelight dinner in our mess which is aided by the fact that there’s no electricity at night in our hostel. I need to be a bit careful though as on the last Valentines day the candle accidentally fell on her resulting in severe 3rd degree burns. Plus instead of my usual dinner of Desi Daaru and Chakna, I have arranged for Red Wine and pistachios. I have tried to make this Valentines day even more special for her as few days ago she caught me starting at a poster of Scarlett Johansson and has accused me of cheating on her, hope she forgives me now. Plus as an added surprise I have decided to gift her a branded photo frame, the same one which is used by Sharma ji to frame all of his kid’s achievements. In order to pay for the frame I would now have to smoke beedies for a couple of months but if she’s happy I am happy.”

The boy in order to celebrate Valentines day would also be skipping the annual Bhajan and Jagaran program organised by his hostel mates.

Is Varun Gandhi a victim of surname politics?

Gunja Kapoor
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Is Varun Gandhi a victim of surname politics?

It is strange, that BJP punishes Varun Gandhi for his association with Nehru Gandhi dynasty, and not his mother.

Varun Gandhi joined Bhartiya Janta Party with his mother, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi under the able leadership of Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2004. Twelve years hence, he has contested and won two Lok Sabha elections, served as the youngest General Secretary of BJP, written best sellers, been embroiled in controversies, reprimanded by the Modi Shah camp, side stepped by his party on multiple important occasions, and often fielded tough questions related to his surname. While the BJP leadership refuses to comment on its organisational mechanics, Varun Gandhi supporters feel the young leader has been denied his due share of 3Rs i.e. Responsibilities, Recognition, and Rewards.

In 2014, when Varun Gandhi was asked to demit from the post of BJP General Secretary, party secretary Siddharth Nath Singh had stated that the outgoing General Secretary would be assigned new roles and responsibilities as deemed by the party. Since then, political corridors in the election bound state have been rife with discussions on what the future holds for the young politician. Come Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha elections ’17, all rumours were put to rest, when the party decided to contest a yet another faceless election followed by the ‘Varunless’ first list of star campaigners. To prevent the rumour mills from chocking the air, BJP did announce Varun Gandhi as a star campaigner in the second list; however, he has unequivocally stayed away from the state elections. During my interactions with certain local people in Varun’s home ground, I gathered that not only was Varun Gandhi’s face missing from the campaign posters, even Varun Gandhi’s supporters were denied due share in the party. (In an ETV survey for BJP’s CM face in UP, Varun Gandhi got 51% votes, Rajnath Sigh trailed at 28%, while Yogi Adityanath fell far at 5%; Smriti Irani: 1%)

Things were never easy in BJP for the young Nehru Gandhi descendant for obvious reasons. His association with the family was always held against him. While Maneka Gandhi never hesitated to tell it all, her son never advocated kindred attacks on public stage. Despite his 2009 electoral performance where his victory margin was higher than all the family members in the state, repeated denouncement of Rahul Gandhi’s remarks, successful implementation of projects on ground, the party had admonished him rather severely for his controversial speech in 2009 at Pilibhit. Contents of the speech were perverse with plausible ramifications. Albeit Varun has challenged the veracity of the video, the party has taken an unforgiving stance.

  2009 2014
Varun Gandhi – Votes 4,19,539 4,10,348
% of Total Votes 50.09 42.51
Constituency Pilibhit Sultanpur

This was not the first time a BJP party member was making contentious remarks in public. However, the party reproached him with relatively harsher far reach consequences for two reasons; first for exemplary purposes to prevent any future callousness by party members and second, to walk the talk against nepotism.

Varun Gandhi supporters in Sultanpur laud him for personally monitoring projects on ground level and establishing a personal connect with his constituency, even in the absence of a forthcoming election.

On the other hand, political strategists point out three reasons, where the genesis of his issues with BJP could lie.

Firstly, Varun Gandhi comes across as a self-assured young politician. This appeals to his voters, but simultaneously intimidates his colleagues. In 2011, when he became the first active politician to declare his support for Anna Hazare’s movement, he came across as a leader who had a mind of his own to his supporters; was an act of perfidy and impudent behaviour as per the party cadre. The masses appreciate him for being an independent thinker; the party censure him for being too independent. It must be noted, that in this tussle, the party is consciously containing a winnable candidate.

