Nirbhay Kumar

Air Warrior n Aviation Enthusiast

[Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 @RajeevRC_X]

To the many genuine students and their parents who protested with their genuine grievances - take a look at this pic and its msg.

And choose who you are with wisely.🙏🏻

▶️Because if you think, your future is going to be shaped by morons whose idealogy is Dividing and breaking up India - you need to wake up to reality of these people.

▶️Protests and violence lead by this clique should not and will not be tolerated under any label including student protests - wont happen.

Anyone , Anywhere who tries to undermine our country, our democracy, our integrity under whatever label - it is our ( yours and mine and every Indian) to oppose it.

We didnt come so far as a nation (with all our pluses and minuses) to be undermined by this lot. WILL NOT HAPPEN. 💪🏻

PS : I too am just realizing now about this/these "students". 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Meghna Girish 🇮🇳 @megirish2001]

Let us remember that Fundamental Right is to peaceful protest and that also includes 'reasonable restrictions' including designated protest sites and following local laws

Our Constitution also includes Fundamental Duties to 'protect public property and shun violence'

And while I supported resignation of education minister, the government giving a free pass to criminals hijacking a students protest is unfair to law abiding citizens

Since when did deal-making with self appointed representatives become government policy?!

[Nandini @NBDwrites]

So listen up, people.

Between now and 2029, expect one agitation after another. One protest will end; another will begin. The objective is relentless pressure.

Who knows one attempt might even succeed… or it might not.

Either way, the effort will be persistent and unceasing.

That said, our own legitimate demands for reform and I stress legitimate: in education, the judiciary, and the police must not stop but pursued with equal determination.

Having said that, what worries me most are those who lose heart at the first sign of resistance.

Those who immediately begin writing long, mournful obituaries about how everything is lost, how all hope has vanished, and how, despite being “supporters,” they now have no choice but to vote for someone else.

If that’s your solution, spare us the death wish.

No one ever said changing the trajectory of a country that had grown accustomed to complacency - a sleepy dog content with a bone and a pat on the head - would be easy.

And then, to make matters even more inconvenient for the world, a billion people decided to stand up and identify themselves openly as Hindu in a world where only Christians and Muslims seemed entitled to wear their faith publicly.

Jews, meanwhile, have had more than enough bigotry to contend with from both sides.
As for Buddhists, they were allotted a tiny, token space because, well, Richard Gere made them fashionable for a while.

Even that enthusiasm appeared to cool once it became clear that championing the Dalai Lama also meant irritating China.

But Hindus did not retreat. We stood up to be counted.

The irony is delicious for a nation once mocked for its “Hindu rate of growth” now stands among the world’s fastest-growing major economies.

So understand what this is.
It is a marathon, not a sprint. Strap in. Stay the course.

Your children and one day theirs, will judge whether this generation had the resolve to finish what it started.

#ProtestFatigue

[Nandini @NBDwrites]

Just received this from a friend. An interesting take that looks beyond the immediate controversy and asks whether the battle is really about an education minister, or about far larger interests. Worth a read and an informed debate.

🪳 protests major issue funded from abroad will cripple many not only abroad but here in India as well.

- People want Dharmendra Pradhan, Education minister to resign. The agenda for CJP is not visible on the face of it, but...
The desperation of the cockroaches surprised me.
Even I was ready to give Dharmendra Pradhan a pass.

The man has failed.
Scrutiny is deserved.

But then a question appeared.
Why this desperation?
Why Boston?
Why Germany?

Why now?
Why June 2026?

So, I started digging.
What I found had little to do with a paper leak.
It had everything to do with money.

A lot of money.

Three decisions were sitting on Pradhan's table.
All scheduled for July - Aug 2026.

All capable of reshaping Indian education.

Decision 1.
NCERT.
New textbooks.
Classes 9 to 12.

The new Mathematics curriculum introduces the Sulba Sutras.
A dangerous idea.

Because it tells Indian children something many would rather hide.
Mathematics lived here.

Long before Europe claimed ownership of the story.

The new History curriculum goes further.
The Aryan Invasion Theory.
Out.

The Sindhu-Sarasvati Civilisation.
In.

India's own story.
Returned to India.

Decision 2.
May 15, 2026.

CBSE issues a circular.
3 languages mandatory from Class 9.
At least two must be Indian languages.

