Telangana by-poll: BJP fields strong candidate, TRS employs all its might and how Congress vote bank may decide the gap between TRS and BJP

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

In the 2018 Assembly elections in Telangana, the TRS party, led by KCR, won a whopping 88/119 seats. Despite winning a landslide, the TRS displayed an unusual urgency in poaching MLAs from the Congress party. The Congress won 19 seats in the 2018 elections, thereby being eligible for the Leader of the Opposition post. One by one, a total of 12 Congress MLAs were poached by the TRS within just a couple of months of winning this landslide. 1 MLA went on to become an MP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In this instance, with 2/3rd of the CLP joining the TRS, there was no need to disqualify the legislators.

KCR did NOT need these 12 MLAs for any support in the Assembly. This move, primarily orchestrated to show the supremacy of KTR, the newly anointed working President of the party, also ensured that there will officially be no leader of opposition in the Telangana Assembly. The torchbearers of democracy weren’t bothered by this blatant suppression of the people’s mandate though. But we divert, so let’s get back to the premise of this article. 

Out of the 6 MLAs who have stayed back with the Congress, the MLA from Munugodu constituency, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy recently resigned from the Congress party (and as an MLA) and joined the BJP. As expected, a by-poll has become necessary and that is now scheduled for November 3rd. The contest in Munugodu constituency in 2018 was primarily between the Congress party and the TRS. The BJP came a very distant 3rd and lost its deposit too. However, the BJP has picked up in Telangana ever since their debacle in the 2018 election.

In a record, The BJP won 4 Lok Sabha seats from Telangana in 2019 (KCR’s daughter was defeated in one of them; KCR’s son was in charge in another!). The BJP went on to defeat the TRS in the all-important GHMC elections (but TRS managed to capture power by allying with MIM post-elections). And then the BJP went on to defeat the TRS in the Dubbaka by-poll (right in the lion’s den!) and in the Huzurabad by-poll. Both these Assembly seats were held by the TRS earlier. 

Munugodu is different in that sense – the seat was held by Congress earlier. This is not the first seat that is going to by-polls where Congress was holding the seat. The then TPCC President, Uttam Kumar Reddy vacated his Huzurnagar assembly seat after getting elected to the Lok Sabha. The TRS won that by-poll. The situation of the Congress party was so bad that they couldn’t win the seat that their own state President won! 

The situation of the Congress party is no different now. In fact, Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo yatra is in going to be in Telangana during the by-poll. If Rahul Gandhi is in Telangana, that means the entire top leadership of the Congress will just be running behind him only, leaving the hapless candidate to fend for herself in Munugodu! We still have 3 weeks to go for the elections and the Congress election campaign is at its peak now. News outlets like The Hindu have already told us that there are “impressive crowds” for Congress meetings – a phrase they never use for BJP even when BJP wins so many elections! With the Congress campaigning bound to taper down from next week onwards, the fight between TRS and BJP will only intensify. 

A clear indication of how strong a fight the BJP is putting up with their candidate, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, is evident from the fact that the TRS has deployed their entire might for this by-poll. KCR has asked 86 of his MLAs to be stationed in the constituency only. This includes all of his ministers. In fact, to show himself as an example of “leading from the front”, KCR himself is in charge of one village in the Munugodu constituency for the by-poll! Just 10 days back, KCR announced the name change of his party from TRS to BRS (Bharat Rashtra Samithi) to reflect his “national” ambitions. That a “national” leader finds it necessary to be in charge of a village in a by-poll, speaks volumes about the nature of the fight ahead! The TRS is clearly rattled by the strength of the BJP. 

The strength of the BJP lies in two factors – first is the candidate himself. Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy. He is the younger one of the famous “Komatireddy Brothers”! The elder one, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy is an MP from the Congress party (and has been with the Congress for many decades). Rahul Gandhi has been very successful in isolating this powerful Congress family away from the Congress party, adding to his list of sterling achievements! The Komatireddy brothers also own industries that generate direct employment for thousands of families in this area. The goodwill they enjoy and the money power they can deploy if needed are definitely a very good advantage for the BJP.  The second factor for BJP is its increased cadre strength and participation from across the state. The BJP is also putting up their entire might – central ministers will campaign; all state office bearers are stationed in Munugodu to carry out door-to-door campaigning. 

The Congress will still have a vote bank that may end up being the deciding factor in the gap between the TRS and the BJP. An exciting 3 weeks lies ahead for the politics in Telangana. November 6th will definitely alter the course of the political debate in the state. 

Sadanand Dhume and liberal propaganda: Why he is wrong about Indian democracy being in danger and how he refused to answer pertinent questions

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

Serial commentator Sadanand Dhume, tweeted a thread yesterday, yet again reminding us that democracy is in danger in India. This time, he chose an interesting strategy, that I think warrants a deeper discussion on the contrived thinking of this self-proclaimed liberal gang.

First, Dhume begins by quoting Professor Ashutosh Varshney, who in turn quotes a report of an obscure institute from Sweden called V-Dem. The loop is fascinating – these folks quoting just amongst themselves and telling us that this is the absolute truth! I am reminded of how The Print invented a lie that the Central Vista will cost 20,000 crore; and how The Wire, The Hindu, The Week et.al picked it up; how The Print quoted their own lies in future reports; and how Sonia Gandhi ended up using that lie in one of her letters to the Prime Minister of India!

