Flaneur. Somewhat opinionated, mostly harmless. Fulbright Fellow @ CMU (2011)

Joined August 2014
117 Photos and videos
12 years in one tweet
When you raid a store of goodwill your predecessors have left behind for you, it feels really great. As if a new era has opened. Until the store becomes empty and everyone realises that you created virtually nothing and was simply coasting along on the achievements of your predecessors. In foreign affairs, in economy, in institutional credibility. The crash that follows can be very hurting emotionally.
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You know shit has hit the roof when the govt's most dedicated yes men are questioning the govt's pusillanimous foreign policy statements.
Why are we indirectly justifying the US action by referring to OFAC and using terms like non- compliance? These are illegal actions even if the ships are not Indian- flagged. Our concern is that Indian seamen have been killed and no regret has been expressed by CENTCOM. If India and the US cooperate on maritime security in the Indian Ocean, hold elaborate naval exercises, subscribe to the concept of the Indo- Pacific, the US can’t be indifferent to killing Indian seamen in the Indian Ocean whatever the circumstances.
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For BJP, elections are now difficult to win but easy to fix.
After Vote Chori and Sarkar Chori - the BJP-EC jugalbandi has finished the contest before it has even begun with Seat Chori. Look at what happened in the recent Rajya Sabha elections. Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan ji submitted every document. No pending cases. The EC cancelled her nomination on a frivolous BJP objection. Parimal Nathwani ji, the BJP-backed independent, got his own name wrong on the form and skipped multiple mandatory disclosures. The EC gave him an extension to fix everything. Same Election Commission. Two candidates. One was disqualified without even a hearing. The other was rewarded despite not following the rules. When the Congress sought a meeting, the EC first tried to evade us. When we finally met, they did not say one word. Expect to see much more of this - because for the BJP, it is far easier to fix the election than to win it.
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Why do ‘friends’ of Modi behave like enemies of India?
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The Indian ambassador posts videos wherein he is speaking Mandarin. The Chinese embassy on other hand makes a smart dig at India. #Mayyouliveininterestingtimes
China's Gaokao — the world's largest exam & India's equivalent of JEE/NEET rolled into one — was conducted smoothly for 1.3 crore students in just 2 days 🎓 Factories paused. Roads quieted. The entire nation rallied for its students. चीन की गाओकाओ — दुनिया की सबसे बड़ी परीक्षा, जो भारत के JEE और NEET का संयुक्त रूप है — को मात्र 2 दिनों में 1.3 करोड़ छात्रों के लिए सुचारू रूप से आयोजित किया गया। 🎓 कारखानों ने काम रोका। सड़कें सन्न रहीं। पूरा देश अपने छात्रों के लिए एकजुट हो गया। श्रेय: @GYANIINDIANS #NEET #JEE #India #China #Gaokao
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dipayan retweeted
How to raise a kid: "My parents encouraged rational thinking. They never shut down discussion. They encouraged debate, perspective and logical reasoning. That shaped the way I approach public issues today."
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What a kid. Bravo!
Good of Sarthak, pretty impressive. Gen Z, why not.
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But abdul is taight saar
Such has been the dramatic slide that I find it hard to figure who is the bigger disappointment: Devendra Fadnavis or Nitin Gadkari
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dipayan retweeted
Negotiations continue between the US and Iran to bring a halt to the war in West Asia. The immediate impact of such an agreement would mean the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz and a downward pressure in oil prices—both of which India has a tremendous stake in. But the negotiations have not been clinched, primarily because of Israel’s continuing military operations in Lebanon which have seen unprecedented incursions. President Trump himself has expressed extreme frustration and anger with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in expletive-filled language. Many other countries have been condemning Israel’s offensive in Lebanon. Not surprisingly the one head of government who has kept completely silent while Israel goes ahead with devastating Lebanon and sabotaging the US-Iran agreement is Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Does the so-called fatherland mean much more to him than his actual motherland?
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dipayan retweeted
Modiji spent the last 12 years on tax payer money forcefully projecting himself as someone who loves children, schooling, education. But when children and the education sector needed him the most, there's deafening silence. Always absent in crisis, present in taking credit.
