Malini Chakravarty

You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish.

RTs not endorsement.

[Aunindyo Chakravarty @Aunindyo2023]

Call for subscribers to my YouTube channel.

Please subscribe so that YouTube takes independent commentators like me to your home page.

Otherwise, the algorithm is meant to suppress people like us who question power.

https://t.co/ebkzjo4Ov8

[Sumanth Raman @sumanthraman]

He is posting this on the day the US has killed three Indian sailors. #Justsaying

[Manisha Pande @MnshaP]

Newsclick shut down, journalists lost their jobs - young reporters were called suspects. There should be an enquiry against the delhi police and ED officers in charge and should be made to pay damages

[Malini Chakravarty @MChakravarty9]

One of my favourites.

[The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize]

Have you read Ernest Hemingway's short novel 'The Old Man and the Sea'?

The short novel from 1952 is the story of an old fisherman’s journey, his long and lonely struggle with a fish and the sea, and his victory in defeat.

#WorldOceansDay

[Malini Chakravarty @MChakravarty9]

@Observer_99999 @RAVINDE64883161 @Aunindyo2023 My point still stands ( hope you've understood my point)!

[Aunindyo Chakravarty @Aunindyo2023]

My father, who founded the Delhi University Teachers' Association, was a great opponent of Indira Gandhi.

At a meeting of delegates from DUTA, Mrs Gandhi lost her cool and told him, "Professor Chakravarty, one day I will teach you a lesson!"

"I want to do the same to you, Ma'am!" my father responded. "Let's see who does it first."

Of course, for his pains, he had to go underground during the Emergency.

[Malini Chakravarty @MChakravarty9]

@Observer_99999 @RAVINDE64883161 @Aunindyo2023 Wherever these are taken from has done a bad job since these have failed to even get the surname spelling correct!

[SamSays @samjawed65]

Interesting use of the word “gift” for something funded by the public, for the public, during a public health risk caused by a heatwave.

[Subhashini Ali @SubhashiniAli]

My father was present

[newslaundry @newslaundry]

This week on NL Hafta, @AbhinandanSekhr, @MnshaP, and @anandvardhan26 are joined by @Aunindyo2023 and @vargheseKgeorge to discuss Bengal’s realignment, what every election analysis gets wrong, and the future of Indian politics.

🔒 Tune in: https://t.co/nlUIgCk6dz

[Aunindyo Chakravarty @Aunindyo2023]

How did Stalin lose despite such high economic growth in Tamil Nadu?

Actually, he lost because of it.

It is true that factory production has grown at a remarkable pace under the DMK - three times as fast as the rest of India.

But this has come at the expense of the states workers - often from the most exploited castes - who work long hours for poor pay.

This is especially true in the Coimbatore-Tiruppur textile and garment belt. Several investigations have revealed that young underage girls are employed in these factories, under a modern day variant of bonded labour.

Even in the more 'modern' electronics industry, wages have been stagnant for years and workers have been angry for a while. A case in point, is the 38-day Samsung strike in Sriperumbudur in late 2024, where workers complained of poor working conditions and low pay hikes.

But this is no different from other states with robust factory sectors. Everywhere real income of workers has been stagnant for over a decade, while profits have shot up.

What makes Tamil Nadu different is that its business class has a much wider base, unlike other states where a few families and conglomerates control everything.

This means, it is much more difficult for a party in power to develop a symbiotic relationship with the corporates of the state.

In other states, it has been historically possible for the state govt to patronise a few business houses, and in return get funding and financial heft to control institutions, including the media.

In Tamil Nadu, favouritism in govt contracts immediately gets a pushback from those left behind, because they also have signficant clout.

Stalin's govt has been accused of favouring a few corporates in doling out govt contracts in several sectors. The AIADMK even submitted a formal dossier, this January, alleging irregularities in govt contracts worth ₹4 lakh crore.

It is not that Tamil Nadu doesn't have large business houses. There are several - TVS, Murugappa, Amalgamation, Sanmar, Ramco, etc - and their relationship with Dravidian politics has been well studied by scholars. But many of these have had a love-hate relationship DMK-aligned entitites like the Sun group, owned by the Marans.

Although Stalin fell out with his cousins - the Marans - they reconciled and the relationship has been stable since then. There were even reports last year that Stalin had personally intervened to resolve disputes within the Maran family.

That is why Sun's shares crashed on the 4th, when it became clear that the DMK was heading for a crushing defeat.

The point is that Tamil Nadu's stellar economic growth hides internal tensions - from inter-capitalist rivalries to worker agitations - which erupt every now and then.

This time, these tensions have combined to push up Joseph Vijay, and take down MK Stalin.

[Malini Chakravarty @MChakravarty9]

They don't even seem to have done the basic homework. Listening to such analysts is an absolute waste of time. The joke is on us (me) that we keep watching such analysis.

[Malini Chakravarty @MChakravarty9]

Watching analysis of the election trends/results, as one does every time. But this year I've been watching such analysis much more dispassionately than I usually do. And I have realised that most analysts have no clue what they're talking about.

[Aunindyo Chakravarty @Aunindyo2023]

In Defence of Corruption

The magic is in Rajesh’s mixing – the tossing of the puffed rice, the timing of each wet and dry ingredient and the exact amount of mustard oil that he puts in the jhal muri. You just need to be a little patient as he moves across his push-cart. Rajesh had polio as a child.