The graph that Dhume and Varshney are fascinated with, is plotting two indices. One is “Electoral Democracy” and the other is “Liberal Democracy”.  Here is that graph:

 

You can easily two dips in the graph. One during the 1975 to 1977 phase. And the other dip starts right from the year 2014 (What a beautiful coincidence). India was under Emergency from 1975 to 1977. That meant, no elections. That also meant, no dissent and therefore no space for “liberal democracy”. Zero elections and zero dissent allowed during the emergency. Yet, for this period, this wonderful graph says that both “electoral democracy” and “liberal democracy” score a non-zero, positive number on the index!

So, it’s natural to ask what exactly was the methodology used to arrive at this brilliant conclusion that there existed “liberal decmoracy” during the Emergency. Which is exactly what the former CEO of Prasar Bharati, Shashi Shekhar, asked Dhume to explain. Dhume calmly tells us that the onus is not on him to explain. In his own words, “But the onus is on those who think the indices are wrong to argue convincingly…”. This is yet another gameplan that the whole allegedly liberal gang employs. The “onus of proof” is on the reader and not on the writer. And if the reader actually ends up proving the lies of the writer, then the reader is wrong (duh!). This entire gang thrives on two things – 1. lie regularly; and 2. badmouth those who call out their baseless lies regularly!

When Shashi Shekhar persists and asks – “what is the underlying model and what data was used to compute the indices ?”, Dhume very innocently asks – “Which index specifically do you mean, and what information would you like to see that is not available?”

At this stage, I stood up from my seat and gave a standing ovation to Dhume. His entire thread is based on just two indices – “Electoral Democracy” and “Liberal Democracy”. And when asked what is the underlying model for these indices, he so very innocently asks “Which index”? I would really like to gain such guts in life and brazen it out like this! Dhume doesn’t stop there. He goes on to tell us that “V-Dem, on which Varshney’s charts are based, does go into quite a lot of detail on their website.” The easy thing for Dhume to do would have been to just give us the specific link to the website, but why do such hard work when you can brazen out your lack of intelligence?

Now that the we have proved the farce that the graph is, we can move on to discuss the other brilliant arguments in Dhume’s thread. He classifies the Indian population into two categories – One is “Scholars” and the other is the “average Indian”. Dhume certifies that India’s “electoral democracy” does well despite us having a “low per capita income” and this is what the lowly average Indian cares about. The “scholars” ofcourse think that India is doomed. Or maybe Dhume classifies them as “scholars” because they think India is doomed?

Dhume tells us that there is a “decline of institutions like the Supreme Court”. Elsewhere in the thread, he also tells us that “Judges are cowed”. What proof does he offer for this? Nothing. He just says this is “well documented”. Which means that it is the headache of the “average Indian” to go find out this documentation and then just agree with the documentation!

Dhume shares a page in which the author gives us just two examples from the Congress regimes of the past where freedom of expression was challenged. The chapter then mentions that nothing was as worse as how things were between 1998 to 2004; and from 2014 onwards. Again, no proof is offered. Why do you need proof when the “scholars” have told you so?

Dhume attempts to end his 8-tweet thread on a sad note that Indians don’t seem to care about the world thinks about our democracy. Dhume doesn’t realise that he is making the fallacious assumption that some articles in some newspapers amounts to what the “world thinks”. You cannot blame him for thinking so – because this is how the entire gang thinks. The gang believes they are the torchbearers of this sinking world and the hapless citizens simply don’t want to recognize the awesomeness they bring to this world!

You know what is the best part of this entire thread? Dhume adds two more tweets and tells us that “personally I find V-Dem Institute’s methodology confusing.” Why would you form opinions based on confusing methodology and express your opinions/conclusions based on such confusing methodology? There can be only one reason for this – to further an agenda that shows India in poor light and gain attention. This is the only way the alleged liberal gang knows how to thrive! 

The farcical Congress party (s)election ends with the coronation of loyalist, Kharge

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

The only section that was actually interested in the farcical “election” to the post of President of the Indian National Congress, was the English media. Sometimes I got a feeling that even members of the Congress party were not as thrilled and interested as the English media. You may ask - Why is this a farcical “election”? This is farcical, not because the victor was already known, but because of the manner in which the only opponent to the pre-destined victor also had to take “permission” from HER to even contest the election.  

Rahul Gandhi was president of the Congress from December 2017 to June 2019. That’s less than 2 years (for some reason the English media keeps saying he was President for 2 years). He resigned in June 2019 taking responsibility for the disastrous performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. His mother took over yet again, this time as “interim President”. A post she held for more than 3 years making it a total of nearly 23 years at the helm of Congress.

It is from these clutches that the Congress party had to get rid of. The worst Lok Sabha performance of the Congress party was under Sonia Gandhi’s presidentship. The second worst was under Rahul Gandhi’s presidentship. Yet, we have this spectacle of THE Family first choosing Ashok Gehlot as their nominee for the post of President. A front-page story on August 24th tells us that Sonia chose Ashok Gehlot to lead the Congress party.

Shashi Tharoor wanted to contest for the post of President of Congress and even for that, he had to actually get permission from HER. The permission was given to Shashi Tharoor on September 19th. And an election date was announced for October 17th.

