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Showing posts from 2016

The Nationalism Charade

"Jingoism, racism, fear, religious fundamentalism: these are the ways of appealing to people if you’re trying to organize a mass base of support for policies that are really intended to crush them." - Noam Chomsky When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. At the end of its half term, the Narendra Modi Government may be still cruising steadily in perception, but in reality the people of India have lost faith in this Government. Rapid signs of disillusionment are being witnessed on ground, in conversations with people and in the nature of the discourse. To its credit (or discredit), the Bharatiya Janata Party is aggressively fighting this perception battle with 3 M’s – the management of the media, the management of events and the management of opinion. The economy is in crises, foreign policy is confusing, reforms are stagnant and governance is diminishing. Devoid of any ideas, to keep the momentum of perception, the BJP has now adopted ‘Nationalism’ as the

Why BJP is digging its own grave by raking up the Agusta Westland Deal

A heated debate took place in the Rajya Sabha on the alleged corruption and irregularities in the VVIP Chopper Deal (Agusta Westland Deal) between the treasury benches and the opposition. Many important points were made in the Parliament by various members, especially from the opposition benches. Congress leaders laid out authenticated facts, while the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar read out a 45 minute long written statement which looked as if it was a monologue with no concrete answers to the ‘Short Duration Debate’ at hand where various members across party lines had raised concerns ranging from National Security to Defence Procurement Policy to the inability of the present Modi Government to nail down any one in the bribery deal. Many opposition parties and BJP allies cautioned the Government and the BJP to exercise restraint and take action against the culprits in the scam rather than just ranting against the Congress party. Sharad Yadav from the JD (U) used a