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The BJP-ECI nexus’s carefully constructed architecture of electoral capture is unfolding exactly as intended. - Began with missing EVMs and unexplained discrepancies involving nearly 19 lakh machines - Then manipulation of voter rolls through misuse of Form 6 and Form 7 - Removal of the Chief Justice of India from the Chief Election Commissioner appointment process - Functional immunity from civil and criminal proceedings to Election Commissioners through the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023 - And now, SIR For 75 years, India’s democratic promise rested on a simple constitutional idea: the State, not the citizen, carries the burden of finding, enrolling and protecting every eligible voter. SIR turned that logic on its head and effectively became a backdoor citizenship test. While the SC has upheld the @ECISVEEP’s power to conduct SIR, it still leaves unanswered - why such a sweeping exercise was rushed through in election-bound states, - why it was conducted with so little transparency and - what happens to the lakhs of legitimate Indian citizens excluded from the process and denied their vote.
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Fourteen years later, Indians are being asked to leave the US. Only if the PM was ...
. @narendramodi- I want a India where all USA comes to get Indian visa. #ModiHangout
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The khikhi-khikhi upbringing shows up every now and then
May 20
#WATCH | "Thank you for the gift", tweets Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni She says, "Prime Minister Modi brought as a gift, a very, very good toffee- Melody" (Video Source: Giorgia Meloni/'X')
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dipayan retweeted
Photo of the decade.
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China, unlike India, didn't buy into neolib financial globalization, kept capital controls & state directed credit. So Trump chaperones all top US businessmen to beg CCP for market access, while shaking down our oligarch for 10 bil $ even as economy is gutted by capital outflows.
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dipayan retweeted
People often claim that the BJP wins because of hard work and the “Modi magic.” There is nothing as Vote Chori. People, at times also ask, why the Congress fails to work on ground to stop vote chori. Well, the reality is quite different. Tomorrow, on May 10, voting is scheduled for municipal corporation elections in Haryana. Let take the example of the Panchkula Municipal Corporation. Local Congress team of Panchkula has carefully checked the voter list. It discovered that there are 17,086 fake voters in the list, who are registered in two or more places. Same voter, different voter number, different vote! Congress workers also visited the booths and found that there are 11,065 voters who have either died or have permanently moved away. This information has been officially given to the Election Commission, this time before polling date. Congress General Secretary @rssurjewala put out the facts in a detailed press conference. Voting is yet to happen. The fraud has already been identified. But the Election Commission refuses to correct the voter list. It only says that booth officials will stop such people from voting. But how will they stop them? Will this not create tension and quarrels at polling booths? Can every booth officer honestly identify and stop every fake voter? And how will they identify them? Have they even been given the list of duplicate voters? Think about it. Vote theft is not some made-up story to avoid responsibility for election defeats. It is a planned conspiracy to take away your democratic rights. This time the list of fake voters is already before the public much before polling. So what is the excuse now? @RahulGandhi is continuously alerting the people of India. Protect your democracy and your constitutional rights. By the way, despite this large-scale vote theft, we are confident that Congress candidate Sudha Bhardwaj will still win in Panchkula. Our workers will stop fake voting at the booths at any cost. @INCIndia @kharge @RahulGandhi The full list of alleged fake voters can be downloaded from the following link: dropbox.com/scl/fi/d1dg5kcul…
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dipayan retweeted
Some in the Congress, and others, are gloating about TMC’s loss. They need to understand this clearly - the theft of Assam and Bengal’s mandate is a big step forward by the BJP in its mission to destroy Indian democracy. Put petty politics aside. This is not about one party or another. This is about 🇮🇳.
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dipayan retweeted
THE INDIAN ECONOMY IS DEAD. Modi killed it. 1. Adani-Modi partnership 2. Demonetisation and a flawed GST 3. Failed “Assemble in India” 4. MSMEs wiped out 5. Farmers crushed Modi has destroyed the future of India’s youth because there are no jobs.
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One day has passed and I am still wondering - Why in Hindi? Elections are in Bengal, Trinamool is an overwhelmingly Bengal regional party, so why warn party or assure voters in Hindi? I mean, who is the target audience of this message?
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dipayan retweeted
2 million will not be able to vote because of the Election Commission's blunders, deliberate or otherwise. But it is the voter who must pay. New India, new justice
West Bengal SIR: Supreme Court refuses to set deadline to decide appeals even as State flags 20 lakh exclusions by judicial officers report by @DebayonRoy barandbench.com/news/west-be…
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