Now, instead of waiting for the actual election to be over, Sonia Gandhi decides that Ashok Gehlot’s successor in Rajasthan has to be decided. It is natural for everyone to think why such a decision would have to be taken when the election was not over yet. Well, since the family already decided that Ashok Gehlot will win the polls, why delay the inevitable?

Ashok Gehlot had other plans though. He didn’t want to resign from the post of Chief Minister. He tried to convince Rahul Gandhi but wasn’t successful at it. When the Congress leadership sent Ajay Maken and Mallikarjun Kharge to oversee a CLP resolution in Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot revolted! The MLAs didn’t turn up. This of course naturally upset Sonia Gandhi. Ashok Gehlot went to Delhi and apologised to Sonia Gandhi.

Am sure you have some logical questions to ask now. Wasn’t the family aware of Gehlot’s demands when they chose him as their successor and leaked it to the press? Did they really think Gehlot will simply fall in line? Did they really not want the new Congress President to have a say in who should be the Chief Minister of his home state? Well, my suggestion is to not ask logical questions and simply follow what happened afterward.

With this rebellion, the Family had to choose a stauncher loyalist for a contest. Poor Shashi Tharoor still doesn’t have the confidence of the family so he is simply left fending for himself. Who better to “contest” than the old faithful Digvijay Singh!

I think the family has some revenge they wanted to take against Digvijay Singh also. After telling him on September 29th that he is THE man, Digvijay Singh had to know from the media on September 30th that he is actually NOT the man! The family chose the best loyalist – Mallikarjun Kharge for the post. Digvijay was left in the lurch and he had to issue the below statement to the media (I have no sympathy for Digvijay though!)

Now, it has become a Shashi Tharoor vs Mallikarjun Kharge “contest”. The victor was obviously known. Shashi Tharoor started his “campaign” by sharing the wrong map of India!

Facing stiff competition for assembly elections, KCR's national party will be a 'nonstarter'

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

On October 5th, 2022 (Vijaya Dashimi) the Chief Minister of Telangana announced that he is now changing his party name from Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). He has been claiming since early 2018 that he wants to play a larger role on the national political scene.

In addition to the setback in the 2019 Parliament elections; the subsequent losses in 2 bye-elections and the GHMC election made KCR put these plans on the backburner. In early 2021, KCR gave very strong indications that he will be making his son KTR the Chief Minister. Everyone assumed that KCR will move on to fulfil his dream of a national role. However, nothing of such sort happened at that point in time (probably because of a severe backlash from various party leaders). Occasionally we have been treated to the media leaks that he is all set to announce the change in the party’s name but nothing ever happened, until yesterday.

KCR has been steadfast in claiming that there is a need to overhaul the Constitution of India. And in his overzealousness to make his point strong, he has ended up giving bizarre examples. Such as, “We need to increase the average speed of our trucks and trains, therefore we need a new constitution.” It’s not just about how bizarre the argument is, but also the threatening manner in which it was delivered that reinforced KCR’s combative personality.

The bizarreness doesn’t end there. KCR has been steadfast in claiming the central government has no role in laying roads in villages (“Only the state government that can understand the actual need of the villages “). Not just this, he has repeatedly questioned why the central government needs to build hospitals and education institutes also. The big question now we need to ask is – will KCR include these in his manifesto? Will he go out to the people of the country and tell them that he will not build hospitals and education institutes anymore?

KCR started his campaign for a national role by citing that the country needs a non-Congress, non-BJP government at the centre. He has slowly moved to say that the current need of the hour is only a “BJP-mukt Bharat”. Multiple times, he has met Stalin (who is in alliance with Congress); he has met Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy (who are in alliance with Congress); he has met Sharad Pawar (who is in alliance with the Congress). Even Nitish Kumar is now in alliance with the Congress party. He announced that PK is his best friend at the same time when PK was advising Congress party on how to revive themselves!

He has made repeated trips to multiple states that have a strong non-BJP party either in power or in the opposition. None of these trips has resulted in anything fruitful for KCR or TRS. The latest outing with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar ended up with acute embarrassment to KCR, with the final 2 minutes of the press conference showing us a great glimpse into the confusion that prevails!

In yesterday’s announcement, KCR claimed that he will first focus on neighbouring states such as Karnataka and Maharashtra. This makes some sense because BRS can enter into an alliance with JD(S) and NCP for a couple of border seats and perhaps end up winning them too. He can then use these small victories to project how he is now a national force to reckon with. JD(U), BSP, and the TMC have all won a couple of seats outside their strongholds but have diminished in strength over a period of time because of a lack of focus. Every non-BJP party leader has now fashioned themselves into thinking that their party is the real alternative to the BJP at the national level. KCR went a step further and had flexis across various cities that projected him as a “Desh ki Neta”!

It has been claimed by some in the media that KCR’s strong grip on Hindi will make him a big hit in the Hindi heartland. It has been claimed by TRS that most schemes of Modi today are merely a copy of what KCR has already done in Telangana. He has continuously claimed that he was ridiculed when he set up the TRS in 2001, in the exact same manner that he is being ridiculed now. For some strange reason, he doesn’t seem to understand a basic difference – the TRS had a clear purpose – the formation of a Telangana State. The name change to BRS has no single purpose. And going by his utterances, it looks like the purpose of the BRS is to drastically reduce the powers of the central government. KCR’s “national” party will be a non-starter. He has a bigger problem to resolve first – the rise of the BJP as his main contender for the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections. Everything else can wait.

