Arjun Nair

[Harisundar Kumar @kumarhari_s]

This protest and its result should be a strong reminder to the youth of India on how detached our mainstream political parties are from key policy issues such as education and unemployment. It is @CJP_for_India led victory. Make no mistake, others jumped in later.

[Hardik Rajgor @Hardism]

Forget Sonam Wangchuk. Forget Abhijeet Dipke. Forget the CJP.

Did the exam papers leak? Yes.
Do they leak frequently? Yes.
Did many students commit suicide? Yes.
Do papers leak for other exams as well? Also yes.

The Government seems to suggest that a successful re-exam was undertaken, and the criminals have been punished - so what’s the problem?

The problem is that it doesn’t stop the next paper leak.

Putting some low level criminals behind bars and throwing money at the families of the dead isn’t the permanent solution. How many senior administrators and bureaucrats have faced the wrath of the law in the last 10 years?

It’s a post-facto reaction after the leaks have already taken lives.

Exam paper leaks in India are not confined to one state, one government, or one type of exam. In fact, the situation is even worse in State exams.

The attitude, by-and-large, seems to be, jaisa chal raha hai chalne do..

We’ll pick up a few people here and there, give away some money, do a re-exam and move on to the next cycle. Itna toh kiya, aur kya chahiye?

But the students have gotten restless. They are fed up. You see it in TV interviews after every exam that gets cancelled at the last moment. Police recruitment. Teacher recruitment. State Govt recruitment. Again and again. Year after year. Too many students have all hopes pinned on these various exams. It is their ticket out of poverty, to make a life for themselves and their families.

Why should they just “get on with it”?

Another line of argument seems to be that there were more paper leaks in the Congress era. And that this government has done better than its predecessors. And so people need to be ‘sensible’ about this issue.

Ok, but why should that be relevant to a 20-year old today?

She didn’t live in the Congress era. She is living and studying in 2026.

It is an argument that would perhaps resonate with millennials and older folks who have lived through both regimes. But the very young don’t have that old reference (and it’s a good thing) - they have the reference of social media.

This is a social media native generation, they don’t consume traditional TV or news. Social media gives them access to what the world is like, right on their screen, 24X7. And they will increasingly ask - why can’t we have the good things that the world has?

If Ethiopia can have decent roads, why can’t India?
If Sri Lanka can be clean, why can’t India?
If Vietnam can conduct exams well, why can’t India?

And this restlessness expresses aspiration.

To demand more. To want better. To want it quickly.

Chalta Hai.. is not going to cut it anymore.

Take the counterfactual - if there was no hue and cry, do you believe anything would change? There would be another paper leak somewhere in another month. Another series of suicides. Another round of compensation.

It may very well happen even now, but the students have expressed their rage and fury- that it can’t be business as usual.

“Chalta hai” is the defining attitude of India.

Road after road after road has potholes.. but chal raha hai.
Exam after exam after exam gets cancelled.. but chal raha hai.
Kachra on every street, highway, station… but chal raha hai.
Corruption in every other government service.. but chal raha hai.

The young (thankfully) don’t carry the baggage of the past. The older you get, the more cynical you become - that this is how the system is, and how things will always work. But the young, with their (hopeful) naivety, at least have the ability to dream of a different tomorrow.

In my early 20s, I wore the Anna cap and went around the area sloganeering with a bunch of other young people during the IAC movement. Nothing came out of it, and in hindsight I felt stupid for having supported any of those people. But the sentiment that it came out of - the frustration with rampant corruption - that was genuine.

As I’m sure, the sentiment is genuine with thousands of students who have been part of these protests.

I hope your movement has a more fruitful end than the one I supported.

PS: Is this movement foreign funded? Are there other forces involved? I will let people with far more experience than me on security and intelligence matters to comment on that. But I will say this - the issue has been genuine, and it has resonance among the public. Grifters will always find a way to latch on to popular issues and try to hijack it. We must not lose sight of solving for the core sentiment.

[Sagar @sagarcasm]

You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain

[Shashi Tharoor @ShashiTharoor]

An Open Letter to the Jantar Mantar protestors:

My dear young friends,

I address you today not as a politician or an MP, but as someone deeply troubled by what is happening to your generation of young Indians.

This is personal for me. I was born to a middle-class family: my father was a salaried newspaper employee, my mother a homemaker, with three children to educate on one income. For a family like ours, merit was not a slogan. Scholarships, fair examinations, honest results — these were the only way one salary could carry three children's dreams.

