Discontent in Jewar beyond the Airport

On November 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath Yogi made televised speeches at the launch of a new international airport in Jewar that falls in Gautam Buddha Nagar district, Uttar Pradesh. Three days later as I set out for a tour of western UP towards Agra/Mathura, it was a simple turn off the highway to reach Jewar, where crowds had been mobilized and ferried to the airport launch in the election bound state. (It must be noted that the airport inauguration was a government event but was conducted like a political rally, and should have raised questions about propriety).

People’s Power beats Power

On the day that Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his government’s retreat on the farm laws, I was contacted by three leading Western media outlets to participate in debates and give a quick analysis of implications. What I noted is that they were as interested in the policy implications as in the psychological implications of the move. From the international news perspective, it was apparently both the story of the triumph of one of the largest protests in the world besides the humbling of a man the world now sees as the Supreme Leader of India.

Post farm laws retreat, let’s recognize all legislation passed without consultation has harmed India - at home and in the international arena

There is one fundamental message that come from the reversal on the farm laws by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and it is quite straightforward: legislation passed without consultation with stake-holders and rammed through Parliament, will be bad in spirit and form. The farmers protesting for over a year have in a sense restored democracy to us, that was being taken away, law by controversial law, followed by the criminalization of the protest

Gaps show up in BJP’s national arithmetic

It’s an oft repeated theory that the road to Delhi lies through Uttar Pradesh that sends 80 MPs to parliament and all eyes are on the assembly elections in the first quarter of 2022. But after UP, the states that send the largest numbers of MPs to Parliament are Maharashtra that has 48 Lok Sabha seats and West Bengal that has 42. In the 2019 national election, beyond a near sweep of Uttar Pradesh, the BJP had won 23 seats from Maharashtra in an alliance with the Shiv Sena (that got 18) while the party also pulled a surprise when it won 18 seats in West Bengal.

Muslim Name Place Animal Thing

Aryan Khan has got bail and brand Shahrukh Khan remains as strong as ever, the superpower beaming across in advertisements aired during cricket matches where fast bowler Mohammad Shami also plays, hopefully not traumatized by the trolling he faced after India lost to Pakistan, and reassured that some icons such as Sachin Tendulkar also spoke out against the attack on him.

Floods & Fury

Over the past week, two of the most beautiful parts of our diverse country have faced devastating floods: Kerala on the southern coast and Uttarakhand in the northern hills. Lives have been lost in both disasters that cannot be delinked from environmental degradation, caused by unbridled construction and the specter of climate change that now threatens the entire world. Both Kerala and Uttarakhand had excessive torrential rains for this season. Both are also tourist hubs where resorts and private homes have been constructed without factoring in the impact on the environment and how such construction leads to landslides witnessed in both places.

Thank You To I, Me, Myself

Friday, October 22, 2021, was a day to read the newspapers. Two newspapers that I get each morning carried the same lead guest editorial on their edit page and both dutifully informed us in the end of the published piece that the writer is the prime minister of India. They chose different headlines though, one going with Made in India, Made by India while the other went with Responding to Adversity with Achievement.

Is Priyanka for real?

First, let me put it out there that as long as the Gandhis are referred to as “the siblings” they cannot be taken seriously in the political pit that is Uttar Pradesh. There’s just something about the word that reduces them to nothings. Off course they cannot be blamed for a word being used by others, but for a SERIOUS POLITICAL PROJECT, this point needs to be flagged.

Shahrukh & Son

Shahrukh Khan is arguably among the most famous living Indians who happens to be a Muslim. He began his dizzying rise in Bollywood playing characters mostly named Rahul and Raj and clearly like all popular actors, his religious origins presumably were not a top of the mind factor, with the viewing public and the actor himself. But in the highly communalized age that we now live in, individuals in the public eye who happen to be Muslim are sought to be reduced to merely the sum of their religious origins. On a personal note, I always considered myself an Indian journalist. To digress into an anecdote, recently a British TV reporter posed a question asking me what it felt like to be a Muslim journalist. I replied by asking him if people ask him what it felt like to be a Christian journalist.

Saba Naqvi

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Discontent in Jewar beyond the Airport

Saba Naqvi

People’s Power beats Power

Saba Naqvi

Post farm laws retreat, let’s recognize all legislation passed without consultation has harmed India - at home and in the international arena

Saba Naqvi

Gaps show up in BJP’s national arithmetic

Saba Naqvi

Muslim Name Place Animal Thing

Saba Naqvi

Floods & Fury

Saba Naqvi

Thank You To I, Me, Myself

Saba Naqvi

Is Priyanka for real?

Saba Naqvi

Shahrukh & Son

Saba Naqvi