1. There are exceptions to every rule, but I don't think even those who hate Rahul Gandhi or the dynasty react so viscerally to them as those who hate Modi, especially the Lutyens cabal, only because Modi treats most of them like they don't exist. The Lutyens ecosystem is rattled

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In a BBC program, Indian author Arundhati Roy commented that "..the Muslim community in India has been ghettoized..."

Let's take a look at her claim if it's true or not.
Thread:

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All across Gujarat, in all major cities and in several towns, Muslims are deliberately forced into ghettos through a law called the Gujarat Disturbed Areas Act.

The law requires citizens in particular parts of cities to seek permission from the government before..

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..selling their property or changing their tenant and filters them by religion.
Gujarat's state govt extended the law across the state, to keep Muslims out of other neighborhoods than those traditionally Muslim. It criminalizes attempts to integrate, permanently..

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separating Muslims from Hindus. and it is being expanded through the addition of more geographical areas and placing more restrictions on Muslims and creating more hurdles to their leaving their ghettoes.

Every three years, on 30 June, the law has been renewed..

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..for another three years. The tenth time will come on 30 June 2021.
The act is currently in force in large parts of the state’s three largest cities, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, and Surat, and also in Bharuch, Kapadvanj, Anand and Godhra.

Most elite Indians (primarily savarna white collar urban english medium educated folks like me) land on Western shores convinced that we are just as advanced and developed as these countries as a people. It's just "corruption" in India holding us back. Then reality hits. /1

We see that the West works better on a daily level, but not because of some mythical genetic or societal immunity to this mythical "corruption" villain. Cos there is corruption in Western politics too. They seem to have institutions and systems built over ages to minimize it.

But most Indians who reach these shores are engineer/mba/doctor types. Trained in secondary vocational type disciplines. So our default approach is to find a quick engineering type solution. We have almost zero exposure to sociology, psychology, economics, anthropology, etc.

I remember being like that. Engineer-MBA who thought that because my vocabulary and exposition skills were above average and my quant skills were above average, I deserve a seat at the table on any discussion. Be it climate change, public health, efficacy of vaccines, etc.

For anything, I thought I knew the best. Why was this Obama fellow not trying my absolutely brilliant healthcare reform plan that I have posted on a blog with nice tables and graphs and references to IIT and IIM slang? Does he not know I'm from an IIM? <1% acceptance rate!

[FACT CHECK]

The @nytimes recently published an article about the Turkish occupation of Afrin, calling it a ‘safe zone’. The article contains several inaccuracies about the situation on the ground, outlined

The Afrin canton has seen virtually no combat during the Syrian Civil War. Religious minorities were protected under the AANES and its predecessors in this overwhelmingly Kurdish region. An estimated 316,000 internally-displaced Syrians - both Kurdish and Arab - fled to Afrin.

The invasion’s raison d'être does not hold up to scrutiny. Turkey accused the PYD/YPG forces in Afrin of launching “more than 700 attacks” against Turkish cities. However, upon further investigation, only 15 confirmed incidents of cross-border attacks from Afrin emerged.

Over half of Afrin’s majority-Kurdish population were forcefully displaced by Turkey’s invasion and prevented from returning. Around 400,000 Syrian Arabs were settled in the region. Currently, Arabs and Turkmen make up around 75% of the population…

...Together with Turkey’s erasure of the Kurdish language and culture in occupied Afrin, this amounts to a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing and a prosecutable crime against humanity.

#KnowYourHistory - 001

#AsalBharat - How Sanatan Dharma brings out heroes even Avengers may not match up with -

Today is the day when in 1923, a braveheart took birth in the home of Dr. Amarnath Sharma, an officer in the Armed Medical Corps of the then British Indian Army. He was not extremely studious, but was brilliant at sports and other physical activities.

He followed into the footsteps of his illustrious family, and joined the British Indian Army as a 2nd Lieutenant, right into the middle of World War II. Later on, he would gain name by fighting against all odds at Badgam in November 1947, getting martyred when he was only 24.

This was Major Somnath Sharma, the first recipient of India's highest gallantry award, the Param Vir Chakra. But did you know that the medal was designed by his own brother's mother in law? -

Yes, call it a twist of irony, or sheer coincidence, but the Param Vir Chakra was actually designed by the mother in law of Major Somnath Sharma's brother, whose name was Savitri Bai Khanolkar. Even more interesting is the fact she was not a Bharatiya by birth either -