Utkarsh Narain

Public policy researcher. Account used for posting/retweeting humour of questionable quality. Views are personal.

[Arshia Malik @arshiaunis]

No, you sick soul, we need accountability not white washing the terror, intellectualising the violence and virtue signalling with a token comment about Islamic radicalism and hijack of the "Noble" religion.

We need a mass protest by secular, liberal, so-called moderate, lapsed, believing Muslims as well as atheists and agnostics from Muslim heritage openly calling out political Islam. It has to reach a tipping point and be as visible as your CAA anti India, farmer protests or the Jantar Mantar/JNU fiasco protests.

What we need is accountability of mosques and madrasas, scrutiny of sermons, database of imams, mullahs, qazis and all sorts of preachers identifying exactly which of the 70+ sects within Islam do they adhere to including the ones in Shia Islam.

What we need is a monumental revisionism of the Scriptures, the Book, the Hadiths, the Sira and the other dozen cultural and social sources our preachers use to justify Sharia laws and the interpretations for non Muslims and Jihad; equivalent and as hugely funded as the one the Muslim Brotherhood did with the help of Al-Azhar Cairo, the Saudi monarchs and the Iranian mad mullahs in their 40 year rivalry for the custody of Islam and creating the black wave, which you see in the streets of non Muslim cities today in the form of hijabs, burqas, abayas, niqabs, beards and ankle length lowers.
Which very conveniently DJ/RJ activists of your cabal choose to ignore knowing they're untouchable in secular liberal Indian democracy where the jihadi or the wahabbi cannot touch them in the midst of the protection of majority Hindus.

But for all the above to happen, the safe space for the dissenting Muslims needs to be made, expanded, protected and boosted with all available technological resources so that the construct of Islamophobia that your ideological brothers of the Muslim Brotherhood invented, does not silence the pushback. Because blasphemy laws are still a thing along with honour killings and the justification of murder on a mere allegation of apostasy - because of which we never see a tipping point of the silent majority or mass protests by ordinary unfortunates from Muslim heritage who just want to live their lives and get along with everybody else.

Yes, you sick soul are the enemy that needs to be defeated before your armed brothers silence the fledgling dissent that has arisen from within. Otherwise ordinary Muslims or "bad" or not the "right" kind of Muslims will bear the brunt of the obvious, natural, logical mistrust and hatred of people.

And for your kind information body parts blowing up is not just a terrible incident. You would have known had you lived in the 90s Kashmir when the fathers of your ideological doctor brothers and sister arrested today normalised these "terrible incidents" in the hundreds.
We'll be damned if we let you bring back those days to Indian cities.

[वरुण 🇮🇳 @varungrover]

No Country for Pedestrians.

[Dan Burmawi @DanBurmawy]

It’s frightening to look back at what Hitchens warned about 20 years ago, and yet the UK ignored him and carried on, becoming a hellhole regardless of his warning.

[Krishnadevaraya @Krishna_devaray]

Good Urbanism includes,
More FSI
Mixed Zoning
Walkable Footpaths
Cycle lanes
Empowered Municipality
More focus on Public Health aka Preventive Healthcare.
Mass Transit public infrastructure
Public park and infrastructure.

There is a whole bundle of Urbanism knowledge that administrators of Indian cities and politicians lack.

Decentralisation of governance is the way.

@libertypartyind

[Rahul Srinivas @whizkidd]

This is a textbook example of how decisions made in ivory towers, far removed from ground realities, end up punishing the very people willing to play by the rules.

Imagine this: You arrive in Mumbai on a long-distance train. You step onto the platform, luggage in hand, and need a ticket for your onward destination (say Palghar, where I live). In an era where everything is supposed to be digital and cashless (and seamless), the most logical thing to do is open the UTS app and buy a paperless ticket right there. You’re trying to do the honest thing -- willing to pay, contributing revenue to Indian Railways.

But UTS simply won’t let you. From the platform itself, paperless tickets are blocked. If you want a paper ticket, you must drag your luggage out to a counter or ATVM, print it, and rush back -- often missing your connection (which in places like Palghar can mean waiting hours for the next train)

Stick with paperless, and you’re locked out unless you physically walk away from the station, book a ticket, and come back. The system effectively treats every passenger on a platform as a potential fare-dodger.

For a while, commuters had a workaround. Every station had a static QR code, posted at counters and public spots. Scan it in the UTS app, and you could instantly generate a paperless ticket -- even from the platform. People photographed these codes and shared them, so long as you were near the station you could still book legally. Yes, some ticketless travelers abused it when they spotted a TC, but it was a lifesaver for genuine passengers who simply wanted to pay without missing their train.

Now, even that option has been scrapped. The static QR codes have been phased out, and while Railways promises “dynamic” codes to replace them, that system isn’t even active yet. What’s left is a mess.

