THREAD on how economically Muslims maybe poorer (the state is overall also not as rich) in #Bengal but have relatively got socio-political empowerment (part of Threads I am writing for the understanding of Bengal politics in the context of upcoming assembly election):

1/20

The socio-economic status of Muslims in the state is far behind other communities as the Sachar Committee Report (2006) and Pratichi-SNAP’s “Living Reality of Muslims in West Bengal” (2016) attest.

2/20
But it has not witnessed the rule of the BJP yet although the founder of the predecessor of the saffron party, Bharatiya Jan-Sangh, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was himself a Bengali.

3/20
During both the Congress and the Left Front rule earlier, and now under TMC Muslims did get some leverage although political marginalization even at block level had continued.

4/20
Across India, the last two general elections, and even the recent Bihar assembly elections, have resulted in the further marginalization of Muslims.

5/20
In contrast, the representations of Muslims in Bengal have improved numerically, even though marginally – and often symbolically. Although it is still nowhere close to proportional representation in the state where more than 27 % of the population are Muslims.

6/20
From 46 MLAs in 2006, the number increased to 59 in 2011 when Banerjee became the chief minister for the first time, with 25 MLAs from TMC alone. In 2016, the total number remained the same, but TMC's tally went up to 32.

7/20
In the current Lok Sabha, there are 6 Muslim MPs (2 less than last time) - 5 from ruling TMC.

8/20
But more importantly, it is at the panchayat and block level where besides political representatives, you have several party representatives in Muslim majority blocks/villages which give them a sense of power and political empowerment.

9/20
Like RJD, TMC is not afraid to publicly acknowledge its pro-Muslim stances on several issues even at the cost of being accused from left to right of indulging in “appeasement” politics.

10/20
Although Didi has become guarded in public appearances, she has kept the Minority Affairs portfolio with her, and her government did extend many welfare schemes to the Muslims, from putting maximum Muslim communities of the state in the OBC-A category.

11/
In the last couple of years, we have seen small scale communal riots like Dhulagarh (my @DailyO_ article: https://t.co/XFeI00IN2X) and Basirhat (https://t.co/Ci4yttAotq).

12/20
There has been increasing communal rhetoric on social media, particularly in the run-up to the 2019 elections and afterward, but Muslims still feel more empowered here politically to respond in contrast to the BJP ruled states.

13/20
Of course, not everything is honky dowry for TMC. Although numerically numbers of MLA have increased, there is practically no Bengali Muslim face in the party, except Firhad Hakim whose area of influence is mainly in parts of Kolkata, who has mass appeal.

14/20
There is increasing frustration not just among the common voters, but also among TMC cadres, who feel sidelined, practically now that the electoral campaign is directly being managed by Prashant Kishore’s team.

15/20
That is, there are several anti-incumbency grievances against Banerjee’s government, from discrimination in jobs to not doing enough for the community.

16/20
But still, you will hardly find any Muslim who will compare the situations in Bengal with any north-Indian states even though the majority of them still live-in abject poverty and lakhs migrate from Kerala to Punjab in search of better opportunities.

17/20
Put simply, in Bengal, in local blocks and panchayats, Muslims have not seen the kind of hostility and suppression that Muslims in BJP ruled states might have been subjected to.

18/20
Consequently, Muslims may have several grievances, but it has not accentuated to the extent of “teaching” lessons to TMC. Besides, in some pockets, particularly in Muslim-dominated Malda-Murshidabad region Congress still has a strong base (and thus offers an alternative).

19/20
That's it for today, soon I will cover why and how Bengal is not yet ready fully for identity-based politics, although there is some clamour already.

20/20
@threadreaderapp unroll

More from Economy

1/ Trend Factor: Any Economic Gains from Using Information over Investment Horizons? (Han, Zhou, Zhu)

"A trend factor using multiple time lengths outperforms ST reversal, momentum, and LT reversal, which are based on the three price trends separately."

https://t.co/udkvsdw2Lz


2/ This resembles combining multiple measures of ST reversal, momentum, and LT reversal (forecasts determined by walking forward rather than using signs from the full sample).