KCR and his national ambitions: How and why he thinks he is showing the way

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

“We need to increase the average speed of our trucks and trains, therefore we need a new constitution.” 

Thus, enlightened KCR in one of his press monologues on why there is a need for him to enter the national political scene. If you are baffled at reading this, then all I can say is welcome to the club! You cannot help but wonder with what seriousness should one take a leader, who is aspiring a “national role” and links the travelling speed of our trucks and trains to amending the Constitution of India?

KCR’s national political dream is not a new one. He began talking about this in early 2018 with the main point that both the Congress and BJP have failed in governing the country.  We got a first peek into his thought process when he addressed his party cadre, who came to congratulate him for talking about a national role. He asked them why we can’t change our constitution and rules so that we also progress like how China and Singapore did. He proceeded to give examples on why these parties destroyed the country. Examples that he has been repeatedly citing ever since. 

Foremost amongst the examples is Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). KCR claims that the central government has no job laying the roads in the villages because it is only the state government that can understand the actual need of the villages (Listen at 14:04 to his disparaging remarks on this in Hindi). He even questioned the need for a scheme like MNREGA where the centre directly gives money to the beneficiary in the village, bypassing the state government. He questions the need for central government to have hospitals and education institutes. Perhaps you are baffled again and also thinking that I am interpreting his speech wrong. Unfortunately not. Also, these are not one-time utterances that you would tend to ignore. He has cited these examples many times afterwards too, assuming that these are bolstering his case for an alternative national party. 

At the time KCR was making this inaugural speech of his national ambitions, most of the problems related to electricity were resolved in the country. 24*7 electricity had become a norm by then. But mysteriously, KCR told us that the centre should focus on providing electricity to the entire country instead of building roads in the villages! At that point of time, he said that the time has come for a Federal Front that isn’t reliant upon the Congress or the BJP. Later, he went about meeting leaders like Stalin, Mamata Banerjee, H.D.Kumaraswamy etc, but nothing concrete ever came out of any meeting. While his massive victory in 2018 bolstered his resolve, the 2019 Lok Sabha election results put a brake to all of these ambitions of KCR (and many such leaders). 

In addition to the setback in the 2019 Parliament elections; the subsequent losses in 2 bye-elections and the GHMC election made KCR put these plans in the backburner. In early 2021, KCR gave very strong indications that he will be making his son KTR as the Chief Minister. Everyone assumed that KCR will move on to fulfil his dream of a national role. However, nothing of such sort happened at that point of time (probably because of a severe backlash from various party leaders). 

With BJP growing stronger in his own backyard, he fell back on the same plan that almost every regional party employed – hire Prashant Kishor! His increased vitriol (it isn’t criticism anymore) on BJP set the stage again for a resurgence of his national political idea. In addition to the many reasons he was offering earlier, he now announced that the time has come to rewrite India’s Constitution. Whilst people were ready to listen what suggestions he has to offer for the same, he came up with the weirdest explanations and justifications to support his demand! 

You must now be thinking that surely, these cannot be the only reasons for him to announce a national role for himself. KCR’s contention is that when he established the TRS in 2001, he faced similar kind of mocking and criticism. It took him 13 years to realise the dream of a separate state of Telangana. His current vision for the country would also require a tapasya of that nature. He contends that the reservations system currently in place in our country is not in tune with the increasing proportion of population of certain groups and this is because of a flawed Constitution we have in place. He says that the time has now come to strip central government of its many powers (and therefore his attacks on programs like MNREGA and PMGSY). 

Next, he contends that today the country is simply following what Telangana is implementing. KCR and TRS are on the forefront of a campaign that says Modi is basically copying the schemes of Telangana and implementing them nationwide. To bolster this claim, they cite that the Jal Jeevan Mission is merely an extension of Telangana’s “Mission Bhagiratha”; the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi is merely an extension of Telangana’s Rythu Bandhu; the revival of 75 lakes in each district is merely an extension of Telangana’s Mission Kakateeya; and even the recent announcement of filling up of 10 lakh vacancies in central government came after KCR’s announcement of filling up of 1 lakh vacancies in Telangana. 

So, in KCR’s mind, he is the one showing direction to the country and not Modi, BJP or the Congress. He’s led the TRS cadre to believe that he is the true national leader of this country. Hence, we now have flexis come up in some cities across the country announcing the arrival of “Desh ki Neta” KCR. The logical next step from the “Desh ki Neta” is to “tour” the country – where he takes his own sweet time to meet a handful leaders spread over multiple days. The “Desh ki Neta” is now busy leaking his next steps to the press – latest being that he will rename the TRS to BRS – Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi and that he will be the National president of the party while continue to be the Chief Minister (though it is his son who is anyway running the show). 

He (and PK) seems to be missing the moot point – how does anyone trust KCR? His U-turns on issues and people are now legendary. His vitriol, especially on the BJP and its leaders, has isolated him from a lot of apolitical folks in the state. His lies resonate only with the cadre of the TRS. Till date there has not been a single show of support to KCR from anyone outside of the TRS party. He went city-hopping meeting CMs and Opposition leaders but not a single one of them expressed a whole-hearted support to KCR for any of his plans. As recently as last week, he didn’t attend a meeting of 17 parties who were discussing about the upcoming Presidential election. And most importantly, are the issues he is bringing up really the burning issues for the populace? For example, will he contest elections by saying that he will stop constructing roads and MNREGA? How does he intend to connect to the population with such a directionless agenda in mind? Time will only tell the scale of the failure of this experiment of KCR.  

