Siddharth

Assistant Professor, @PlakshaUniv ● Author, #FoundingGenerations ● Ph.D. @UCSanDiego ● Human-AI Interaction Researcher ● Views mine.

[Siddharth @SidSapien]

I am delighted to share that after three years of labor, my first book #FoundingGenerations was recently released (https://t.co/31MAlct8PU). The book discusses the founding of America and India as democracies through the central events during their respective founding eras. (1/n)

[वरुण 🇮🇳 @varungrover]

In any other country (even 3rd world like us, forget a country claiming to be a Vishwaguru), even a single such incident in a year would have caused massive uproar.

But for us, it’s probably 50th case in this year of being killed by the all-pervasive corruption-nexus of govt, IAS, and business.

Nothing will change and next time it would you be you or me or our families perishing in this hellhole created by cruel systems.

[Siddharth @SidSapien]

What a beautiful article...hits hard!

https://t.co/3o4pQ0kGZe

[Gurdeep Singh Sappal @gurdeepsappal]

White towels are a legacy of British era, when there were few roads, fewer cars and no ACs. Officer toured on horses and towels were an integral part of hygiene routine.

British left, horses were sent away, but towels stayed!

It’s not just towels, the size of tables and colour of ink are also defined by hierarchy.

When I was working at Joint Secretary level with the Vice President of India, I had to fight a stiff battle of sorts to order a smaller table that would fit better in my office. The system would not approve of a smaller table!

Regarding the colour of ink to be used for noting and signature, Sh. Arun Shourie has written a hilarious, if not ridiculous, memoir as minister.

In 1999, two officers in the Ministry of Steel made notings on files using red and green ink.

This raised a furore as they were junior officers. The seniors were scandalised and an enquiry was initiated.

India’s bureaucracy spent 13 months debating which colour ink officers could use on files.

The enquiry was routed through several ministries and departments:

Ministry of Steel wrote to Dept of Administrative Reforms

It referred to Directorate of Printing (ink experts)

Printing referred to Dept of Personnel & Training (DoPT)

DoPT threw the ball back: “it’s your Manual, you decide”

National Archives was consulted for longevity of ink colours

Ministry of Defence consulted for Army ink hierarchy

Conclusion after 13 months: juniors wrote in blue-black or blue ink, because that has the longest life of impression. In British era, the files had to travel to Britain, so juniors would write in ink that would stay for the longest.

The top brass would sign in green and red.

Ruling:

Two new paras were added to the manual of office procedure:

Para 32(9) says that only officers of Joint Secretary level and above may use red or green ink, and that too only in rare cases. Para 68(5), on the other hand, does not limit the use of these colours to any particular rank (as modern ball pen ink have no issues of shelf life for any colour!)

The white towel on the officer’s chair. The red telephone on the desk. The peon standing at the door. The green ink reserved for the senior sahib.
These are not accidents of history. They are architecture, the physical grammar of a bureaucratic culture that worships hierarchy.

[Stanly Johny @johnstanly]

Just a few weeks ago, Mark Carney, Canada's liberal Prime Minister whom trump calls governor Carney, gave a rousing speech at Davos about the fading rules-based order. Invoking Thucydides, he rejected the rule of the mighty and urged a third way. Last month, at the Munich Security Conference, Germany's chancellor Merz, who was concerned about a US takeover of Greenland, repeated Carney's views on the rules-based order. For the past four years, European diplomats and leaders have been lecturing the rest about the primacy of international law and territorial sovereignty and the need to punish Russia over the Ukraine invasion.

Did you see at least one of them condemn this blatant aggression against a sovereign country in the South and the assassination of its head of state? (Zelensky by the way was one of the first leaders that welcomed the war on Iran).

[Dr. Brahma Chellaney @Chellaney]

The joint war on Iran began shortly after Oman’s foreign minister — a key mediator in U.S.–Iran talks — publicly disclosed that Tehran had agreed, during negotiations, to surrender its enriched uranium stockpiles and forswear the acquisition of nuclear weapons indefinitely. The disclosure appears to have been intended to strip Trump and his team of a nuclear pretext for war.

