Poverty in India has declined at unprecedented rates in the last 12 years. We have known this since 2024, and agree with the World Bank’s latest estimates. Listen to a chat on India’s real economy with a journalist who knows his numbers! @szarabi
youtu.be/oszWnEAd9U4?si…

Let me ask you…

If India’s Metro network had continued expanding at the pace it did before 2014, how long would the wait be for cities like Pune to have a metro?

YEARS….no…DECADES perhaps.

And that was UNACCEPTABLE.

In 2014, India had just 248 km of Metro lines across 5 cities.

Today, we have nearly 1,200 km across 26 cities.

Over 1 crore people travel by Metro every day.

The impact goes beyond statistics or numbers.

It means less time in traffic, more family time, greater productivity and better opportunities.

This is the transformation we are working towards for urban India!

India Today’s 'Democratic Newsroom' brings together diverse voices to debate the issues shaping India’s political landscape. Watch sharp arguments, different perspectives and discussions on the questions that matter.

Tune in to India Today every Thursday at 7 pm.

#IndiaToday dianPolitics #PoliticalDebate #NewsDebate #Promo @sardesairajdeep @szarabi @gauravcsawant @Akshita_N @PreetiChoudhry

On behalf of all Mumbaikars and my party, I reiterate my demand that Captain Smit Machchhar be awarded the Ashoka Chakra. To those who called it a psyop or conspiracy theory: shame on you.

MLC elections in 28 seats across 4 big states - Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka.

Elections held using ballot papers.

Guess how many seats Congress won? 🧐

Kapil Dev Hails Business Today's Efforts To Take Golf To A Wider Audience

#IndianSports #KapilDev #SportsDevelopment #India2047 #SportsNews

@aubankindia | @DP_World | @IndianOilcl | @ABDL_India

BT Golf Partners With DP World PGTI: Kapil Dev on Golf, Business, Sports & the Elite Debate

#KapilDev #BTGolf #DPWorldPGTI #BusinessToday #GolfInIndia #IndianGolf #SportsBusiness #GolfAndBusiness #CorporateGolf #IndianSports #GolfInterview #CricketLegend

@aubankindia | @DP_@ABDL_India

@szarabi | @vikrantgupta73

#BTGolf 🏌️⛳| Former cricketer Kapil Dev credited the corporate world for the surge in interest in golf during a conversation with @business_today's Group Editor @szarabi

@pgtofindia @aubankindia @DP_World @IndianOilcl @ABDL_India

#BTGolf 🏌️⛳| Former cricketer Kapil Dev says that he got the opportunity to network and have valuable conversations with his co-golf players, an opportunity he didn't get while he played cricket. What him in conversation with @business_today's Group Editor @szarabi
dia @DP_World @IndianOilcl @ABDL_India

On this day in 1947, my grandfather, Maharaja Hari Singh, signed the Instrument of Accession, making Jammu & Kashmir an integral part of the Union of India.

I pay tribute to Brigadier Rajinder Singh, Maha Vir Chakra, and the brave Dogra soldiers of J&K State Forces (now JAK Rifles) tly outnumbered, they fought to the last man and the last bullet at Uri, delaying the invaders for the critical hours that enabled the Indian Army to land in Srinagar and save the Valley.

Their sacrifice and valour shall be remembered with pride and gratitude forever.

Jai Hind.

Dear @gautambhatia88,

I read it, the whole of it, several times, because I thought I'd write a long rebuttal. I couldn't, because I was too busy. But since I had most of the material ready, I've converted everything into bullet points for easy reading.

Everything I say about is from his interview. The history and counterpoints are mine.

So here it is. What I disagree with, what I agree with, and why I have deep reservations even where I agree.

1. His foundation is faith

- He says his politics comes from his faith.
- He bases liberty, justice and equality on tawhid. He calls justice and equality "transcendental values".
- He calls nationalism, materialism and even despotism and casteism branches of shirk (idolatry). Some of these he's right to oppose, but the frame is theological. Political questions become questions of faith.
- In a republic, laws have to make sense to every citizen. If the base is theology, everyone who doesn't share that faith is left out.

This is where I part ways with his politics completely. For me, citizens' rights must come from citizens. Once you bring God into it, things get convoluted and murky. Whose God? Whose interpretation? And what happens to the citizen who doesn't believe?

Most of what follows comes from this disagreement.

2. No place for fraternity

- He treats Muslims as a separate nation, like Iqbal and Jinnah did.
- He calls the idea of an ancient, united Indian nation a myth, and dismisses the idea that Indians are "all brothers."
- He wants a deal between communities. I want a fraternity of citizens. Ambedkar said without fraternity, liberty and equality don't mean much.
- He calls the Constitution a "roadblock" and says he's not part of the "Save the Constitution club."

3. He never answers the obvious questions

He never calls his position political Islam. But it starts from the same place: politics based on faith. Classical Islamic jurisprudence already has positions on non-Muslims, law and governance. If you build your politics on tawhid, you have to tell us where you stand on these. He doesn't.

- Nothing on dhimma or sharia. Nothing on how a tawhid-based order would treat non-Muslims, atheists, ex-Muslims, women or LGBTQ people.
- In his religious framework, he lists allying with "people of the book" and monotheists as a Qur'anic mandate.
- Would he give minorities in a Muslim-majority country what he demands for Muslims in India? He never asks.