Game. Set. Match. Federer!

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

The Telugu headline in the image below, on the day Federer retired, traces its origin to lyrics of a composition of Shri Thyagaraja in the 18^th century.  It roughly translates to “Can we ever see such beauty/elegance...”. The rough translation does not render any justice to the elegance of how the original line is pronounced/delivered and the context with which it has been used for Federer 😊.

The closest any English headline came to describe what crores of people go through while watching Federer play came from the New York Times, way back in 2006.

That the followers of this religious experience continued to grow manifold for the next 16 years after the article was written is simply a testimony to how Roger Federer has been an integral part of the lives of countless millions of people in the world. If one were to be asked as to what specific aspect of Federer’s game and persona makes it a religious experience watching him play, I bet there will not be a singular answer for it.

Is it because he doesn’t overtly show his emotion during the course of the game? Or is it because he’s shown us that he’s afterall human, when he lost to Nadal in that dreadful 2009 Australian Open final? Is it the because only he could script one of the greatest comebacks in sport, when he won 3 slams in 2017 and 2018? Or is it something beyond just the winning and losing? Is it because of the shots that defied logic? Or is it because of THAT backhand? Is it because of the constants in his game – his stride, his serve, his innovation, his wife? Or is it just because Federer has been a constant for us at the highest level of the game for so many years?

A lot has been written about the 20 Grand Slams he won and the total 31 finals he has played. A lot has not been written about the 46 semi-finals and 58 Quarterfinals he has reached at the Grand Slams – an unparalleled record that may perhaps never be broken. From his 2004 victory at the Wimbledon till his Quarterfinal defeat at the 2013 French Open, Federer was the only constant up until the Quarterfinals (More often than not, up until the Semi-finals!).  To give you a better context, from the time he won his first Wimbledon in 2003, Federer has reached the top 8 of Grand Slam tournaments (most difficult ones in Tennis) a whopping 88% of the time; and top 4 a whopping 73% of the time; and the top 2 a whopping 50% of the time.

Have you ever wondered as to how it is even possible to maintain such remarkable consistency? His records at other tournaments and his record streak as the World number 1 are ofcourse yet another proof of his constant presence in the tennis top echelons. What kind of discipline, determination, and talent is needed to sustain so well for so long at the top of such a competitive sport? The story of Roger Federer as a religious experience lies in this remarkable consistency. And it is the story we should all perhaps imbibe – just be consistent at what you do.

The first of the big three (Federer, Nadal and Djokovic) has hung up his boots.  Nadal’s injuries don’t show us a rosy picture of how much more he will be able to compete. The retirement has left a void in how we will experience tennis from now on. Countless of us yearned to hold the racquet like him, stand in a receiving position like him, hit a forehand like him; and try THAT backhand to understand how he does it!

“Game. Set. Match. Federer” is now history. Thank you, Roger Federer!  

PS: I found this writing by SPORTSTAR to be very exquisite.

Why does KCR need Owaisi’s permission to celebrate 17th September as Telangana Liberation Day, the day the murderous Razakars were ousted

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

In his avatar as an agitator and activist for a separate state of Telangana, KCR was very vocal about wanting to commemorate 17^th September as an official event of the state government. He wanted the government to call it as “Telangana Independence Day”. He thundered and (logically) questioned that if Maharashtra and Karnataka have been commemorating this event as independence days, why should the then AP government also not do it? He thundered – Afterall, the capital of the then Hyderabad state is Hyderabad city; large portion of the then Hyderabad state (that included current day Telangana, parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra) lies in the Telangana region now. He thundered - if necessary, I will bring down the (then) Congress government in the state if they don’t commemorate 17^th September. The method of delivery of this speech, the strong tone in the emotion with which KCR delivered his speeches on this topic made everyone believe that he will prioritize this event as soon as he comes to power.

Once KCR came to power in June 2014, everyone in the state waited for September 17^th of that year to remember the gory, ghastly and deadly events leading to September 1948. KCR didn’t do anything that year. When questioned about this in 2015, he went bombastic on those who asked him that question. He now thundered – “Someone wants to call this as “liberation day”. Someone wants to call this as an “integration day”. Whichever party wants to commemorate it in whichever manner, they can do so in their party offices. June 2^nd is when the state of Telangana is formed and we will celebrate that day in a grand manner.”

In September 2019, KCR stood up in the Assembly and thundered once again. “What difference does it make if we commemorate 17^th September or don’t? Will the country drown if we don’t commemorate?” He went on to repeat his 2015 statement on different people wanting to call this differently. And then he went on to explain that while he didn’t forget his original demand, it was only after he came to power in the year 2014 that he made aware of the various circumstances and incidents during that period. KCR told us that the 2–4-year period after the September 1948 was also a very dark period for Telangana, and therefore he decided that there is no point in raking up old happenings because everything in fine now. Yet again, the method of his delivery of this speech, the soothing tone with which KCR delivered this speech made everyone believe that this topic has now been laid to rest by him.