I went to school in Mumbai and Kolkata, to college here in Delhi, topped the University and earned admission into IIM — and chose instead to follow my passion for international affairs, in America, on a scholarship. Nothing was inherited; everything was earned by hard work and yes, Exams.

So I know that a fair, merit-based system is the only ladder for young people from lower and middle-income families to climb up. When that ladder is broken — papers leaked, examinations cancelled, trust destroyed — the children of the rich and powerful do not suffer. They have other ladders. It is your dreams, and your families' sacrifices (and tragically, in some homes, young lives themselves) that are betrayed.

To the young people gathered at Jantar Mantar, and those raising your voices peacefully across India: this country hears you. Your anger is not indiscipline — it is the anguish of a generation that did everything right and was still betrayed . You are not alone.

And to the millions of young Indians watching quietly: your generation is not a problem to be managed. You are the answer to India's future. Do not lose hope. This ladder will be rebuilt — by you, and by every Indian who stands with you.

To Shri Sonam Wangchuk-ji, my heartfelt appeal: please end your fast. You have awakened the conscience of the nation; that is what a fast is meant to do. India needs your voice for the long road ahead.

With Parliament in session again from Monday, we will have an opportunity to raise the students’ issues in the highest forum of our democracy. That’s where the problem should be addressed, not by fasting unto death. Please heed my plea.

And finally, to the Government: I respectfully urge you to reach out and engage in the dialogue our democracy owes its young citizens. That is not weakness; that is statesmanship.

[Andy “Action Movie Guy” Gorham @AndrewMGorham]

Name a badass female character...

[cinesthetic. @TheCinesthetic]

Inde Navarrette in OBSESSION (2026) is the kind of casting that makes a movie work. The role asks her to be charming, unsettling, sympathetic, terrifying, and sometimes all at once. By the end, it’s impossible to imagine anyone else playing Nikki.

[Manas. @_manase_]

Imagine turning the most iconic thriller franchise in Malayalam cinema into a walking advertisement board. 😭

One minute it’s Georgekutty trying to outsmart the system, next minute we’re getting free promotions for Kalyan Jewellers, Misty Hills Resort, News 24 and the damn car brand like it’s a sponsored YouTube vlog. 💀

How did Jeethu Joseph’s pen go from writing edge-of-the-seat brilliance to forcing brand placements into dialogues so awkwardly? Absolutely embarrassing.

Pathetic writing for a film carrying the Drishyam legacy.🥴

#Drishyam3 #Mohanlal

[afrinben @afrinnbenn]

Kudos to the best written female character of da year Veena Nandakumar developed from being the main character of the film to a bucketum pidich odunna chechi

[Fahir Maithutty @fahir_me]

*Spoilers ahead - Read ahead only if you have watched Drishyam 3*

There are issues plenty in Drishyam 3. The way story unfold one after another so suddenly in the last 20 minutes may not be the path how you wanted the film to go. The editing in this portion is so jarring. Jeethu Joseph's making in this segment leaves lot to be desired. He fails in preserving the character arc of certain characters and that keeps you further detatched from the film. But amidst all these, one thing that Jeethu Joseph does well is he lets Georgekutty evolve slowly and organically preserving the essence of how its one of Malayalam Cinema's most beloved characters.

And Mohanlal makes phenomenal use of this fact. He keeps telling in all interviews that Georgekutty is one character in his career whom he has not understood completely. And that ladies and gentlemen is a lie!

In the previous installments, he has embodied Georgekutty in a way you never knew what his next action was. He was always in control. He always had a plan. You just had to wait to know what it was because Mohanlal's performance beautifully hides it. In Drishyam 2, you know everything about Georgekutty through a second person while Georgekutty directly is not in front of us most of the time. In Drishyam 3, it is time for Mohanlal to bring Georgekutty's emotions to full display.

Full marks to Mohanlal in how he doesn't deviate his acting method from the image of Georgekutty that is built in the hearts of viewers across 13 years. From when Georgekutty was in control in first 30 minutes to later when he starts to get scared and shattered, Mohanlal's body language change is so nuanced that it is a beautiful sight to behold.

