Thursday, 27 December 2018

The Deindustrialisation of India and the myth of a stangant industrial base in pre colonial India


Shalimar Paints Ltd was established in 1902 in Howrah by A.N. Turner and A.N. Wright
[4 March 2016] Note - This is purely about history and understanding history better, do not attribute political motives to this post.


I have oft seen observations (both on Reddit and on other forms of social media)  that the Industrial revolution flowed thusly,

  • There was this sudden period of enlightenment and scientific progress
  • The above resulted in spectacular advances in automation and mechanisation
  • This then enabled the colonial powers to produce products of outstanding quality, and most importantly volumes and thus overwhelmed the colonies in manufacturing.

This theory, while logical, is simplistic in the extreme and precludes a lot of factors, some of which I will touch upon in brief.


  • Technological Advancements - Despite what the narrative states, for nearly 2,000 years, the cotton producing countries, chief amongst these being India, were at the cutting edge of innovating and refining cotton growing, refining and production techniques. This tech from India flowed both East & West (China and the Islamic countries) from whence on it flowed to Europe by the 16th century. Venice took a lot of the techniques from the Islamic Empires, and set up the first Cotton manufacturing units sometime in the 16th century. Yet, the demand for European cottons paled in front of the vastly more refined, superior quality Indian cottons and this was to be the case till the early 1800's. Quite a few key innovations, right from domesticating wild cotton to the Cotton Gin (discovered as early as 500 AD), though we attribute this almost entirely to Eli Whitney (he did mechanise the Gin) to horizontal looms which vastly increased the output of the loom all were invented in India and over time diffused around the world. It is important to note that you had centres of production in South America, West Africa and India running parallely (but isolated from one another), but the quality and quantity of Indian cotton exports was far ahead of the smaller production outputs of South American and African cotton.
  • What this meant was, for 2,000 years, Indian cotton exports dominated the global cotton trade, right from the Romans to Egyptians down to the 18th century European colonial powers (nascent colonial powers), they purchased Indian cotton at a great cost to their balance of payments.

Things all started to change in the 17th century. What changed?

  • The colonial powers had by now gained access to cotton growing regions in the Americas. This enabled them to start procuring raw cotton and setting up their own nascent manufacturing industries.
  • The quality AND quantity of these industries paled in comparison to Indian cotton exports, and this new material, which was flooding European shores, also angered the Wool industry and this powerful force started to lobby to prevent the growing encroachment of Indian cotton.
  • This lead to some early protectionist barriers which range from the ludicrous (mandating by law that corpses needed to be wrapped in wool if being buried in the Church of England) to the funny (Scottish Kilts had to be made out of 13 yards of wool) to the outright ban on Indian Calico Imports by [1721](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calico_Acts). The outright ban was first preceeded by a softer ban which mandated that white cotton (unprinted) could be imported, but when the British Cotton industry still failed to match up to the volumes and quality of Indian imports, it lead to a full ban. The British were also by then able to open up markets (for both raw material and finished goods) in the Americas, and hence started the policy of Import and Export substitution.
  • Which brings us to the topic of Indian Imports into Europe and Britain- This is absolutely stark and belies the whole myth surrounding the benign and science driven "Industrial Revolution". In 1725, India exported 821,000 pieces of textiles to Britain and another 400,000 to Europe (mostly France). That is 1.2 Mn pieces of textile Imports. By 1820, the 1.2 Mn pieces of exports had fallen to 304 pieces. A decline of some 99.08%.
  • This is made even starker when you compare the raw cotton consumed in Britain in the same time period. In 1730 Britain consumed 1.7 Million pounds of raw cotton, yet by 1840 it was consuming 540 Million pounds.
The policy of Import and Export substitution (reversing the process of importing finished goods to importing raw material at cheap rates thanks to controlling the sources of production and exporting finished products to a captive market - chiefly India) was now paying off.

How did the Colonial Powers, chiefly the British pull this off?

Simple, through a process called War Capitalism, starting the 15th century and ending in the mid 17th century, these powers gained access to the three levers of production - Labour, Land and Credit.

