Modi’s “Cultural Revolution” is much ado about very little
By Talmiz Ahmad| Updated: 12th May 2021 6:14 pm IST The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi interacting with the Governors and Lieutenant Governors on Covid-19 situation and Vaccination Drive in the country through video conferencing, in New Delhi on April 14, 2021.
Talmiz Ahmad
Sanjaya Baru journalist, public servant, public intellectual-at-large asserts that Narendra Modi as prime minister has effected a “cultural revolution” in the Indian order. In this process, he has overturned the traditional structure of the national “power elite” and replaced it with new wielders of power and influence in the polity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is experiencing a thesaurus moment. Known for crafting acerbic adjectives and giving old slogans a new spin, he is the ultimate bhashajeevi of India. Tukde-Tukde gang, Khan Market Gang and Bharat ka Chowkidar are now catchwords in the national lexicon: Aatmanirbharta was chosen the Oxford Dictionary s Hindi word of 2020.
Last week, Modi gave a new label to a genus of protestors - andolanjeevi; a derisive term for professional agitators seeking relevance by popping up at each and every anti-establishment agitation, irrespective of geography. Neatly sparing the agitating farmers, Modi branded their invisible and visible supporters andolanjeevis.
Why Is Liberalism a Bad Word for the Right?
If liberalism has become a bad word for the Religious Right, there must be some virtues in the concept and practices of the ideology.
Illustration: The Wire
Society14/Jan/2021
I have been attracted to critical theory all my life, and never dreamt that I would be compelled to defend liberalism, as I intend to do in this piece. Oddly, a philosophy that has been dismissed by the radical Left as tame and status-quoist, has become a term of abuse in the hands of the religious Right.
âLutyens Delhiâ, the âKhan Market gangâ, and âUrban Naxalsâ are contemptuously dismissed as ‘libtards’. The mind boggles. What on earth is the meaning of libtard? The word is clumsy at best and incoherent at worst. The wider question is – why is the Right so scared of liberalism?Â
Farmers Protest: Why Are Some âLiberalsâ Invoking the Legacy of Margaret Thatcher?
In her home country today, derisive references to Margaret Thatcher are far more common than benign ones. But in India, time seems to have stood still since her glory days.
Narendra Modi and Margaret Thatcher. Photo: Reuters Illustration: The Wire
Rights18/Dec/2020
Fully 30 years after she was eased out of her job by her own party, Indian admirers of Britainâs Iron Lady are sending up fervent prayers for Margaret Thatcher Redux. Hacks are flooding the media space with froth as they sing paeans to the dear departed lady. (Their ardent hope is to be delivered soon from the ignominy of too much democracy.) And they donât want their readers to remember that, alone among Britainâs many Oxford-educated prime ministers, it was Thatcher whom her alma mater refused to award an honorary doctorate. She was still very much in power, and her lobbyists had left few stones unturned in the