| The most jaw-dropping news this week was a survey finding. The CSDS-Lokniti reported that Rahul Gandhi was becoming more and more acceptable and PM Narendra Modi has suffered a drop. Sanjay Kumar and Suhas Palshikar analysed the data for us. Indians also feel that the country's stature in the world is going up, but unemployment is a bigger problem in their mind today than it was in 2019.
Writing about this sudden meltdown of Modi’s image, Yogendra Yadav said that 2024 is now an open race. The opposition’s strength lies in India’s geography and sociology, though its weakness is history and psychology. While economics presents an opportunity for the opposition, its biggest threat comes from politics.
During the grand inauguration of the new parliament, PM Modi pantomimed before an audience of abject yes-men. It was a fulsome display of the sham that is New India, wrote Kapil Komireddi.
Historian Anirudh Kanisetti asked a tangential, but thought-provoking question in the Sengol matter. Why is there an unprecedented hype and excitement on all things Chola today? It is the idea that the Cholas represent a primordial past that is still preserved in South India. The Cholas are now Hindu nationalist heroes, not just Tamil nationalist heroes, he wrote.
Xi Jinping is building a whole new city to ease the pressure on Beijing, wrote Aadil Brar. This new city of Xiong’an will be used to move out non-government settlements. But it has been dogged by huge delays. The delay in the project shows how China’s growth story is in troubled waters — Xi’s prestige is on the line.
The complete silence and inaction of the government on WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is inexplicable for most political observers. The government is not embarrassed. So why alienate the middle class? Why pick a gangster over the women of India? Is it really worth the risk, asked Vir Sanghvi. Perhaps, Modi asks himself these questions. If he does, then he will quickly do some damage control on the wrestlers’ issue. It’s time to choose his self-interest over his ego.
The famous, storied institution Gita Press has turned 100. PM Modi is set to visit it to commemorate this heritage. Sagrika Kissu, from Ground Reports team, travelled to Gorakhpur to look at what makes this publisher such a formidable cultural powerhouse. It had made Hinduism affordable, relatable and potable, long before Modi did.
|