On September 3^rd, 2022 the Government of India announced that it will be officially commemorating September 17^th as Hyderabad Liberation Day. The Chief Ministers of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana were also sent invites for the program. A few hours after this announcement came, the Telangana government announced that it will commemorating 17^th September as “National Integration Day” because it was the day on which the Telangana society entered into a democracy from an autocracy. From demanding a commemoration to dissing those who reminded him about to actually deciding to commemorate it – the circle was now completed by KCR!

While folks were trying to make sense of the latest U-turn by KCR, came a tweet from AIMIM President, Akbaruddin Owaisi, that cleared the confusion once and for all.  

Basically, Owaisi had to give his permission to the Telangana government to commemorate this day. And then he also boasted that it took the government only 1 hour to accept his “recommendation”. This very clearly demonstrates the hold the Owaisi family has on the government. All these years, it looks like KCR only waited for this permission from the MIM to fulfil his own demand! This was the same allegation that the BJP had been making for nearly 25 years – that the previous governments were not commemorating this day out of fear for what the MIM will think. The MIM’s nod is very necessary for even any development work to happen in the Old City of Hyderabad. The Owaisi brothers have themselves confirmed this on multiple occasions that it doesn’t matter which party the CM belongs to; they all will have to toe the line of MIM only. The Sr. Owaisi even claimed the steering of the car (referring to TRS’s symbol) is in MIM’s hand.

It will be pertinent to ask why MIM’s permission is needed to commemorate this event. Because the murderous Razakar “army” was nothing but a militant wing of the MIM party. There are 100s of untold stories of the murderous atrocities committed by the MIM-Razakar combination. After the Indian Army successfully completed Operation Polo, that liberated Hyderabad state from the tyranny of the Nizam, their leader Qasim Rizvi was arrested in 1948. He was released in 1956. Before migrating to Pakistan upon his release, he handed over the reigns of MIM to Abdul Wahed Owaisi. The current President of the AIMIM, Asaduddin Owaisi, is the grandson of Abdul Wahed Owaisi. The other grandson, Akbaruddin Owaisi has embodied well the original DNA of MIM (and is famous for his remarks that “If they are given 15 minutes, they will wipe out the 100 crore Hindus of the country”.)

It is now quite obvious that why MIM does not want us to remember the events that led to September 1948. It is also quite obvious from Owaisi’s letter to the Government of India that he wants to focus only on the Sunderlal Committee report that focussed on the situation in Hyderabad after the liberation was done. This selective reading and propagating of history are what the people have been continuously objecting to, from many years. With such a murderous history, how is it that the MIM party gets to decide what we the people should know and what we should not?

Why did KCR, who thundered when out of power, have to wait for a permission from MIM to commemorate the “journey from autocracy to democracy”? Why did it take an initiative from the Government of India for MIM to give permission to the Telangana government? These are important questions that will need to be discussed when talking about the importance of 17^th September. India’s Home Minister hoisted the flag on September 17^th, 1948. It took 74 years after that for India’s Home Minister to do the same. It is high time indeed that we know more about our history.

The legacy of CJI Ramana: Frequent preachy speeches and why it did not achieve what he wanted – bring Judiciary closer to the people

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

Recently, Justice N.V.Ramana had retired as the Chief Justice of India after 16 months in tenure. The English media, that celebrated his multitude of preachy speeches during his tenure, was suddenly very unhappy with his tenure. Working in great tandem, all of them wrote articles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)  repeating only one argument – that he resorted to “judicial evasion” by keeping 6 Constitutional cases pending during his tenure.

I was dismayed reading all these articles. Dismayed not because all of them highlighted the same point; but dismayed because they all were highlighting the least of his failures! CJI N.V. Ramana was definitely a vocal judge occupying the media space quite frequently. The reason he was in the news fairly regularly was because he gave speeches on various topics, almost every weekend. In his farewell speech, he mentions that this frequency was a conscious choice. Why? Because he wanted to bring the courts closer to the people.

Now, that’s a baffling argument to make. Why would mere speeches from the Chief Justice of India (that more often sounded like sermons to everyone in the society) bring the courts closer to the people? He is perhaps the only Judge on record to give a free sermon to almost every institution every section of the society in the country. Except, ofcourse, the Judiciary! Why would his views on how media should function bring courts closer to people? Why would his complaints on the executive and legislature bring courts closer to people? Why would his lament that people of our country cannot afford courts bring courts closer to people? Why would his opinion on investigative agencies like the CBI, bring courts closer to people?

You may now be tempted to ask – but what is it that brings Courts closer to the people? For starters, it will help if Courts start delivering judgments and documentation in regional languages. This is not my intellectual idea that I am flaunting here. According to our very own Justice N.V. Ramana – “I am receiving many representations for introducing local languages in proceedings before high courts”. The next obvious question is what has the mighty and powerful Chief Justice of India done about this? Nothing. As with almost everything, he has only offered his opinion and advice on this matter – “I think the time has come now to revisit the demand and take it to a logical conclusion.” What exactly does he mean by saying “revisit the demand”? If he received “many representations”, then why exactly couldn’t he do anything on this?  Doesn’t the CJI has enough powers to atleast make a beginning on this front? Aren’t you as baffled as I am?