Secondly, in a party that has historically been driven by karyakarthas who rise up the ranks based on their work, the party sees it unfair to promote a young lad who is less than fifteen years old in the party. For an organisation that leaves no opportunity to accuse other parties of being slaves of dynasty, it is appropriate that it does not fall prey to “maa beta” trap. Alert, this justification is no more acceptable though, with several family members being awarded tickets in the state that matters. Unfortunately, Varun Gandhi will have to work equally hard to prove his loyalty, and doubly hard to prove his allegiance despite of his surname.

Thirdly, Varun Gandhi did not meet BJP cadre’s expectations. He was expected to take on the Gandhis of Congress in public forum, campaign against them in elections, and strip their dignity using bitter vocabulary. It was only a matter of time, before one expected the two cousins to spew venom and wash their dirty linen in public. Varun Gandhi has categorically denied any campaigns in Amethi and Raebareli. He has also refused to discuss his family in the media, transgressing all party expectations. Clearly, there is little advantage BJP to promote the self-determined politician.

If the institutional undercurrents continue to be punitive, and Varun Gandhi sees his party penalising him for being a Nehru Gandhi descendant, for opting out of hate politics, it only makes political sense for him to head for a ghar waapsi. Twelve years in the party, and with little going for him, one would be surprised if Varun Gandhi endures the step treatment and suffer in the annals of Modi Shah theatrical.

Either ways, it is advantage Varun!

We love to hate Baba Ramdev

aman
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We love to hate Baba Ramdev

I recently came across this article by a renowned IIM prof where he reacts to the advertisement by Baba Ramdev and gives his justification as to why he is not anti-national for using MNC products. For whatever n number of times I had seen the ad, I had never seen Baba Ramdev using any word even remotely near to being “anti-national” for anyone who bought MNC products. So I looked at it again, and again and still could not find anti-national or its Hindi equivalent in any of its advertisements. Of course, this is a part of gimmick of playing the victim-card as being called “anti-national” and this missile is not hurled at just Baba Ramadev but several others who actually never used the word. But there also looks to be one more reason why this frustration is coming out against Baba Ramdev by the elites and India’s rising middle and upper middle class.

Every-time I see people or groups ridiculing Baba Ramdev or his business, I realize the kind of hypocrisy that we, India’s rising middle class is. For the MBA class and likes, Baba Ramdev is that Sadhu-Baba who has risen from farsh to arsh in non-traditional manner. He is the langot-clad guy who has given sleepless nights to the MNCs run by some of our most talented management pass-outs. He is giving a run-for-money and more to the Harvard and IIM prodigies armed with their excels, PPTs and analysis, a qualification that our middle class dreams of. It is understandable why and what Ramdev means to the management circles.

But the bigger question to us is, the aspirational class. For us, the only legit way to be rich is to study hard , getting to IIT/IIM, join an MNC and earn in hordes. Unfortunately, neither Ramdev himself is from the elite league, nor does he employ them in a conventional MNC way, in-fact I doubt if any employee is of the elite-league at all. Another fashionable way is to do a start-up, but then Ramdev does not even belong to that standard definition of startup where how great your startup is, depends on the angel investors and rounds of funding, not to forget, it has to be an e-commerce industry where you sell chai, coffee, Doodh, Patti at click of a button and everything else is just Baniye Ki Dukan. He just started something from scratch a few years ago, is somewhere above 5000 Cr and fastly heading to 10000 Cr. This is too disruptive to be disruptive and we don’t like it, AT ALL!

And lastly, we don’t like the way Ramdev markets himself and his products. We only believe in marketing gimmicks when they are made by beautiful and suave models, preferably adoring a bright white lab coat or sexy clothes. Of course both Ramdev and MNCs make equally broad claims, both far from truth, but then we ridicule him, because at some level we realize that is not what we aspire to be. We want to be fooled, but in the way we want. We will accept a foreigner when he says, charcoal is bad, we will again accept when he says charcoal is actually good, but we will ridicule a Baba and even our grandma who makes such a claim in the first place.

