Anand Ranganathan

Author: Land of the Wilted Rose; Love and Honour; Rat Eater; Soufflé; Hindus in Hindu Rashtra. Consulting Editor: Swarajya. RT ≠ Endorsement

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

Reservations: Where We Came From, Where We Stand, What Must Change

My detailed analysis, featuring a five-point formula as an overarching solution acceptable to every rational Indian:

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

Palmitoylation is essential for Leishmania donovani, the dreaded parasite that causes kala-azar. Here, my lab and that of Prof @shailjasingh75 discover a molecule that targets palmitoylation and blocks parasite survival and infectivity.

Link to paper: https://t.co/LHPE6Oe06e

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

Improving BCG vaccine. Discovery from @dasgobardhan's and my lab in the wake of recent BCG efficacy data from UK. https://t.co/3pRFXVH7n7

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

Happy to share exciting findings from my lab and that of Prof @dasgobardhan, that Tretinoin - a drug used to treat acne - not only kills TB but also greatly improves the efficacy of the anti-TB drug Isoniazid, accelerating M. tuberculosis clearance. https://t.co/G8sJxkN14B

[inmunoes @inmunoes]

A palmitoylation-related signature predicts prognosis and immune microenvironment features in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma https://t.co/2KXZa5dJQf #FrontImmunol

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

IIT Bombay, the institute Prof Doolla gave his life to, knew this. And yet it retracted its original statement now corroborated by the CCTV footage, dismissed Prof Doolla from deanship, sent him on indefinite leave, and never once condemned the FIR on him under the SC/ST act.

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

For all those who emerged from our education system with degrees in the Humanities but did not become communists, leftists, entitled little whackjobs - I have nothing but respect.

You must have read the same biased books, had the same sociopaths as peers; how did you manage it?

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

Development and emancipation of one community cannot be at the cost of another community. Discrimination should be terminated, not transferred.

A draconian law and its enforcement on campuses will offer India's finest minds a choice - leave science, or leave the country.

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

Two lives have tragically ended at IIT Bombay: one of the student, the other of the teacher. One physical, the other professional.

My views:

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

"IIT Humanities departments are saturated with individuals committed to undermining India. Our premier institutions are becoming havens for Urban Naxal sympathisers."

A timely warning by @JNU_official_50 VC. An essay of stunning clarity that must be read. https://t.co/HmZdMSU5kf

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

Dr Doolla is an acclaimed professor of Energy Sciences at IIT Bombay. An MTech and a PhD from IIT, he has received excellence in teaching award twice. He recently caught a student cheating. The student committed suicide.

Dr Doolla has now been charged under the SC/ST Act.

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

Javed Akhtar claims Sholay's temple scene where Lord Shiva and Hinduism were mocked can't be screened in today's India.

Wrong, Javed saab. You can screen it even today, just that in today's India, Hindus will ask you why you never had the guts to mock Allah or Islam similarly.

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

The same Congress that back in March and August flagged the zero-MDR UPI model as financially unsustainable and demanded a calibrated and tiered MDR on high-value transactions, is today opposing it.

Here, I expose these hypocrites and separate fact from fiction on the UPI issue:

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

Dear @Javedakhtarjadu. I'm afraid your response is as boring and overloaded as your similes and metaphors. When countered with facts, you shift the goalpost, bring in the RSS, berate the right wing, take refuge in context, cushion the bigotry, and claim Kafirs were Colonialists not Hindus.

I know countering you again is like watering a cactus and praying for leechis, but in the hope that all that knee massaging with Doctor Ortho would have sprouted some neurons, here goes:

You asked for a source because you said the quote was “quite unlike” Azad’s “lifelong sociopolitical stances.” I gave you the source: Calcutta, 27 October 1914, published in Khutbat-e-Azad. The words are his. That should have ended the enquiry. It did not. So let us walk through your new script, line by line.

1. “The khutbats were about Khilafat and British colonialism.”

Yes. That is what I wrote. Maulana Azad was telling Indian Muslims that a Turk’s battlefield thorn must be felt in a Hindustani Muslim’s heart; that Millat-e-Islam is one body; that friendship and enmity are for the religion of Allah. Then he quoted Quran 48:29 and added his own gloss: be extremely hard against disbelievers, extremely kind among yourselves, and do not pass over this as if you had not heard it. You asked for the when and where. You received both. “It was about Khilafat” is not a rebuttal. It is the context in which he said it.

2. “To claim he was quoting this about the Hindus of India will not be true. The Kafir here was the colonialist.”

