The Unstoppable BJP Juggernaut and the Struggling Opposition

The latest defeat of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, the NCP under Sharad Pawar, and even the faction of NCP led by Ajit Pawar (despite his alliance with the BJP in the state government) once again underscores a stark reality: the BJP juggernaut has become a formidable, well-oiled electoral machine. The opposition, fragmented and disoriented, seems incapable of mounting a serious challenge. Instead, they are being relentlessly steamrolled.

Whatever strategy the opposition attempts, the BJP seems to stay one step ahead. Armed with immense financial muscle, the party now floods the public space with advertisements — their effectiveness aside — and outspends rivals even in municipal elections. The same leaders who once criticized “freebies” or revdis are themselves distributing largesse to secure votes, at times stooping as low as outright bribery. The momentum appears unstoppable.

But if this trend continues unchecked, one must pause and ask: where is India headed? To the outside world, the country might appear to be progressing — and indeed, in some ways it is — but the methods and mindset driving this progress raise deep concerns about the nation’s long-term direction.

The government’s persistent agenda of alienating non-Hindu communities is fraught with peril. Its drive to purge what it deems “foreign” and replace it with a narrowly defined version of what is “Bharatiya” is equally troubling. Pride in India’s genuine civilizational achievements is entirely justified — and there are many to celebrate — but trying to recast ancient myths as scientific fact or to rewrite history to suit political goals is deeply misguided. Claims that India had airplanes because of the Pushpaka Vimana or nuclear weapons hidden in the verses of the Mahabharata may serve political theatrics but not national progress. Similarly, renaming every city or landmark to erase any British or Mughal trace will not make Indians feel more liberated — only more divided.

There is no doubt that India’s education system needs an overhaul. However, the effort should be to create informed citizens who are proud of their heritage yet capable of critical thought. Rewriting textbooks to vilify Mughal rulers and glorify only Hindu kings not only distorts history but risks reviving old communal wounds. India’s strength has always lain in its diversity — in recognizing that every leader, every era, and every community has both virtues and flaws. True nationalism embraces that complexity.

What the Opposition Must Do

The critical question, therefore, is this: how can the opposition halt this BJP juggernaut? The answer lies not in mimicry or reaction, but in genuine reinvention. Here are a few essential steps — difficult, yet indispensable — if they are to win back the trust of the people:

1. Rebuild grassroots connections. Engage deeply with citizens — not on the basis of caste, creed, or language, but through empathy and action. Understand their struggles, provide real solutions. When a person faces corruption or injustice, stand with them. Help them navigate the system and fight back — that will inspire loyalty far more than slogans.

2. Promote public hygiene and civic sense. Encourage communities to maintain clean surroundings, and educate them on the social and health costs of neglecting hygiene.

3. Teach real history and real pride. Celebrate authentic achievements of India’s past without distortion. Instill critical thinking and respect for truth.

4. Combat addiction and exploitation. Launch sustained efforts against alcohol, tobacco, and substance abuse — problems that quietly destroy families and productivity.

5. Foster unity in diversity. Work to bridge divides across caste, religion, and language. The narrative of harmony, not hatred, will rebuild India’s moral foundation.

6. Confront corruption decisively. Take visible steps to root out corruption — not just by criticizing the ruling party, but by keeping one’s own house clean. Every exposed instance of graft strengthens democracy.

If the opposition can commit to these principles and rebuild from the ground up, they might one day find that elections take care of themselves. Authentic service earns enduring support — far more than populism or propaganda ever can.

However, the pressing question remains: will the opposition rise to this challenge? Do they have leaders with the conviction, foresight, and integrity to lead such a transformation? Unfortunately, as things stand today, the answer seems to be a resounding no.

Until that changes — or until the ruling party stumbles — India will likely continue under the same political dispensation for many years to come.

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Untouchability and Constitution of India

Reflections on Power, Equality, and the Indian Constitution

In the book Assembling India’s Constitution: A New Democratic History, the authors highlight a sobering historical reality: certain high-caste Hindu leaders, including the Shankaracharya, vehemently opposed the constitutional abolition of untouchability. It is a disheartening truth that human history is often defined by a resistance to equality. Across every culture and era, communities that hold the "upper hand" rarely relinquish it willingly; instead, they strive to preserve the hierarchies that benefit them.

The Universality of Hegemony

While this specific context is Indian, the phenomenon is global. We see this impulse toward supremacy reflected in many forms:

• Racial Supremacy: Where white-skinned populations have historically fought to retain dominance over "colored" people.

• Gender Hierarchy: Where men seek to preserve authority over women.

• Socio-Economic Power: Where the wealthy and the politically connected unite to protect their status at the expense of the marginalized.

The Vision of the Constituent Assembly

In light of these pressures, the wisdom of the Constituent Assembly must be lauded. Despite intense pushback, the committee remained steadfast, declaring all citizens equal and enshrining Universal Adult Franchise from the nation's inception. This was a radical act of faith in the common citizen.

The Debate Over the Voting Age

However, the later decision to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 remains a point of significant contention. One could argue that this change was less about empowering the youth and more about political survival—a move by the Congress party to capture a younger demographic.

