BREAKING: State of Israel launches a preemptive strike against Iran; Defense Minister Israel Katz declares a special and immediate state of emergency across the entire country. - Statement
This no name handle broke to me the news of war which have since spiraled into a full regional conflict with Uncle Sam involved. Modi just came back from Israel when they stokes Iran. Deals would have been made and given the lack of commendations yet, I assume it have been a green light from our side. I know that Saam, daam, dand, bhed all are fair and I do congratulate the Indian government for painting that. Still this makes my blood boil. Wrap and wrap it all you want in layers of protests and civil rights, the main issue is the imposition of the Nuclear Appertheid. The haves have decided Revolutionary Iran is no good and must be denied the benefit for such power. India have espaced from the clutches of this Appertheid but have never supported others in doing so. Realism over idealism is my personal motto too, the government have no business standing for a nuclear Iran, but I as a private citizen can. All this comes in background of this tweet from Oman's monsiter today itself:
I met Vice President JD Vance today and shared details of the ongoing negotiation between the United States and Iran and the progress achieved so far. I am grateful for their engagement and look forward to further and decisive progress in the coming days. Peace is within our… pic.twitter.com/fMHxWV0jgl
Never trust the western governments. In a rare moment UK seems to be keeping it's promise of partial (it will still be on a 99 year lease) decolonozation of Chagos Islands this time. Despite having a bit of complicated relationship with Indian Goverment, Ro Khanna have taken a principled stand.
Trump has launched an illegal regime change war in Iran with American lives at risk. Congress must convene on Monday to vote on @RepThomasMassie & my WPR to stop this. Every member of Congress should go on record this weekend on how they will vote. pic.twitter.com/tlRi3Vz849
Where it is purely on technical US Congress vs Presidential Powers debate or more fundemental US have no business here remains to be seen. I haven't seen any Pro Iran stance by any government save for Russia, which have been driven into a Pariah status itself and is ironically doing much worse to Ukraine than is happening in Iran. The next closest seems to be the Indonesian offer of mediation. The grifter and self styled Shah in exile is once again back to his grifting. One may, and I most certainly, have problems with domestic policies of Iran but this is not way to treat of sovereign nation. This is just the regular bullying of Global South. So just for today, Iran Zindabad. One can do nothing, I will just plug in Iran's powerful statment knowing that the worst case that Irani administration is replaced by some western puppet is not really a fantasy at this point.
Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran Regarding the military aggression by the Zionist regime and the United States against #Iran
Heroic and noble people of Iran, Iranian compatriots,
So apparently we won the T20 world cup, not that I care about it much but people in real life and online won't let me have blissful ignorance. I did see some news of early outs in the lower banner yesterday and thought that once again we are losing, but somehow we did win.
Now, by Twitter timeline is 70% cricket! And I am the man unaware of the match till the toss itself. Not knowing and watching about seems to be some kind of Taboo. Look, my only connection with cricket is that I am from Ranchi so is Dhoni. (Not if my friend on Reddit is to be believed:
Have you guys ever seen someone from Jharkhand? Have you ever been to Jharkhand or know a person who has been to Jharkhand? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Jharkhand is a conspiracy created by cricketer M.S Dhoni in order to hide the fact that he is a Pakistani. He saw the state of Pakistani cricket and really wanted to play in the IPL, but could not because he was from Pakistan. So at the age of 17 his parents smuggled him inside a carton of heroin attached to a drone flying over the border. He was dropped in Uttar Pradesh where he met his friend Shoab Malik, Sania Mirza's husband who he married for whatever the Indian equivalent of a green card is. Shoab Malik dropped him off at the cricket ground where recruitment was happening without realising that Dhoni was high due to smelling the Heroin fumes.
Dhoni when reporting to the recruiters was asked where he was from and his brain panicked. His hands started sweating and his legs started feeling weak because he had forgotten his cover story, which was that he is a guy called Sachin Tendulkar from Maharashtra. On the spot he managed to make up a story about his life and told the recruiters that he was from Jharkhand. The recruiters, who were from South India, thought that it must just be another one of those North Indian states and thought it was normal. He played well and with the help of the rat controlling him under his cap (the rat was the spirit of Kapil Dev, who died earlier and is currently a clone, that is a different story I will tell later) won easily and got selected. However he felt bad that he was unable to use his Sachin Tendulkar cover and gave it to his Bangladeshi friend, who also joined him in a career of professional cricket.
And that is the story of Jharkhand. Don't belive me? Tell me another thing from Jharkhand. Can only think of Dhoni? Yeah, I though so. Don't let the deep state lie to you anymore. Jharkhand is fake, it's simply not real.
Inclusion of Hindu Rituals during the inauguration has been a common point of attack on the Building, though the rather curious quantifier “so-called” seems to be an invention of Nillansh, and one is left to wonder what it may been as it has not been expounded upon in the original article.
Still, one is left wondering how come so many people miss the Sarv-Dharam prayer held during the function, which have been norm for government activities. Or if they did not miss, do they have no problems with the Islamic rituals, or those of other faith, with their disdain being reserved only for “So Called” Hindu Rituals?
