Thread by @RohanV

Every week The Political Fix (subscribe: thepoliticalfix.substack.com) collects the most interesting pieces on Indian politics from around the web.

But there often isn't enough space for all the links, so I'm putting other ones for week of 19/1 in this thread. Tell me what I missed!

Former Delhi Police commissioner KK Paul says there has been a "loss of subtleness in crowd management, and [there is] the thinking among some policemen to teach the public a lesson and punish them," which needs to change.
hindustantimes.com/analysis/there…

Mukul Kesavan says we need to look to Gandhi, not for his saintliness or his glasses as a logo, but as a political organiser who mastered "the tasks of financing, organizing and sustaining protest... of knowing when to advance and when to duck." telegraphindia.com/opinion/mahatm…

"India is an ongoing experiment in the audacity of hope. We must do everything in our power to protect and venerate it, without ever deifying it, because that is a religious category, or leaving it to the whims of popular opinion." - Uday S Mehta hindustantimes.com/india-news/the…

.@kantisoumya on what the Budget needs to do:

"It is quite puzzling that despite 92 per cent of the land records being digitised, PM-KISAN still covers only half of the eligible beneficiaries." indianexpress.com/article/opinio…

@kantisoumya "What is the guarantee that the recently constituted committee will succeed in its effort to restore credibility? It is as much a system and has implementation capability as the expertise behind it."

RB Barman calls for radical changes. thehindu.com/opinion/lead/r…

@kantisoumya "A government that prides itself on taking “the diaspora diplomacy” to new heights should not treat those who disagree as enemies of India." - @frankislam hindustantimes.com/analysis/india…

@kantisoumya @frankislam .@_sabanaqvi on AAP in Delhi:

"The technique is simple. Do not engage with identity issues that the BJP wishes to engage with, do not enter any debate involving a Hindu-Muslim binary, do not make personal attacks on the PM."
tribuneindia.com/news/hit-by-so…

@kantisoumya @frankislam @_sabanaqvi There was this interesting working paper on fact-checking Whatsapp rumours in India.

TL;DR: "Across conditions, corrections by other users work to reduce belief in rumors! (albeit on some rumors and not others)"

https://twitter.com/KhariBiskut/status/1220021474955710464?s=19

@kantisoumya @frankislam @_sabanaqvi "With the publicly available data and some of the smartest macroeconomists building sophisticated forecasting models, it is hard to fathom why the IMF was so upbeat about India exactly a year ago." - @rupasubramanya financialexpress.com/opinion/econom…

@kantisoumya @frankislam @_sabanaqvi @rupasubramanya .@renukohli_eco: "It would be realistic for the government to admit upfront that the economy’s potential is low, the cyclical gap is small and that growth retardation is structural. To address this, structural fiscal responses are necessary." bloombergquint.com/union-budget-2…

@kantisoumya @frankislam @_sabanaqvi @rupasubramanya @renukohli_eco "Teachers have been meeting parents one-on-one to talk about their child's growth... The sincerity with which the Parent-Teacher meetings happen today did not happen earlier."

@parthpunter reports from a Dalit basti in Delhi ahead of elections firstpost.com/politics/delhi…

@kantisoumya @frankislam @_sabanaqvi @rupasubramanya @renukohli_eco @parthpunter Devesh Kapur on key impediments to India’s emergence as a knowledge powerhouse.

"Recent efforts to muzzle dissent and “control” what can or cannot be said in universities threatens to undermine the nascent shoots of research and knowledge creation." timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit…

@kantisoumya @frankislam @_sabanaqvi @rupasubramanya @renukohli_eco @parthpunter "Fiscal pessimists and hawks are underestimating the role of the informal sector. To get the engine of the economy revving, an expansionary fiscal policy that harnesses the energy of the informal sector is the order of the day." - @maitreesh
indianexpress.com/article/opinio…

@kantisoumya @frankislam @_sabanaqvi @rupasubramanya @renukohli_eco @parthpunter @maitreesh "You won’t believe this but there were a few police constables who picked up the burning logs and tried to attack the women with them."

@betwasharma's report on UP police at an anti-CAA protest in Etawah huffingtonpost.in/entry/up-polic…

@kantisoumya @frankislam @_sabanaqvi @rupasubramanya @renukohli_eco @parthpunter @maitreesh @betwasharma "To expect significant countercyclical spending by the central government is wishful thinking, given the heavy burden of its committed expenditures."

@EmergingRoy and @pujamehra that the Centre has no money for a stimulus package, but states do livemint.com/news/india/why…