1. Right-wing politics has always tried to defend the status quo and resist progress by distracting people from the real reasons of their suffering and propping up fake enemies. This is the core of arguments like "immigrants are taking our jobs" and "reservation destroys merit".
2. The real reasons behind the employment crisis can be found by analysing the neoliberal economic policies of states. But instead of addressing them, a far-right President like Donald Trump convinced his constituents that it's the Mexicans who are taking away the jobs.
3. The sentiment about "how immigrants are the reason for all problems" are at the core of many crises across the world including the Assam NRC. Instead of demanding more opportunities and public spending from the governments, the people have been made to turn against each other.
4. The rhetoric of "reservation destroys merit" originates from the same sentiment. In India, caste-based reservations are a much needed redressal mechanism to uplift the marginalised who've been denied natural justice for centuries. It's a bare minimum effort towards justice.
5. But yet, the upper castes accuse the reserved category of destroying "merit" and eating up the opportunities. Instead of demanding more spending in public sector and improving opportunities, they have been made to turn against the marginalised sub-sections of their society.
6. It's important to expose this age-old strategy of using political capital to effectively obscure the debates about progress and hide the real problems of the society. Otherwise, the reactionary politicians will take this society for a ride for a long time to come.
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Last week I visited the War Remnants Museum in Vietnam and clicked some pics: a thread 🧵
Trigger warning: US imperialism
“There was considerable pressure from some of the staff to continue the Christmas truce for a few more days. But I disagree completely. In fact, I personally ordered one of the biggest bombing raids for December 26: 116 B-52 sorties were flown against targets in the Hanoi and Haiphong area."
Excerpt taken from The Memoirs of Richard Nixon
An American soldier with the skull of a Vietnamese patriot.
Today's press conference by Kerala CM @pinarayivijayan was a political masterclass where he launched a full-fledged attack against Sangh Parivar's fascist politics and tore into Governor Arif Mohammed Khan who has been acting as a Sanghi puppet.
Thread with key excerpts👇
"Kerala's general public and the Left have a definite attitude towards the RSS. It is based on a strong realisation that they are advocates of communalism, hatred and sectarianism."
"The Governor who is worried about the political murders in Kerala is glorifying RSS which has always stood on one side of these murders and conflicts. It is unacceptable to anyone who has faith in the basic values upheld by the Constitution."
1. In Sep, Kohli announced his resignation from T20 captaincy claiming too much work-load. In Oct, he stood up for Shami who faced islamophobic attacks. In Dec, BCCI unceremoniously sacked Kohli as the ODI captain via a tweet.
2. Few days ago, BCCI President Ganguly claimed that he had requested Kohli not to step down as T20 captain, but since he did, they had to remove him as ODI captain because they "can't have two white-ball captains". Kohli today clarified that no such conversation happened.
3. From the moment Kohli stood up for Shami, he became an adversary for India's ruling party. He faced targeted attack on social media from their minions. The act of his sacking as the ODI captain was a form of "punishment" for "turning out to be woke".
Gender-neutral uniforms in schools is definitely the way to go and kudos to Kerala schools for getting the ball rolling. Gender-based clothing is a social construct that needs to be disassembled, especially as it is riddled with the oppressive binary of men vs women.
The argument that gender-neutral uniforms in schools go against the student's individual freedom doesn't quite hold water because the idea of uniform in itself is against individual freedom but it is justifiably mandated to create a sense of equality and unity among students.
However, "why pants for all, and not skirts?" is not a question to be mocked or ignored. It is indeed relevant to address the fact that our idea of gender-neutral may be influenced by the existing patriarchal norms but using this to oppose gender-neutral uniform is disingenuous.
It would be foolish not to acknowledge that many more Hindus (and even Christians) in Kerala are indeed gradually buying into Sangh Parivar’s communal narratives (both Hindu supremacism & Islamophobia) even though they don’t vote for BJP yet. 1/n
This is why INC had to take a position indistinguishable from that of BJP in Sabarimala case to appease their vote base. Or why Shashi Tharoor flaunts his Nair legacy. Or why politicians across the spectrum came to defend the Bishop who recently made Islamophobic remarks. 2/n
The vast participation of non-Sanghis in the recent anti-Muslim propaganda about “spitting in food” is a testament to how ubiquitous islamophobia is in Kerala. The propaganda of “love jihad” that resulted in immense anti-Muslim violence across India started in Kerala too. 3/n
“Arranged marriage” is basically child marriage for older children based on caste. It has to be abolished.
Aren’t the “older children” adults? Then how is it “chid marriage”?
For parents, their children will always be children, whatever their age. So as long as parents arrange the marriage for their child, it is a child marriage irrespective of age.
What about those who are unable find love and want their partner “arranged”?
People can use whatever legal ways they can to find a partner including advertisements, it just should not be “arranged” by parents, nor should the parents feel that it’s their duty to do so.