When a soft-drink sells itself in name of love, friendship etc and all emotions, we see nothing wrong, when a chocolate sells itself as the perfect symbol of Raksha-Bandhan, we have no issues. Any MNC can sell itself in name of sentimental crap and we are ready to buy let alone question it but there is something worth ridiculing when Ramdev wants to sell it in name of Indian-ness or as he says Bhartiyata, we want to take shots at him for taking refugee of Indian-ness. Everyone knows a skin crean does not make you fair, shampoos don’t give you the smooth silky hair they show, none of the restaurant-jaisa-readymix makes restaurant jaisi dish but we buy it, but when Ramdev sells in name of herbal, everyone from AIB to TVF and who-not are up and running mocking him.

I agree that a lot of his products are not upto the mark, in fact he just markets some of the products manufactured elsewhere, but some are really good and no matter what you or me think of it, he is here to stay for long, thanks to the actual Samajhdar public of India!

How to make India wear Indian

sumichadha
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How to make India wear Indian

A Chanderi turban, a Bandhini Safa and a Jodhpuri Leheriya are some of the traditional Indian fabrics worn by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on occasions of national significance such as the Republic Day and Independence Day. While many consider his style to be a statement about his personality and politics, it is also symbolic of his message to the nation: Wear Indian.

The objective is clear: create a market for Indian handloom products and handicrafts. In recognition of this, the Ministry of Textiles took noteworthy steps like the creation of the Indian Handloom Brand (IHB), which is a certification for genuine, high quality natural colourfast fabric produced using safe chemical dyes in compliance with social and environmental regulations. In addition to creating IHB retail outlets in major cities, the Ministry has also engaged popular e-commerce websites to increase the weaver’s market accessibility and availability of these products in mainstream markets.

While slogans like “Khadi for Nation, Khadi for Fashion” and Irani’s #IWearHandloom movement caught our attention, it will take much more than that to make India wear “handmade”.

However, the key to revival of the textile industry lies in restoring the relevance of these products. In order to increase usage of Indian handloom in our daily lives, it is crucial to contemporise these products to keep up with the needs of today’s consumer. The system currently focuses on marketing what is supplied instead of producing what is in demand. This also resonates with the objectives of the Indian Handloom Brand, which is to create a niche market space for quality handloom products that cater especially to the youth and export markets.

Contemporising a traditional product does not mean that we need to depart from the culture and heritage that define these products. For example, making a formal jacket with Kalamkari work would not only carry the same art and culture of a Kalamkari Saree but it would also incorporate the contemporary style that the youth relates with. Similarly, using Gujurati Brocade or Rajasthani Bandhani in a long skirt would allow the tradition to make it way into mainstream fashion and eventually into the wardrobe of the young Indian consumer. This will also reduce the heavy reliance that majority Indian crafts have on tourism as most of these works are sold through retail shops to tourists.

The Textile Ministry’s initiative to educate the consumer about these crafts on social media can be furthered by celebrating its amalgamation with modern lifestyle and preferences. To make consumers appreciate the non-standardisation of these products, there should be sustained marketing efforts to communicate the value of the humane aspect of the skill involved, their social and ecological effects as well as the time and effort that goes into their making.

To increase their global footprint, Indian textiles need to adapt to modern trends whilst retaining their character. The industry needs to focus on restoring the relevance of these products in light of what our modern lifestyles demand.

Why can’t we humiliate Dr. Manmohan Singh?

Abhishek Banerjee
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Why can’t we humiliate Dr. Manmohan Singh?

The Congress, as a rule, is used to demanding respect without giving any.

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There is something significant in the way the Congress reacted to Narendra Modi’s “raincoat” jibe. Taunts and jibes fly all the time in politics. Every politician needs a thick skin. But the Congress did not counter Modi with jibes. Instead, their response essentially was:

“How dare you?”

It is only the latest symptom of the sense of entitlement of the Congress party. They refuse to internalize the fact that the Congress enjoys no preferred position in Indian politics. They are not royalty and they haven’t fully understood that yet.

No party enjoys criticism of its leaders. But the Congress has a slightly different approach. When criticized, they don’t react with anger, but with a sense of disbelief. Because the Congress party conflates its own icons with the nation itself. They are still stuck in the mindset of “Indira is India and India is Indira”.

