Seshadri Kumar Profile picture
May 27 14 tweets 7 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
A friend sent me a video that is apparently making the rounds. It's titled "#Modi the Boss," and features various world leaders praising Modi's popularity and greeting him.

Modi's #Bhakts are clearly in orgasmic bliss with this, and opponents say it's pure propaganda.

(1/)
But there's more to this than meets the eye.

1. It's a fact that Modi's popularity fills world leaders with awe. They would give an arm and a leg to be as popular in their countries as Modi is in India. He can screw up worse than anyone can imagine and still be popular.

(2/)
2. In contrast, leaders of most world democracies have to worry about the #economy, #jobs, #Unemployment, #prices, #inflation, #recession, etc. If anything goes wrong with these, they might lose the next #election.

(3/)
3. But not Modi. As long as he sticks to the Hindutva agenda - #BeefBan, #UCC, #CAA, #NRC, #Ayodhya, #Kashi, #Lynchings of Muslims, etc, Hindus will not care what happens to the economy, their jobs, or even national security. They will even make excuses for his incompetence. (4/)
4. Any world leader would love to lord over such sheep with such low expectations.

5. But there's more than Modi's popularity which endears them to the West.

He is spending India's wealth buying aircraft, missiles, and other defense equipment costing billions of dollars.

(5/)
And anyone who buys lots of America's stuff and helps the #MilitaryIndustrialComplex in the US is a friend of the West.

6. Modi is also part of the #Quad, an anti-China offensive bloc.

(6/)
While India doesn't participate in any offensive operations such as sending warships to the #SouthChinaSea, its lip service against China is enough for the US to claim that the largest population in the world,and a democracy to boot, is against China.

(7/)
8. India also embarrasses China every chance it gets, from accusing it of being responsible for the Covid pandemic to making comments on the South China sea to painting China as the main threat to the world.

(8/)
9. All this is nectar to the US' ears. In return for all this, what does Modi ask? Does he demand transfer of tech knowhow to Indian companies as a precondition of market access, as #Deng had so cleverly done? No. Does he even ask for anything for India or Indians?

(9/)
10. Hell, no. All the man wants are a hug, a few words of glowing praise, a photograph, and a rally in front of the Indian diaspora in your country, and he will be eating out of your hand.

Why wouldn't you do such a small thing for so much in return?

(10/)
11. Some people are so troubled that the West doesn't worry about Modi's poor human rights record when they are ready to hug the man and call him the boss. Western countries have never cared about human rights. It's a stick with which to beat countries they don't like.

(11/)
The US has supported some of the worst dictators in the world because their objectives were being met - people like Suharto and #Pinochet. Modi is an angel in comparison because he is democratically elected.

So don't hold your breath waiting for the West to condemn Modi.

(12/)
He will be the "Boss," the most popular leader in the world, or whatever else he would like as praise, so long as they get what they want.

The West do not have to rack their brains trying to figure Modi out, the way they keep trying with #Xi or #Putin.

This one's easy.

(13/)

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More from @KumarSeshadri

May 27
Any military operation that has been expected for months usually fails because the opponent has had plenty of time to plan a defence. Most successful operations are surprise operations, but not all surprise attacks work against a prepared opponent.

(1/)
Expected attacks can work if there's overwhelming force. An example is #DesertStorm.

Example of successful surprise operations: #PearlHarbor, The #Incheon Landings in the #KoreanWar, #OperationUranus at #Stalingrad in October 1942 that encircled the #German #SixthArmy.

(2/)
An example of a failed attack because there was no surprise in it was #OperationCitadel at the #BattleofKursk in June 1943. The expected line of attack was obvious to everyone because of the disposition of troops.

(3/)
Read 7 tweets
May 26
India is a veritable #TowerofBabel, with more than two dozen official languages and hundreds of dialects.

This has caused lots of tension because everyone wants to preserve their culture. There's also the feeling that there should be some link language to connect the whole.
(1/)
For a long time, #English was the link language, but self-styled nationalists, especially from the ruling #BJP, felt this was a betrayal of "Indian" values.

So they kept pushing for the use of #Hindi as the #NationalLanguage.

(2/)
But Hindi is not even spoken by a majority (>50%) of Indians. It is merely spoken by the most Indians.

So people of other ethnicities worry that under Hindi domination, their languages would disappear.

A three-language formula was suggested as far back as the 1960s.

(3/)
Read 19 tweets
May 26
The entire opposition in #India is a bunch of idiots. Be in the #CongressParty, the #TMC, the #AAP, the #DMK, the #JDU, or any of the 19 parties who have decided to boycott the inauguration of the #NewParliamentBuilding by #Modi or complaining about #SengolAtNewParliament

(1/)
They are just playing Modi's game. And if you play his game, you will lose.

Modi is far better at optics than any of you. He understands that #Hindus love the idea of a Hindu symbol in Parliament. They don't care about the historicity.

(2/)
And Modi also knows that, for all the talk about Constitutional propriety, nobody gives a damn about either Ram Nath Kovind or #PresidentMurmu - they know these are just puppets installed by Modi.

Modi's fans, which today are a majority of Hindus, want him to inaugurate it.
(3/)
Read 5 tweets
May 25
Despite all the hot air about #MakeinIndia, when India needs something important, #Modi has no faith in Indians, even when they have proved themselves.

Our own government organization, #CDAC has made world class supercomputers. They are the #PARAM class of clusters.

(1/) Image
The article in today's Hindu newspaper says that India wanted to get an 18 #petaflop (PF) computer. Well, the fastest computer in India is the #PARAM #Siddhi, located in #IISC Bangalore, with a peak speed of 5.3 PF. Now you want 18 PF.

(2/)
In 2002, PARAM unveiled its first #teraflop (TF) computer. One PF is 1000 times faster than a TF. By 2020, they had come up with a PF computer. 1000x in 18 years. How long do you think it will take them to go 3x from their existing level?

(3/)
Read 6 tweets
May 24
A lot of people are upset that #Modi is going to inaugurate the new #ParliamentBuilding and not #PresidentMurmu

I don't have a problem with it. Frankly, I think the office of the President is a massive waste of taxpayer money, and should be abolished.

(1/)
Rashtrapati Bhavan should be sold to the highest bidder and converted into a 7-star hotel, with a portion of their revenues going to the government.

Think about it. For a very long time, the Indian President has been just a #rubberstamp.

(2/)
Whether it was Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed or #PratibhaPatil or #RamNathKovind or #DraupadiMurmu, the office has usually been filled with non-entities. These are political appointees who simply obey the diktats of the people who appointed them.

(3/)
Read 7 tweets
May 23
I wrote this to a #BJP supporter who wanted to know my political position. I am expanding and sharing it here.

1. BJP is as corrupt and inefficient as #Congress, but it gets a free pass because it is successfully advancing the cause of #Hindu #majoritarianism.

(1/)
2. Examples are #Rammandir, #kashivishvanathtemple, #Article370, #TripleTalaq, #UCC, #CAANRC, #Cowslaughter bans, random #lynchings of Muslims, ban on #Azan in public, etc. A majority of Hindus in India support these, as they believe these will "put Muslims in their place."

(2/)
3. In fact, #Corruption under the BJP is likely to be far worse than under Congress rule, because the media (which is now entirely under the control of Modi's corporate cronies like A&A) simply refuses to investigate any BJP corruption scams. Examples: #Vyapam, #Rafale...

(3/)
Read 21 tweets

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