The juvenile rants of Congress: The outlandish complaints against PM Modi, blaming him for the loss, TheWire whining about Gujaratis and more

The following article was written for Op India. Pasting it here for reference:

When major events (sports, elections etc) happen, newspaper and TV Editors typically keep two headlines ready for either result, to save time at the end of the event. When India lost to Australia in the World Cup cricket finals, there was an immediate outrage on two things – One, the crowd at the stadium and two, our Prime Minister! It’s like they had their posts ready before the match (just like the editors) because the speed with which they rolled them out clearly meant that they were waiting for our country to lose so that they could settle their meagre scores. 

The gist of their complaint about our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is captured in this Twitter post by someone from the Congress party. India won ICC titles (World Cup, Champions Trophies) when the Congress was in power and did not win a single ICC trophy (despite some events or the other happening every year). Now that they opened this box, it becomes essential that we remind this gang of the amazing strides India has made in international sports events after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India in 2014. 

India won her highest-ever medal tally in the Olympics in Tokyo 2021 (7 medals). India won over 100 medals for the first time in history at the Asian Games in 2023 (107 medals!). Not just this, India won her highest-ever medal tally at the Paralympics in Tokyo in 2021 (19 medals) and at the Asian Para Games in 2023 (111 medals). The list certainly doesn’t end here. We’ve won our first-ever gold at the World Athletic Championships (and also the highest medal tally). We’ve won the highest number of medals at the World Badminton Championships. India added 44 Grandmasters in Chess, in just these 9 years.

While this can be attributed to mere good luck or to Nehru by the Congress party, the medals in the Asian and Olympic games did not happen just like that. The Prime Minister placed a very special focus on sports and ensured that our sportspersons were provided with the best facilities and training. The unique scheme – TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme) – gave the best possible training to these athletes. We have all seen how the Prime Minister personally meets all the participants and encourages them. We have all seen how he personally congrats each medal winner on social media. And more importantly, we have all seen how he personally connects with those who fought well but couldn’t make it to the podium. Even for this World Cup, we have seen how he went to the dressing room and interacted with our players. 

The gang constantly jokes about the PM’s interactions with our sportspersons, but can you possibly imagine the huge impact the Prime Minister of the country makes on our sportsperson through all these personal interactions? Don’t we all always look for that word of appreciation or word of comfort from our leaders at work? Why then should the sportspersons be deprived of this connection? 

The second issue this gang had was with the crowd at the Ahmedabad stadium. Controversial website The Wire (known popularly as Liar the Wire) even went ahead and concluded that the crowd “diminished India in the eyes of the World”. I, for one, believe The Wire has exemplary courage. It takes real courage to talk and judge like this after perpetuating a big fraud like they have done! Anyways, we digress. 

The complaint against the crowd was varied – they didn’t cheer enough for India; they didn’t clap when Head hit a century; they chanted the wrong names of the players. The gang went on to compare this crowd to the Eden Gardens crowd, the Wankhede crowd, and the Chennai crowd. Crores of people in this world are passionate about sports and often react very strongly when the result doesn’t go their way. In India, we have seen how the Eden Gardens crowd disrupted the 1996 World Cup Semifinal, by even burning things in the stadium. There was an unsavoury incident in 1999 too, when we were losing to Pakistan and Sachin had to come onto the ground and appeal for peace. Did this not diminish our stature? The Wankhede crowd once booed Sachin Tendulkar. Srilankan players don’t form part of the Chennai IPL team because of issues some Tamilians have with Srilanka! Don’t these events diminish their stature? In contrast, what did the Ahmedabad crowd do to “diminish India”? They didn’t clap when the Australian player hit a century! 

This gang is an expert at normalising violence and boorish behaviour when it comes to making their point. They are expert at creating a divide when none exists. They are experts at linking everything to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and won’t hesitate in plunging to any depth to demean India and Indians. Well, this gang can continue their meaningless rants. India will march ahead like never before. 

PS: Nothing can still beat the coverage that NDTV gave for Rahul Gandhi when India won the semi-finals and finals of 2011 World Cup. Many examples here. But sample this: In a slide show titled “A billion voices thank men in blue” – 5 slides are dedicated to Rahul Gandhi’s moods! 

If you give power to Congress, it will take away power from your homes – Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan are prime examples

The following article was written for Op India. Pasting it here for reference.