Earlier, UTS used a two-circle system: an outer circle of 2 km, beyond which you couldn’t book, and an inner circle of about 9 meters around the station, inside which you also couldn’t book. Now, the outer circle has been removed -- but the inner circle remains. The result? You can book a paperless ticket from almost anywhere in the country … EXCEPT the one place you actually need it most: the railway platform.

Here’s the irony. Even if nine out of ten platform bookings were last-minute panic purchases by fare-dodgers, that’s still revenue for Indian Railways. Instead, they’ve designed a system that makes ticketing harder for everyone. The fare-dodger adapts, but the genuine commuter -- the one actually trying to pay -- gets trapped, delayed, or forced to miss their train.

Once again, a rule written in an office, with no thought for real-world use, ends up hurting honest passengers while failing to deter those it was meant to stop.

[Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @Noahpinion]

One problem with the Palestine movement is that they lie, all the time, about everything.

[Arjun* @mxtaverse]

Contrary to popular narratives, China is effectively more decentralized than India.

Provinces may overrule major decisions made by central ministries. Local govt accounts for 50%+ of total govt spending. It is 3% in India.

That is why their cities look like this today.

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

The scale of Parking Demand in Mumbai.
A thread adapted from Instagram carousel
#WalkingProject #ChooseWisely

Pic Credits: X, Reddit, Self

[Nirmalya Dutta @NonsensicalNemo]

India is unique in the sense that we have third-world capabilities with absolutely trickle-down first world retarded activism.

[Pranay Kotasthane @pranaykotas]

The poverty of low expectations.

The Dy CM of one of India's richest states is inspecting a small flyover loop while the PM of the world's fifth largest economy is inaugurating a 19 km metro line. Meanwhile, the city government which should be leading such works doesn't exist.

[Timur Kuran @timurkuran]

“People are gonna game systems.” Elizabeth Warren did it. Zohran Mamdani did it. Wealthy “low-caste” Indians do it. Malays do it. American college applicants do it. If you incentivize people to appear marginalized, people will compete to seem marginalized.

[Walking Project @walkingproject]

It is really sad that "space constraints" is cited as the reason for removing footpaths from brand new bridges when the old british era bridge in the same locations easily accommodated for decent footpaths.

The truth is that footpaths have been removed purely and purely to accommodate additional lanes of traffic.

And the one location where a footpath is provided, i.e. Gokhale Bridge, it looks like the pictures below. Now you the citizens tell us if that looks like a safe, adequate and welcoming footpath.
#WarOnPedestrians

[Indu Viswanathan @indumathi37]

Don't tell me what Zohran Mamdani's victory means for me as a "South Asian" New Yorker.

I am a lifelong liberal New Yorker. I grew up in Westchester, and I've lived in the city since 1997. I love this messy place. I believe in our particular spirit and expressions of democracy, pluralism, and human dignity that push against the towering impulses of this town. I love our viewpoint diversity, the push and pull of approaches, how our irreverence can be subtle, and our kindness can be tough. And probably more than anything else, I love the intolerance of bullshit inherent to being a New Yorker. And that's why I am finding it so frustrating to see the gleeful, starry-eyed glorification of Zohran Mamdani, a person who glibly distorts facts, manipulates identity politics, and imports conflict like a commodity for political gain.

Let me be very clear. This isn't about his faith, his ethnicity, his birthplace, the languages he speaks, or his code switching, all of which I have seen used in attacks against him. This is New York, a city that actually thrives on and embraces diversity. Those attacks are not even worth addressing. What I do find questionable, however, is the veracity of the words coming out of his mouth, regardless of the language or accent he is using at any given moment. That is the issue. His words belie a character that is performative, opportunistic, and deeply undemocratic. He is not a truthful voice of the marginalized, although this is exactly the story he has crafted to rise to power.

Mamdani is a projection of an illiberal, anti-intellectual left-wing authoritarianism that has sunk its teeth into progressive politics. The kind of authoritarianism that makes me feel deeply pessimistic about the future of my party.

One of the most striking examples of how Mamdani does this is his recent claim that there are no more Muslims left in Gujarat, India. This isn't just inaccurate or a gentle exaggeration to land a larger, more important point. It IS the point, and it is a deeply irresponsible falsehood. Gujarat is home to over 7 million Muslims today, nearly 10 percent of the state’s population. To put that in perspective, there are more Muslims in Gujarat than there are in the entire United States.