Yet the subsequent opening strikes — aimed at decapitating Iran’s religious, political and military leadership and degrading its missile infrastructure — make clear that the U.S. and Israeli objective extends beyond nuclear nonproliferation to the coercive disarmament of Iran and the installation of a pliable regime in Tehran.

[Saiyami Kher @SaiyamiKher]

I started running a decade ago. Every morning, I’d find myself on Carter Road, chasing the ocean breeze. That wind is what made me fall in love with this city and running.

I want to feel it again. And dystopian as it is, I put on a mask before lacing my shoes. It took me back to the pandemic. Except there’s no virus in the air endangering our life. The air itself could kill us.

I never imagined a day when the very thing we breathe to survive would become a luxury. My doors and windows stay shut. I bought an air purifier. I moved my runs to a treadmill, staring at a wall instead of the sea. And it still isn’t enough.

Running is the thing that keeps me whole. It clears my head. It heals something in me that nothing else reaches. But now the act I built my life around feels like it’s quietly destroying me. Pollution is undoing what years of discipline and sweat and devotion built, one breath at a time.

This isn’t seasonal anymore. It shouldn’t be political. But somewhere between the data and the denial, people like me are out there in masks, grieving a morning run, mourning a city we loved.

Is basic accountability really too much to ask for?

[Joy Bhattacharjya @joybhattacharj]

"He died as the victim of his own principles, the principle of non-violence. He died because in time of disorder and general irritation in his country, he refused armed protection for himself.
It was his unshakable belief that the use of force is an evil in itself, that therefore it must be avoided by those who are striving for supreme justice to his belief. With his belief in his heart and mind, he has led a great nation on to its liberation. He has demonstrated that a powerful human following can be assembled not only through the cunning game of the usual political manoeuvres and trickery but through the cogent example of a morally superior conduct of life.
The admiration for Mahatma Gandhi in all countries of the world rests on that recognition."
Albert Einstein

[Bilal Ahmad || बिलाल अहमद @BilalShabbu]

ख़ान अब्दुल ग़फ्फार खान हमेशा अपने साथ एक कपड़े की गठरी (थैला) रखते थे। उनकी गठरी में आखिर क्या था जिसे वह किसी को नही सौंपते थे। जब 1969 मे गांधी जन्म शताब्दी पर इंदिरा जी के विशेष आग्रह पर खान अब्दुल गफ्फार खां ईलाज के लिए भारत आये तो हवाई अड्डे पर उन्हें लेने इंदिरा जी और जे॰पी॰ नारायण जी खुद आए । बादशाह ख़ान जब हवाई जहाज से बाहर आये तो उनके हाथ में वही पोटली थी जिसके बारे मे गांधी जी मज़ाक़ करते थे । मिलते ही श्रीमती गांधी ने पोटली की तरफ हाथ बढ़ाया - इसे हमे दीजिये ,हम ले चलते हैं, बादशाह ख़ान ठहरे, बड़े ठंढे मन से बोले - यही तो बचा है, इसे भी ले लोगी ?
उनका यह एक वाक्य विभाजन, मातृभूमि से बिछोह और जीवन भर के त्याग का गहरा दर्द बयां कर गया। अर्थात बँटवारे का पूरा दर्द ख़ान साब की इस बात से बाहर आ गया । जे॰पी॰ नारायण और इंदिरा जी दोनों ने सिर झुका लिया । जे॰पी अपने आप को संभाल न पाये ,उनकी आँख से आंसू गिर रहे थे।