Ever since the Congress government came into power in Karnataka, we have been hearing news about power cuts making their way into the lives of residents of Karnataka. I dismissed this news as an exaggeration by the “godi media” that is sold out and unreliable and whatnot. Everything changed when the Chief Minister himself released a video blaming the BJP for the crisis that started after he became the CM.

In this video, he blames the BJP government in Karnataka and the BJP government in Chhattisgarh for not entering into the right deal, and therefore causing this severe crisis. 

This made many citizens think – but there has been no BJP government in Chhattisgarh since 2018. So one wonders if he blaming the previous BJP government in Chhattisgarh for not working with the previous BJP government of Karnataka. But then a simultaneous BJP government was there in both states way back in 2008 to 2013 time only. 

After watching this wonderful and thoughtful video, it became very clear that the electricity crisis in Karnataka was not a made-up story by the godi media but a real one that’s impacting the productivity of crores of citizens. A farmer was so angry, that he released a crocodile into the electricity office. We were told by a few Bangolereans how even on Diwali day they had to endure these power cuts. 

We then saw stories on how the 6-lakh-strong MSME sector in Karnataka was complaining about the severe impact on their industries because of these power cuts. The Jeans factory workers of Bellary were driven to tears when they spoke about this crisis. This immediately reminded us of the many pompous statements that Rahul Gandhi made while in Bellary for the election campaign (and also during the BJ Yatra). There is a viral video of him changing the package details he wanted to offer to Bellary. He ended up promising them a 5000-crore worth package. They ended up perhaps losing 500 crores within 5 months of giving power to Rahul Gandhi’s Congress party. 

Prolonged power cuts were supposed to be a thing of the past. Daily scheduled power cuts were also supposed to be a thing of the past. So, what happened? Well, Congress happened! Since the Karnataka CM made a reference to Chhattisgarh, it becomes very important to note how the current Congress government of Chhattisgarh is at loggerheads with the current Congress regime of Rajasthan with respect to the supply of coal. Rajasthan is facing a power crisis too, and both the veteran Congress leaders who are CMs, have not been able to resolve this amongst themselves. A cute video can easily be made on how Chhattisgarh is refusing to help Rajasthan (on similar lines to the Karnataka one). 

The Congress has been in power in only a handful of states since 2014. And even in this handful of states that they were in power, they mismanaged the power situation. It sounds as if mismanaging of power is their USP!  It’s one thing to be facing a crisis when many other states or the country as a whole are facing a crisis (like it happened for a brief while in mid-2022 or perhaps when there is a huge deficit in monsoon). But to be the only ones to face severe crises when others don’t, certainly points out to how you govern! 

We all must recollect the long-scheduled power cuts in the pre-2014 days. News reports from that time even indicate how officials who used to say “If any village gets power for 1-2 hours during the day, it is by mistake”. Imagine when supplying power is actually classified as a mistake! Amidst the current power crisis in Karnataka, the Chief Minister was busy with another kind of power struggle – securing his position. He was busy holding meetings with his deputy CM and other cabinet colleagues to hold on to his chair. Like they say – if you give power to Congress, it will take away power from your homes. 

Political Landscape of Poll-Bound Telangana

The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference:

The elections to the assembly of Telangana state have entered into their final phase – campaigning! The major contenders are the BRS-MIM alliance; the Congress and the BJP. Let’s take a look at where all these parties stand as of today.

The BRS-MIM alliance

MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi is going about campaigning in the state that MIM will be contesting only in 9 seats; and everywhere else he is urging Muslims to vote for KCR “Mamu”. MIM has been KCR’s ally ever since the state of Telangana was formed. So much so that even developmental works in the old city were stalled at MIM’s insistence. Even the Hyderabad Liberation Day was not celebrated at MIM’s insistence. It is almost guaranteed that MIM will win 7 seats in this election.

This means that BRS has to win 53 seats. The current strength of BRS in the 119-member assembly is 100! They won 86 seats in the 2018 election; poached 12 Congress and 2 TDP MLAs into their fold, taking their number to 100! BRS has faced many electoral setbacks and also won many electoral battles since its 2018 victory.