Decision 3.
K. Radhakrishnan Committee reforms for NTA.

Decentralised examinations.
Technology-sovereign architecture.

No single point of failure.
No single point of manipulation.

Now ask the real question.
Who loses if all three happen?

Start with academia.

Harvard.
SOAS London.
Columbia.
Chicago.

Departments built around the Aryan Migration framework.

Annual grants at stake.
~ $500 million.

Then foreign universities.
UK.
US.
Australia.

Together earning roughly $3.7 billion annually from Indian students.
Around 1.8 million of them.

Fix India's system.
Build confidence.
Restore self-worth.
And that pipeline starts shrinking.

Then comes the coaching industry.
Manufacture anxiety.
Sell hope.
Repeat.

Worth ₹58,000 crore today.
Projected at ₹1,33,995 crore by 2028.

Built on scarcity.
Built on English-dominated examinations.

Decentralise NTA.
Expand Indian languages.
And the economics begin to wobble.

Allen.
Aakash.
FIITJEE.
BYJU'S.
Resonance.
Drishti IAS.
Thousands of smaller players.

Global investors have poured billions into this ecosystem.

Not for charity.
Not for patriotism.
For returns.

Then comes the NGO ecosystem.

The outrage industry.
The grant circuit.
A narrative that survives only if India remains intellectually dependent.

Teach children their own history.
Accurately.
And the narrative starts suffocating.

Funding follows narratives.
Funding leaves with them too.

Add it together.
Conservative estimate.

Nearly ₹3 lakh crore at risk.
More than $35 billion.
This is a business survival fight.

That is what India was about to dismantle.
That is why the meme factory found fresh energy.
That is why the protest lands on June 6.

Before the academic year begins.
Before the reforms become irreversible.

Pradhan may go.
Perhaps he should.
That is a separate debate.

But the policies are the real battlefield. Always were.

Most people are still watching the headline.

But missing the war -

[Skyroot Aerospace @SkyrootA]

ORBIT ACHIEVED. 🚀

Vikram-1 Test Flight-1 has reached orbit. India's first privately developed orbital rocket has completed its final burn and injected its payloads into a ~450 km orbit, making India the third country in the world with private orbital launch capability.

History is made. 🇮🇳

#Vikram1 #JourneyToOrbit #SkyrootAerospace

[CAPSS India @CAPS_INDIA]

📢🚨 CAPSS welcomes its new leadership!

Air Mshl Nagesh Kapoor, SYSM, PVSM, AVSM, VM (Retd, Former Vice Chief of the Air Staff) has taken over as the Director General.

Air Vice Mshl Prashant Mohan VM (Retd) joins as Additional Director General.

We extend our best wishes as they lead CAPSS into its next chapter. ✈️

@IAF_MCC @hqwaciaf

[Gaurav M Tripathi @GauravT71548031]

There are only three ways to get a more honest and responsive (yes, even with the former, the latter is not guaranteed) government.

1. Administration must be taken AWAY from an unelected executive by an elected representative. I mean to say, MLA headed councils must call the shots, rather than DM sahab at district level. Maybe administrative (district) and political (constituency) boundaries can be aligned. But a head of admin / local govt that can be voted out is essential. In no democracy does such a powerful unelected executive exist as the colonial era system in India.

2. Put everything online. Every. Thing. Every. Office. Confidential matters can have case file nos and be referred to by that. But every file must be docketed, booked in, and tracked across departments and desks, and this must be visible online.

3. Fix our broken justice delivery system. But this is too long to cover here. From expansion of courts, to police, to better trained and motivated police, better investigations, and so on and so forth

Otherwise, politicians can keep promising, feeding their egos by chastising senior bureaucrats who will keep assuring, while field level officials will keep delaying to extract.

Of the above, the easiest is the 2nd point. 1 is difficult because the outsized importance of the bureaucracy has us all emasculated and stops us from imagining a world beyond. 3 is difficult, because it needs a multi pronged, sustained effort.

All are necessary.

[Nandini @NBDwrites]

I was fourteen, walking home from school in Paris with my French-American friend. Summer was around the corner and the heat was relentless.

‘You must be used to this heat,’ she said.

‘Not really,’ I replied. ‘We lived in the hills in India before we came to Paris.’

‘Hills? I didn’t know India had hills.’

