Narendra Modi had asked for an unqualified public endorsement for his authoritarian rule of the last ten years and for the dismantling of the republic in the next five. The people of India refused to put their stamp of approval on this design.
If just 1 out of the 66 people watching the sarkari propaganda had changed their mind, the Supreme Leader would have been the Leader of Opposition today.
The BJP has faced a political defeat in this election, but its social coalition is largely intact. The political task of uniting the bottom half of the social pyramid — poor, villagers, Dalit, Adivasi, OBC, and minorities — is still a long way off.
There is a long way to go for the Congress in this unlimited overs Test match of politics. But 99 not out is not a bad score on a bad pitch in the face of body-line bowlers, compromised umpires, and hostile commentators.
The anti-establishment vote for the BJP in some states has partially masked the overall mandate against the national political establishment represented by the BJP.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Indian voters started voting in the national election as if they were choosing their chief minister. It changed in 2014 with the rise of Modi.
The Nirouyeh Vijeh Pasdaran Velayat, or NOPO, was the only force Ali Khamenei trusted.It was founded in 1991 and is more feared than the Revolutionary Guards.
Rating democracies is a tricky business. I am only using the simple metric of who in the Indian subcontinent has had the most peaceful, stable, normal political transitions and continuity.
Secularism, as practiced in India, is nothing but naked minority, particularly Muslim, appeasement. It is dog whistle to confine Hindus to second class status in India. BJP/RSS is coming in the way of this woke project.
Contrary to the popular belief that there is this fear in minority so they must be protected, the opposite is true: the majority must be kept fearless and calm. This misconception of protecting minority is present not just in India but across the world, and throughout all times.
The fear in the minds of majority is prior to that of minority, always and everywhere. The fear always first develops in the minds of majority that they might lose their dominance, identity, culture, wealth etc. And in a stable society, the minority usually have nothing much to lose as in most cases they already develop some kind of mutual acceptance and even agreement to some authority of the majority. This keeps the society balanced and caring. But, due of some political or economic changing conditions, this natural balance gets disturbed. Doubts and fear start building and remain latent in the minds of the majority, and if remain unaddressed or aggravated for some ulterior political motives, it starts getting manifested in various forms, which in turn usually perceived by the minority as oppression and then they get frightened (secondary fear).
So to restore the delicate balance the primary fear (fear in the minds of the majority) must be mitigated first. But usually, the opposite happens, the govt starts favouring (protecting) the minority, without dealing with the primary cause, which only increases the fear, and then anger, within the majority and the situation gets out of hand. Sometimes it is done intentionally, with both sides, to achieve some political ends.
Secularism, as practiced in India, is nothing but naked minority, particularly Muslim, appeasement. It is dog whistle to confine Hindus to second class status in India. BJP/RSS is coming in the way of this woke project.
Contrary to the popular belief that there is this fear in minority so they must be protected, the opposite is true: the majority must be kept fearless and calm. This misconception of protecting minority is present not just in India but across the world, and throughout all times.
The fear in the minds of majority is prior to that of minority, always and everywhere. The fear always first develops in the minds of majority that they might lose their dominance, identity, culture, wealth etc. And in a stable society, the minority usually have nothing much to lose as in most cases they already develop some kind of mutual acceptance and even agreement to some authority of the majority. This keeps the society balanced and caring. But, due of some political or economic changing conditions, this natural balance gets disturbed. Doubts and fear start building and remain latent in the minds of the majority, and if remain unaddressed or aggravated for some ulterior political motives, it starts getting manifested in various forms, which in turn usually perceived by the minority as oppression and then they get frightened (secondary fear).
So to restore the delicate balance the primary fear (fear in the minds of the majority) must be mitigated first. But usually, the opposite happens, the govt starts favouring (protecting) the minority, without dealing with the primary cause, which only increases the fear, and then anger, within the majority and the situation gets out of hand. Sometimes it is done intentionally, with both sides, to achieve some political ends.