आज एक हालिया बने भूतपूर्व मुख्यमंत्री के नाम से प्रधानमंत्री जी की तारीफ़ में कसीदे लिखे गए आलेख को एक अंग्रेज़ी दैनिक में छपवाया गया। किसी ने जाकर उनसे कहा कि ऐसा एक आलेख आया है आपके नाम से। उन भूतपूर्व साहब ने पूछा..आयँ आयँ…कब? कहाँ? कैसे हुआ? किसने किया?
ख़ैर जय हिन्द
अब तक ममता बनर्जी के 19 सांसद और 60 से अधिक विधायक टूट चुके हैं.. इस बर्बादी से तो लगता है कि बीजेपी अगले 1 साल में ही लोकसभा में अपना पूर्ण बहुमत और दोनों सदनों को मिलाकर दो-तिहाई बहुमत हासिल करना चाहती है। ताकि अगले लोकसभा चुनाव से पहले परिसीमन बिल भी पास हो जाये।
It was mid-2022. The country was still shaking off COVID. Nobody quite knew if the worst was behind us. And the political mood everywhere was the same, a kind of resigned certainty. "Waste of time, brother. Ram Mandir opens in early 2024. Elections in April. It is going to be a sweep."
Back then, I had just been made in charge of the war room for the Karnataka Assembly elections. I was wondering where we would find the courage, the technique, the language to push back against a narrative that had been years n the making.
That was when I 1st heard he had decided to walk.
Across the entire length and breadth of this country. On foo
My first thought, honestly, was, not a great idea!
His close advisers said the same. Too cumbersome. Too dangerous. Someone even proposed a hybrid-walk some of it, take vehicles for the rest. He refused every suggestion. He had one belief: that truth, when it moves on foot and looks people in the eye, will communicate what no war room ever can.
I want to tell you about one day during that walk.
Through some logistical error, the camp was erected around four kilometres ahead of the designated end point. It was hot. It was humid. The yatris who had arrived earlier were already resting.
When he reached the camp and realised what had happened, he didn't say a word. He turned back and kept walking. 4 kms. No one is ahead of him. No crowd. No cameras making a moment of it. Just a man, a road, and a principle he refused to compromise on even when no one was watching.
That image has never left me.
Now, Prof Ramachandra Guha has been writing about Rahul Gandhi's shortcomings with remarkable dedication for years. Pages and pages. Column after column. From someone who claims to be disillusioned, the output is almost impressive in its volume.
If he is truly irrelevant, truly finished, truly a lost cause, someone should ask Mr Guha why he cannot stop writing about him.
Mr Guha once wrote seriously about what it means to be an honest intellectual in a democracy. Noam Chomsky made a point that cuts close to home here, the most dangerous intellectual is not the one on anyone's payroll, but the one who arrives, through apparently careful analysis, at exactly the conclusion those in power find most convenient.
We are 10 years into something serious in ths country. Institutions that should be independent are not. Newsrooms that once asked hard questions now ask different ones. Dissent is treated as disruption.
Many of the people now writing sharp pieces about RG's leadership once wrote sharp pieces about exactly this machinery. They were right then. The question worth asking is, what changed?!
Let me be plain about what this moment actually is for us.
This is not an election cycle. This is a war b/w two visions of what this country is and who it belongs to.
One vision believes this country is for everybody. That its diversity is not a problem to be managed but a truth to be celebrated. The other operates on fear & hierarchy, with a precision and discipline that Mr Guha, from his comfortable cocoon, seems to find more analytically interesting than morally troubling.
Mr Guha can remain on his pedestal of privilege. That is his right.
But millions of people who have no such luxury, who live with the consequences of this moment every single day, have already made their judgement. They are following the one person they know will never leave their side. The one person they know will fight this till the end.
Not because he is perfect. Not because he wins every battle. But because he is the one person who walks kilometres when no one is watching.
History will record ths moment. It will record who stood where when the fire was visible & the smoke was being diagnosed. It will record who had the courage to walk & who had the comfort to write. It will record the millions who followed a man into uncertainty because they trusted his spine more than they feared the road ahead.
Truth does not need a column!
When there is nothing to hide, there is nothing to fear.
What happens to India’s image when the world sees a compromised PM panic and run from a few questions?
@BJP4India 2022 में अचानक से डीजल का रेट 60 रुपए से 90 रूपये किस घटिया आदमी ने किया था? 4 साल से क्रूड कौड़ियों में भाव बिक रहा था, तब दक्षिण एशिया में सबसे महंगा तेल भारत में क्यों बिक रहा था?
His name was Pradyumn Thakur.
He was 7 years old. Class 2 at Ryan International School in Gurugram, Haryana.
His father dropped him at the school gate at 7:55 am on September 8, 2017. At 8:08 am, he was found outside a washroom with his throat slit. He was rushed to hospital and declared dead on arrival.
The school did not call the police. His parents did.
Haryana Police arrived three and a half hours later.
They noticed blood stains on bus conductor Ashok Kumar. The same clothes he wore while carrying a bleeding 7 year old child to a car.
On September 10, the Police Commissioner held a press conference. He declared Ashok Kumar was the killer. He said Ashok had tried to sexually assault Pradyumn and murdered him.
The Chief Minister of Haryana congratulated the police for solving the case.
The Bar Association of Gurugram passed a resolution refusing to let any lawyer defend Ashok Kumar. The Supreme Court later disciplined them for this.
Pradyumn’s mother said from day one she believed Ashok was being framed.
CBI took over the case.
They found no forensic evidence against Ashok Kumar. No evidence of sexual assault. The gardener who was first at the scene said he saw no blood on Ashok before Ashok helped carry the child. The claimed semen sample did not exist. [Source: CBI chargesheet 2018]
In November 2017, CBI arrested the real accused. A 16 year old student at the same school. CBI said he confessed to killing Pradyumn to get his exams cancelled.
He chose his victim randomly.
Ashok Kumar was acquitted of all charges on February 28, 2018. [Source: Child Special Court Gurugram judgment February 28, 2018]
In January 2021, CBI charged four Gurugram Police officers with framing Ashok Kumar. Falsifying documents. Torture. Criminal conspiracy. [Source: CBI chargesheet January 2021]
Those four officers have not been convicted.
The Police Commissioner who declared Ashok guilty on television faced no consequences. The Chief Minister who congratulated police faced no consequences.
Pradyumn’s family is still waiting for justice for their son.
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@DrJaihind बहुत भारी संघर्ष कर दिया आपने तो पुलिस वाले से बहस करके।
इस संघर्ष के एहसान तले कहीं समाज दब ना जाये।
अब तो आपको मिशन मैन के बाद सामाजिक न्याय योद्धा की उपाधि दे दी जानी चाहिए।
30+ artists including me were summoned by authorities for being on Latent.
The whole comedy fraternity took a hit because of how stupid you’re. Shows were canceled, Venues pulled out, Judgements made, the pathetic shadow of your stupidity still continues to make lives of funny comedians difficult. You didn’t even care to understand that side.
Stop pretending to be the nice guy you’re not. Take your cheque’s,
lower your gaze & be very ashamed.
You’re a contraceptive for creativity,
stop milking this & go back to what you do best which is being a hurdle for upward social change while FraudCasting & clout chasing…