Tag Politics
Farmer Protests
I have been following the farmer protest for weeks now, but did not pen down anything because I am not one to form opinions on such complex issues without first understanding the different facets of them—I am not that loudest Bollywood actor after all. I have a day job, and my weekends are busy with chores, virtual socialising (which includes reading WhatsApp messages), hobby coding, and experiments in the kitchen. I take my time to understand issues and form lasting opinions about them.
What Justice
The number of Bollywood stars to die in three months was abnormally high in the second quarter of this year. Death of any human is sad. The circumstances of the death of Sushant Singh Rajput were salt to the wound.
I subscribe to The Hindu, and the story did not get much prominence. I wondered why, because the news of the death of Irrfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor had smacked us right in our face. The piece about Sushant’s death also carried suicide helpline numbers. My eyes narrowed. Thoughts work fast. My brain instantly took me to the Werther Effect; I had read about it. I searched. And I found the WHO guidelines on reporting suicide1, whose Quick Reference reads:
Janata Curfew
Some of us defeated the whole purpose of the Janata Curfew today. At five this evening, we hear the sounds of clapping and the shankh-dhvani and people clanging plates and all of that. We look out of one of our windows and see about ten people fist-bumping, high-fiving and shaking hands. The last part was disappointing.
Is the JNU protest justified
Despite hating to say it, it started with WhatsApp University. WhatsApp University is a term used for all of those streams of knowledge tidbits that you get from WhatsApp, that replace your beliefs, your thoughts, your rationale with what’s now popular belief. There is a massive engine that drives this, and this engine includes people with the ability to write posts like this on their phones. This is amplified by people who have all the time in the world to forward them to the masses. These masses gain fresh knowledge of the world through the lens of these forwards.
Kashmir and Article 370: Part Three
In the last two posts, we understood the technical aspects of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. To repeat for the benefit of those who landed here directly, this is the third part of the three-part series on the Act. Part One of the series is about the background of the formation of the Union of India and accession of Jammu and Kashmir to it. Part Two of the series is about the current situation, along with the legal and geo-political view of the change.
Kashmir and Article 370: Part Two
This is the second part of the three-part series on the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. If you came here directly, this post alone will not do justice to the situation. Go back and read Part One. Reading the series partially will make you judgemental with limited knowledge. This article is available as a typeset printable PDF as well.
Kashmir and Article 370: Part One
We heard a lot of noise throughout the last week over the abrogation of Article 370 (and subsequently, Article 35A). Everyone kept saying: Article 370 is “no longer valid” in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Why, Jammu and Kashmir was no more a state! But then, as with all noises, this noise added to the confusion in our minds. And before we go any further, let me say in simple English, what Article 370 and Article 35A are. Easy one-line statement, you think?
Are Government Freebies Bad
Ever since the word, “Socialist”, got added to the Preamble of our constitution—or perhaps much before that—political parties, in their manifestos, have continued to promise freebies to us citizens. This is so common, that we now take the freebies and subsidies for granted.
Understand that I am not talking from a political standpoint; I am talking of politics, but not from a political standpoint. Take this post in the sense of an economy and its members, which is us; everyone of us. And I will keep this short.
Where democracy should begin
Education is perhaps the most powerful weapon in the world. Education, starting from our childhood, shapes our thoughts, actions, interactions, and overall, our lives. Not only are our perceptions based on the learnings of our past, but our assimilation of new learnings depends strongly on the basis created by our experiences and past learnings.
Surgical Strike 2.0
I am an ordinary citizen. And as an ordinary citizen of a country that hates terror attacks, and personally holding the same stand as my country, I was upset and immensely angry on the 14th of February 2019, when forty CRPF jawans got killed in a terror attack. The terror outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for the strike. I was upset that India’s September 2016 strike on terror camps in Pakistan hadn’t borne fruit—that the terrorists hadn’t received the message the right way. The first thought that crossed my mind was the wish that our intelligence find Masood Azhar and our defence castrate him in public, after which, any citizen who liked to kick him in the gut, was allowed to.