There is a valid concern that civic maturity and a genuine concern for the nation’s future often develop only after an individual has "settled" into adult life, typically in their mid-to-late twenties. From this perspective, rather than lowering the age to 18, the government might have better served the country by raising it to 25, ensuring a more experienced electorate. This shift highlights how even democratic reforms can be influenced by a desire to retain power.

The Search for a Social Revolution

What the world truly requires is a "social revolution" led by a collective that believes unseweringly in the equality of all humanity and the right of every living being to live freely. But in a world so deeply fractured by divisiveness, we must ask: where will such a group emerge? Is a global shift toward true equality even possible, or is the human drive for dominance too deeply ingrained to be overcome?

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Misogyny in India

 In the book excerpt from the book The Song of the Clay Pot by Sumana Chandrashekar the author says that the world of Carnatic Music is full of misogyny. The male artistes refuse to have a female percussionist. The reasons are never known, it is just that it is a tradition.

Traditions arise due to various circumstances and become entrenched in the society. It becomes difficult to shake them. At the same time not trying to change a tradition which does not align with the current right thoughts, with right reasoning, needs to be considered.

In this example it is important that newer artistes start breaking the taboo and let women percussionists play alongside them. The women can lead the change, even if the men do not wish a change.

This has to happen vehemently, but silently. It has to send a message to those artistes not willing to take on a women percussionists, "Look, you are in minority". If this movement is kick started then it will take at least a generation for the men to accept this change.

This kind of misogyny is present not just in Carnatic Music, but is present in every facet of life, in every part of the world, including the so called "progressive", "advanced" nations of the West that pride themselves in leading the change. They forget that their women were not allowed to vote for a very long time and even today women change their name, not the men. The children take the name of the father, not that of the mother. By default in most societies the inheritance goes to the male children.

All this needs to change. The biggest driver will be education. The teachers (given that many of them are women) have to start driving these aspects into the heads of the children right from the beginning. The stress has to be on equality of gender and mutual respect for humans (irrespective of any difference between them) has to be cultivated from childhood, for the society to change and become better.

Expecting the privileged men to take this step is foolhardy. Will the women who, are the most of time guilty of discriminating against their daughters and even more towards their daughters-in-law take up the gauntlet to bring about the change?

 

Tree Cutting in India

Just click on the link Google Search of Tree Cutting the Last Month and check the number of protests against cutting trees.

Going by the sheer volume of trees marked for cutting it will appear that whole of India is a forest and the only way to develop India is by cutting trees.

While everyone, including those who are asking for trees to be cut know fully well the precarious situation of the environment not only in India but through the world. Despite this knowledge trees are being cut and being cut indiscriminately. All this to create more "comfort" and "luxury" for humans.

Trees are cut for the following reasons

1. To "develop" agriculture to feed humans

2. To "develop" infrastructure so that humans can go faster

3. To "develop" infrastructure so that humans can stay "closer to nature" luxuriously

4. To "develop" infrastructure so that humans can easily go to worship their Gods

5. To build wooden furniture so that humans can have "better luxury" furniture

6. To cook food so that humans can eat

Just look at the above points, except for the last point which is driven mostly due to lack of access to other types of fuel the rest are meant for "bettering" the lives of humans. What they are not realising the is the dreadful future that they are creating for themselves. The next few generations may manage somehow to avoid all the ill effects of global warming but the future generations are going to have a tough time.

It is high time that the Government, not just of India but of the entire world, accept global warming for a fact (somebody knock that that joker Donald Trump on his head and thrust this fact into his head) and work towards conserving the existing forest cover and in fact make attempts at afforestation.The afforestation should be based on local flora and not imported "good looking" flora which only serve as decoration and do not help the local ecosystem.

It is not we are averse or lack the technology to build tall skyscrapers. Just come and take a look at Mumbai or Gurugram. The height of the buildings are going up every day and they are scaling higher and higher heights. Now take a slum cluster in a city like Mumbai. If the slums are removed and are housed in a sky scrapper the amount of land that will be freed up will be phenomenal. This land can be used to create greener, gardens and parks. There will be enough left for the "real estate builders" and the "politicians" to make sufficient "black money" of the constructions in the remaining area. But this is unlikely to happen given the level of human greed. Everyone wants to earn so much money that so that they end up worrying how to make more money and how to safeguard the ginormous amount of wealth they have accumulated. Environment, Global Warming nothing matters to them. All that matters is that my wealth has to increase and sometimes it is that my power, hold over humans, has to increase.

It may appear to be a cynical view (and I hope it is so) but the truth seems to be that we are headed for a disaster not in far future but in the next 50 to 100 years. Only God can drive sense into the heads of the humans in power to ensure that we are able to steer away from the looming disaster.

 

Review - Tigers of Tadoba - Volume 2

A work of love from the authors. The book clearly illustrates the fascination and passion of the authors have for the tigers, and it is worth it.

 The initial section of how to figure out the age of tigers and how to identify a tiger are very insightful. One needs to carefully watch the stripes of the tigers to identify them, Just like two humans do not have the same fingerprint, not two tigers have the same pattern of stripes. Another interesting information is that the stripes remain the same from birth to old age, ratifying the adage "A tiger does not change its stripes".