Mamdani's lie isn’t accidental or something that can be dismissed. It is central to the larger fabrication of his own victimhood status in the world. Mamdani uses the false claim of Muslim “erasure” as supposed evidence that Narendra Modi committed ethnic cleansing of Muslims in the state. One lie props up the other. (I don't know why I have to talk about Modi in the context of NYC mayoral elections, but here we are.) Modi was investigated and cleared by India’s Supreme Court–appointed Special Investigation Team. To be clear, the violence in Gujarat was real and tragic. But it also began with the horrific killing of 59 Hindu pilgrims in Godhra, an inconvenient part of the story that Mamdani ignores entirely. Instead, he offers a selective, inflammatory version of events that erases facts, weaponizes suffering, and demonizes Hindus. Of course, every other "South Asian" that has risen to the top of progressive left American politics has more or less made the same false claims, so this doesn't raise any red flags.

But no one else, as far as I know, has gone the extra fictional step by erasing over 7 million Muslims from Gujarat. Bear in mind, Mamdani's own father is Gujarati Muslim. Mamdani erased his own people for political expediency. With that charming twinkle in his eyes.

You can see, immediately, how this gives him authority in a political landscape that equates narrated victimhood with authentic knowledge and insight. Exaggerated rhetoric becomes fact through repetition. And his victimhood story is premised upon erasure and silencing of inconvenient contexts. The maternal side of Mamdani's family tree is Hindu, and while he's free to practice whatever religion he wants, he never registers or acknowledges the very real oppression of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh or Kashmir. If he is going to bring up religious-based conflict in "South Asia," why isn't he bringing any of this to the conversation? In fact, he openly dismisses any discussion of these facts.

And if he’s willing to erase 7 million members of his own community of Gujarati Muslims for political expediency in New York, what does that mean for 200,000 Hindus living in New York? What does it mean for the 5 million Jews living here? Shouldn’t we all be concerned when a public figure casually erases entire communities to score rhetorical points?

Mamdani's troubling track record is not limited to his lies about Gujarat. He has openly aligned with Khalistani separatists, a violent movement responsible for attacks on Hindu temples in North America and other horrific terrorist acts. Though it is cloaked in the language of liberation, Khalistan is not about civil rights. It is a geopolitical tool of destabilization, which has roots across the United States, including on college campuses. By sympathizing with its narratives, Mamdani has chosen to align himself with forces that openly target Hindus here in the United States. Doesn't that matter?

I support liberal values that are rooted in truth. But what Mamdani represents is not liberalism or progress. It is a distortion and spectacle crafted to fit perfectly into the small maximalist tent that the progressive left has come to herald as "radical liberation from oppression." I find it very hard to take the moral grandstanding and admonitions of the American progressive left about critiques of Mamdani with even a grain seriousness when they seem to be either oblivious to Mamdani's blatant lies (in which case they're ignorant) or if they are not oblivious, it doesn't seem to matter to them (in which case they are unethical). This does not reflect a commitment to justice and truth-telling by Mamdani or the people who support him. This is something else entirely.

It's very easy to reduce the critiques of Mamdani to racist, xenophobic ramblings of white, Christian supremacists. I'm not asking for him to be deported or questioning his integrity because of his religion or race. I question his integrity because he blatantly lies, and he blatantly lies because he will be rewarded for lying. His lies fit neatly into a narrative that he can ride to the mayor's office. The ease with which people are willing to reduce entire groups of New Yorkers to immoral actors, unless we acquiesce to their narrative about us, is the kind of bullshit that no real New Yorker would or should put up with. Nor should anyone who believes integrity still matters in public life.

Moreover, a NYC mayoral campaign should not be a referendum on foreign conflicts, especially when people from all sides of those conflicts live here, work here, and raise families here. Yet Mamdani consistently brings international flashpoints into local politics, whether it’s Palestine or India, because his goal is to evoke a version of facts that paints him as the victim, because his goal is not the truth or justice, but a particular agenda that benefits from him being the victim.

This is not the kind of leadership this city needs, regardless of ethnicity or religion, or immigration status. It is narrative manipulation masquerading as moral clarity, and it makes me nauseous.

This is the danger of identity politics and the culture wars. They dampen critical thinking and replace honesty with posturing. They reward performance over principle, allegiance over integrity, and reductive meme-like narratives and slogans over complex facts that the average New Yorker can actually handle. In this landscape, truth becomes secondary to optics and there is a real cost, not just to the informed decision making of voters in a democracy, but to the lives and communities of New Yorkers erased and demonized n the process.

