Rainbows

What exceptionally rich thinking and writing. Please read this interview of Sharjeel Imam on capitalism, faith, and perseverance. thequint.com/news/politics/s…

This is shameful: Delhi High Court denies bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in Delhi riots conspiracy case. This is the third time the Court has denied bail to Khalid and Imam, both of whom have in jail for six years. livelaw.in/high-court/delhi-…

unfortunately i will be going back to school to write my dissertation on this 1 min film

I literally can't focus on anything but Dario here 😭

UN according to school books UN in reality

Liftoff of Starship's first orbital flight

Sauron tracking the Ring

#AgenticJournalism - #AI upskilling for journos, Getting things done with AI for causes that you care civil society activists. The future newsroom runs on agents — and anyone can operate one 12 free lessons. No pre-reqs. Live desk hours if you want them cashlessconsumer.zo.space/ag…

The whole family is fraud

Starship achieved orbit on its first attempt and successfully delivered Starlink V3 satellites to space for the first time → spacex.com/launches/starship…

Was listening to Bangalore medical horror story. A friend’s 70+ mother, history of stroke, had a fall few weeks ago. Two brain surgeries, the second one, ICU and neuro giving them opposing views, the pressure to get her discharged once the children gave their

We are in any case moving towards that situation: they will break a few parties, fix a few elections, and then amend the Constitution. What is your plan for stopping that?

RT @courtinglaw: Someone needs to clarify what happens to the hapless 27 lakh odd citizens who are floating in administrative no man’s land…

I was in conversation with @anusharavi10 of @TheSouthfirst on The nature and deeper implications of SIR and The recent @RitikaChopra__ @IndianExpress revelations about the rupture in the ECI. Here’s the link: piped.video/yIASWEygRUs

#WATCH | Delhi: In the CEC row, Jan Suraaj Founder Prashant Kishor says, "The credibility and reputation of the Election Commission have not been compromised merely by an Indian Express report... There should be a nationwide discussion on how a former CEC has today become the chairman of the country's largest private bank... The Election Commission's credibility has been tarnished due to its style of functioning over the past several years—specifically, the manner in which it has discharged its responsibilities, both during elections and otherwise. This debate has been ongoing for the last 10 years... The ruling party, the BJP, appears to exert influence over everything—from the scheduling of election dates to the number of phases in which elections are conducted... Comprehensive measures must be taken to make the entire electoral process transparent. The Supreme Court should play a role in this... The opposition has no role in the process of appointing Election Commissioners or in the broader conduct of elections... Opposition parties are able to win elections only where there is a massive wave of sentiment against the BJP..."