There is palpable anger in the people on how the BRS woefully failed at even conducting recruitment exams; scores of food poisoning cases in state-run hostels; the increase in crime; the mishandling of the Dharani portal; the high inflation only in Telangana (KCR refused to reduce any taxes on Fuel); the anti-incumbency against MLAs who have become unbelievably arrogant; the mishandling of Paddy procurement and the corruption in real estate.

That said, there is also palpable satisfaction in people who get money/benefits from flagship schemes such as Rythu Bandhu; Pension; Dalit Bandhu (Dailt Family gets 10 lakhs!); the water and current availability for irrigation; and other smaller schemes.  There are enough families in the state that have benefitted one way or the other because of the BRS government policies, but there are also enough families in the state that are angry at the BRS. The very fact that KCR chose to contest from 2 seats is indicative of the way the wind is blowing. This is precisely the reason why almost every poll is predicting that the margin for BRS will be smaller than last time or they may not even hit the magic mark of 53 (well, it’s actually 60 but then MIM will win 7).

The BJP

The BJP deserves a lot of credit for playing the role of an effective opposition for nearly 4 years. Despite winning only 1 seat in the 2018 elections, the party registered impressive victories in the 2019 Lok Sabha election (4/17); the GHMC elections (up from 4 to 48); 2 impressive assembly by-poll victories; and 1 impressive MLC victory. They were at the forefront of many agitation rallies against the BRS. The growth graph began to dip because of infighting in the party, which enabled the Congress to surge miraculously! The BJP also announced an alliance with the Jana Sena party in Telangana (giving them 8 seats). There are a few candidates left to announce and the manifesto of the party is also not yet out. The cadre is excited though, because of how well they have taken on the might of the BRS government over the past 4 years. The BJP will give a tough fight in a sizeable number of seats in the state.

The Congress Party

It is still a mystery how the Congress party recovered in Telangana. They couldn’t win their own seats in assembly by polls; performed woefully poor in GHMC elections; lost an incumbent byelection when the Bharat Jodo Yatra was in Telangana; and were written off by everyone. The victory in Karnataka gave a sudden fillip to their sagging fortunes. The infighting in the BJP and their slowdown was also happening parallelly and it looks like everything that could be right for the Congress party. Suddenly people started pinning for the Congress party. Just like in Karnataka, the Congress has promised six guarantees. The Congress has also announced its full list of candidates. However, people are fully aware of how bad Congress is at governance and keeping their promises. People are well aware of how the power situation in Karnataka was bungled by the Congress government in less than six months of coming into power. People are also aware of how 1/3rd of Congress MLAs jumped ship into BRS after the 2014 assembly elections. They are also aware of how 2/3rd of Congress MLAs jumped ship into BRS after the 2018 Assembly elections! BJP is popularising the slogan – A vote for Congress is a seat for BRS.

The people of Telangana vote on November 30th.  What their choice is, will be known on December 3rd!

 

The Hindu continues to peddle the North-South divide based on lies peddled by Communist Party leader and JNU prof: 15th Finance Commission report and the truth

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

Just about 15 days back, The Hindu published an article on an imaginary North-South divide and we had given a detailed rebuttal to it. In the conclusion of that article, we had written that “It is tiresome to listen to their repeated lies but then it is also important to repeatedly counter their lies too.”

Looks like someone at The Hindu took this conclusion seriously and wanted to test if we would really repeatedly counter their repeated lies! And so, on the exact same topic, they publish yet another tripe on October 20th.  This time, they interview two known suspects – one is a former Finance minister from the Communist party (Thomas Issac) and another is a former professor from JNU (Balveer Arora). 

Thomas Issafc, who sadly was a Finance Minister once, opens his argument with an outright lie – that there are only two criteria defined by the Finance Commission on how to devolve funds to the States. 

We have repeatedly busted this lie but there just seems to be no end to the freedom that The Hindu and their ilk provide to these serial liars. The 15th Finance Commission has the following 6 criteria on which it decides how best to devolve the funds to the states in India. 

Income Distance and Population from the 2011 census are just 2 of those criteria. States that have done well on Forest and Ecology, Demographic performance and Tax Effort actually get rewarded better by the 15th Finance Commission – which is basically the key demand of these folks! It is intriguing to see this ilk assume that the people of this country will not have access to such basic information, and therefore they can simply publish lies and get away with it. 