A brilliantly enacted sequence and the film's best scene because of Mohanlal is the one where they switch between marriage proceedings and court showing us closely the struggling emotions Georgekutty goes through. Finally at the end, after you are overwhelmed by the sudden story shifts, you get a very short moment to relieve Georgekutty's emotions . Georgekutty wants to remain in control once again but as you see tears coming down his eyes, you know Mohanlal has done a fabulous job in ensuring Georgekutty would remain among the top five iconic characters in Malayalam Cinema.

Despite the polarizing reviews, Drishyam 3 seems to be working strong at boxoffice. And that is signs that Drishyam 4 may happen. Jeethu Joseph may falter again. But we know one person wouldnt.

[Marcus Legranda @marclegrande]

Just like Mammunnis, I can see a guy working overtime to make #Mohanlal fans responsible for the disaster called #Patriot in a discreet manner.

And the funniest part? He is now hiding behind the genius who recently gifted us all-time masterpieces like Indian 2 and Thug Life.

Instead of this Olympic-level blame shifting, maybe just accept the film didn’t work and move on. Piggybacking on someone won’t change the reality.

#Drishyam3

[Film Wood Fiscal @FilmWoodFiscal]

BR: In #Patriot, many people couldn’t accept your character’s death and there was a lot of backlash and negativity around it. What do you have to say about that?

#Mohanlal: I don’t think the criticism came because the character died. I feel the audience didn’t get emotionally connected enough with the character, and that’s why it felt a bit negative for many. Maybe the limited duration and lack of detailed emotional depth also affected that connection. There have been many huge hit films where my character dies in the climax, and audiences accepted it wholeheartedly 👏

[THE SKIN DOCTOR @theskindoctor13]

No need to come back.

Indians must understand the difference between Bharat, the oldest unbroken dharmic civilization since the Bronze Age, and India, a modern nation-state governed by a democratic system since 1947.

Your love and gratitude for Bharat should not be weaponized as a guilt trip to pull you back to India, where merit is devalued, corruption is normalized, adulteration is rampant, civic sense is poor, pollution is pervasive, babushahi stifles efficiency, appeasement and freebies shape policy, and mobs dictate terms to democratically elected governments.

Bharat stays with you. Wherever you go, the civilization goes with you. If you want to preserve and carry forward that civilization, practice dharmic righteousness wherever you are and uphold its values through your conduct, work, and integrity. You don't have to be in India for it.

[ANMOL JAMWAL @jammypants4]

#Michael while being a surface level highlight reel of the musical legend was such a blast in theatres!

Had me foot tapping and grooving like no one’s business!

Juliano Krue Valdi as young Michael was flawless & Jaafar definitely made his late uncle proud 🔥

[Abhi and Niyu @abhiandniyu]

@KKN1AZ1 how many of your elected PMs have completed their full 5 year terms?

how many times did a military leader stage a coup and took away your democracy?

[Bewda babloo 🧉 @babloobhaiya3]

They didn't show even common Pakistani Muslims in a bad light !

[कुशल मेहरा @kushal_mehra]

So I took one for the team again. I just finished listening to a podcast (interview) of Kunal Kamra by some channel. The video was titled "Kunal Kamra Exposes Samay Raina, Modi, Shiv Sena, Arnab."

Now here is the funny bit. In this entire conversation, which is an hour and 32 minutes long, Samay Raina is mentioned once, in a passing reference around minute 39, for a total of 20 seconds 😂😂😂 And there is no exposé there. It is just Samay ne ek Airtel kee advertisement kee as a passing reference.

This is a classic clickbait title that uses a trending name to attract attention. The video features Kunal Kamra discussing morality and ethics, yet the title itself undermines the very morals it claims to explore.

Source: https://t.co/wRZj4Q6RQT

Kunal Kamra is a Sasta Stalin, and his tendencies tend to come out when he lets his guard down. This happens in the first 10 minutes, (if I remember correctly), when he says voting age kee lower limit ke saath upper limit bhi honi chahiye.

Authoritarians think like this. Dictators think about curtailing people's rights. The genius thinks that if we curb the "uncle and aunty" vote, the BJP might lose. But he is such a moron that he does not realise the BJP gets votes from every section of society.

Next, he might find out women vote disproportionately more for the BJP, so he may suggest removing women's voting rights. He may then find out that the more educated people are, the more likely they are to vote for the BJP. I totally get why he hates the BJP because he is not educated. He himself admitted in this chat that he is a 12th pass.