Press release by @SpokespersonECI almost fully corroborates the investigative report by @RitikaChopra__ and @DaminiNath in the @IndianExpress. For anyone tracking the legal and administrative nuances, this comes as no surprise. But it is baffling to see that some zealots still find this press statement a vindication of the CEC and other ECs. Here is part 1 of the factual, administrative, and legal position regarding the points raised in the ECI's press note: ✅First and foremost, does it require an IIT Professor to tell the Commission as to what statutory powers are vested in EROs, DEOs, CEO and ECI? The ECINET Portal was illegally centralised, even if for varying durations, and I know it from the horse's mouth! Did the other two ECs concur with this decision? Answer is no. The last line of point (iv) is particularly telling. ✅And look at point number (vi). So, agenda will be circulated and minutes will be issued now onwards? Was this not already being followed as a matter of standard and fair administrative practice all along? ✅ Making matters worse, during the SIR since 2025, the preparatory timelines was compressed from 74 in 2002-03 days down to just 6 days, leaving field officers with rushed, & inadequate training. The ECI should have listened to the early warning signs and feedback from its own ground staff and reversed this decision months ago at least after administrative fiasco in Bihar, instead of waiting until an Indian Express investigation and wrath of 'VIPs' pushed them to the wall. ✅ After not letting Special Summary Revision take place since January 2024 as reported by @anubhutivishnoi of @EconomicTimes, Gyanesh Kumar CEC seems to have now relented under public pressure as per point no. 2 of the Press Note. ✅ I have continuously questioned the bizarre administrative decision to dump the entire burden of voter mapping onto the citizens (with a glitchy web interface) while abdicating the rest of the verification process to automated machines for issuing mass notices. This automated purge would have gone completely unchecked if 'VIPs' in the national capital hadn't started receiving these notices themselves. Now, there appears to have been a belated realisation of a major faux pas, and the onus is being shifted to the BLOs. But why was this not done right from the outset - saving everyone’s time and effort and, more importantly, avoiding unnecessary harassment of genuine voters? The irony is that the BLOs, most of whom are teachers, will now have to return to the field and undertake this exercise, requiring far more time and effort than would have been necessary had this important verification been incorporated into the original house-to-house survey. @vijaita has rightly highlighted this aspect. Let's dig this aspect deeper: 1⃣ Point number 2(d) of the ECI circular 14.05.2026 on SIR in 19 States and UTs prohibits collection of any document during the Enumeration Phase. So, an earlier directive of not collecting one of the 11/12 documents, for the unmapped electors or those having discrepancies with SIR 2002-03 was reiterated in unequivocal terms exacerbating the mess further. 2⃣ Instead of allowing the BLO to apply his/her own judgment during the second round of house-to-house visits - after assessing the nature and extent of the mismatch with the SIR 2002–03 records, or the circumstances underlying a so-called “logical discrepancy” - the process appears to have been left largely to the computerised system. Thus, if “S.S. Sandhu” happened to be recorded as “Sukhbir Singh Sandhu” during the 2002–03 SIR, the system automatically generated a notice! Singular differences triggered the rejection instead of seeing the voter data holistically. 3⃣ And so did several millions in Delhi and crores in the entire nation. An alarmingly large part of the electorate was thus driven to completely unnecessary chaos. One hopes that the legal eagles like @KapilSibal @Mukul_Rohatgi Harish Salve @_YogendraYadav et al and serious journalists like @sardesairajdeep @RitikaChopra__ @dhanyarajendran @BDUTT will continue to follow this issue of paramount importance to the nation.

"बिहार में चुनाव से दो दिन पहले तक 10-10 हजार रुपए बांटे गए। सिर्फ SIR और वोटर लिस्ट में धांधली का मामला नहीं है, हर स्तर पर चुनाव आयोग सत्तारूढ़ दल की मदद करते हुए दिख रहा है। विरोधी वही चुनाव जीत पा रहे हैं, जहां बिल्कुल भाजपा के खिलाफ आंधी है." प्रशांत किशोर की बात सही है। वोट चोरी हर उस तरीके से हो रही है जो संभव है। वोटर लिस्ट में फर्जी वोट जोड़ना, सही वोट काटना, वोट परसेंट बढ़ाना, फॉर्म 17C में वोटिंग का नम्बर न देना, ईवीएम से फर्जी वोट डालना, ईवीएम बदलना, कम मार्जिन की सीटों का नतीजा बदलना, भाजपा को फायदा पहुंचाने वाला परिसीमन - ये सारे तरीके अपनाए जा रहे हैं। ज्ञानेश का इस्तीफा कोई समाधान नहीं है। समाधान है निष्पक्ष आयोग, जो मोदी के रहते संभव नहीं है। लोकतांत्रिक पारदर्शिता और मोदी दो ध्रुव हैं। उनका मेल असंभव है। मोदी पहले प्रधानमंत्री हैं जो उसी लोकतंत्र को मिटाने पर तुले हैं जिसने उनको देश की सबसे ऊंची कुर्सी दी है। असली समस्या ज्ञानेश नहीं, मोदी हैं।

"Most of the recent elections are not valid (i.e. are illegal) due to humongous scale of fraud votes added". - Mr Parakala Prabhakar

It takes one look at Japan to understand that here's a power that's ready for a global leadership role. China is an Asian power no doubt but Japan with its experience of globalisation and ambition is a definite global leader.