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Ruchir Sharma Profile picture
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30 Dec 20, 4 tweets, 1 min read
"If religion is beyond the ken of our State, let us clearly say so and delete all reference to rights relating to religion. If we find it necessary, let us be brave enough and say what it should be."

- Lokanath Mishra, Constituent Assembly Debates, 6 December 1948
"Indeed in no constitution of the world, [the] right to propagate religion is a fundamental right and justiciable. The Irish Free State Constitution recognises the special position of the faith professed by the great majority of the citizens."
"tabooing religion and yet making propagation of religion a fundamental right is somewhat uncanny & dangerous. Justice demands that the ancient faith & culture of the land should be given a fair deal, if not restored to its legitimate place after a thousand years of suppression."
"The aim is political, for in the modern world all is power-politics and the inner man is lost in the dust.

Let everybody live as he thinks best but let him not try to swell his number to demand the spoils of political warfare ... This is intolerable and unjust."

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More from @ruchirsharma_1

Ruchir Sharma Profile picture
31 Dec 20
Right. To build upon this cutting-edge analysis, here's a bit of historical context.

1960 - Literacy: 28%; Congress: 371 Lok Sabha seats
1980 - Literacy: 43%; Congress: 163 seats
2000 - Literacy: 64%; Congress: 114 seats
2020 - Literacy: 78%; Congress: 52 seats
Just waiting now for the inevitable डूबते का तिनके का सहारा response.

"But later in 1980, under our infallible Indiraji's leadership, Congress got 43% of the vote in the election, and the national literacy rate was also 43%. Coincidence? I think not!" 😂

#StatsLikeTharoor
And for the curious, the other years.

1950 - Literacy: 18%; Congress: Turned the indirectly elected Constituent Assembly into a provisional parliament.
1970 - Literacy: 34%; Congress: 283 seats
1990 - Literacy: 52%; Congress: 197 seats
2010 - Literacy: 74%; Congress: 114 seats
Read 6 tweets
Ruchir Sharma Profile picture
29 Dec 20
100%. Need clear separation of powers.

With direct elections for an executive President, who appoints the Cabinet of Ministers and sets government policy.

In parliament, the Speaker to be seen as the leader of the legislature. MPs responsible only for laws, amendments, repeals.
The Constitution and laws need to be democratised.

Rewritten in simple language, translated into every state language, and made available as original sources online, so people can access them and understand laws themselves instead of being dependent on self-appointed custodians.
We need more local democracy and fewer regional satraps.

Dissolve the current states and upgrade 740 districts into elected Janapadas/Prefectures, to improve policy outcomes on the ground.

No more MLAs and DMs acting like local feudal lords. Bottom-up, accessible institutions.
Read 9 tweets
Ruchir Sharma Profile picture
26 Dec 20
"The country, which is the world’s largest beef exporter, has seen a dramatic shift toward plant-based diets. The number of vegetarians in Brazil has nearly doubled over a six-year period, ... 30 million people, or 14% of Brazilians, reported being vegetarian or vegan in 2018."
"This transformation has turned the nation of 212 million people — globally renowned for all-you-can-eat steakhouses and increasingly under siege for the carbon footprint of its cattle ranches — into a powerhouse for plant-based food innovation."

nytimes.com/2020/12/26/wor…
"Brazilian plant-based food start-ups have seen soaring demand since animal-based protein analogues first became widely available in 2019 in supermarkets and restaurants.

A few years ago, giving up meat was unthinkable for the vast majority of Brazilians."
Read 5 tweets
Ruchir Sharma Profile picture
1 Dec 20
In other words, "Clearing blockades and police brutality is only okay when I do it against indigenous communities to make the fossil fuel lobby happy." ImageImageImageImage
We also need no lessons in agricultural policy from a protectionist state which mollycoddles it's inefficient farmers with state patronage, to bribe rural voters.

All while pushing that African and Asian countries must end subsidies and open up their markets to Canadian exports. ImageImageImageImage
"Trudeau famously declared himself a feminist, but he sells weapons to the most vicious and misogynistic government in the world.

Calling poverty sexist, he nevertheless implements policies that impoverish women in Canada and around the world."

jacobinmag.com/2016/09/justin…
Read 8 tweets
Ruchir Sharma Profile picture
10 Nov 20
He was an incapacitated alcoholic during his tenure, who would escape Cabinet meetings if they clashed with his evening whiskey-samosa routine, according to M.O. Mathai's memoirs.

Instead, he had Humayun Kabir, K.G. Saidayin, and Ashfaque Hussain run the ministry on his behalf.
The relevant passage, from M.O. Mathai’s 'Reminiscences',

"One day the Maulana’s favourite Private Secretary came to see me privately. He told me that he was worried about the Maulana because he was imbibing half a bottle of whisky every evening.
Falls were not infrequent ...
"... In fact he had broken his back in a fall and had to wear a metal plate to support his back.

Since then an able-bodied man was always available to support the Maulana whenever he got up during and after his drinks."
Read 7 tweets
Ruchir Sharma Profile picture
14 Oct 20
Bold to assume that The Wire is an Indian media outlet.

It's a regime change NGO that just happens to have a blog. Run by Americans, Maoists, and Islamists trying to apply the Yugoslav disintegration model on India.

To them, anything that facilitates this outcome is desirable.
"Through the creation of a series of quasi-private "foundations", ... Washington began to filter funding and strategic aid to political parties and groups abroad that promoted US agenda in nations with insubordinate governments."

wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/1…
"The recipe is always the same. Student and youth movements lead the way
with a fresh face, attracting others to join in as though it were the
fashion, the cool thing to do. There's always a logo, a color, a
marketing strategy."
Read 5 tweets

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