Rashmi kalia

Writer | Associate Professor | Challenging selective outrage, media narratives & institutional failures. Evidence over ideology.

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

“Sorry… what was the protest about again?”#sonamwangchuk

The spectacle has become bigger than the cause.

Mission accomplished—for everyone except the protest itself.

[Sudhir Chaudhary @sudhirchaudhary]

A protest draws strength from moral authority and honesty,not political scripting and choreography. When the cause appears secondary to the agenda, credibility fades and the movement loses its force.
Any protest without credibility is just noise.
Why Abhijit Dipte’s protest is losing credibility and impact? My analysis.
#SonamWangchuk

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

What is tougher for Modi?
#Punjab or #Punjabi

@sumbly

[Nikhil saini @iNikhilsaini]

Leave political ideologies aside for a moment you’ve got to appreciate how Modiji and BJP prepare themselves completely for every election. Punjab isn’t easy, but he’s still giving it his all but that accent 😭is literally every non-Punjabi guy after entering Chd in the first few days.

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

Madam @BDUTT

Bollywood is an entertainment industry—not India’s moral compass.

When Deepika Padukone stood silently at JNU, Bollywood’s political voice was treated as consequential enough to spark nationwide debate, boycotts, and endless prime-time discussions.

Today, we are told to count which actors have or haven’t spoken on Sonam Wangchuk’s fast.

Perhaps the real question is: why do we keep outsourcing our civic conscience to #bollywood celebrities?

A cause does not become more just because an actor endorses it, nor less just because they remain silent.

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

Before we say that #WestBengal is not safe under the #BJP government, let’s take a look at this chronology

Major crimes against women during Mamata Banerjee’s tenure as Chief Minister (2011–2026)

• 5 February 2012 – #ParkStreet rape case. The survivor’s allegations and the government’s initial response drew nationwide criticism.

• 7 June 2013 – #Kamduni gang rape and murder of a college student. Statewide protests followed, with the case becoming a defining law-and-order issue.

• 4 April 2022 – #Hanskhali: A 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped and later died. The Calcutta High Court transferred the investigation to the CBI.

• January–February 2024 – #Sandeshkhali: Multiple women accused local strongmen of sexual assault, intimidation and land grabbing, triggering national attention.

• 9 August 2024 – #RGKar Medical College & Hospital: A postgraduate doctor was raped and murdered inside a government hospital, sparking nationwide protests by doctors and citizens.

No government should be judged by one crime alone.
@BJP4India
@BJP4Bengal

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

#Trust

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

@TinyDhillon And no one can look as handsome as them…hands down ❤️

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

When the police say they’re “cracking down on chain snatchers,” they apparently forgot to specify which department.

[DANIK KHABAR ( दैनिक खबर ) @KhabarDani18724]

पंचकूलार: सेक्टर-5 में युवती से सोने की चेन झपटकर भाग रहा SPO गिरफ्तार, निजी कार सवार ASI और पत्नी न https://t.co/RRlJwGv36B

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

Concealed number plates. Conflicting accounts on who was driving.

First there was an adult accused. Now police say a juvenile may actually have been driving the Mercedes.

The Chandigarh hit-and-run case is becoming less about a single collision and more about whether the truth can survive influence.

India has seen this script before.

#Chandigarh #HitAndRun #RoadSafety #Justice

[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.

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

Ridiculing what millions hold sacred is not wit, reason, or civility. It’s plain disrespect.

Hindu scriptures have long regarded cow urine as sacred and used it in rituals such as Panchagavya. The Mahabharata even narrates a tradition in which Goddess Lakshmi comes to reside in the cow’s dung and urine, symbolising purity and auspiciousness.

Critique ideas if you wish, but stop confusing contempt with intelligence.
@AnupamPKher

[Ravleen Kaur Gill @_ArdabMutiyaar]

Kon sa flavor peeto ho @AnupamPKher Bhakt 😉

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

No she did not rip him apart…she made a very insulting and derogatory comment on aged people and also body shamed people who are bald.

If ridicule is your first instinct, perhaps the problem isn’t the target—it’s your idea of civility.

Is there a respectful way to respond to a senior, respectful actor with whom you have a difference of opinion?
@AnupamPKher

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

@deepchauhan45 much more soundly than you

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

@BJP4India Completely distasteful.#rahulgandhi may not be a strong candidate now for the prime ministership but this kind of propaganda is extremely distasteful.

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

A familiar script.

1999 – #DelhiBMW: Six killed. Conviction. Final imprisonment: about 2 years for six dead, including 3 Delhi Police personnel.

2002 – #SalmanKhan hit-and-run: One killed. Trial court conviction. High Court acquittal.

2024 – #PunePorsche: Two young IT professionals killed. Trial pending.

2026 – Delhi (#SahilDhaneshra): A 23-year-old killed. Minor allegedly behind the wheel. Chargesheet filed. Case pending.

2026 – #ChandigarhMercedes: Two men injured. Juvenile allegedly behind the wheel. Bail granted. Investigation continues.

Different facts. Different outcomes.

“Big cars. Powerful names. The same doubts about equal justice.”

@jomalhotra
@BDUTT
@vinayak_ramesh
@thetribunechd

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

From the BMW hit-and-run to the latest Chandigarh luxury car case, the question remains the same:

Why does justice seem to slow down the moment the accused steps out of an expensive car?

#Justice cannot have one speed for luxury cars and another for everyone else.

#equaljustice
#ruleoflaw

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

“#Dowrydeaths no longer spark public anger or debate is a disturbing and sweeping assertion by an established scholar, based at King’s college, London.

However, sweeping claims demand equally robust evidence.

I have no objection to scholars based outside India making statements on the women’s movement in India. But when someone declares that dowry deaths “no longer spark public anger or debate,” the obvious question is: where is the evidence?

Is this conclusion based on longitudinal protest data, media analysis, parliamentary records, or public opinion surveys? Or is it an interpretive assertion presented as an empirical fact?

If it is the latter, readers deserve that distinction to be made clear.

@guardian @guardiannews

#DowryDeaths #EvidenceMatters

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

And you my dear, should not even call yourself a Jatt.
Because no Jatt i have ever known in my life speaks with such disrespect.
And yes i am a true #punjabi. What do you know about #Punjab?
Let me enlighten you.
Gabru in Punjabi means a handsome, confident young man and definitely not the disrespectful boy that you are.

[Rashmi kalia @UnborrowedPen]

What is the recipe for being an “expert mother”?
Is it as simple as making halwa?
What are the ingredients?