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Jan 5, 2019 • 16 tweets • 6 min read
Taking off from @alok_bhatt's observations. @RahulGandhi visited the US in Sep 2017. He interacted with at least three "think tanks":
1. Berggrunen Institute
2. The Atlantic Council
3. The Heritage Foundation
1. "The scope of foreign financing for American think tanks is difficult to determine. But since 2011, at least 64 foreign governments, state-controlled entities or government officials have contributed to a group of 28 major US-based research orgs" says nytimes.com/2014/09/07/us/…
2. This gives a reason for one to speculate what is the role of these think tanks in a country's domestic policy? Is say, China funds a US based think tank, and the think-tank lobbies or aligns with somebody influential in India - what is the net effect on policy making here?
3. For instance, RahulG apparently met the Atlantic Council as per this article hindustantimes.com/world-news/rah… This think tank and controversy seem to go hand-in-hand
4. The Atlantic Council "has been an unique participant in the US foreign policy process" says this old report hosted on a NATO official website.
5. Another troubling partnership between the Atlantic Council and Facebook. Copy of a FB press release below. The new partnership will effectively ensure that Atlantic Council will serve as Facebook’s “eyes and ears". mronline.org/2018/05/24/fac…
6. This Atlantic Council's publication, penned by Bharat Gopalaswamy in Apr 2018, lays the case for sale of F-16 and F-18/A Hornets. It says IAF's fleet replacement is a $250B opportunity. The US is thinking long term atlanticcouncil.org/images/publica… Is RG an influencer in this regard?
7. The Atlantic Council’s list of sponsors –includes defense contractors; agencies aligned with Washington and Pentagon; Arab states ; philanthropic agencies as Carnegie, Koch, Rockefeller etc atlanticcouncil.org/support/suppor… You can spot Ambanis in the list too :-) ! Impressive.
8. RahulG also met the Berggruen Institute. Funded by an endowment of $500M by the billionaire Nicolas Berggruen.
9. Nicolas Berggruen's private investment company -- Berggruen Holdings -- has invested about $200 million in hotels under the Keys brand, car rental services called Car Club, real estate and education sector in India. economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/52… That makes it interesting.
10. One of Berggruen Institute's initiatives is the 21st Century Council focusing on global governance and the US- China relationship. The Council's aim, its Chinese member Zheng Bijian says, "is to build on a convergence of interests in order to create a community of interests”
11. And the 21st Century Council's members include former Pak PM Shaukat Aziz (also a Director of the Berggruen Institute), Amartya Sen, Huff Post and Twitter founders, Omidyar, Farid Zakaria. This choice is quite interesting.
12. In a tie-up with the Huffington Post, the Berggruen Institute has launched an online publication called The WorldPost "to foster a connected consciousness
for our wired planet". Guess what, and who published what... Look at the insignia "WorldPost" above the Huffpost article.
13. This graphic from the Berggruen Institute's 5th anniversary report …3qd814533ma8z-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/upl… is quite interesting. The advisory board's of its initiatives are filled with many of these names. Notice Tharoor, Amartya Sen and Arundati Roy in the pic ...
14. The Berggruen Institute seems to wield enormous clout. In as recently as Jun 2017, the French Defence Minister Sylvie Goulard was fired, allegedly for being on the Institute's payroll, getting EUR 10,000 monthly. freewestmedia.com/2017/06/27/fir…
15. If one attempts to connect the broad themes here - monitoring Internet, elections, defence, pro-left (to be read as 'liberal') publications such as Huff Post - clearly there seems to be the deep state in action. The Q is - Why did Rahul Gandhi meet them? What is the agenda?

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db 🇮🇳 Profile picture
Oct 7, 2021
Trivia! During the Crimean War in 1853, Chef Alexis Soyer visited field kitchens to discover undercooked meat being served to soldiers. Soyer trained the British Army’s first regimental chefs and introduced the portable Soyer stove. The British army used it for the next 100 years
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The Gulf War in 1991 brought the war to the drawing rooms on cable TV. But the Crimean War in 1854 brought instant news about the war to the politicians through the telegraph, and pictures to the newspapers by the newly invented cameras.
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Jun 21, 2021
Inter-religious marriage between a Hindu and others - Hindu law applicable to the child, only if the child was brought up as a Hindu.
Under Muslim law, if one of the parent is a Muslim, then the child is presumed to be a Muslim. No need to prove as required by Hindu law.
Indian law and constitution is not exactly Hindu friendly at all.
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Jun 1, 2021
Reservations and cancellation of career defining exams such as the class 12 exam will hit non-minority, non-reservation hard working students badly.
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db 🇮🇳 Profile picture
Jan 23, 2021
The communists destroyed the industries in WB. A compilation of anecdotes from many online sources.
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2. The Philips head Frits Philips came to visit the Beliaghata factory and was not allowed to enter it by the Left union.He asked help from the state govt, who did not come to his aid. Overnight the Philips board decided to shift all their investments to other states from Kolkata
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Jan 14, 2021
In 2017, the NCERT had announced that they were reviewing textbooks, and had invited comments.

Had sampled the Class VII history book (Our Pasts - II) and had sent the following comments. The idea here is to show that each chapter had so many unanswered questions.
From Chapter - I, Tracing changes through a thousand years.

Amir Khusrau is taken as a knowledgable source about Sanskrit, and the term 'Hindustan' is used as a prop to elicit secular reactions.
Chap -2, New kings and kingdoms

We have, "As we will see, rulers also tried to demonstrate their power and resources by building large temples. So, when they attacked one another’s kingdoms, they often chose to target temples, which were sometimes extremely rich" in this chapter
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db 🇮🇳 Profile picture
Aug 31, 2020
IK Gujral, a card carrying communist during his college days had strong ties with the Soviet Union later.

This goat bearded skunk stopped RAW's covert activities in 1997. May he rot in hell.
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The inventor of Morarji cola then indadvertedly shared the details gathered on Kahuta nuke facility with Zia.
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