Dheeraj Kalgutkar

While AAP lost to BJP, Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia were also defeated in their respective constituencies      Many, especially people in Delhi, saw this coming. In a way, it is good. Or as someone mentioned, it was inevitable. Just like how it was important to defeat UPA at the height of their powers and ego trip in 2014, equally, it had become important and necessary to defeat the politics of Arvind Kejriwal. He was thinking that a mini-version of BJP's politics was the strategy to go by. He repeatedly projected himself as the better version of BJP's divisive politics - as if he could hate Muslims but continue to also provide free public services. At every step of the way in recent times, he projected himself as more religious and narrowminded than the BJP. He even avoided supporting his own Muslim legislator and rallied against admitting children of migrants in schools. Forget about his actions concerning Shaheen Bagh and CAA. And of course, he had grown hubris that he ...

Vijay Sthamb (victory pillar) - The pillar was erected by the East India Company in memory of those who fought the battle and includes the names of the Mahar soldiers who unknowingly brought an end to the Peshwa rule in 1818.   The battle on January 1, 1818, where the British, with just 834 infantrymen — about 500 of them from the Mahar community — and 12 officers defeated the 28,000-strong army of Peshwa Bajirao II - was one of the last battles of the Third Anglo-Maratha War, which ended the Peshwa domination. While this would tempt many to suggest Mahars/Dalits always sided with the British - absolutely nothing wrong if they did give the conditions they were forced to live in - in truth, they were before this battle part of the Maratha army. During Shivaji’s reign, especially before Peshwas, many didn’t realise that Peshwas were not a continuation of Marathas under Shivaji but a deviation from it. One would do well here to remember how Brahmins of his dominion refused to conduct ...

  It took the British around 100 years to fully conquer India. And by India, I mean British India consisting of Myanmar, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and present-day India. And in this, they were helped and aided by all sorts of Indian kingdoms and people. Rajputs and Marathas were major forces that helped the British conquer the most difficult of kingdoms. For instance, Tipu Sultan who defeated the British in two battles was defeated and killed by the British army in the fourth Anglo-Mysore war with the help of Marathas and Nizam of Hyderabad. Otherwise, the British couldn't defeat Tipu who had by then defeated their general who had defeated Napoleon in battle. The last battle was full of ironies, I mean, ironical considering the politics of today. For instance, Maratha Peshwas, in whom today’s Hindutva-nationalists take pride were collaborating with the British, Scindias of Gwalior too supported the British while a Mughal fought against the British. This is not to say one is...

The plant that we so diligently watered and cared for has grown into a big banyan; full of flowers and fruits. Own it now. 53 people have lost their lives in the Delhi riots. You have heard this already. But do you see the problem here? Riot? Was it really a riot? Is it a riot if the state machinery and police take sides; forget keeping silent while mobs went on a rampage but Delhi police took stones in their own hands and threw them at the other side, they directed and aided one side of the mob (as if there was another side anyway), they climbed and destroyed CCTV cameras . Yes, police did all this. It’s all on record. There are videos after videos that prove all this. How then can we call it a riot? It was a pogrom. As Rana Ayyub called, state-sponsored anti-Muslim pogrom. Let’s call it what it was. Now that we have settled on the calling business, let’s get on to our language. The 53 dead bodies, actually in some cases, there were no bodies, only a limb which police...

India is a diverse nation, our strength lies in our unity or so are we told since school but what we are not taught is how this very diversity is time and again exploited by certain elements to sow seeds of hate in the society we live in. Just last week we saw this happening in Delhi where a parking feud spiralled into communal confrontation , a boy went missing (?), a temple was vandalized, quickly came the men with slogans and then there was more. There is a lot to learn from this but I’m quite sure we would not. There is a reason why riots keep happening in India and people who until that day lived shoulder-to-shoulder burn each other’s houses and seek more blood. Until we understand this pattern and intentions behind people who initiate these ghastly crimes, the kind of unknown non-local faces who visit the disturbed towns, we will continue to reel under these riots. India has seen many riots since 1980. Far too many. And one must try to retrace their origins, reasons why ...

    We are against terrorism. Aren’t we? I don’t remember anyone defending Ajmal Kasab. Or for instance Masood Azhar. But now I doubt we were against terrorism then or are now with respect to Azhar for instance. We have just elected ‘Sadhvi’ Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused awaiting trial in the 2008 Malegaon bombings with astounding margin nonetheless. That doesn’t fit into fighting terrorism, does it? There are other things to read from this and previous elections too. By and large, we all despise hate speech and also to an extent hate religious fundamentalism. Remember Zakir Naik? He was hounded and rightly so. But then we have just elected Ananth Kumar; again with a huge margin, yes, a man well-known for hate speeches. And in case we forgot, we have Ajay Mohan Bisht aka Yogi Adityanath, the less talked about him the better. What do these tell us? This doesn’t say much about us hating terrorism or despising hate speech; in fact, it shows us warmly embracing it. Then ...

Before I even start, I must just warn you of the unprecedented propaganda that was and is done to demean and to make fun of Rahul in public eye to an extent where no commentator starts pieces like this with, you see, I don't think Rahul is the leader we deserve but blah blah. Certainly, we deserve better. No doubt. But is Modi the leader this largest democracy deserves? Absolutely not. But we elected him. We saw him shake every fabric of this republic. We saw him break rules, disrespect parliament by undercutting it, making a mockery in face of NaMo tv (I know he isn't it's CEO or chairman!). Truth is, that propaganda has worked. The fake news has flourished. And Rahul tweeting smart things or visiting a college or two won't change it. Television isn't gonna help. It has become too imbalanced for his or his party's message. So here are few things that will go a long way. It is no secret and now there is no point hiding from it, Congress has the most ...

Screenshot of the post from a RW website So a right-wing friend of mine who believes Congress is the worst thing that happened to India and Modi the best, sent me this piece ( How the Congress Party has Surrendered to the Breaking India Forces) to read, so that I get aware of how Congress looted India. I usually do not indulge my time into these recommendations if they aren’t from known and reputed sources but this request was coming on repeat and from a school friend so I dived in. Here’s what the article had. Unbelievable gobbledygook. Our ancient political thinkers didn’t randomly make politics subservient to civilization and culture — it was the result of deep, sustained philosophical reflection on the nature of things and the nature of fundamental human impulses itself. Who are these thinkers? What did they say? How did what they said made politics subservient to civilization and culture? No answers. We are just presented with wisdom like a good old relig...