1985 मे कांग्रेस स्थापना शताब्दी के अवसर पर तत्कालीन प्रधानमंत्री राजीव गांधी ने उन्हे विशेष अतिथि के रूप मे पुनः आमंत्रित किया और इसके लिए तत्कालीन पाकिस्तान के तानाशाह प्रधानमंत्री जिया उल हक़ को उन्हे भारत आने की इजाजत देने के लिए कहा
जब बादशाह ख़ान भारत आए तब भी उनके हाथो मे वही पोटली थी जो पिछली बार 1969 मे इंदिरा गांधी के आमंत्रण पर वो साथ लाये थे राजीव गांधी इस पोटली के बारे जानते थे उन्होने बादशाह ख़ान से कहा आपने कभी महात्मा गांधी और इंदिरा जी को ये पोटली को हाथ भी नही लगाने दिया लेकिन अगर आप चाहे तो क्या मै इस पोटली को खोल कर देख सकता हूँ ? बादशाह ख़ान ने हँस कर अपने पठानी अंदाज़ मे कहा “ तु तो हमारा बच्चा है... देख ले ... नही तो सभी सोचते होंगे पता नही बादशाह इस पोटली मे क्या छुपाए फिरता है “ जब राजीव गांधी ने पोटली खोल कर देखा तो उसमे सिर्फ दो जोड़ी लाल कुर्ता-पाजामा थे”
और 1987 मे प्रधानमंत्री राजीव गांधी सरकार द्वारा उन्हे भारत रत्न से नवाज़ा गया ।

महात्मा गांधी के सत्य अहिंसा के सिद्धांतो का एक ऐसा पुजारी जिसका नाम तो बादशाह खा़न लेकिन फक़ीरो की तरह तमाम उम्र सिर्फ दो जोड़ी कुर्ता पाजामा के साथ जिंदगी गुजार दी जबकि वह अलीगढ़ विश्वविद्यालय से पढ़ा लिखा, पख़्तून के एक ज़मीदार का बेटा था और जिसका भाई लंदन से डाक्टर बन कर आया था और पख़्तून का मुख्यमंत्री था, फिर भी खान साहब की सादगी दिल छू लेती है। सलाम है ऐसी महान शख्सियत को..!!

[Shiv Aroor @ShivAroor]

This is Wg Cdr Namansh Syal’s father.

The quiet love, unassuming dignity of the families of service personnel will never cease to numb me. To them, remember, it wasn’t just a soldier, but a child.

They are a different kind. And we owe them answers. 💔

[Siddharth @SidSapien]

Terribly shameful! Disgusting 🤮
It's so hard to reconcile with the fact that decades after Independence, our politics has stooped to such low heights today while there was a time when we had visionary and non-sectarian leaders like Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Ambedkar, and Bose.

[Ashok Singhal @TheAshokSinghal]

Bihar approves Gobi farming ✅

[MG 🇮🇳 @mgnayak5]

Proud of our Army 💪

*A Heartwarming Story From Indian Army*

One Grizzly Bear (Himalayan Brown Bear) family used to visit us at xxxx post in Siachen. Initially, only during nights.

We started keeping food for the family.
Their confidence in us developed over a period, and they even started coming during day.

There was also a bear cub about an year old. It used to come with his mother, but after about 6 months, it was either deserted by the mother or got lost. Then it started roaming alone, but it had problems, since the dogs in the post wouldn't let it come close.

When we saw this, we started tying the dogs. The confidence grew and it started to come close.

We named him Bahadur after the Company's name- Bahadur Company.

For a few days, we couldn't see Bahadur. One day, one of my posts, which used get cut off due to 60 feet of snow, reported that Bahadur is roaming around with his head stuck in a tin box.

This post was about 800 metres from my Company Headquarter.

I took 6 boys with me and went to rescue the bear myself. It's not that I wasn't concerned about boys safety; but I still decided to do the rescue.

When we reached the place, the bear was roaming with the tin box around its head, over a cornice probably without food for last 3 days. It was making circles on the cornice. _(Cornice - An overhanging mass of hardened snow at the edge of a mountain precipice.)_

Basically, cornice is a false extension of ground made by hard snow over a period of time, and it can't take too much weight.
It can break off and can lead to an Avalanche.

So, it was very difficult to go closer to the bear to rescue it.

I found the lightest boy from my group and briefed him to go close to the bear and tie the rope around his neck.

We also tied a rope to the waist also to pull him in case the cornice breaks down.