In his farewell speech, he lamented that he could not solve the problem of listing of cases in the Supreme Court. Surely, another thing that can bring courts closer to people. It really begs the question – how can the mighty Chief Justice of India not solve things that he is fully empowered to do? If he is not able to solve matters right under his nose, then what right does it give him to sermonise everyone else in the society?

Do you know what else will bring courts closer to the people? “Modernisation of judicial infrastructure as a means for providing access to justice”. Again, not my intellectual idea. He said it. And do you want to know what he did to solve it? In his own words, he “pushed” for it. How did he “push” for it? By proposing a “National Judicial Infrastructure Authority”! In March 2021, the CJI has made a proposal to the GoI. In April 2022, this topic was discussed at the meeting of all the CMs and CJIs of the states and no consensus was reached.  The reference to infrastructure is very basic here – not enough complexes have separate toilets for ladies (only 74% of court complexes have them!). It really beats me – since 2014, nearly 5000 crores has been released by the GoI to the states for infrastructure related works. The state governments also release money for such infrastructure. Can we really not build separate toilets in our court complexes with this kind of money?

One of the important reasons why Courts aren’t perceived to be closer to people is the huge pendency of cases in the courts! And one of the important driving factors behind this pendency is the vacancies in Judiciary. It is here that Justice N.V. Ramana has definitely made a long-lasting impact on the Judiciary. The collegium headed by him was able to clear the appointment of 11 new SC judges and 224 new High Court Judges! These are excellent numbers and Justice N.V. Ramana must be complimented for working closely with the government to close these vacancies, atleast in the Supreme Courts and High Courts (he cannot do much about vacancies in the lower courts though, it’s a fact).

But then he also tells us – “I also tried to highlight the difference between the arrears and backlogs to put things in perspective.” Yes sir, for the lakhs of people waiting for their pending cases to close, explaining the difference between arrears and backlogs will come as a huge relief! The problem of Judicial vacancies is being monitored by the Supreme Court itself, since 2018, but we are yet to know of progress (or the lack of it) every since.

In his speeches meant to being the courts closer to the people, Justice N.V.Ramana has also focussed exclusively on defending the Judiciary and the ways it functions. He sought to lay the blame of delayed Justice itself at the doors of the executive and the legislature; he repeatedly told us how hard the life of a Judge is and how people don’t understand the sacrifices the Judges make in their family lives. Yes, the violent attacks on some Judges are a matter of concern that needs to be addressed.  But for the crores of people in our country, who make countless sacrifices in their lives, it really doesn’t prick their conscience that Judges also make certain sacrifices.

His lament on the disproportionately high costs of working with the courts is yet another thing on which nothing has been done.  The legal fees for continuous representation are so high that the undertrials languish in jails for months and years together. You find out that the Judiciary itself called this as a “crying shame on the judicial system”, way back in 1978! 

Justice N.V. Ramana hasn’t delivered all these speeches as an individual. He delivered them as the Chief Justice of India. His sermons on what needs to change in Judiciary can only become a reality when the Judiciary feels the exact pressure that our executive and legislative wings feel every 5 years. The Judiciary needs to adopt self-correcting measures on the same line that the executive and legislative wings have done over the years.

Popular uprisings, meaningful debates, social/mainstream media pressure, adaptability to change – these are some of the things that led to both the executive and legislature make far reaching changes in how they function. We don’t need verbose judgments or rhetorical speeches. We need speedier justice and if the learned Judiciary can’t do what it takes to ensure it, then it is just a matter of time before some of these things will make the Judiciary do it. Is the learned Judiciary really waiting for these to happen?

 

How ‘The Hindu’ co-opted Mikhail Gorbachev’s death to attack the Modi government and India

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

Mikhail Gorbachev passed away on August 30^th, 2022. Ever since, I was eagerly waiting for the Indian media to take this opportunity to criticise the Modi government. After 8 full days, The Hindu went a step further and utilised this opportunity to criticise the people of India themselves! Today (September 6^th), The Hindu published a staggering opinion article in their editorial page, titled “Gorbachev, Macro-economics, and Gandhi”.

I would like to draw your attention to the text in the sub-title below the headline. “Concepts of free trade, financial freedom, and privatisation are not the right solutions for India’s citizens”

I am sure you have re-read the line again to make sure what you are reading is actually what has been printed. For a moment, let’s put aside the acutely insulting, preachy and condescending tone of the author (and the editor who allowed this). Have you ever heard before that “financial freedom” is actually a bad thing? Why would someone not want their fellow citizens to have “financial freedom”? Why would someone object to the concept of “free trade” that will make fellow citizens prosperous and therefore financially independent?

The answers to these questions lay in the bio of the author, published at the end of the piece. The author, Arun Maria, was appointed as member of Planning Commission in the year 2009 (by Sonia Gandhi led UPA). The mind boggles at the quality of people who have been put in high positions by Sonia Gandhi’s party. Positions from which people like Arun Maria actually decide what is the “right solution for India’s citizens”.

Arun Maria also claims in this article that he was part of a group that went to Russia in 1989 to explain the “Indian model” to Gorbachev because he wanted that advise from Rajiv Gandhi. Not only does Arun Maria rue that the “Washington economics model” won over the “Indian Model” in Russia then, he is very dejected that “it also reached India’s shores in 1991.” Clearly, Arun Maria was prone to regressive thinking from a very long time.