I did not say the 1914 speech was a municipal circular against the Hindus of Howrah. I quoted what Azad quoted: a Quranic verse about kuffar, and his commentary on unbelief, Tawhid, and hardness toward disbelievers. If Azad had meant “kafir = only the British officer,” he knew Urdu enough to say Angrez. He did not. He used the Book’s word, then told his flock not to skip it.

And if “kafir” in Azad’s mouth was a temporary colonial nickname, kindly explain the 1920 Hijrat fatwa, published in Ahl-e-Hadith of Amritsar, in which he said Indian Muslims had no choice but to migrate, and that those who stayed and kept connection with “the enemy of Islam” would themselves be counted as the enemy of Islam. That is not a lecture on income-tax collectors. That is a theology of the land.

3. “When Ataturk took over, Azad called it a closed chapter and condoned the secular government.”

Men change. Texts do not. If later Azad made peace with the death of the Caliphate, good for the later Azad. It does not unsay 1914, nor the Khilafat years, nor Masala-e-Khilafat, nor the call that any government hostile to Turkey was hostile to Islam, not the belief in the Quranic verse damning the Kafirs. You began by saying the paragraph was unlike his lifelong stances. Lifelong includes the years he spent as a pan-Islamist firebrand. Evolution is not an eraser. It is a timeline.

4. “Read his Calcutta High Court statement. An honour no member of the Mahasabha or RSS was ever given.”

Sedition charges from the Raj are not a unique family heirloom. Tilak got them. Aurobindo got them. Savarkar was given two life terms and sent to Cellular Jail, where the honour included the oil mill, the lash, and years in a cell the size of a cupboard.

And of course, knowing your pitiful knowledge of Indian History, I guess you would not know legendary RSS names like Devipad Chaudhary, Jagatpati Kumar, Anna Saheb Deshpande, Ramakant Keshav, Vasantrao Oak, Narayan Singh, Chandrakant Bhardwaj, Dada Naik Chimur, Baburao Begade, Lala Hansraj, Balaji Raipurkar who participated in our freedom struggle and were jailed or shot.

5. “Azad was in British jails for nine years. Name one from your right wing who can match that.”

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar: roughly a decade in Kala Pani, further years in mainland jails, then thirteen years of internment in Ratnagiri. Sentence on paper: fifty years. Conditions: not Ahmednagar Fort with time to write Ghubar-e-Khatir.

By the way, you might know that your great-great-grandfather Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi was also incarcerated at Kala Pani. What you might not know, or would want to hide, is that he wrote a grovelling mercy petition to the British, pleading to be released.

6. “In 1946 Jinnah refused to shake Azad’s hand. He hated Azad for his patriotism.”

How does this turn “be severe against the kafirs, merciful among themselves” into a sonnet about communal harmony? A man can spend 1946 refusing Partition and still have spent 1914 telling Indian Muslims that their first body is the ummah. Fairness is holding both pages open. What you are doing is hiding the 1914 page and waving the 1946 one like a flag.

7. “Your reference to Rahul Gandhi was unnecessary, I expect decency and class.”

And I expected you to have some sense of humour. The PS was a reminder that this is the second time I have had to fetch your hero’s paperwork. Last time it was Nehru’s India: books banned, editors sacked, films blocked, Majrooh jailed for a couplet.

You lecture me on class after moving from “this cannot be Azad” to “it is Azad but you must read kafir as colonialist” to “anyway he went to jail” to “Jinnah was rude to him” to “please don’t mention Rahul.” That is not class. That is a guided tour of every exit except the text.

Look, Javed sahab, let us end this here. I like you. Doubtless a lot of your work is incredible, truly it is. So in that spirit, permit me to pen an ode to you:

Javed Akhtar ko dekha toh aisa laga, jaise chhal ka nawab, jaise jhoot ki kitaab, jaise dhong ki kiran, jaise adambar ka van, jaise kapton ki baat, jaise pakhand ki raat, jaise janpath mein ho ek jalta diya.

Alvida, Shabba khair. WDTP

[Javed Akhtar @Javedakhtarjadu]

Sir the khutbats were about the khlilafat and British colonialism. To claim that Maulana Azad was quoting this about the Hindus of Indian will be mot true The Kafir in this reference was the colonialist . When Ata Turk took over from Ottoman Empire . Maulana called the issue a closed Chapter and his statement was printed as pamphlets condoning the totally secular govt of Ata Turk by Kamal ata Turk himself . I will request you to read Azad ‘s statement in Calcutta high court where British had charged him for sedation . An honour that no member of Maha sabha or RSS was ever given . Azad has been in British jails for nine years can you name one from your right wing who can match that . In 1946 Jinnah as the president of the league ang Azad as the president of congress had a meeting with Lord Wavell . Jinnah refused to shake hand with Azad . He hated Azad for his patriotism. Let’s be fair to Azad . By the way your reference to Rahul Gandhi was totally unnecessary. It was neither true nor in a good taste i expect a certain decency and class from you . Hope you will mot disappoint me at least on that count .

