Just a thought. The damage to institutions in a decade of BJP rule will have been so thorough and awful, that whoever comes next will have to have a road map to build them back up. And I’m not sure we have those sorts of visionaries in India anymore.
India was built on the foundation of accommodative politics and coercion. Now it’s just pure coercion and bullying. There is massive distrust in all state institutions and rightly so, given how they no longer act independently of the ruling ideology.
I personally don’t think the BJP regime will last. But who knows.

What worries me at night is how to build India back and restore Democratic institutions and systems of accountability. If your systems of accountability at an compromised then it’s Lord of the Flies.
I’m a political scientist and yes I tend to obsessively turn these issues over in my head all the time trying to figure out a third or fourth way. I think we need to keep building local democracy and keep interrogating. If we stop that we will be lost.
But what bothers me is that I can’t think of a SINGLE leader in India that can transcend region, religion and caste. I can’t think of a single leader who is thinking futuristically for the entire country.

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More from @vsirnate

29 Jan
I have no idea what this is doing In The Indian govt’s Economic Survey but ok let’s go scratch our backs against a tree.
I think the 800 odd migrant workers who died because they were stranded in the heat without transport or food would disagree with this opening para of the Indian govt’s economic survey.
Bayesian updating? They most certainly didn’t do any updation. Ye log samjhe hain ki yehi log gamewa theory pade hain kya?#EconomicSurvey2021
Read 11 tweets
26 Jan
I think everyone needs to read this piece. Deep Sidhu campaigned for Sunny Deol (BJP). He’s behind the flag hoisting incident. The farmers had been trying to sideline him but he’s persisted. Think the hoisting should not be connected to main protest.

m.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/we…
According to this piece the March was to happen on the outer ring road. Deep and company decided to take their show inside Delhi.
He is also the man that Barkha interviewed and we all felt bad for him. He’s apparently since then being trying to commandeer the agitation and give it an identity spin. Farmers protest main body has not been happy about this.
Read 5 tweets
17 Jan
I’ve finally managed to get through the Arnab Goswami Chatgate pdf. Everyone has already highlighted those portions that needed highlighting. I have a slightly different tack.

1. The messages tell me that news is a carefully constructed consumer product.
This is something we all already know but it’s nice to see confirmation. Events are presented in the high-decibel manner that has become the standard because the product is crying for attention.

2. These folks don’t care about what has actually happened and to whom. They’re
callous about it. Their eye is firmly on the ratings. There is no empathy in their conversation. The empathy on screen is constructed.

3. Overall the chats reveal varying degrees of competition between channels to get real close to those in office. One thing that stood out
Read 16 tweets
16 Jan
I don’t understand. Why would you give up a two decade illustrious anchor career to teach in an extension program?
I will add that the extension school may bear the frills and trims of the main university but the website clearly says EXTENSION. It’s very different from being a prof at Harvard. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Another thing that doesn’t make sense is the visa process. We all know that the Individual has to apply for the work visa in person. A work visa cannot be acquired by a third party to the best of my knowledge. Paperwork can certainly be put together by a third party but you still
Read 8 tweets
15 Jan
I’m not gonna lie when I first heard that Nidhi Razdan was joining Harvard as an associate prof, I was like “how?” Because you don’t just get appointed as an associate prof without a PhD. But I didn’t say anything because I thought maybe it’s one of those fellowship appts.
I also didn’t know if she maybe had a PhD. So I did but question it. But I did see the red flag and again I thought maybe it’s because of a high public profile.

Note to self: don’t dismiss your instincts.
Also Harvard is notorious for denying tenure to very capable people (esp women). So this was very very odd. I’m very sorry she made life altering decisions and I daresay she has a lot of experience which journalism students can learn from. Hope she lands on her feet.
Read 5 tweets
24 Nov 20
Someone I used to know very well and considered a good friend did this thing where they turned into a BJP supporter and I saw them being swallowed up by that ecosystem of hate and totally change into something I did not recognize. What hurt is that at some point I
could no longer have a conversation with this person because of the hate speech about various groups that came into that conversation. I never knew this person to be this way and I had to disconnect because I couldn’t support those views and engaging in a discussion
meant opening myself up to ridicule and barbs.

The failure here was to be unable to get this person to see things minus the lens of hate and propaganda. I couldn’t do anything after a point. Today I saw some tweet by this person engaging in the right wing narrative
Read 8 tweets

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