Unite against Hate

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[Unite against Hate @StopyourHatred]

Powerful speech of periyar on why secularism is so important....

[Stanly Johny @johnstanly]

As an Indian, I have a selfish interest to see this deal go through. I hope the US manages to rein in netanyahu and force the Israelis to pull back from occupied southern Lebanon -- this is the key. If Israel leaves Lebanon, Hesbollah should be prevented from attacking Israel any more. If netanyahu is not relenting, trump should do what Eisenhower did during the Suez war or what Carter or Reagan did during the Camp David Talks or the Beirut bombing, respectively.

I also hope Iran shows strategic restraint, avoids overreaction to netanyahu's deliberate sabotaging efforts and stays in the diplomatic process. The only card netanyahu has at this point, besides the lobby, is Lebanon. The Iranians should let the Americans deal with it. It would be foolish to respond militarily or suspend talks. A return to war is not in anybody's interest-- except Isarel's. Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman should be open for all shipping.

Hold the levers of pressure; but let the diplomatic wheel move.

[RAHUL @RahulSeeker]

. #RahulGandhi turns 56 today. 17 years ago he was 39, at AMU a Muslim girl student asked him a bit uneasy question. He was far less experienced back then.

No notes. No teleprompter. No interpreter. Just pure, direct answer.
Listen. 🎧

[Awesome Videos ❤️ @Awesomevideos07]

Gender equality ends right here 🔥😭

[🇱🇧 @lebanesesami]

israel planted soccer balls in Lebanon for the kids to grab that are actually bombs. And these aren’t the most hateful evil people to exist?

[Ana Kasparian @AnaKasparian]

Israel is a terrorist state and a perpetual obstacle to peace. They’re unmatched in their dedication in flaunting treachery every single day.

Slaughtering people in Lebanon to sabotage peace with Iran was expected. Iran should retaliate as promised and we should all closely examine how Trump responds.

[HealthRanger @HealthRanger]

Trump should now demand the immediate and unconditional surrender of Israel. Use Special Forces to arrest its top leaders and prosecute them for war crimes. This is the real path to ending the war. The U.S. military could not defeat Iran, but it can certainly defeat what remains of the IDF.

[Megatron @Megatron_ron]

BREAKING: 🇮🇱🇱🇧 Israel started a ground invasion again in Southern Lebanon tonight

A huge battle ongoing with an enormous amount of Israeli casualties

Israel is advancing from three different routes towards the Ali al-Taher Hills area.

4 Israeli military vehicles are completely destroyed

Hezbollah fires AD missiles at warplanes & bombards evacuation sites for the injured soldiers.

Non-stop med-evac helicopter flights, as Hezbollah engages soldiers directly at zero distance while also throwing waves of rockets & artillery at the invading occupation forces.

[Joe Kent @joekent16jan19]

This is exactly what needs to happen.

[Subbu Iyer / ಸುಬ್ಬು ಅಯ್ಯರ್ @kskiyer]

If Indians were educated, Modi wouldn't have become a PM for 3 terms.

[Lakshmi Ramachandran @laksr_tn]

This person joined the Congress party 3 years back. She was a Makkal Needhi Maiam (Kamalhassan's party) candidate in the 2021 elections. I also got to know from colleagues that she had a brief stint in the BJP before joining the Congress. After taking a few photographs with Rahulji during Bharat Jodo Yatra she became a national secretary in IYC. I am curious to know what her contributions were in Coimbatore or nationally to the Congress organisation.

I am not at all surprised by an election tourist like her dumping the Congress after a defeat.

What is appalling for long term Congress workers like us is on what basis our leadership @SPK_TNCC decided to get the Singanallur seat for an election tourist like her?

2/28 seats were given for women to contest and she got one!

Will any lesson ever be learnt?

@UdayBhanuIYC
@girishgoaINC
@kcvenugopalmp
@RahulGandhi
@kharge

[Sushant Singh @SushantSin]

India Is Importing More Retired British Jaguars to Keep Its Ageing Strike Fleet Airborne... these Anglo-French fighters needed around 20 hours of maintenance for each hour of flight.

This is the state of affairs with India's national security

https://t.co/dDfWrpr3La

[Rana Ayyub @RanaAyyub]

Haha, even Kaja Kallas. “Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says he’s cutting off all contact with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, accusing her of “acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness” towards Israel”.

[Stanly Johny @johnstanly]

"What is your exact proposal? You’re a country of nine million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.” -- J.D. Vance to Israel

[Amitabh Dubey @dubeyamitabh]

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stated in a Bloomberg interview that the India AI Summit was "extremely disorganised".

About the chaos on stage: "There was Narendra Modi up there suddenly telling everyone to hold hands..." (collapses with laughter).

[vir sanghvi @virsanghvi]

Sharp Edge: How can so called secular, liberal politicians suddenly forget every terrible thing they have said about the BJP & its ideology & suddenly change sides & defect?
It’s happening in Bengal now. But it has happened all over India for years. It’s not just Hemanta Biswa Sharma who went from being a’secular’ Congress leader to becoming the BJP’s Muslim baiter. The BJP is full of former Congressmen who have abandoned their principles & been lured away by the promise of power & riches.
Ultimately it is the conscience-less greed & hypocrisy of bogus ‘Secular’ politicians, who abandon ideology as soon as they get a better offer, that keeps the BJP flourishing

https://t.co/df6udz4OAq

[Aarti Tikoo Singh @AartiTikoo]

US President Trump schools Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu in humanity and considers Hezbollah and Al Qaeda more humane than Bibi. That’s a major turning point in history—finally, curtains closing on the Western neocon policy and narrative that has run for the last 35 years. But more importantly, the US-led West is steering in a new direction, preempting the future and preparing itself for a newer world. Absolutely extraordinary!