And of course, the great irony in all of this is that I know by speaking out, I’ll be accused of being a mouthpiece for an imaginary Hindu supremacist movement that Mamdani and other "South Asians" have conveniently prepared as a way for you all to "legitimately" doubt me. Listen, I'd rather not talk about Indian politics or South Asia in the context of the New York City mayoral race. But somehow, the very act of asking for factual accuracy, viewpoint diversity, and just a shred of dignity when it comes to those conversations will be spun as evidence of how dangerous I am. If you are Hindu American and speak something other than the fixed narrative, you are suspect and possibly even a double agent. If you are Hindu American and stay silent, you are demonized by the narrative. Either way, the narrative remains intact. That is what makes what he and other "South Asians" on the progressive left are doing so profoundly illiberal and so profoundly undemocratic. So un New York. And if you're going to question my veracity because I am a Hindu American who refuses to say the "right thing," you can go kick rocks. I am an American and a New Yorker and I have a right to ask questions, to ask for receipts, to check sources, and to question what a candidate for public office is claiming. It is not just my right, it is my responsibility.

It has been nauseating to be on social media this week. I haven’t felt this politically orphaned, socially isolated, or sickened in a very long time. To watch people I once admired as proponents of justice and fair-mindedness now cheer on a public figure who is so clearly performative, who so brazenly distorting and leveraging his manufactured victimhood is disheartening and isolating.

What sickens me even more is that some people will read this and will still support him with full enthusiasm, as if he is a progressive messiah of truth and honor. Even some Hindu Americans. Even people who know the facts and say they care about things like truth, justice, and inclusion.

It doesn’t seem to matter that Mamdani has been recorded using anti-Hindu slurs. It doesn’t seem to matter that he erases 7 million Muslims to fit his narrative. It doesn’t seem to matter that he ignores the persecution of Hindus, aligns with violent separatist rhetoric, and recycles dehumanizing tropes about entire groups of New Yorkers.

His performance is too good. He has the look, the vibe, the story, the charisma. The narrative is too comforting, especially for the white guilt-ridden, identity-obsessed, New York Times-trusting crowd. His schtick is addictive and it is built upon an established landscape of factual distortion that started long before he arrived on the scene. I can see it all around me. Mamdani is just riding the wave.

But don’t tell me his victory represents me in any way. I’d gladly take a white person who doesn’t lie about genocide over someone who vaguely shares my background but manipulates it so grotesquely.

Representation without integrity and honor is nothing to celebrate. Hopefully, the rest of New York City will figure this out. We still have time to see through this and call bullshit.

PS. While the topic of divestment is on the table, let's divest completely from petrodollars and see what happens to American institutions, "progressive" consensus, and political campaigns.

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Talking about socialism is a luxury paid for by the successes of capitalism. As I wrote in 2016:

"A popular rebuttal is to invoke the socialist leanings of several European countries with high living standards, especially in Scandinavia. Why can’t America be more like happy Denmark, with its high taxes and giant public sector, or at least more like France? Even the more pro-free-market United Kingdom has national health care, after all. First off, comparing relatively small, homogeneous populations to the churning, ocean-spanning American giant is rarely useful. And even the most socialist of the European countries only became wealthy enough to embrace redistribution after free-market success made them rich. Still, why cannot America follow this path if that is what the people want? What is the problem if American voters are willing to accept higher taxes in exchange for greater security in the embrace of the government?

The answer takes us back to all those inventions America has produced decade after decade. As long as Europe had America taking risks, investing ambitiously, attracting the world’s dreamers and entrepreneurs, and yes, being unequal, it could benefit from the results without making the same sacrifices. Add to that the incalculable windfall of not having to spend on national defense thanks to America’s massive investment in a global security umbrella. America doesn’t have the same luxury of coasting on the ambition and sacrifice of another country."

[Kamel Amin Thaabet @K_AminThaabet]

Mamdani is basically what would happen if you pulled some random kid out of the Columbia Hamas encampment and made them Mayor

[Bernard Stanford ✡︎ @stanfordNYC]

It's a massive tell that Zohran can't get through a single sentence without devolving into class conflict language. He is fundamentally stuck in a negative-sum mindset.

[Rishabh Mukherjee @rishabhm]

The stench of the stupidity on display in the article is nauseating. Replace local taxis with horse carriage and app based Taxi with automobile and this story would find a nice place in a newspaper from 1910. What bunch of ....

[Utkarsh Narain @utkarsh01]

Surprised that such loony leftist ideas have purchase in the financial capital of the world as well

[Bernard Stanford ✡︎ @stanfordNYC]

Help me out. What could go wrong with electing a 33 year old socialist who has never held a real job or any kind of executive responsibility to be the mayor of the world financial capital of eight million people?

[Utkarsh Narain @utkarsh01]

@Akshay_VAK @pranaykotas Devolving till the city level is the goal. But why would a partial decentralization to the state level be counterproductive?

[Richa Pinto @richapintoi]

From over 4,000 buses in 2009, Mumbai now has just 2,675—and of those, only 556 are owned by BEST. Nearly 80% of the fleet is on contract (wet lease), and if no new buses are bought, even the owned ones will vanish soon.

Citizens are waiting longer at stops. Routes are being suspended. The BEST we knew is fading—slowly, visibly.
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