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

Dear Mr Javed Akhtar. Alhamdulillah. The quote is from Maulana Azad's Calcutta Speech. The speech was published in Khutbat-e-Azad. Here is the link: https://t.co/yXkvYTTW1j

The Maulana is exhorting the Indian Muslims to unite with Muslims around the world and save the Caliphate. He begins by stating that all relationships in the world can break down, father can turn against son, brother against brother, mother can shun her child but the relationship of a Muslim with a Muslim can never be severed.

The Maulana then continues: if even a grain of the soul of Islam is still alive in its followers, then if a thorn enters the foot of a Turk on the field of battle, I swear by Allah that no Muslim of Hindustan is a Muslim until he feels that prick in his own heart. For the Millat of Islam is one body, and Muslims, wherever they are, are its limbs. If a finger of the hand is cut, the rest of the body cannot remain at peace until it has felt the blow. This is not rhetoric. It is the plain meaning of the well-known hadith which Imam Ahmad related: the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, said that the likeness of the believers in their mutual love, mercy and compassion is that of one body: when one limb complains, the whole body responds with sleeplessness and fever. And there is the other hadith, related by Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari: The believer to the believer is like a building; each part supports the other. This is the first and last distinguishing mark of the people of Islam, to which the Qur’an itself has pointed.

Then, to reinforce Muslim unity, Maulana Azad provides his commentary after quoting the Quranic verse 48: 29.

The Messenger of Allah and those with him are severe against the Kafirs, merciful among themselves.

Whatever hardness they have is for falsehood and unbelief; whatever love and tenderness they have is for truth, sincerity, Islam and Tawhid. So be extremely hard against disbelievers but extremely sympathetic and kind among ourselves; take heed, then, and do not pass over this as if you had not heard it.

P.S. This is the second time I am enlightening you on your heroes and their lifelong sociopolitical stances. The first time was when you refused to believe that books were banned, editors sacked, films blocked, and Majrooh jailed, under Nehru's rule. Please don't ask me about Gandhi next - the Mahatma, not Rahul, though both are probably your heroes. Cheers, WDTP

[Javed Akhtar @Javedakhtarjadu]

Dear Mr Anand Ranganathan . Recently In one of your reels you have read a paragraph and attributed it to Maulana Azad . I honestly found it quite unlike his life long sociopolitical stances . Could you please tell me the source of your information , is it a part of any of his article or speech . please let me know the when and where of it . I” ll be really thankful . Warmly , Javed

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

देवियों और सज्जनों, हिंदी दिवस की आप सभी को एक तमिल भाषी की ओर से हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं।

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

Barabanki, 2021. Gang rape is reported. FIR is filed without investigation. Accuser is given monetary compensation. Two men are arrested. One of them dies in jail. Four years later a court declares the entire case is fabricated.

A deep-dive into the SC/ST Act with @prasadaditi:

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

The SC/ST Act in its present form is a blot on Indian democracy. It has, exactly how the Supreme court had warned before it was overruled, become an instrument of rampant blackmail and extortion, of both the citizens and the State.

Here, I dissect its alarming weaponisation:

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

Garba celebrates the womb - Garbha. Hindus dance around a clay lamp [गर्भ दीप] symbolising the divine womb ensconced in a body.

Muslims, forbidden to worship anyone other than Allah 40:62; 17:22; 12:40; 3:64 are welcome to dance after worshipping Ma Durga [Aditi] and her womb.

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

The Indian courts simply do not get this: that millions of Muslims who pour on to the streets demanding Sar Tan Se Juda are merely following the fundamentals. They are not mad. They are not terrorists. They are not fanatics. They are law-abiding. Their law is Sharia.

My views:

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

Anticipatory bail has just been denied to @ajeetbharti in the case where the FIR against him invoked draconian SC/ST act provisions. Ajeet's remarks were a reaction to provocation involving his sister. He could be jailed for up to 7 years.

I stand with Ajeet. And so should you.

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

1200 candidates scored negative marks that were then normalised to near zero, with one candidate getting 0.003 out of 200. The judge cancelled the selection. He said minimum standards are a must even for reserved seats.

Rajasthan govt appealed. Court order has now been stayed.

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

In the last 5 years: 247,000 cases were filed under the SC/ST Act; only 20,210 cases ended in conviction; and as many as 34,300 were closed as false.

The Supreme Court, quick to flag the low conviction rate in UAPA cases, is mysteriously silent when it comes to the SC/ST act.