This boy was nervous to get close to the bear.

After about over 3 mins, I decided to rescue the bear on my own.

The bear was approached by me on my knees and I pulled him out of the cornice as quickly as possible to avoid breaking off the cornice.

After bringing the bear to safety, we tied it with ropes to take it to our xxxx post, where we could release him after removing the tin box.

It took almost a kind of surgery to cut the tin box without damaging the ears and neck of the bear.

We gave him food and released him after taking all safety precautions. When we released him, he didn't go away for a good 3 hours.

But after that it became part of my Company.

Whenever we shouted his name -Bahadur, it always appeared from nowhere.

It still comes to the post for food.

Although the Story is very Heartwarming, please do also take a moment to appreciate the very difficult conditions and the environment the Indian Army is guarding our Borders. Furthermore, do also see and acknowledge the accommodation they are staying with bare minimum amenities. It takes a special kind of men to do this.

A big Salute to the Soldiers of the Indian Army. Jai Hind!

Some videos👇🏼

[Siddharth @SidSapien]

@Jairam_Ramesh Yes, it's a fact that is unfortunately not widely known. I had quoted a translated excerpt from Nehru's Hindustani oration in my book Founding Generations: https://t.co/uumk9P30Mw

[Sanjeev Sanyal @sanjeevsanyal]

In the latest Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute's Democracy Report 2025, which assesses 179 countries based on data up to 2024, Nepal and India are ranked as follows:
Nepal: 55th out of 179 countries (LDI score: 0.52). It is classified as an electoral democracy.
India: 100th out of 179 countries (LDI score: 0.29). It is classified as an electoral autocracy and undergoing autocratization.

[Siddharth @SidSapien]

Even in 2025, #Odisha govt splurges taxpayer money on front-page ads in #IndianExpress Chandigarh edition (not even Odisha!) just to thank PM Modi for approving a road project. Plain vanity and nonsense!

[Joy Bhattacharjya @joybhattacharj]

Imagine a man working on a project for 32 years. Something that broke his health, sent him to jail. Something he starved for, got beaten for, and yet finally accomplished
32 years on, he was a key player in one of the greatest achievements in modern history. And on 14 th August 1947, when the world was watching on the day of his triumph, where was Mahatma Gandhi?
In Calcutta, staying in Hyderi Mansion, trying his very best to ensure communal harmony in the most volatile areas. Far away from the flags and the grand ceremonies and the speeches.
It takes a unique man to walk away from what he worked for that long, but in his mind, that job was done, and it was now about saving as many people as people as they were uprooted and thrown asunder in that terrible partition.
I know it's not fashionable to appreciate Gandhi nowadays, but I often go back to his life and works. And sincerely believe what Einstein said, that in time to come people will scarcely believe that a man such as this walked on the face of this planet.

[Major D P Singh @MajDPSingh]

We asked him to come on Rakhi, he said he can't as he is on duty but he promised to come on diwali.

L/Nk Pritpal Singh, however came back draped in tricolour.

He was married just 5 months ago.

वाहेगुरु दिवंगत आत्मा नू अपने चरणा च वास बक्शे
Jai hind 🇮🇳 🤲

https://t.co/7s6qVrplK2

[वरुण 🇮🇳 @varungrover]

It’s not that patriarchy only hates women falling in love with a man of their choice - patriarchy hates women having ANY choice.

In this case, tennis.

[वरुण 🇮🇳 @varungrover]

The amazing thing is this is not even a shocking news. Just the normal, acceptable state of things.

[Go Himachal @GoHimachal_]

Respected Sir,

Himachal is currently under floods death toll is more than Texas.

#prayforhimachal

[वरुण 🇮🇳 @varungrover]

Every day at least 7 people die on this train network because of overcrowding or other systemic faults - that’s more than 2500 deaths per year! (I have survived a rib fracture and a pushed/thrown on the platform myself in the last decade.)

Mumbai Local needs a rush-hour solution but nobody cares because our kings are busy attacking comedians or dividing people on religion or legalising corruption.