The Common Man

Family Man. Friend. Political Junkie. {views personal}

[Ankit Bhuptani 🏳️‍🌈 @CitizenAnkit]

Al Jazeera found a bicycle. The New York Times found a 50cc bike and a guy in shorts as India hosts the BRICS Summit.

But sure, global media has no agenda. They’re apparently just very passionate about Indian two-wheelers.

[Avinash Shishoo @laidback1954]

One reason Dev Fadnavis may never become PM of India is Amruta Fadnavis . I am no one to question her choices, but they often do not connect with most of India.

[Harsh Goenka @hvgoenka]

We spend our lives proving we don’t need anyone. “I’ll manage.” “Don’t bother.”
But there’s something called the Benjamin Franklin Effect: doing someone a favour can actually make us feel closer to them. So let your mother send the pickle. Let your father give you the money. Let your friend buy you the book.
People who love us just want to matter in our small moments. Let them. ❤️

[Prashant Gopinath Menon @PrasantGopinat]

Genz watching Rahul Gandhi Maturing.

Meanwhile bro be like 😅👇😆

[Fareed Zakaria @FareedZakaria]

Democrats are facing a dilemma: The left has the passion, but the middle still has the votes the party needs to win in general elections.

To win, Democrats don’t need to move left on economics. They need to move to the center on cultural issues.

My take:

[Kanwal Sibal @KanwalSibal]

A very harsh response from Rubio. Implicitly justifying the killing of Indian mariners.

The US is not upholding peace and security in the Strait. Iran may not be innocent but It is the US that is the cause of disturbing peace and security there by its initial attacks on Iran.

India has to tolerate the killing of its mariners because the US will not tolerate the violation of its unilateral blockade.

Not even a pro forma regret at the killing of civilian unarmed nationals of a friendly country.

Rubio has raised the ante. He has snubbed us.

[The Common Man @sinmani]

@MattooShashank Just ignore the stupid. Any sensible person will laugh at this line of argument.

[Kanchan Gupta 🇮🇳 @KanchanGupta]

Thrilled to see my friend of four decades and professional colleague Swapan Dasgupta take oath of office as Minister in West Bengal Government.
We all who lived to see Bengal Reclaimed now look forward to his leading role in restoring Bengal’s lost glory.
All the best @swapan55

[Psyche Wizard @PsycheWizard]

How Daughters see their Dads at Every age:

- THREAD 🧵

[KNaachiyar5 @Knaachiyar5]

Even if it is the recipe for khaman dhokla, what does is matter? he is still the PM and you are the Ramu kaka for a 55 yo baby.

[Sandhya Ravishankar @sandhyaravishan]

I think Western journos have figured out that if they ragebait Indians, they will get engagements and monetise their X handles. We Indians need to stop obliging those fools.

[Karan Datta 🇮🇳 @Datta_karan]

While the world was busy watching other geopolitical fires burn, PM Modi quietly made five of the most important stops on the planet in five days.

UAE. Netherlands. Sweden. Norway. Italy.

Read that list again slowly. Because each one of those countries holds a key to something India desperately needs right now and cannot afford to get wrong.

Here is the context most people are missing.

Hormuz just got choked. Energy routes that the world treated like guaranteed infrastructure for decades suddenly looked fragile. Supply chains that took forty years to build started wobbling in weeks. Every government that was paying attention started asking the same uncomfortable questions at the same time. Where does our energy actually come from. Who really controls our access to technology. And which trade corridors are still going to exist in five years.

PM Modi clearly got the memo before most.

The UAE is the first stop and energy is the entire reason. The Gulf has been disrupted. Hormuz is under pressure. And the UAE just made a decision that changes everything about how it operates. It stepped outside the OPEC framework. It can now pump freely without anyone's permission. And it has a pipeline that moves oil completely around the Strait. For India that is not just useful. That is survival infrastructure. This meeting is about securing that relationship before the rest of the world wakes up and starts competing for the same thing.

Then comes the stop that will look most important in hindsight.

The Netherlands. Specifically a small city in the south of the country that most people have never heard of. The semiconductor war between America and China is not slowing down. It is accelerating. And India knows that if it is not inside that ecosystem now, it will be buying chips on someone else's terms for the next thirty years. The conversations happening there are not about trade statistics. They are about whether India gets to be part of the supply chain that decides who wins the technology race of this decade.