The opening argument of the other interviewee, Balveer Aurora, is even more hilarious. In his infinite wisdom, he says – “if the population basis is being shifted from 1971 to a new figure, the weightage of the population can be adjusted. It is not written in stone that it has to remain the same”. 

Guess what – the weightage to the population in the 13th FC report was 25%. That report used the 1971 census as a reference (Yes, even for the period 2010 to 2015, we used the 1971 census as a reference!). The weightage to the population in the 15th FC report was 15%. That report used the 2011 census as a reference (Finally, the much-needed correction was made). So, when the population basis was shifted from 1971 to 2011, the weightage given only to the population had already been adjusted from 25% to 15%. How does the former Professor from a reputed university like JNU miss such basic information before making such banal arguments? 

After years of providing a platform for such hate mongers, The Hindu decides for the first time that they will ask a factual question on this subject – and hence pose the question to Thomas Issac:

Thomas Issac goes on a verbal tirade that doesn’t answer the question. He continues to claim that “Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu” are at a loss. This argument that states are at a “loss” has been made by politicians from other states too. KCR’s son, KTR, for example, claims that while Telangana paid 3.68 lakh crores to the central government, it only got back 1.68 lakh crores in return. He went to the extent of calling everyone who countered this fallacious argument “ignoramuses”. 

This set me thinking. In this particular example, the INR 3.68 lakh crores is the amount that people of India, specifically residing in Telangana, have paid as Tax directly to the Government of India. From this amount, a total of 1.78 lakh crore rupees have been transferred to the Government of Telangana, by the Government of India. KTR makes it sound like 3.68 lakh crores is the tax paid by the government of Telangana to the government of India. Thomas Issac also sounds similar in his arguments.

Let’s for a moment just buy this argument. If Telangana paid 3.68 lakh crores to the Government of India, how come only 1.78 lakh crores have come back to the government? Because this amount does not include the 1.08 lakh crore spent directly by GoI on roads in Telangana alone. It does not include the 1.58 lakh crore spent directly by GoI on procuring Paddy and Cotton from Telangana alone. It does not include the nearly 1 lakh crore spent on Infrastructure such as railways, power, energy, irrigation etc for Telangana alone. It does not include thousands of crores spent on welfare scheme beneficiaries in Telangana alone. A rough calculation pegs this amount to about 8.3 lakh crores! 

Am sure such similar numbers exist for Kerala too. The reason so many numbers for Telangana are known is that Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy released a detailed 320 slide presentation with all these numbers to counter the baseless arguments of KCR and his family. The moot point is that these divisive politicians and media are framing the debate in terms of a balance sheet of money alone. And in the garb of making an argument, they are simply falling back on the same lies again and again. 

The Hindu has been at the forefront of spreading these lies. Pompous editorials and Op-Eds questioning even the “constitutional propriety” of the 15th FC began back in 2018. In fact, this particular article even made the argument that the terms of reference for the 15th Finance Commission could have been silent on which population census to use. The Wire started this lie. The Business Standard picked it up. Not to be left behind, Shekhar Gupta called North India a tax burden on South India. The Hindu has been running it ever since. Divisive politicians have been using these lies to propagate their own agenda. How many more times will The Hindu continue to publish the same lies? 

The Hindu and how it is creating the North-South Divide: Repeatedly lying about devolution of funds and cheating their readers with misinformation

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

The Hindu published an article on 5th October 2023, with a very combative headline – “Retribution for the South, accolade for the North”. I think you got the gist just by looking at the headline. This article was a continuation of the oft-repeated argument by this ilk, that South India is superior to North India and yet the Government of India keeps rewarding North India and ignores South India.

This particular article discusses the divisive argument through two subjects – the Delimitation of Lok Sabha Constituencies and the devolution of funds through Finance Commissions. While discussing these two subjects, the article stands out for some really unique arguments. The first is how it changes our understanding of basic geography itself. Sample this core argument at the beginning of the article:

The authors, one of whom is a professor, have miraculously decided that the Gujarati-speaking Western state of Gujarat is actually a Hindi-speaking Northern State for the sake of their argument. I kept on thinking as to why they would make this fundamental error. Is it to bolster their argument that the 4% increase in population in a certain group of states is because of Gujarat? Turns out, it is not. Even if Gujarat is not included in this elite list, the core argument (a 4% increase in population share) will stay as strong. 