Arun Maria jumps from topic to topic in his article and more often than not, the topics are all not even linked to the headline in the first place! We are told that there has been “shift in balance from democracy to capitalism in the last 30 years” in the world itself.  I believe we need some extra-terrestrial intelligence to decode this statement. He writes about how his definition of capitalism has wreaked havoc in the entire world today (remember the article was supposed to be about Gorbachev!); of how meaningful property rights have increased a divide in the world; and of how capitalism created, wait for it, climate change!

But what is Arun Maria’s solution for all these devastating problems that the world is currently undergoing? Apparently, it is “Gandhi’s ethical economics?

 

Intellectual fraudsters often think that using fancy terms such as these will cover up all the lofty and empty arguments that emanate from their pen. “Gandhi’s ethical economics” is one such term that no one has heard before and therefore no one will understand now. Arun Maria seeks to explain this term in the weirdest manner possible.

He tells us that “India’s policymakers seem obsessed with increasing the size of the economy.” I must say that I heaved a sigh of relief after this line, because now everything falls into place! The author had to somehow link India’s recent achievement of becoming the 5^th largest economy to a doomsday scenario. That he chose Gorbachev’s death to do this speaks volumes about the vacuousness in his cranium (I used cranium instead of brain to sound like an intellectual!).

We are told that “The shape of an economy matters more than its size for human well-being.” By now, I have given up on trying to decode what he meant to convey with phrases like “shape of an economy”. The article now predictably ends with a recommendation to follow “Mahatma Gandhi’s calculus”, whatever that means!

The author (and the editor) uses a lot of irrelevant data to make us feel that this is an intellectual piece. Once you separate the alleged intellectual chaff and realise what the undertone of this article is, you are bound to get very angry. Angry that they actually want Indians to remain poor; angry that they do not want Indians to prosper; Angry that such regressive thinkers were part of decision-making bodies in India; angry that they continue to propagate such regressive thinking, years after their leaders have been booted out of power by Indians.

Congress Party’s Attempts to Obfuscate Facts and Whitewash the Horrors of the Partition

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

On August 14th, 2022 the Communications in charge of the mighty Congress party, Jairam Ramesh went on a tweet spree. The topic he chose for that was the horrors of partition. However, as is the wont of the Congress party and its members, they chose this issue to yet again criticize the Modi government! Jairam Ramesh starts his thread by telling us that “Lakhs upon lakhs were dislocated and lost their lives. Their sacrifices must not be forgotten or disrespected.”

The first question that came to my mind when I read this tweet was what did the Congress party actually do to ensure “Their sacrifices must not be forgotten”? I know that our history textbooks don’t delve into any meaningful detail on the horrors of partition. I tried searching if the Congress party ever commemorated the event so that the sacrifices are remembered – a total of zero search results came up. I tried searching for articles, by Congress luminaries, that tells us in detail how “lakhs upon lakhs were dislocated and lost their lives”. A total of zero search results came up.

The Congress party and its whole media ecosystem are ever ready to capitalize even on the death of a single person in the country for their benefit, but they never thought it prudent to have voluminous material prepared for “the most traumatic historical events”?

Jairam Ramesh then goes on to emphatically claim that “The truth is Savarkar originated 2 nation theory and Jinnah went on to perfect it”.

You would really expect that Jairam Ramesh will come up with some solid proof of such an emphatic “truth”. He does nothing of that sort. I again searched for literature and material to see if there is any “truth” in this. Shashi Tharoor’s emphatic statement declaring so came up in the search results. A little more digging and the real truth were explained in detail in this fact-finding article here! So, it turns out that Jairam Ramesh was relying on Shashi Tharoor who was relying on a false thesis submitted somewhere in London! Does it really take a genius to understand the role of Mohammed Ali Jinnah in the murderous partition of India?

Jairam Ramesh is not happy with the damage he has done so far. He continues with his chatter.   

What exactly is Jairam Ramesh wanting to say here? That he and his party were actually contemplating that the entire Bengal is given away to Pakistan? That we wouldn’t even have had today’s West Bengal in India if it was not for Syama Prasad Mukherjee? If so, isn’t that one of the great things that Syama Prasad Mukherjee has accomplished? Is the Congress party really that sad that West Bengal stayed with India? Am even baffled as to how the media let go of this unbridled blabber by the Communications in charge of the mighty Congress party.

You would now expect that by now Jairam Ramesh found his marbles and will stop. He disappoints you here. He is not finished yet.  

He now equates the murderous partition of 1947 to the present-day situation. He emphatically claims that the INC will “uphold the legacy” of those “who were untiring in their efforts to unite the nation”. My mind immediately went back to the first tweet in this thread in which Jairam Ramesh claimed that the “sacrifices must not be forgotten or disrespected”. Just like how the Congress party did nothing to ensure the sacrifices are not forgotten, the Congress party will also make sure that they will do nothing to “uphold the legacy” of those they claim to represent!

It is really a shame that such a murderous event in the history of our country has been relegated to a mere footnote for nearly 70 years after it happened. Contrary to what it claims now, the Congress party put in every effort to make sure that the murderous event remained a footnote. And today when the Prime Minister of India wants the nation to know more about the horror that was unleashed on the country in 1947, the Congress party thinks this amounts to “disrespect”! The only thing disrespectful about this whole episode is the manner in which the Congress has sought to undermine the event and those who actually spearheaded it.