Sweden is quieter but the signal is loud.

When three leaders stand together in front of Europe's top industrial decision makers, that is not a photo opportunity. That is India saying directly to European capital, you have been talking about reducing China dependency for years and we are the answer you have been looking for. Sweden's industrial companies represent exactly the manufacturing sophistication India needs as it tries to move beyond being a cheap labour destination and become a genuine industrial power.

Most people will skip over Norway entirely. That would be a mistake.

No Indian Prime Minister has made this trip in 43 years. Norway runs the largest sovereign wealth fund on earth. It is patient, long-term, and looking for exactly the kind of growth story India represents. The numbers being discussed are not small. And beyond the capital, Arctic shipping routes and green energy corridors open up a completely different geography for Indian trade. The quiet stops are usually the most deliberate ones.

Italy lands the plane on something much bigger than it appears.

The corridor connecting India to Europe through the Middle East needs a European endpoint and Italy is it. When that corridor is fully operational, Indian goods reach European consumers faster and cheaper than they ever have before. Without passing through the chokepoints that everyone just watched become weapons. Add the India-EU free trade negotiations running in parallel and you are looking at a structural shift in how India plugs into the global economy.

Here is the honest truth about what this week actually means.

The world is being reorganised right now. Not gradually over decades the way it usually happens. Rapidly. In months. And the positions countries lock in during this window will determine where they sit in whatever order emerges on the other side.

India is not sitting still waiting to see how things shake out.

Five countries. Five days. Energy security, chip access, European industrial integration, sovereign capital, and a trade corridor that rewires the map.

PM Modi is not touring the world.

He is building a different India for what comes next.

[Smita Barooah @smitabarooah]

The quiet grief of adult friendship: One of the most beautiful articles I've read in a while. Hits hard
https://t.co/qXi6UBaTs3

[Shashi Tharoor @ShashiTharoor]

I’m sorry to be missing the swearing-in ceremony of my @incKerala colleague and new CM of Kerala @vdsatheesan. I am in Boston this weekend to deliver the Commencement address at the graduation ceremony of my alma mater, the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at @TuftsUniversity — and also to participate in the 50th anniversary reunion of my graduating class! An occasion for celebrating the past in the US even as I look forward to the future in Kerala...

[Sunanda Vashisht @sunandavashisht]

I read the piece with interest. And I am surprised basic understanding of numerical minorities in a vibrant democracy was bypassed. Let’s look at examples from across the world. What do Jews do in America? You will find enough Jews in both parties. The idea is to not to vote enmasse but seek representation on all sides of the political aisle and treat democracy as a revolving door where any party can and should come to power. How is this prescription not given to Muslims of India? Why vote as a block simply with the sole goal of keeping BJP out of power? As long as Muslims vote en masse with a single goal of keeping BJP out of power, BJP like any other sensible political party will find a way to bypass them and make them irrelevant. It is politics fair and square.

[Aitch @aitchfactor]

Read one thing today. Make it this. 🙏

[Advaita Kala @AdvaitaKala]

Defeated CM refuses to resign. Frontrunner for the CM’s chair, Suvendu Adhikari’s close aide, is shot dead in a planned hit. If this still doesn’t tell the rest of India what the governance model in West Bengal has been, what will?

[Prasanna Viswanathan @prasannavishy]

The basic decent thing that the TN Governor should do is swear in Vijay and ask him to prove his majority on the floor of the House.

Lost count of the number of times the BJP and Modi’s reputation have been damaged by the Dravidoid system dragging them in to cover up its own ugly machinations and make everything sound like Delhi scheming.

Even innocuous actions has also been used by both the Dravidoid ecosystem and self- proclaimed RW charlatans like Pandey, Rajagopalan, Kolahala, Sumanth Raman, JVC, etc. to create the impression that Delhi is all-powerful and Modi- Shah have no other job than being obsessed with TN ( also plays in to their delusional narrative of rest of India only thinking about their state)

Unless BJP wants to risk further reputational damage in the state, centre should give a diktat to the governor to follow constitutional norms and allow TVK to form govt without delay.

The BJP is at the apogee of its political power after a spectacular WB triumph, and it would be a tragedy to sour that moment by being dragged into the ugliness of Dravidian politics.

[The Common Man @sinmani]

A must read for every Indian. One of the best essays on Indian civilization awakening. Each word there explains a sentiment that was longing to find an expression.