‘We have the Himalayas,” I had replied. ‘The highest mountains in the world.’

She stopped dead.

‘You’ve got to be kidding! The highest mountains are in America.’

That expression of absolute certainty is etched into my memory even today.

Twenty years later, when I met her again in New York, I reminded her of that conversation. We couldn’t stop ourselves from laughing.

So anyway that afternoon we went home, and I opened my Philips Atlas and showed her the Himalayas.

‘You know,’ she said thoughtfully, ‘ I’d always wondered about that weird name. I just assumed it was some Native American name.’

A few weeks later, in geography class, while studying the Alps, our teacher announced they were the highest mountains in the world.

My newly enlightened friend proudly corrected her.

‘Actually, the Himalayas are.’

The teacher shot me a look that instantly identified the culprit behind this inconvenient fact.

Then, without missing a beat, she recovered.
‘Yes… but the Himalayas are the newest highest mountains. The Alps were the oldest highest mountains.’

Case closed.

At fourteen, I learnt one of life’s great lessons: The West doesn’t just write history, geography, science. It often decides it.

If something is ancient, extraordinary or foundational, somehow it must have originated in Europe or at the very least be explained through a European lens.

The Rig Veda became “Aryan.” A Middle Eastern Jew named Jesus acquired blond hair and blue eyes.
Even Panini, at one point, seemed to belong to everyone except India.

Now, apparently, Panini is Pakistani.

Progress, I suppose.
From ‘ that’s impossible’ to ‘it was ours all along.’

The script changes. The narrator doesn’t.

#SundayMusings

[Gaurav M Tripathi @GauravT71548031]

Not the tone one expects when people you consider your citizens, living in what you consider your territory, are massacred in the 100s by your adversary who occupies that land illegally.

"We hope the international community holds Pakistan accountable"

At the very least, push for a UN investigation into these abuses. Name names. Ask for violators to be tried in ICC. Raise hell.

[Griffin @6ESinger157593]

@nitin_gadkari @narendramodi @AmitShah @PMOIndia @cabsect_india @NHAI_Official

Is it possible to establish a helicopter-based first responder and ambulance service for national highways? This is a critical need of the hour. Such a system could potentially be funded through toll revenues, ensuring rapid emergency response and saving countless lives.

क्या राष्ट्रीय राजमार्गों के लिए हेलीकॉप्टर आधारित फर्स्ट रिस्पॉन्डर और एम्बुलेंस सेवा स्थापित करना संभव है? यह समय की एक अत्यंत महत्वपूर्ण आवश्यकता है। ऐसी व्यवस्था को टोल राजस्व के माध्यम से वित्तपोषित किया जा सकता है, जिससे आपातकालीन स्थिति में तेज़ प्रतिक्रिया सुनिश्चित हो और अनगिनत लोगों की जान बचाई जा सके।

[Erik Solheim @ErikSolheim]

In defense of Indian 🇮🇳 democracy!

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi most successful visit to Norway a minor incident happened. A Norwegian journalist demanded that the prime minister starts holding press conferences. She claimed that Indian democracy is in bad shape.

May be its time to pause? May be its time to be a bit curious to the world’s largest democracy?

Two weeks ago five Indian states and territories held elections. The turn out in the battlefield state of West Bengal was 94%. In the last local election in Norway it was 62%, in many European local elections turn out is below 50%. Can voting in massive numbers be a signal Indians trust their democratic process?

In the same election BJP won big in Assam and West Bengal. It lost even bigger in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Can this diversity be a signal that Indian democracy is reflecting the will of the people?

The journalist referred to a democracy ranking putting India at 157 in the world, behind many dictatorships and deeply troubled states. When a ranking is so obviously contrary to common sense, why not ask critical questions to those making the ranking rather than demand that leaders shall comment on nonsense? I recommend Salvatore Babones book “Dharma democracy”. The book debunks convincingly the flawed methodology of these rankings.

It was referred to a ranking claiming it’s very dangerous to be a journalist in India. Reality is that it is more dangerous to be journalist in the US and far more dangerous in the vast majority of other nations in the world.

Let’s be real. India is not perfect. Of course there are incidents. India has a population the size of North America, South America and Europe combined. But India is much more peaceful than Europe or the Americas. That’s remarkable - given the ethnic, language and religious diversity of India and the many development challenges.