Unlike normal moving average signals, these are *cross-sectional.* More below:
https://t.co/wkIFLg9jtK


3/ Unsurprisingly, the Trend factor formed by this approach outperforms benchmarks in terms of both Sharpe ratio and tail metrics. It's combining momentum with two factors that are negatively correlated to it AND using multiple specifications.

More here:
https://t.co/x8Tloz3iyL


4/ "Average return and volatility of the trend factor are both higher in recession periods. However, the Sharpe ratio is virtually the same.

"Interestingly, all of the factors still have positive average returns.

"Momentum experiences the greatest increase in volatility."


5/ "In terms of maximum drawdown and the Calmar ratio, the trend factor performs the best.

"The trend factor is correlated with the short-term reversal factor (35%), long-term reversal factor (14%), and the market (20%) but is virtually uncorrelated with the momentum factor."
What do a Tory Peer, Selwyn Gummer (Lord Chadlington), David Sumner ( Sumner Group Holdings) and the Sanchez Perez family (drugs money, laundered through Gold mines) have in common?

It’s another company-saving a £50 million PPE contract shaggy dog story

Connections, connections


What a start to the story

“A bulletproof truck trundled down the road in downtown Lima, guarded by 18 policeman
They were wearing body armour & wielding high velocity rifles

No-one was taking any chances
This was a Special delivery for Peruvian Prosecutor for an anti drug trial


That was in 2011, the same year that Lord Chadlington’s daughter got married in Chadlington to Henry Allsopp.

Who was there?
Yes Kirstie Allsopp of Location, location, location and all this Covid nonsense fame) is his sister

Camilla, his Godmother

Jeremy Hunt

Cameron


Well. Come on. Lord Chadlington had been chair of the local Witney Conservative Association. It’s only fair.

Hang on. Julian Wheatland, Director of SCL Group/ Cambridge Analytica had also been chair of Witney Conservative Association...and campaigned for his mate Cameron

Are we sure Julian Wheatland and his side kick Alexander Nix were not there too @JolyonMaugham ?

I mean. They move in the same North Oxford circles.
The argument for deficits & debt raising interest rates in the US is not increased credit risk, it is that interest rates are a function of economic fundamentals, flows & policy. Deficits/debt change those.

I can't tell if I'm agreeing or disagreeing with @jc_econ.


Increasing government spending or reducing taxes increases demand (or reduces saving). This raises the price of loanable funds or the interest rate.

In a dynamic context, more demand means a stronger economy, the central bank raises interest rates sooner, and long rates rise.

(As an aside, we are not close to the United States needing to worry about credit risk and the risks are more overstated than understated in most other advanced economies too. But credit risk is not always & everywhere irrelevant, just look at the UK in 1976 or Canada in 1994.)

Interest rates have fallen over the last 20 yrs while debt has risen. This does not necessarily mean that debt rising causes interest rates to fall. It could also mean that other things have happened at he same time that pushed down interest rates more than debt pushed them up.

The suspects for these "other things" include slower productivity growth, slower popln growth, higher inequality, less investment, etc. All of which either increase the supply of saving or reduce the demand for investment, reducing the equilibrium interest rate.

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आइए आज जानते हैं महाभारत कथा में वर्णित कुछ श्रापों के बारे में।

1) राजा पाण्डु को ऋषि किन्दम का श्राप

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जब राजा ने उन्हें देखा तो बहुत दुखी हुए कि ये मुझसे क्या पाप हो गया।बहुत क्षमा याचना के बाद भी किन्दम ऋषि ने पाण्डु को श्राप दे दिया कि जब भी वो किसी स्त्री को काम भावना से स्पर्श करेंगे उसी क्षण उनकी मृत्यु हो जाएगी।पश्चाताप करने, वे सिंहासन पे अन्धे राजा धृतराष्ट्र को बैठाकर...


..स्वयं अपनी रानियों कुंती व माद्री के साथ वन चले गए।पांडवों का जन्म भी कुंती को ऋषि दुर्वासा द्वारा दिए गए मंत्र से हुआ था जिसमे किसी भी देव का स्मरण कर उस देव से कुंती,पुत्र प्राप्त कर सकती थी।एक बार माद्री पे मोहित हो जब पांडु ने उसे स्पर्श किया,उसी क्षण पांडु की मृत्यु होगयी।


2) उर्वशी का अर्जुन को श्राप

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