Of course, this has something to do with the lag effect of being the ruling party for over 55 of the 67 years since India became a republic. But it also has to do with a certain class bias. “Doctor Saab” is the England educated Prime Minister. His ministry was full of people who went to Doon school and Welham boys and St. Stephen’s College and enjoyed whisky with the British in their ballrooms. They lived lives that were (only slightly) modern adaptations of Jane Austen novels. These people actually wake up each morning and turn on the BBC, believe it or not!

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On the other hand, there is the tea seller and his government (who can forget how Mani Shankar Aiyar attacked him for that?) There’s Smriti Irani, who dropped out of college and got a job cleaning floors at McDonald’s to support her family. There’s Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, born into humble farmer families. When Modi speaks English, it is with much difficulty, with little eloquence, often ungrammatical and with an accent that Queen Elizabeth II would never admit to understanding. A lot of BJP leaders are like that.

It is this class bias that plays both in the minds of the Congress and the elite media. The BJP leaders with their “servant/driver type accents” can be humiliated without a second thought. It matters little that the BJP now has 282 Lok Sabha seats or that Gadkari is a super rich man today. It’s not always about power and money you have. In the minds of the Lutyens classes, there is something funny about being the first in your family to achieve money and fame, like watching a village bumpkin step onto an aeroplane for the very first time. As Rajdeep would have said, “You have money but no class“.

Class. It matters.

This is why the Congress party feels at liberty to call Narendra Modi as “Maut ka Saudagar”, “Khoon ka dalal”, “Gangu Teli”, “Hitler”, “Bhasmasur”, monkey, frog and pretty much anything that came to mind. But should Modi make fun of “Doctor saab”, it is intolerable. How dare a servant/driver type person speak like this?

That is why disrespect towards BJP leaders is taken as a matter of course. Someone called Smriti Irani a “kaamwali bai”? Of course, what else are they supposed to call her? So Smriti Irani showed Tehseen Poonawalla’s horribly crass and sexist tweet on CNN News 18.

 The reaction? This:

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You have to understand what Rohini is really saying here. What is “unbelievable” here is not what Tehseen did, but the fact that someone dared to call him a sexist for it. Did a “kaamwali bai” really dare to talk back?

But dear Rohini, dear Tehseen and dear Congress, times are changing. We will not shy away from humiliating Manmohan Singh for what he was: a PM who presided over the most humongous corruption scams in Indian history (and possibly world history). If Dr. Singh feels he was only a figurehead whose good name should not be insulted, he should take up the issue with his boss at 10 Janpath. Not with the man who won 170 million votes to occupy 7 Lok Kalyan Marg. On a side note, can you believe they changed the name of  Race Course Road to something in a desi bumpkin language? How will this new name ever roll off the royal tongues of the Queen and her courtiers in India?

हे मोदी-विरोधियों! अपना स्तर उठाओ, भक्त हर स्तर की डिबेट करने को सक्षम है

अजीत भारती
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हे मोदी-विरोधियों! अपना स्तर उठाओ, भक्त हर स्तर की डिबेट करने को सक्षम है

ये वो दौर है जब खोदने के लिए कुदाल-फावड़े नहीं चाहिए। यहाँ खेत, पहाड़, या समंदर में नहीं जाना होता है। ये वो दौर है जब आपको आपकी हर बात, हर बाइट, हर ट्वीट की याद हो ना हो, जनता को याद रहती है।

इसीलिए, हे मोदी-विरोधियों! तुम जब भी मर्यादा की बात करोगे, दस अमर्यादित बातें हम ढूँढ लाएँगे। यूँ तो तुम्हें कॉन्ग्रेस से कोई प्रेम नहीं लेकिन मोदी से घृणा ने तुम्हें आज मनमोहन और कॉन्ग्रेस को दूध का धुला कहने पर मजबूर कर दिया है।