Unless we consider democracy a form of government only suited for some very small, peaceful and homogeneous Western European nations, may be we should commend Indian democracy?

India is the only major former UK colony which became and has remained a democracy. Its sometimes claimed that the Brits taught India democracy. If that was the case why isn’t Myanmar or Pakistan or the Gulf kingdoms democracies??? Reality is that Indian democracy is both homegrown and extraordinary successful.

[barkha dutt @BDUTT]

Twisha Sharma, former Miss Pune, sister of a serving Army major, abused and harassed, forced to terminate her pregnancy, pressured for dowry, found dead 5 months after wedding. Harrowing details- soldier’s family ran pillar to post to get case registered against in-laws - retired judge and lawyer. Family led protests today outside CM House in MP demanding a CBI probe

[Shiv Aroor @ShivAroor]

Noida woman Twisha Sharma, 33, Dies 5 months after wedding, family alleges harassment suicide.

Her brother, a serving Army Major, has been running pillar to post to get an FIR registered. https://t.co/L5SFwFKlJY

[Nitin A. Gokhale @nitingokhale]

John, you may want to read this:

Inside the planning and execution of India’s Operation Sindoor, a swift, controlled strike that redefined escalation and deterrence. https://t.co/zqFQljq7UZ

Any early losses were factored in because the end objective was clear. It is the outcome that matters, not the ways and means to achieve it as I write here

[Gaurav M Tripathi @GauravT71548031]

This is a call that is periodically made. This time by a respected, retired ex Army Cdr.

My question is simple. Why? We haven't even made public the Henderson Brooks report on the '62 debacle, but here is a call to make public the material losses (losses in personnel already made public) for an ongoing operation. Amazing.

All this when your enemy exercises complete control over all info from his side. Hasn't even acknowledged personnel losses! In fact his entire notion of victory depends upon just this. And you want to hand it over to him to he can play on your internal divisions.

If its about openness as a principle, then it needs to be universal. A white paper on the border management through the ages with China perhaps.

Make public the courts of inquiry report into every air crash, ammunition dump that goes up in flames, every encounter that goes wrong or every casuslty suffered in CI Ops, and every mishap involving a ship or sub.

If probity is the principle, let's open all operations of the armed forces to public scrutiny. Perhaps we will get useful suggestions and win the Battle of narratives ?

I mean what could possibly go wrong?

[Nirbhay Kumar @NikuMish]

@dsen68 @frictionangel Kanoon ke….??

[KJS DHILLON🇮🇳 @TinyDhillon]

NFU to Armed forces is not a privilege to be granted.
It’s the obligation of the grateful nation to those who get superseded at young age not bcoz of their incompetence but bcoz of lesser vacancies in the higher ranks, unlike other services where literally everyone rises to the highest rank & also get Non Functional Upgrade (NFU).
These young officers are the cutting edge during operations & continue to serve the nation inspite of zero career progression chances, earning gallantry awards, getting wounded or killed in action … it’s their commitment that has to be recognised and honoured.
Let’s not fail our brave uniformed soldiers for a few pennies or some whimsical attitude.
Our Armed forces are the best and they deserve the best 👍

Jai Hind 🇮🇳
@adgpi
@IAF_MCC
@indiannavy
@DefenceMinIndia

[Col Hunny Bakshi @ColHunnyBakshi]

Hope someone is listening

[Mahesh Jethmalani @JethmalaniM]

Call it what it is: evil, calculated, and deeply treacherous. When an opposition leader celebrates the attempt of global humiliation of his own country, he isn’t fit to lead.

Rahul Gandhi isn’t criticising policy here. He’s boasting that his own party cadres succeeded in disrupting an international summit and denting India’s image in front of the world. That’s Machiavellian sabotage.

A normal opposition fights the government on issues. This is something darker: weaponise embarrassment as strategy. If India is hosting global leaders, tech CEOs and investors, and you can’t control the narrative with competence, then you manufacture chaos so the headline becomes “mess” instead of “moment.” That isn’t politics. That is anti-national theatre.

[Nirbhay Kumar @NikuMish]

@saumyatandon First of the two slaps was a public slap dealt to the most powerful man in the city! In the presence of his henchmen. And he accepts it, while also dealing many emotions including the loss of his child. And still gracefully accepted the punishment, shows his respect for women.