 

The authors give details of about 48 tigers from the older generation, born between 2008 to 2016 and 14 tigers of the new generation, born 2019 onwards.Along with the details of the older generation tigers are three photographs, thoughtfully selected so that one can see the frontal view and the left and right flanks. The patterns on the face and flanks are important for identifying the tigers as individuals. This is a very good book to carry with one when one goes to the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve for safaris.

The book does not have too much of text but the photographs more than compensate for it. As they say a photo is worth thousand words. Each photograph in the book is worth is weight in gold. From the front cover to the back cover the photos are simply wonderful.

Buy and see to enjoy the photos.

 A must read for all the wildlife enthusiasts. 

Experience of Vande Bharat Train

 Recently I happened to take the Mumbai - Shiridi Vande Bharat Express. The impression that one gets when a Vande Bharat train streams into the station is one of awe, maybe not awestruck but definitely awe. That we in India can manufacture such a train should be matter of pride.

Vande Bharat Train Entering a Station

Once one enters the train what one sees also gives a good feeling. After having seen the regular trains of Indian Railways one does feel that we have done something nice and better than we have done in all these years.

It is nothing like what one sees in the normal trains.

It runs fast. The one in which I traveled touch 130 Kmph which is not bad considering the speed of the other trains in India.

The seats are comfortable, much more than in any existing train. They can be turned 180 degrees. So one can turn it 90 degrees to watch the scenery outside or one can turn it 180 degrees to face the seat in front/back and have a discussion with those sitting there. (I was in the executive class so I am not sure of the other class).

The few places where there is enough scope for improvement are as under

1. Food Service leave a lot to be desired

2. Despite notices saying do not pay the attendants any tip they come and ask for tips

3. The mounts of the seats are sturdy to put it in a euphemistic way. They are not sleek. One can understand that it needs to be sturdy, but it will be good if it can be made sleek as well and make it move with a little lesser effort.

4. The toilets are bio toilets which is good, but again the spit and polish is missing in them.

So all in all not a bad effort at all. It is indeed a good move forward, but there is scope for further improvement.

Next time I will try the vistadome and see how it feels like.

Elections 2024

The Loksabha elections in India culminated and the results took everyone by surprise. The BJP led by the one and only Mr. Narendra Modi had set a target of 370 seats for his own party and 400+ for his coalition. The exit polls predicted that Mr. Modi and his coalition will more or less reach close to the numbers that they had targeted.

When the results were declared on the 4th of June, Mr. Modi's party did not even reach the majority seats of 273. The BJP managed only 240 seats and the coalition ended up with 293 a little above the majority. The INDI Alliance managed to prove everyone wrong. The Indian National Congress ended up with 99 seats and the alliance 200+ seats.

Mr. Modi had to keep up a good bravado to face his party workers during the "victory" meet. Definitely there would have been an introspection within the party about the state in which they find themselves.

Here are some reasons and suggestions for them to ponder over

1. The Ram Mandir was the biggest bet that BJP was going on. But looks like it did not get them the seats they wanted. This shows that the common citizen is more interested in earning a livelihood than visiting temples. There is a only a small set of people who, if at all, are interested in the Mandirs that BJP promises. The consequence would be that Kashi and Mathura will go to the back burner. It is unlikely that more temples will be unearthed.
2. The attack on Muslims during his speeches are unlikely to have gone down well with the common citizen. The common citizen has now quarrel with the Muslims as such. There is definitely an undercurrent and suppressed feeling of major differences with the Muslims among the Hindus (which is rarely highlighted by the local media) and vice versa (which is never highlighted by the foreign media). Attacking the Muslims openly and brazenly will only end up with loss in votes and seats.
3. The usage of Hindi everywhere will definitely alienate the South of India renaming laws, ranks of military in Hindi or Sanskritised words will not win votes except, if at all in the
   
4. Renaming of places to remove any trace of the Mughals and other are things that will appeal to only a few and not the entire population. The worst was trying to rename India to Bharat. It is already called Bharat in many contexts
   
5. Nationalism was lacking in India, but taking nationalism to the extreme is not going to take anyone anywhere. Extreme nationalism is harmful, linking everything to nationalism or anti-nationalism will make things worse.
   

In short BJP proved the cliche "Pride comes before a fall". All the good work done to boost India's image, all the good work to upgrade railway trains, all the "revdis", even when blaming the opposition for the same fault, (some revdis were necessary) all went down the drain.

There are many thing that needs to change in the approach and strategy of BJP if they wish to win the next elections. They need to tone down many of their rhetoric. Hope they realise their mistakes and change in the right direction it will help India and its citizens.

Beginning of Rains in Mumbai

 Actually not really the beginning, but just a precursor to the rains in Mumbai. Today afternoon Mumbai experienced a dust storm (one wonders where from came so much dust) and then this was followed by a rain storm with thunder.

The dust storm before the rains part 1

 

 

The dust storm before the rains part 2

 

 

Exhilarating trailer to the Mumbai monsoons - the rain storm