चूँकि तुम्हारे पास सरकार को घेरने के लिए सिवाय इसके कि ‘ये काम और बेहतर हो सकता था’ कहने को और कुछ नहीं है। तुम सिर्फ ये कह सकते हो कि काले धन के लिए कुछ और भी होना चाहिए। तुम सिर्फ ये कह सकते हो कि शिक्षा का बजट थोड़ा और होना चाहिए। तुम सिर्फ ये कह सकते हो कि डिमोनेटाइजेशन से ही सारा काला धन नहीं आएगा। तुम सिर्फ ये कह सकते हो कि और अस्पताल खोले जाएँ।

तुम्हारे पास मोदी को घेरने के मुद्दे नहीं हैं। तुम ये नहीं कह सकते कि कोयला आवंटन में मोदी सरकार ने इतने लाख करोड़ लूट लिए। क्योंकि ये सरकार हर व्यवस्था को पारदर्शी बनाने पर तुली हुई है। तुम ये नहीं कह सकते कि स्पैक्ट्रम आवंटन में तो इतने लाख करोड़ का चूना लग गया। तुम ये नहीं कह सकते कि सरकार ने हॉस्पिटल बंद करा दिए, सड़कों को गंदा कर दिया, स्कूलों को ढहा दिया… तुम सिर्फ बेहतरी की बात कर सकते हो क्योंकि काम तो सरकार कर ही रही है।

तुम्हारी आशाएँ अब बढ़ गई हैं क्योंकि तुम्हें लगता है कि ये सरकार पिछली से बेहतर है। ये तुम कह नहीं सकते क्योंकि तुमने मोदी नाम के एक व्यक्ति से इतनी घृणा पाल ली है कि अब चाहकर भी अच्छा नहीं बोल सकते। तुम्हें तुम्हारे अपने ही ‘भक्त’ कहकर नकार देंगे। और भक्त सुनना तो तुम्हें अच्छा लगेगा ही नहीं।

यही छटपटाहट है मित्र कि तुम आज मोदी क्या बोल रहा है, उसी पर अपना सारा ज्ञान लगा रहे हो। मोदी ने किसको क्या कह दिया और वो मर्यादित है या नहीं, इस बात पर अपनी ऊर्जा खर्च कर रहे हो। और यहाँ भी तुम्हारा दोगलापन झलकता है क्योंकि तुम उस पार्टी के साथ खड़े हो जाते हो जिसने मोदी को चूहा, मेंढक, दिमाग़ी रूप से दिवालिया, मौत का सौदागर, ज़हर की खेती करने वाला, लुटेरा, बर्बादी लाने वाला, रावण, यमराज, हिटलर, पागल कुत्ता, और भी ना जाने क्या क्या कहा था।

याद रहे, इंटरनेट भूलता नहीं, ना ही भूलने देता है।

तब तुमने मज़े लिए थे। तब तुम हँस रहे थे और मीम शेयर कर रहे थे कि देखो कह के ले ली। तब तुम्हारी मर्यादा का ज्ञान शायद विकसित ना हुआ हो। तब तुम्हारे मुँह पर ताला लगा था क्योंकि वो तो हँसने में व्यस्त था। तब लग रहा था कि ये सारे विशेषण तो मोदी को सूट करते हैं। तब तुमने ठहाके लगाए थे कि किसी ने तो उसे कुछ कहा।

लेकिन आज… हाय रे मजबूरी! लेकिन आज तुम कहाँ खड़े हो? आज तुम्हारे पास सरकार को घेरने को मुद्दे नहीं है। इसीलिए वो क्या पहनता है से लेकर, वो क्या बोलता है पर ही सारा फोकस हो गया है। ये देश के लिए अच्छा है। वैसे तुम लोग लगे रहे। घृणा करने वाले भी चाहिए क्योंकि सिर्फ भक्त हो जाएँगे तो खेल का मज़ा नहीं आएगा। भक्त तभी है जब घृणा करने वाले विरोधी भी हैं।

अपनी घृणा का स्तर उठाकर आलोचना तक पहुँचो, तो भक्तों का भी स्तर उठेगा। वो भी तुम्हें सरकार की उपलब्धियाँ गिनाएँगे। तुम मुद्दों पर बात करोगे, तब तुम्हें वो भी आँकड़े देगा। तुम मर्यादा की बात करोगे तो वो तुम्हें अमर्यादित बातों का पुलिंदा लाकर दे देगा क्योंकि जिस चालाकी से तुम चलते हो, वो आज सबके जेब में रहती है।

टेक अ चिल पिल एण्ड लेट मनमोहन लिव विद हिज़ पास्ट। से हैशटैग ऊह ये एण्ड स्मोक फाइन क्वालिटी वीड फ़्रॉम कसौल… ओह ये!