[Pearson abraham/பியர்சன் @pearsonlenekar]

"AIADMK didn't lose Vijayabaskar to TVK. It lost him to its own indecision and ego"

With C. Vijayabaskar's resignation, this is not merely the exit of a former minister or a four-time MLA from Viralimalai. It is the departure of one of AIADMK's last remaining heavyweight leaders in the central region. Almost none left now.

What makes this different from other recent exits is the way it unfolded.

For weeks, Vijayabaskar kept the door open for reconciliation. He held discussions with the party leadership and even delayed handing over the keys of the Pudukkottai district party office, hoping a compromise could be reached. None came.

During that period, he remained visible on the ground attending thanksgiving meetings- voters, family functions, cadre gatherings and local events. Even took his supporters to a tour to Kutralam. Rather than appearing isolated, he ensured his supporters remained close and engaged throughout the uncertainty.

By the time his resignation came, the political narrative in Pudukkottai had already shifted. Many of his supporters had begun viewing him as a leader denied accommodation by the party leadership rather than a leader abandoning the party. Unlike the 4 MLAs from AIADMK exited and joined TVK

More importantly, Vijayabaskar is not leaving alone.

Along with him, 24 union secretaries, eight town secretaries, around 40 district-level functionaries and several current and former office-bearers are walking out. That is not an individual resignation. It is the movement of a large section of AIADMK's organisational structure in Pudukkottai.

For years, Vijayabaskar built and consolidated AIADMK's presence in the district. Networks of that scale cannot be recreated overnight.

Pudukkottai was one of AIADMK's strongest strongholds. Today, that stands shaken.

Whether Vijayabaskar formally joins TVK or not, the political direction appears increasingly clear. His supporters have already passed resolutions welcoming such a move.

AIADMK may eventually find another district secretary, another MLA candidate, but rebuilding the political ecosystem that is to walk out with Vijayabaskar could take years.

#AIADMK #Vijayabaskar #Pudukkottai #TVK #TamilNaduPolitics #EPS

[Ćŕəýæťìvə©️ 🕊 @Creyative2]

Why isn't Fuel prices of Gas Petrol and Diesel not decreasing to pre iran war rates, as the Crude oil price is now at Pre Iran war rates.

LootUS party.

[Ajay Kamath @ajay43]

Suddenly, with this new MoU, Iran has gained so much that it will desperately want it to hold. It is unlikely to allow itself to get provoked easily by Israel

[Nirupama Menon Rao 🇮🇳 @NMenonRao]

How would #China have put across the seafarer issue if they had been similarly targeted as Indian seafarers were?

Here’s my take:

China would almost certainly have handled it differently, though perhaps not in the way many Indians imagine.

I think there would have been three layers to the Chinese response.

Publicly

The Foreign Ministry spokesperson would likely have issued a statement within hours.

Something along the lines of:

“China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and grave concern over the loss of Chinese lives. We demand a thorough investigation, a full explanation, and effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens and commercial shipping.”

The key point is that China would probably have named the incident directly and made the nationality of the victims central to the story.

The deaths themselves would become the headline.

Diplomatically

The US ambassador would almost certainly have been summoned.

Beijing would demand:

an explanation,
an investigation,
assurances against recurrence,
and probably compensation.

Whether China expected all of those demands to be met is another matter.

The purpose would be to demonstrate that the Chinese state visibly protects Chinese nationals.

Politically

The Chinese system is highly conscious of optics.

State media would likely have:

profiled the sailors,
interviewed families,
highlighted China’s diplomatic actions,
emphasised the state’s determination to protect its citizens.

The narrative would be:

“The Chinese government is acting decisively.”

But here’s the important caveat

Would China actually have jeopardised its broader relationship with the United States over the incident?

Probably not.

That is where many comparisons become misleading.

When American aircraft collided with a Chinese fighter near Hainan in 2001, Beijing protested fiercely, but ultimately sought a managed outcome.

When Chinese citizens have been killed in Pakistan, Africa, or elsewhere, Beijing has often combined strong rhetoric with pragmatic diplomacy.

The public tone and the private calculations are not always the same thing.

The deeper difference

The real difference is not necessarily policy.

It is narrative.

China tends to project strength through public language.

India tends to project responsibility through restraint.

One can argue that China’s approach creates deterrence.

One can equally argue that India’s approach preserves flexibility.

But they are different traditions.

The awkward comparison for India

The reason many Indians are uncomfortable today is because we have spent years cultivating the image of a more assertive India.

That naturally invites comparison.

People ask:

If China would have publicly demanded accountability, why didn’t India?

The answer is probably that New Delhi judged that the larger stakes—Hormuz, Iran, trade talks, the Modi-Trump meeting, and the broader relationship with Washington—outweighed the benefits of public escalation.

Whether that judgment was correct is a legitimate subject of debate.

But if you ask me what would have looked different, it is this:

China would almost certainly have made the deaths the centrepiece of its public diplomacy. India made them one element of a larger conversation about maritime security, stability, and the protection of civilians.

That is the sharpest contrast. Not necessarily in what was done, but in what was seen to be done.