Bindu Ammini of #Sabarimala fame attacked in Kochi. In the full video, you can see BJP's candidate for last Kochi bypoll, CG Rajagopal aka Muthu, seemingly leading the pack of goons. Attacking women with pepper spray is BJP's way of "peaceful protest"? Will BJP fire these goons?
One can understand the BJP politician's frustration. After sidelined in the BJP for years, he ended up with a mere 13k votes out of the total 1.5L in Kochi bypoll. But why should women bear his village idiocy? Stand up and fight back, Kerala.
This is CG Rajagopal aka Muthu, the politician whom you can see at the end of the video. The one who is attacking Bindu, going by local news reports, is an associate of Pratheesh Vishwanath, a former VHP leader who has sided with AHP now, and a known right-wing troublemaker.
Pratheesh Vishwanath is seen talking about his Hindu pride and quarrelling with Bindu in this later video, by local news channel Manorama News, from the site. Vishwanath was in jail for breaking the prohibitory orders at #Sabarimala last year.
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Modern Malayalam movies wouldn't have been made without the suffering of coastal towns like #Beemapally in Trivandrum, which partly inspired #FahadFasil-Mahesh Narayanan's #Malik. It was also where modern Kerala had its worst bloodletting. It is quite a story.
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Let's begin with Beema Beevi, believed to have magical powers to heal the sick& related to Prophet Mohammed's family. Her son Maheen Mohammed converted lower caste Hindus to Islam. A Hindu king killed him in a bloody battle. Unable to work through her sorrow, she died soon.
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Her followers immortalized her by giving her name to the town and building Beemapally Dargah Shareef—an architectural marvel, an imp pilgrim center, and also a big tourist attraction in Trivandrum. The annual Uroos there is celebrated to commemorate her death anniversary. 3/n
This is a decisive mandate in favour of Pinarayi Vijayan and his CPM-led government. It’s imp should be viewed in the context that no sitting CM in Kerala was able to get such a result in last four decades.
In fact, so confident was him that he had started work on his swearing-in ceremony yesterday itself. Vijayan 2.0 should take this as a mandate to provide a strong govt. His calculation, but, on the new alliance power by bringing Jose K Mani to the fold failed. Mani is trailing
Raghuram Rajan (in a webinar today): Young people without jobs can be diverted to be this and that for a little while. But they are going to come to the streets if we don’t create jobs. We can use social media, fake news to divert things. But eventually, it is going to fail
On Atmanirbhar Bharat: I don’t know what it is... I want to believe it is the variation of the same (Make In India) theme... (But) if the focus is on import substitution by erecting tariffs then I think it is a direction we have tried before and failed.
On Rating agencies: We can’t be wedded to rating.. I’m not someone who dismisses them.. Part of the prob is we are very good at overspending money in good times...What's the worst if rating agencies downgrade us.. Our prob is money coming in, not money going out..
We see that YouTube, FB etc have created a place for misogyny to hide and thrive. We name it. But we don't stop it. Three women in Kerala are done with being polite. Ystdy, they barged into a lodge from where a man was posting vids like "do feminists wear underwear"& punched him.
The women are on the pg 1 of probably every newspaper in Kerala today: dubbing artist Bhagyalakshmi, activists and former Bigg Boss contestants Diya Sana& Sreelakshmi Arackal. They threw ink& itching powder at him, and created a spectacle by live-streaming the whole thing on FB.
Kerala's social media is split on these bold women& their unchecked rage. But it for sure made a point agnst the unchecked violence by men. Better than watching 'Social Dilemma' on Netflix?
Meanwhile, they now face probe under unbailable charges based on the complaint by the man
PR Krishnakumar of Coimbatore AryaVaidya Pharmacy has passed away. We shared a puzzling bond; one that had no reason to exist other than his curiosity to connect with young people. It also belied my youthful rage that all great men are ego-maniacs. This is how we met: Thread
My father used to have a low-profile work under him in the Coimbatore AVP temple. Once, dad spotted Michel Danino's name in the temple premises and told someone that he had seen this name in a book on my table. Krishnakumar overheard my dad. He asked to meet me.
To be honest, in my youthful zest, I had hated this. Felt like the Padma Shri recipient is throwing his weight around by kind of summoning me. I was in college, all of 18 or 19 then. Still, on my dad's prodding, I boarded a train from our hometown Calicut to Coimbatore.
S.India's small factories are struggling to unlock w/o migrant workers.
Employers are doing everything they can to return migrants.
Some are booking flights. Many are booking buses. Everybody is praying for the return of the trains. livemint.com/companies/news…
I spoke to southern small-biz employers— from Perumbavoor to Tirupur to Peenya—who spent Rs.6k-10k to return their workers from North& North-Eastern states. They offered free flights, buses, accommodation& food.
Shows the hidden costs of not having a public transport.
Unfortunately this news has nothing to do with #RheaChakraborty, otherwise perhaps the news channels would've told us how these workers are coping up w/o work 🤷🏾♂️