This is not the first time this ilk has tried to alter our fundamental understanding of Geography. Prashant Kishor, in an interview with Shekhar Gupta, enlightens us that “Hindi heartland has now extended to Western India in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Karnataka”. How does Karnataka remotely get classified as a “Hindi heartland” and more importantly a “Western state”? How do Gujarat and Maharashtra get into the bracket of “Hindi heartland” when crores of people in these states speak and take pride in their own languages? 

Can you imagine if powerful commentators (such as Shekhar Gupta) and publications (such as The Hindu) could lie like this in today’s day and age, what must they have done back then when they were even more powerful? It is perplexing that they think their reader will not see through this chicanery. This bogey of labelling random states as “Hindi speaking” and altering their geography, merely because they vote for the BJP is really a sad reflection of the mental state of these commentators. 

But why exactly are they altering the fundamentals of geography like this? The essence is captured in these two paragraphs – South Indian states will lose out on their share of representation in the Lok Sabha post delimitation. 

Recently, India Today also put up a graphic on their website giving out some numbers on how South’s representation will come down if population is the criteria. This was dutifully picked up by the divisive politicians from the South. All of them are making one fundamental assumption that the number of Lok Sabha seats will remain constant at 543. It has been discussed at various forums that the number of Lok Sabha seats will increase from the current 543. It doesn’t make sense for us to have the same number of seats when our population was 50 crores versus when it is 140 crores! The new Lok Sabha building can accommodate 888 MPs – surely, they have built it with the purpose of increasing the seats from the existing 545. Instead of telling the readers about these possibilities, the English media is purposely fomenting hatred by discussing only one remote possibility.  

Now, the authors of The Hindu could not fill up enough space with only one bogus argument, so they decided to repeat the lie about the devolution of funds through the 15th Finance Commission (FC). The core argument is just in one paragraph highlighted below

From 1975 till 2015, all finance commissions (7th to 13th) took the 1971 census as a reference. You must actually be wondering what relevance would the 1971 census have in 2015. This statistic actually reflects the status quoist mindset of the Congress party. But we digress. The Modi government did the logical thing of mandating to partial use the latest 2011 census data from 2015-2020 (14th FC) and fully use it from 2020 onwards (15th FC). Ever since this gang started screaming that the South States “lost the advantage despite doing good on population control. Controversial website Wire even went to the extent of claiming that “It is becoming almost untenable for Tamil Nadu and Kerala to thrive in the Indian union as rational, self-interested sub-units.”

On peripheral reading, you would actually think that this is a logical argument and be wondering why I am being so banal about it. In fact, if you read the article snippet pasted above from The Hindu, you would also assume that the Modi government hasn’t incorporated this logical argument at all, and is, therefore, anti-South India, fascist and whatnot. 

Guess what? The 15th Finance Commission has reduced the weightage allotted to only the population and has added a new criterion to actually reward states that have done well on controlling the population. Take a look at the comparison table below (the highlighted portion indicates the new criteria).

Demographic Performance refers to how states have performed with respect to population control. Simply put, you will be rewarded if you control your population better – which is exactly what the article in The Hindu is arguing for! The “tax effort” incentivizes states that have done well in tax collection efforts. This parameter is back in the 15th FC (after not being considered in the previous 3 FCs). 

The moot question therefore is this – Why have the authors of The Hindu piece intentionally not told the readers about this most important piece of information? Why have the editors published this lie-filled article when the fundamental premise itself has no basis? What do these people gain by fomenting such hate between regions of India? 

If anything, the Narendra Modi government has revolutionized the manner in which funds are devolved to the states. The states used to get 32% of the central share until the 13th FC period (ends 2015). From 2015 onwards, the states got a whopping 41% share. The percentage increase in the share is one aspect. Because of buoyant tax collections, as part of this 41% share, the states received a whopping 69.60 lakh crores (2014 to 2023) as opposed to just 18.50 lakh crores in the 2004 to 2014 period. 

Instead of focusing on meaningful criticism, our English media has now been reduced to repeatedly lying and cheating their readers. It is tiresome to listen to their repeated lies but then it is also important to repeatedly counter their lies too. Thankfully, the citizens of our country are much more intelligent than these hate-mongers in the English media.