4. Selective history

- He says "two nations" never meant two territories. But Iqbal's 1930 address proposed a consolidated North-West Muslim state, and the 1940 Lahore Resolution talks of "independent states."
- He treats Perry Anderson's The Indian Ideology as the final word, and dismisses its Indian critics (like Chatterjee, Kaviraj and Menon, all from the left) as weak attempts. I'm not a scholar. I simply read the critiques of Anderson, and found enough in them to have serious doubts.
- He uses Azad against Nehru, but Azad was a firm opponent of the League's two-nation politics.
- He calls the 1946 vote an "ijma" of educated Muslims that still carries weight. But only a small, propertied section could vote. And "Muslims voted for Partition" is exactly the line the Sangh uses to question Indian Muslims' loyalty even today.
- He's right that Bihar 1946 is forgotten. But he skips Direct Action Day. And he says nothing about the women abducted and assaulted by Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs alike in 1947.

CONT+

Inviting discussion (all kashmiris)🍁
During my lifetime, I haven't heard of this mazar on shankracharya road leading to Shankracharya temple Srinagar...has it suddenly cropped up or it existed there?
I asked my senior frequent childhood visitors to temple like @kaul_utpal & ors,I know whole land to left & right belongs to social forestry.
Please throw some light as Govt tender & work has started here.
@manojsinha_ @OfficeOfLGJandK @akshaylabroo @vikramaditya_JK

En mayo de 1917, dos ingenieros rivales se encerraron con llave en un hotel de Washington para diseñar a contrarreloj el motor que ganaría la guerra. En cinco días crearon una bestia de doce cilindros que acabaría cruzando el Atlántico: el motor Liberty. Tira del hilo 🧵👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

RBI liquidity management has turned from consistency to conflict, says @TheOfficialSBI research. After hiking rates, doing multiple VRRRs & OMO to squeeze out liquidity & push call rates to upper end of LAF corridor, @RBI now@RBIecting liquidity! Where’s “calibrated tightening”? Liquidity management, unlike exchange rate management, can’t be a two-way traffic — withdrawal & injection at the same time. @kantisoumya

Gems of Sharjeel Imam🧵

Papa had a deep love for golf and valued the friendships and connections the game fostered.

It is a privilege for us to honour his memory by launching the Shri Shashi Ruia Memorial Golf Championship.

Today, in the presence of my friend and cricket legend Kapil Dev, we announced h reflects our shared passion for sport and our commitment to supporting the growth of professional golf in India.

I am grateful to @pgtofindia for partnering with @EssarFoundation to bring this championship to life.

I hope it provides a strong platform for Indian golfers to showcase their talent and inspires more people to take up the game.

@therealkapildev @Amandeepjohl @Essar

India is conscious of and committed to its role in climate action.

I came upon this article that talks about the history of the famed Heckler & Koch MP5 with the Indian NSG. I’m a fan boy of the MP5 & a lot of H&K products. The German govt’s decision to not sell & provide spares is one of the reasons why the forces had to move away. In a way, we have to thank them. The @sssdefence G72 will very soon (a matter of days) be with India’s elite urban counter terror & hostage rescue force. It replaces the MP5. That day I hope to write a piece on why it’s time to look forward, whatever be the fancy case for 🇩🇪 tech.

iyersellmer.com/hangelar-nsg-g…

1/5 Sharjeel Imam has given an interview detailing his Islamist manifesto. Surprisingly, no storm has been kicked up over pronouncements that are so unapologetically anti-liberal, anti-secular, anti-democracy, anti-Constitution—in a word, anti-national.

2/5 He openly calls the Constitution fascist, labels secularism a trap, and denounces democracy as a contrivance to deny Muslims their political rights.

3/5 The piece is a litany of indictments against the liberal class. Imam rejects any difference between liberals and Hindutvadis. In his essentialist worldview, all Hindus are the same, unanimous in denying Muslims political power they claim as a divine right.

4/5 Inadvertently, Sharjeel has recognised something that liberals have been fighting shy of acknowledging: that Hindutva’s idea of India is anchored in the same “overarching nationalist framework”— that Muslims are Indians above all else.

5/5 For more, read this Opinion article by Ibn Khaldun Bharati, who looks at Islam from an Indian perspective:

Sharjeel Imam’s Islamist manifesto will be forgotten. The silence of liberals will not

theprint.in/opinion/sharje…

No storm has been kicked up over Sharjeel Imam’s pronouncements that are so unapologetically anti-liberal, anti-secular, anti-democracy, anti-Constitution—in a word, anti-national.
He openly calls the Constitution fascist, labels secularism a trap, and denounces democracy as a contrivance to deny Muslims their political rights. He dismisses liberalism as a ploy for majoritarianism, and accuses the presiding deity of the liberal pantheon, Jawaharlal Nehru, of falsehood and myth-making for projecting an ancient, unbroken, unified Indian nation in his book, The Discovery of India. He has long disparaged Mahatma Gandhi as the biggest fascist of the 20th century for deploying the term Ram Rajya, and views the “Nation of India” as a fascist project.
Click on the link to read the detailed analysis.

theprint.in/opinion/sharje…