THREAD:
1n You know I have no love lost for Modi. However his decision to support Trump was the right one. It is very easy to second guess with the benefit of hindsight. But this was one of Modi’s genuinely courageous gambits. Let’s understand why. First: the institutional
2n nature of USG policies is breaking down. Obama had no issues throwing old and trusted allies like Israel to the wolves when it came to extremely ill considered deal with Iran. (Also Saudi Arabia). He also threw Japan under the truck over the Senkaku dispute with China
3n Obama is single handedly responsible for destroying the European Project, by pursuing regime change in Syria & destroying the reset Putin wanted enact by replacing himself with Medvedev who was lied to and conned in Libya. Trump reversed a lot of this. In short what the last
4n 12 years have seen is an extreme personalisation of policy - rather than an institutionalisation. In this i think @rupasubramanya got it right - the grudges that dunces Kamala Pramila & Ro have and the deeply personalised policy space, combined with their need to appease the
5n unrepentant Jihadi vote bank and their dog whistlers like Ilhan Omar, will only make them trenchantly anti India. In that sense this isn’t different from Nixon and the “tilt” in 1971 driven entirely by Nixon’s personal hate of Indira Gandhi. The issue is there is NOTHING
6n repeat NOTHING, india could have done to defray this coalition of India hating Indians and the deep Hinduphobia gaining ground in Democrats. Like the Saudis & Israelis have done it was time to mark the line in the ground clearly. What’s worse is that the Dems have clear plans
7n to screw India over - noticeably the G2 agreement Obama wanted with China where India would be one of the sacrificial goats. To conclude one must hold ones leaders responsible for blunders that could have been retrospectively forecast. What Modi did with Trump was not one....
8n rather it was a high risk strategy which almost payed off, and the down side was that there was nothing to lose and everything to gain. So when a confirmed Modi hater like me to a telling you to lay off Modi, please listen. Let’s attack Modi for what he does wrong, not for
9n genuine smart policy moves that were undermined by outrageous voter manipulation. Also to note is that Trump put up an impressive showing, and this shows the PMO did better research on the US elections that fraud pollsters like Nate Silver & co. Moreover had COVID not
10n intervened Trump was almost certainly on to winning big. Nobody could’ve predicted COVID. So for eternally pessimistic me, on this 100/100 for @narendramodi.

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More from @Iyervval

5 Nov
THREAD
1n A porcine faced @BJP4India spokie claimed that BJP’s great virtue is that it never uses power to help supporters. Really? Let’s see what Vajpayee did in 2001 shall we? Remember Karunanidhi then an NDA ally with ministers in the centre being roughed up during arrest?
2 JayaLalitha had come to power in May 2001 in TN & ordered this as revenge. An outraged Vajpayee demanded a report from then TN governor Fathima Beevi. Fathima sent the a report prepared by TN Police, which obviously towed the state government line justifying the brutality.
3 Vajpayee was furious that there was nothing in the report he could use to crack down on JayaLalitha. So the cabinet formally asked the president for Fathima’s sacking, which happened a day later.
thehindu.com/todays-paper/t…
Read 5 tweets
27 Oct
The one thing we know from the new gazette on J&K land acquisition rules is: That babus hide everything under extremely complex language, 2 lawyers so far have told me that they’re still trying to understand what it means. Verbosity is a substitute for achievement
1n I’m going to list out the pros and the cons
1) all land sales come under government scrutiny, so no benamis (ergo illegal terror funding revenue or money parking)
2) Full communist model - no demand and supply. Will hurt farmers as they won’t get fair price, GoI list prices
2n
3) the DC will give permission for land sale - problematic, because we know the entire state administration is a conflict economy based on deep rooted corruption. Also we don’t know the communal bias of DCs
4) today the government may sell land to Bihari labourers, tomorrow a
Read 8 tweets
18 Oct
Thread
1n Remember Ghoris had a running feud with the Khwarezmi Shah, with the latter capturing large parts of the ghurid empire & all of western Afghanistan. Despite fighting a 2 front war, the Ghurids simply snuffed away Indian opposition (except the Gujarat Solankis) why?
2. We’ve seen how inept & clumsy Prithviraj Chauhan was (courage isn’t a substitute for aptitude) - no intelligence gathering, no early warning, lackadaisical preparations, no interest in course correction. But what about other Indian rulers? Are we to assume India was infected
3. By a plague that turned all our kings of the time into zombies? Not really. These pathologies debilitate us even today - First: Zero ability to introspect & adapt leading to excessive pride driven reliance on foreign imports (today Rafale in 1192 it was horses) - the DRDO &
Read 11 tweets
30 Sep
THREAD Re #BabriDemolitionCase you need to ask 4 critical questions:

1) as the Indian judiciary ever accepted the principle of command responsibility?

𝗡𝗢 - if it did, every neta, babu & officer would be in jail. That means nothing would ever function here
2) Has Indian jurisprudence ever accepted “fruits of a poisonous tree”?

𝗡𝗢 because given arcane policing & obsolete investigative methods in this country no prosecution would ever take place
3) Were any of the 32 acquitted seen engaged in the actual demolition?

𝗡𝗢 in which case there is no direct case against them. Only a case of command responsibility- which as we’ve seen in tweet 1 isn’t accepted. Instead we have incitement laws
Read 5 tweets
25 Sep
1n A gentle reminder for jokers who claim “China has solved all its border issues except with India & Bhutan”. 🇨🇳 has 17 ongoing border disputes - some “official” some “unofficial”. Of these 7 are on the landmass. The “unofficial” disputes don’t prevent 🇨🇳 from sending in troops
2n like with Nepal. “Official disputes” are with 1) India on Ladakh & Arunachal 2) Bhutan. But there’s more in the unofficial ones. 3) Officials in Myanmar keep telling me of loose borders & constant encroachments in Kachin province, despite the border being “officially solved”
3n Mind you 🇨🇳 has continued supplying Kachin terrorists for a long time & frequently does so even now 4) the same is the case with Tajikistan, despite a border settlement, because according to the Chinese, half of Tajikistan was part of Qing Empire. 5) Mongolia is particularly
Read 7 tweets
21 Sep
1n A simple 6 course #frugalindian lunch: Queso Fresco made from hand extruded alpine cattle milk, in a delicate butter-cream sauce flavoured delicately with “epice-de-loodiana” & bell peppers of the first spring flowering. Image
2n exotic high Andean tubers, hand picked by Inca virgins on a moonlit night, roasted in a “Cadaiee” and tossed in a tangy pickling sauce of “achaard” spices, a speciality of the “putty-aala” region Image
3n black lentils served in the “maucanee” style, simmered overnight over a rare sandalwood flame & bathed in a luscious tomato concasse enriched with secret aromats comprising the “pawn-jaw-bee” Pentateuch & enriched with butter separated from the whey by yodelling Swiss maidens Image
Read 6 tweets

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