Every day, two beat cops come and stand with the small crowd of his dedicated clientele. There’s an unconscious acceptance amongst everyone, that the cops will get priority. Almost everyone who stands there is rich or powerful enough to make the cops wait, but they all know it will get Rajesh into trouble.

I had once asked him how much hafta the cops take from him, for allowing him to stand with his cart at the street corner. He smiled and said that they give him a discount.

“Langda hoon saheb,” he explained. It’s a sympathy rebate that the other thelawalas and hawkers, on the road outside our office, do not get. “Bakiyon ka fix rate hai – koi 500 deta hai, koi do hazaar. Jitni zyaada sale hai, utna zyaada dena padta hai.”

“Aap log complain kyon nahin karte?” I had asked, somewhat indignantly.

Rajesh smiled and said “policewaale, MCD waale, yeh log hafta nahin lenge to phir humko yahaan kaun khada hone dega?”

Things suddenly fell into place. I remembered how, about a year ago, an honest officer had taken over the local thana. The hawkers on the street were raided, their thelas confiscated. They disappeared for almost a month, till the SHO was transferred.

Rajesh is wary of honest officers, who implement the law zealously. He was once evicted from his home by an honest officer. It was in a large cluster of jhuggis that had sprung up on municipality land. Hawkers, daily wagers, maids, rickshaw pullers and an entire range of self-employed entrepreneurs who make up the bulk of India’s service sector, lived in the encroachment.

Like his neighbours, Rajesh paid high rates for an illegal power line to his jhuggi. Like others he paid extortionist prices for water from the private tanker that came every two days. Every month, the local dada – Babubhai – came and collected his share of the money that had to be paid to the cops and the municipality officers.

Rajesh was Babubhai’s favourite. He sometimes came for a packet of bhujiya and for a head massage. Rajesh had strong fingers in strong hands, which had once been broken by a local cop. Babubhai had taken a group of locals and surrounded the thana. The cop had to be transferred.

Babubhai was elected to the local ward, but even he could not stop Inspector Karamvir Singh from getting the jhuggi demolished. Inspector Singh was incorruptible and didn’t fear politicians. He had joined the force to implement the law, and evicting the encroachers was part of that. Later, the Inspector had personally come and given Rajesh 500 rupees, but told him that he must go and live in an authorized colony.

Predictably, Inspector Karamvir was quickly posted to somewhere in the hinterland of Haryana. The encroachers returned, but Babubhai charged an extra fee to make up for lost revenues. Here too, Rajesh got a sympathy discount. His polio made life cheaper for him.

People like Rajesh help generate black-money every day. Bribing allows them to live in the interstices of urban India. They know that the law protects the right to property more than any other right. They survive by breaking these property rights – standing with a thela at the crossing, setting up house on municipality land, stealing electricity from the closest pole.

The bribes go up an interconnected chain, right to the top – to top cops, politicians, ministers, babus and other authorities. They flow and coalesce as bundles of black money - sometimes as hoards, sometimes as real estate and at other times as gold or even P-notes. It creates a network of power that runs parallel to the network of law and liberty. It weaves together a political society right next to the civil society of middle-class propertied citizens.

Rajesh is the biggest victim of black-money and corruption. But, without it Rajesh would never be able to survive, because, people like Rajesh have no place in the nation of citizens. They will forever remain fragments invisible to the law.

(From a blogpost I wrote 10 years ago)

[Malini Chakravarty @MChakravarty9]

@Aunindyo2023 I had the same experience when reading it the second time!

[Tamal Bandyopadhyay @TamalBandyo]

Banks have written off loans worth Rs 9.75 trillion in last 11 financial years, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said on Monday, @PTI_News reports.
Write off peaked in FY20 at Rs 1.59 tn. It has dropped to Rs 47,568 crore in FY25. Banks have written off Rs 31,723 crore in FY15, Rs 40,416 crore in FY16, Rs 68,308 crore in FY 17, Rs 99,132 crore in FY18 & Rs1.59 tn in FY19, minister said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

[Aunindyo Chakravarty @Aunindyo2023]

Buyer Beware!

I ordered a CASPIAN smartmop - self-proclaimed Shark Tank favourite' - on the 30th of Jan.

It was to be delivered in 2-3 weeks.

I still haven't received it, despite repeated assurances.

There's no response on their contact number

So, Buyer Beware.

[Malini Chakravarty @MChakravarty9]

@Aunindyo2023 I use Excel /MS Office on my in Mac Air

[Manisha Pande @MnshaP]

Everyone who has been pointing out that all is not well on the private consumption front in India has proven to be right: in fact, the government’s own data shows it now.

@kaul_vivek looks at the new GDP series

https://t.co/LCJXkaX9jZ

[Kirti Azad @KirtiAzaad]

SHAME ON TEAM INDIA! 😡

When we won the World Cup under Kapil Dev in 1983, we had Hindu Muslim Sikh and Christian in the team.

We brought the trophy to our religious birth place our motherland India Bharat Hindustan

Why The Hell Is The Indian Cricket Trophy is being Dragged.

Why NOT a Mosque? Why NOT a Church? Why NOT a Gurudwara?

This Team Represents INDIA — not Surya Kumar Yadav's or Jay Shah's Family !

Siraj never paraded it at a Mosque. Sanju never took it to a Church. latter had a major part to play and was man of the tournament.

The Trophy Belongs to 1.4 BILLION Indians of EVERY Faith — NOT ONE RELIGION'S VICTORY LAP!

#T20WorldCup2026final #IndiaVsNewZealand #TeamIndia