इस वीडियो ने मुझे झकझोर दिया। ये उस भारत के लाचार युवा हैं - जिसकी सरकार अपने अरबपति दोस्तों पर लाखों करोड़ लुटा देती है, पर अपने ही छात्रों को एक सुरक्षित सफ़र तक नहीं दे सकती। चुनाव के वक़्त यही सरकार पूरी-पूरी ट्रेनों का इंतज़ाम कर लेती है। और परीक्षा देने जा रहे छात्रों के हिस्से में आती है - भीड़, घुटन, और बेबसी। इससे बड़ा सबूत क्या होगा कि मोदी सरकार छात्रों की गूंज सुनना ही नहीं चाहती। पर मैं वादा करता हूँ - हम यह आवाज़ उन बहरे कानों तक पहुँचाएँगे। हर छात्र को उसका हक़ मिलेगा, उसका न्याय मिलेगा। 17 जून, कोटा। यही गूंज, अब हुंकार बनेगी। #ChhatronKiGoonj

India is cautiously welcoming the Iran deal, but let’s be clear: this is a disaster for India. 1️⃣ This deal has elevated India’s arch-nemesis Pakistan to the level of global peacemaker. It undermines India’s efforts to call out Pakistan’s destabilizing behavior and support for terrorism by making Islamabad a byword for peacemaking. It also transforms Pakistan into a powerbroker and leader of the Global South at India’s expense. 2️⃣ The capitulation allows Iran to dominate India’s western trading gateway. Before the Iranian Axis launched the October 7 War, India was dreaming of building the IMEC trade corridor through the Gulf and Israel to Europe. It was meant to slash transit costs and turbocharge Indian manufacturing. An emboldened Iran with ballistic missiles and billions in sanctions relief imperils that vision. Iran receives a veto over any infrastructure project in a maritime zone it seeks to dominate. Critically, the deal emboldens Iran’s proxy armies by establishing the precedent that they are inviolable, and this will threaten shipping in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. 3️⃣ This deal keeps nearly 10 million Indians in the shadow of Iran’s ballistic missiles and killer drones The Iranian attack on Kuwait’s airport killed an Indian and the attack on Fujeirah injured three. India needs the Iranian threat neutralized to safeguard its migrant workers and the essential remittances they send home. 4️⃣ The failure to resolve the nuclear issue, while surrendering US leverage, means India will continue to be threatened by an Iranian regime in league with Pakistan pursuing nuclear weapons. It will continue to attack Indian interests with impunity and sow chaos in West Asia, sabotaging the stability that India needs for long-term economic projects. A nuclear-threshold Iran leaves India permanently exposed. India’s approach of neutrality is unsustainable and jeopardizes its long-term interests. This disastrous deal must push it to reevaluate its geopolitical posture in a world in which Iran is dangerous and Pakistan is ascendant. Closer military and economic ties with Israel, similarly threatened by this news, is inevitable.

Under the current government in India, he would have been appointed a minister.

India sending America a message during the Devyani Khobragade crisis in 2013: We are shocked and appalled at the manner in which she has been humiliated by US authorities. We have taken this up forcefully with US govt. This treatment to our diplomats is absolutely unacceptable

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.

अमेरिकी हमलों में तीन भारतीय नाविकों की हत्या के चंद दिन बाद - न अफ़सोस, न माफ़ी। उल्टा, अमेरिका ने आदेश देना जारी रखा है। उनके शब्द पढ़िए: “अमेरिकी सेना के आदेश तुरंत मानें।” कोई उल्लंघन “बर्दाश्त नहीं किया जाएगा।” एक आज़ाद देश इस तरह की भाषा कभी नहीं सहेगा। लेकिन हमारे Compromised PM? चुप। एक आज्ञाकारी नौकर की तरह सुनते हैं, और आदेश मान लेते हैं। Compromised PM देश के सम्मान की रक्षा नहीं करेगा - क्योंकि जो देश का अपमान करते हैं, वो उन्हीं के वश में हैं।

Netanyahu has decided to accept the Iranian deal. Security officials are despondent and see it as a disaster. Ynet brings some high level quotes from them: 1) A senior Israeli official said "Nobody is happy with this. We understand it is not good for us, and that it harms Israeli interests. What is troubling is that Israel cannot influence it. Its voice is not being heard." 2) The anger at Trump is palpable.: "Trump screwed us, we took the hit. We're no longer in the loop and can't really influence anything." 3) Israelis fear Iran will be economically revived: "They've blown money on the Iranians, who are getting everything they want. They'll build a missile corps, and we'll have to pour money into interceptors." Israel sees oil revenue flowing back into the exact capabilities the war was meant to degrade. 4) They don't believe a deal will adequately deal with the nuclear issue: "The real test of the deal is removing the uranium and destroying it. If that doesn't happen, the sense of a bad deal will turn into something more concrete." 5) They fear this will embolden Iran: "Iran has smelled that it can achieve things by force, and it will use that against its neighbors and against us." 6) The deepest worry is not military. It is perception. After months of direct fire, Iran is seen across the region as the side that took the pressure and did not fold: "the regional working assumption will be that it was signed under Iranian pressure and American capitulation, rather than the reverse." Israel is concerned that Iran will be stronger, the US will be weaker and that the future for it will be bleak in the region. This war has been a disaster for Israel.