Jammu airport: the VVIP racism of a rejected Neta

Ashish Tickoo
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Jammu airport: the VVIP racism of a rejected Neta

“In the morning when I reached airport I was dying to pee. It was such chaos & so many ladies were waiting outside toilets. None of the washrooms were working and everything was blocked. Travelers most of them tourists had so much inconvenience. The Manager was helpful when I complained but this condition was unacceptable. They are still trying to clean and clear blockages”.

I wasn’t shocked when I received this message from a friend, a girl who was travelling back to Mumbai from Jammu.

Next day, the friend had to visit hospital in the morning and seek sick leave because of severe intestinal infection. All she had taken was a sandwich from the only and New eatery counter at Jammu Airport after going through all this mess.

Anyone who has been to Jammu airport would understand how it feels to be a common man while travelling through this airport, which apart from being the state’s capital is also the nearest airport for lakhs of Mata Vaishno Devi devotees each year. Though the infrastructure has recently gone through a major change but it is still miles away from being a common man’s airport.

Few days later I too had to visit Jammu. After landing I commenced my walk from the aircraft to the main building area and accidentally walked away from the line I wasn’t supposed to, police officer was quick to point out my mistake for security reasons. I corrected my walk and as I looked around, there was a car standing just in front of another aircraft with policemen standing outside it. Having been to Jammu airport more than often, it was obvious that some VVIP was going to come out of the aircraft. And rightly so, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, LOP in Rajya Sabha, the man voters of this very state rejected in Lok Sabha elections walked out of the aircraft.

The Rejected Neta

Surely his walking & shaking hands in front of the aircraft with the Police officers within the lines I had crossed earlier was not a security threat. While I still had to walk a distance to get my luggage and then carry it all the way out of the airport as private vehicles were hard to get inside, there was the man we had rejected through the power of democracy having his car ready to pick him up just few meters away from the air stair.

The VVIP treatment wasn’t over yet. The VVIP luggage was still to be delivered. While Mr. Azad went away within minutes in his VVIP car, the man who accompanied him walked with 5-6 police officers inside to the luggage collection belt area.

The VVVIP Luggage

While I walked out with the luggage, police officers ensured that the man’s luggage is safely delivered inside the car waiting just outside the building. I looked to the right while one VVIP luggage was being delivered by 5-6 police officers, on my right were Indian Jawans sitting on the cold floor waiting to get in.

It is a common sight at Jammu airport and Railway station to see Jawans who protect our borders at one of the most sensitive border areas sitting on the floor waiting to get back home since our Govt cant even afford a waiting room for them.

No Waiting Rooms for Jawans

After feeling sad and helpless with the VVIP culture and sight of Jawans sitting on the cold floor, I realized, I still have to carry my luggage out to the main gate since the car won’t be allowed to get in. The luggage carts aren’t allowed outside the door. So, no matter how heavy your luggage is, you have to carry it by hand to your car or taxi or auto and there will be no 5-6 police officers carrying your briefcase. Imagine elderly people jumping through the waterlogged areas outside the gate with heavy bags.

At Jammu airport, you feel like still being still ruled by British. You need to know a police officer inside and your boarding pass will be ready before you even arrive, he will ensure that you don’t have to stand in long queues and accompany you till the boarding gate and if you are VVVIP then to the airstair.

The security at the airport is disappointing even after multiple checking counters. The airport seems like waiting for a disaster to happen.

The VVIP culture has seen no change even under the new PDP-BJP govt, though infrastructure has, but even today if you know one police officer or employee inside, your boarding card will be printed before you arrive so you don’t have to wait in the queue. The Scorpios of Netas can go inside without any issues but common man continues to suffer.

Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation says Mobile App will help address issue, let’s see what his govt both at state and centre do on an entire article.

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