Now Kamra loves to juxtapose Nehru vs Modi. He says Nehru never gave excuses like “this is a colonial legacy, the British did this” when his opposition questioned him. The problem with Kamra and the likes who hang out with him is that they think no one reads. Now I am sharing two random examples that came on the top of my head, but I can share many more if I want to; unlike Kamra, I read books.

1 November 1953, when Nehru was asked about why the government was neglecting rural areas and their development, he said, “It is very important to improve the condition in the rural areas. During the days of the British, attention was concentrated entirely on the urban areas and none was paid to the rural areas. In fact, towns grew on the income derived from the villages. Nearly eighty per cent of the people in India live in villages and the country, can grow only when the villages become prosperous. You may have heard of the new schemes for rural development. We have sixty lakh villages in India. It will be difficult to take up all of them at once.”

Source: https://t.co/uOlzxnRTWs

20 November 1957, during a parliamentary debate, Nehru Ji replied to J.B. Kripalani by saying, “Somebody, I think it was here, in the course of a question today referred to the waste of cow dung. I was irreverent enough two years ago to call this age in India the cow-dung age because it is astounding when we see that 75 per cent or more — I am not quite sure — of the total power consumed in India today comes from burning cow dung. It shows how backward we are in this matter.

All our major power resources, thermal stations, hydro-electric stations and like are just a handful of what we want and it is calculated that we have hundreds of millions of tons of coal and we have many unexplored power resources and hydro-electric power. But, if we use our coal, let us say at the rate the United States is using it, all our hundreds of millions of tons of coal will disappear in 30 years’ time. Of course, we are not going to use it at that pace because we cannot. That is another matter. I do not know what we will do after 10 years or 20 years. Therefore, it has become of the greatest importance for us to search for power supplies and atomic energy is obviously one that is indicated in the present conditions.”

Kriplani Ji once said, “You talk about self-help…. You always complain that they (people) are burning manure”, and asked, “Do you think it is a pleasure for a cultivator to burn cow dung? What have you given them?” He added that the poor people had no resources. “Give them resources…. They are in perpetual indebtedness.”

“Nehru had told a gathering of students in Kolkata on 16 October 1955 that the backwardness of India was evident from the fact that her major supply of power was still cow dung. Two hundred years ago, he said, America and the European countries were also in the cow-dung age, but these countries went ahead, while India remained in the cowdung age, not only in power supply but, regrettably, “in our minds too.” See Selected Works (Second Series), Vol. 30. p. 88.”

Source: https://t.co/Dy6HVscm9c

What Nehru was implying here is that colonial rule kept us backwards for 200 years, so he cannot be blamed for this. We have to work with what we have. And I kinda agree with Nehru here. Similarly, Modi also has to deal with the hand he has been dealt. The fact remains that when Modi took over, half of the country was openly defecating on the streets. So if he keeps blaming Congress as he works to improve things like Nehru did, he is right.

But the funniest thing for me was around 1 hour and 19 minutes, when Kamra used credentialism to defend himself and explained that he only invites people he wants to invite and they are the real experts. The problem with people like Kamra is that they pass off as intellectuals in a low-IQ society like India.

One fair criticism he made of Narendra Modi is that he does not do press conferences. But overall, Kamra is a low-IQ, freedom-hating Mini Mao whom the left uses to push its batshit crazy ideas. The man wants public transport and says "haa theek hai roads banaa lee magar usase kya karenge." Bhai pehle apne left bandhuon ko Aarey trees ke baare mein convince kar lena. Indian discourse is stupid, as per Kamra. I agree with that limited point. It is just that Kamra adds to that stupidity.

[Hala Jaber @HalaJaber]

🚨BREAKING |
Israeli shells struck the Nepali battalion headquarters of UNIFIL in Mays Al-Jabal, southern Lebanon, wounding several peacekeepers & setting parts of the compound on fire.

The Nepalese consulate in Beirut confirmed & condemned the attack targeting the Nepali battalion headquarters within the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

Not even UN peacekeepers are spared from Israeli strikes.

[कुशल मेहरा @kushal_mehra]

Here is the thing. Everything Jon Stewart says here is true. But the thing is an American Republican can make an exactly similar video using the same script when the Democrats will be in power. Because this is the nature of power. The orthodoxy will by default oppress and the heterodoxy will always demand freedom. It is not a left or right thing. It is a orthodox and heterdox issue. Tribalism will ensure every side defends the indefensible.

[ANMOL JAMWAL @jammypants4]

Lakshya will forever be ahead of its time 💯