The irony is that the U.S. and India are "Major Defense Partners," conduct joint military exercises and cooperate across the Indo-Pacific. Yet the U.S. Navy has launched missile strikes against commercial tankers in international waters and killed Indian merchant mariners. The U.S. Navy had direct communications with the crews of the three foreign-flagged commercial tankers and was fully aware of their Indian nationality before launching the strikes that killed three crew members this week. This echoes March, when the U.S. Navy torpedoed and sank, in India's backyard, an Iranian frigate returning in a non-combat configuration after largely expending its munitions during an India-hosted multilateral naval exercise in which the U.S. also participated. And just as the U.S. Navy did not attempt to rescue the sailors from the sinking frigate, it likewise did not come to the aid of the surviving Indian crew members aboard the three tankers it struck. The rescue efforts were mounted instead by Omani authorities. It is noteworthy that the vessels Washington labels part of a "shadow fleet" transporting crude oil are largely linked to China and Russia. Yet since the Trump-ordered naval blockade began on April 13 without any basis in international law, the U.S. military has not struck a single tanker actively bound for, or coming directly from, either China or Russia. Striking such a vessel would transform a localized naval blockade into a direct geopolitical confrontation with Beijing or Moscow — a line the Trump administration has explicitly avoided crossing. Instead, it has employed kinetic force only against lower-profile vessels, including those carrying Indian crew members. Taken together, these incidents are a sad commentary on the state of India's foreign policy under the present government.

My column: India’s defense institutions continue to operate as though the principal threat to Indian democracy comes from its own military rather than from the increasingly complex security challenges emerging beyond its borders. As a result, the civilian bureaucracy remains the principal gatekeeper of major defense decisions, strategic planning, procurement and budgetary authority. thehill.com/opinion/internat…

The Silence Over Indian Lives: If three American merchant mariners were killed in an airstrike, it would trigger a round-the-clock political crisis in the United States. Yet the deaths of three Indian crew members in a U.S. airstrike on a Palau-flagged tanker near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday have attracted little international attention. Modi has not publicly commented on the attack, leaving it to the foreign ministry to lodge a routine diplomatic protest. Nor was this an isolated incident. It was the third tanker carrying Indian crew members to be struck by the U.S. military this week. On Monday, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet used precision-guided munitions against another tanker in the Gulf of Oman, forcing Omani authorities to evacuate all 24 Indian sailors aboard. Then today, a U.S. aircraft fired two Hellfire missiles into the engine room of a Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker off the Omani coast, sparking a major fire. Fortunately, all 20 Indian crew members survived.

Ravi Gupta at its best. That isn't a joke. Thats the reality 😭

Open Challenge to NHAI and Shri Nitin Gadkari : Show the people of India a "single" highway project constructed in the last few years that has not required patchwork, repairs, or maintenance within two years of completion. Thousands of crores of public money are spent on highway construction every year, yet many roads fail to maintain their quality for even 2–3 years. Despite repeated claims of world-class infrastructure, cutting-edge technology, and rapid development, citizens continue to witness potholes, damaged stretches, and frequent repair work. True infrastructure is measured not by announcements and inauguration ceremonies, but by quality, durability, and accountability. The people of India deserve roads that last for years, not highways that begin deteriorating soon after they are built. It is time for answers and accountability. Taxpayers deserve better..! @NHAI_Official @nitin_gadkari @narendramodi @AmitShah @BJP4India @amitmalviya

Let's save Nicobar! This island is too 'great' to be destroyed. 🌴🌊

I visited the southernmost tip of India. I stood at Indira Point. I walked under trees that have stood for centuries. I dove into coral reefs among the most vibrant on earth. And I sat with the people who live there. Tribal communities, whose land is being taken away by violating the Forest Rights Act. Settlers, many of them former soldiers, placed on these islands by the Indian government, who aren’t getting fair compensation. The Modi government and BJP tells you Great Nicobar Project is about defence. It is not. Expand INS Baaz - we will back the government fully. The Navy has been asking for expansion for five years - it has been ignored. They tell you it is about a transhipment port. It is not. India is already building one in Kerala, which is on the mainland. What it actually is: 1.5 crore trees felled. Coral reefs erased from official maps. Soldiers and tribals displaced - so one businessman can build hotels and casinos on India’s most irreplaceable ecological land. Every young Indian I have spoken to understands this. You know that no amount of profit is worth destroying what can never be recovered. I stand for ecologically balanced development. These islands can be the most extraordinary sustainable destination the world has ever seen. That is the India worth fighting for. #GreenOverGreed #NicobarMatters #WorldEnvironmentDay

Not good … not good at all. A movie like “Zindagi na milegi dobara” should never have been made.