And if one is talking of Sengol, which is the symbol that sovereignty now rests with the preamble People of India, enough have already been written on the matter that most people have made up their minds. It would only be a waste of time and space to reproduce those arguments here, but I wouldrecommendRia Pillai’s analysis of the narrative surround it on how it relates to our notions on caste.
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Revealing the Controversy-Free Origin Story
Another aspect that deserves attention is the claim that the new parliament project was mired in controversy from its inception. Keeping in mind the great Indian babudom,it is evident that such an ambitious undertaking would not have been conceived overnight. In fact it was the Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar from UPA who first suggested building of a new parliament. More recently when both the houses of parliament officially requested for a new parliament, not a single MP opposed the demand. Clearly showing how much of the criticism from political parties have been a post hoc justification for achieving political brownie points rather than genuine opposition. It is crucial to scrutinize the motives behind the criticisms and separate them from the actual merits of the project itself.
But Why during Pandemic?
Another criticism, which in my opinion seems to be mist genuine, has been that while a new parliament may have been required, government could have postponed it due to the Pandemic. First we have to remember that the final master plan for Central Vista project was done in 2019, months before the pandemic. Also the new parliament costs ₹ 862 crore. Or a measly 6 rupees per capita, how this amount could meaningfully contribute to the health sector in face of ₹ 82,928 crore budget with the Health ministry in 2020-21 alone is beyond me. Another comparison is that Government of Delhi spend ₹ 1,100 crore on just advertisement in last three years.
While it is true that healthcare spending is often inadequate, the solution does not lie in being frugal in other areas.
Another way to look at the issue it that the entire project generated about 37 lakh man-days of labour during the pandemic, at a time when people were facing an unprecedented unemployment crisis, it surely helped. And stimulus in form of infrastructure spending have been a well known remedy during economic slowdown ever since the times of Keynes. When we couple in the cost that delays in project result into and well as the impressive savings of ₹ 1,000 crores that the project will result in, it becomes clear that there is a good enough case for continuing with the project.
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Conclusion
While issues raised against the delamination of Lok Sabha seats are complex and emotive one, making it a case against the New Parliament is rather childish – “We will stop increasing the number of MPs by making it physically impossible for them to sit.” I confess not having done a deep study of the problem but I am generally in favour of delamination happening considering how freezing of the constituencies have resulted into the overrepresentation of people of states like Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha while people of states like UP, Bihar and Maharashtra are underrepresented. (I use the phrase “people of states” knowingly and deliberately to distinguish myself from people who talk of representation of states.)
(Image courtesy India’s Emerging Crisis of Representation by Milan Vaishnav and Jamie Hintson via ThePrint)
Similarly childish is the worry about being “shown undemocratic in world media”, it is not for desk editors of foreign papers to say, when crores of vote are voting and electing the government we seek. As one commentator said, “Row over Parliament building shows politics in India never stops, national symbol or not.”I would end by quoting former PM Deve Gowda, one among the “South Indian opposition leaders” who are often evoked in these debates regarding the new parliament:
I have many reasons to oppose BJP politically. But, I don’t want to bring politics in the matter of inauguration of Sansad Bhavan. I have been elected to both the Houses of the parliament. I have rendered my duties in the constitutional framework. I can’t bring politics into the matter of the constitution.
PTI. “New Parliament Building Necessity, No MP Objected When Both Houses Requested for It: Om Birla.” The Times of India, 18 June 2021, timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/new-parliament-building-necessity-no-mp-objected-when-both-houses-requested-for-it-om-birla/articleshow/83639783.cms.
“New Parliament Bhavan Isn’t…: Former PM HD Deve Gowda’s Big Statement Amid Row Over Inauguration.” DNA India, www.dnaindia.com/india/report-new-parliament-bhavan-isn-t-former-pm-hd-deve-gowda-s-big-statement-amid-row-over-inauguration-3044562.
Sinha, Bhadra. “New Central Vista Will Save Rs 1,000 Crore Spent Annually on Rent Expenditure, Govt Tells SC.” ThePrint, 3 Nov. 2020, theprint.in/judiciary/new-central-vista-will-save-rs-1000-crore-spent-annually-on-rent-expenditure-govt-tells-sc/536402.
Vagliasindi, Maria, and Nisan Gorgulu. “What have we learned about the effectiveness of infrastructure investment as a fiscal stimulus? A literature review.” (2021).
IANS. “Central Vista Projects Generate Over 3.7 Mn Man-days of Employment.” www.business-standard.com, 8 Sept. 2022, www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/central-vista-projects-generate-over-3-7-mn-man-days-of-employment-122090801097_1.html.
Express News Service. “Delhi Govt Claims Lack of Funds for RRTS Project, SC Calls for Ad Spend Details.” The Indian Express, 3 July 2023, indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/sc-delhi-government-ad-spend-8698928.
“Demand for Grants 2021-22 Analysis: Health and Family Welfare.” PRS Legislative Research, prsindia.org/budgets/parliament/demand-for-grants-2021-22-analysis-health-and-family-welfare.