Now interestingly, the great "enlightenment" which was basically a society based on laws which is held as a cornerstone of the development of the modern European states was only for the "inside" - that is, only for the mother countries. Those on the "outside"- that is, the occupied powers, there was no rule of law and this is exemplified by how the slave trade worked.

One of the three pillars as I have mentioned was labour. Now, labour was exceedingly expensive in the Colonial countries, and hence they turned to slave labour to produce the raw cotton needed to churn the giant factories. The payment for the slaves was made in...Indian cotton, and at the height of the slave trade (when an estimated 3-4 million of slaves were being traded), it was not money, but Indian cotton exports into Europe that was acting as the global currency to procure said slaves, who were then shipped across to the Americas where they were then worked, quite literally to the death to increase cotton output to feed the factories back in the mother countries, who then used this competitive advantage (and the tariffs and regulatory system to choke Indian Cotton) to slowly overwhelm the native Indian system of manufacturing.

This also brought in great socio economic changes. The Indian producer, for millenia held great control on the levers of production (a Marxian dream), he decided who to sell to, at what rates and the volumes he sold. By 1800 though, British East India Company agents were overwhelming this system with brute force, including setting up of monitors in production centres (a loose slave labour type system) and took away the power of the Indian producer. By 1820, the Indian cotton centres, and consequently the earning potential of the labour had collapsed entirely.

As you can see above, the root of the "industrial revolution" and the great divergence lay not in some scientific superiority and human enlightenment, but on sheer repression - tariffs, gunboat diplomacy , cutting access to markets and creating artificial scarcity, slave labour that powered the giant cotton farms and finally outright colonial exploitation. Sure, great advances were made in the mid 1800's in manufacturing tech, but even till 1800 (when the "revolution" was supposedly well underway) the European nations could not even compete, nay even touch Indian Cotton production in any aspect and needed huge state intervention and slavery to even begin to compete.

I would also wish to touch upon the hoary old "what about the railways" argument and prove that the railways were built at a prohibitive cost and were seen as a solid moneyspinner for investors from Britain.

This worked almost like a protection racket - the British Imperial Govt attracted capital by offering a fixed return of 5% (sometimes more) on the funds invested. Now, when the Govt fell short of funds to pay back the investors (as they often did), the money was still paid back, but from Indian taxes, not from the Railway companies. By 1870, a good 20% of the British bourses came from railway infra shares.

It is also interesting to note that the cost of the railway construction was twice that of what it cost to build them in Canada or Australia (given the same terrain).

It is interesting to note some of the observations from that period,

The guarantee system has not served any purpose whatsoever, the undertakers of the railway are deprived of one of the greatest inducements of to economy, they know that whatever blunders they make, those blunders will not prevent their getting full interest on their expenditure. 
- William Thornton.

All the money came from British Capitalists and so long as he was guaranteed five percent of the revenues it was immaterial to him if the funds he lent were thrown into the Hoogly or converted into brick and mortar.
- William Masey, Finance Minister of the Raj. He also was the one who felt that the costs were exorbitant and twice that of what it would cost to make elsewhere.
A commission report submitted to the House of Commons in 1872 established the following costs per mile,

  • India 18,000 pounds per mile,
  • Australia 12,000 pounds per mile,
  • Canada 8,000 pounds per mile.


Now throw in the fact that all the equipment was imported from Britain (at a ruinous cost) and really, one begins to wonder, was the one supposed benefit of British rule even a benefit or was it just outright robbery under the guise of legitimate investments.

Some of my key sources are:

  • Steven Beckert's Empire of Cotton.
  • Eric Hobsbam's 'Age of" trilogy,
  • http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/papers/broadberry-gupta.pdf for the data,
  • Traditional Industry in Colonial India by Tirthankar Roy,
  • Foreign Trade and Commerce in Ancient India by P C Prasad,


Original post by user RajaRajaC on indianews.reddit.com.

My thoughts on the recent university unrest and why all of a sudden it appears that Dalits and Muslims are being targeted.

JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar along with Dalit community members during a solidarity rally in Una, August 2016
[7 April 2016] There was recently a lot of unrest at 3 premier universities of India. IIT-Madras, UoHyd and JNU. The common factor in all these incidents were that the battle lines were supposedly between Dalits and non-Dalits. At IIT-M a group called Ambedkar Periyar Study circle that was supposedly criticizing the policies of the Modi government was de-recognised. In UoHyderabad, one Dalit student committed suicide after he was expelled from his hostel for manhandling an ABVP worker. At JNU, some students were booked under sedition charges.

Here is my theory on why it suddenly seems that the country is in turmoil. Please remember that this is a conjecture and thus it is not possible to present hard facts in favour of this. I'm open to all sorts of discussion and debate and if proved wrong, I'll reconsider my position.

There are many enemies of India as it exists today, that wish to destroy its character. These include, but are not limited to:

  • Fundamentalist Islamic groups that see India as a land of infidels (Dar-ul_Harb) that who must convert of die
  • Missionaries that see as a land of devil worshippers who must submit to the will of Jesus
  • Western powers that seek to maintain their hegemony in the international sphere and sabotage developing countries. The US especially, has had a long record of funding unrest in other nations to further its own interests.

They have the support of christian missionaries in this.

For this, they seek to do two things:

  • Destroy the Dharmic character of India and convert the entire country to their religion(Islam/Christianity) so it can be externally controlled.
  • Install regimes that actively or passively support their activities. Governments that do not tolerate activities of such elements are a threat to them and thus must not be allowed to work in peace.

Congress+ governments have served their purpose. By their long and sustained policy of minority appeasement, not acting against Christian missionaries, glorifying and defending terrorists in the name of secularism and been their modus operandi.

Here are some things that Congress and their allies have been doing.


Now, the BJP tolerates neither conversions by foreign missionaries, nor glorifies terrorists, promotes the interests of the Hindus and also tightens the leash on foreign interference in India.

Second thing, Congress, owing to it years of rule, has successfully created a group of NGOs, religious leaders,journalists, think tanks, media organisations, academics, foreign entities that support it and receive kickbacks in return. These elements leech off government money when the Congress+ is in power, and when Congress+ loses, they create ruckus and disturbance in the country by creating an atmosphere where the common man believes that there is something bad happening in the country, and the BJP government is responsible. This is what they do:


Using these tools, an effect of disturbance and civil tension is manufactured. People are constantly told that the country is going to the dogs, and the BJP/RSS is responsible. Dalits are being killed, Muslims being slaughtered, and the apocalypse is upon us.

No one bothers to ask these questions:

  • Have these things seen a sudden upswing after the BJP government came into power?
  • Is this intolerance real, or it something the elites want us to believe?
  • If a person has committed suicide, is it for the very reason the media is telling us?
  • If students from a university have been arrested, is it because the government hates them or because they called for destruction of India.?

There is a famous saying: Repeat a lie a thousand times and it will become the truth. This is what appears is happening. By constantly harping things like that "Dalit scholar killed by minister" an atmosphere of hatred is created between Dalits and non-Dalits. By painting a case of murder of cattle thieves who happened to be Muslim in a sectarian color, a fault line is drawn between Hindus and Muslims which is exploited

The Muslim-OBC-SC-ST votebank unites, and votes for the Congress. This combined votebank results in victory of the Congress, and the anti-national forces start operating as they were before.


Original post by user wewlad5 on indianews.reddit.com

BBC and it's murderous paedophiles. How the genocidal british society whitewashes it's own crimes.

[5 March 2015 ] Leslie Udwin the white knight who produced the India's Daughter documentary has very thinly veiled contempt for Indians. She went on record by saying "Because (India) is a very sick
society". She effectively generalized 125 billion people due to the behaviour of a miniscule
rotten few.

It seems like Leslie, her supporters and paymasters have very shot lived memories. Some how
they forget that this same "sick" society came out braving water cannons and riot police, in overwhelming support of that unfortunate victim. They cherry pick their points, which is not surprising since she belongs to a society that carried out genocides, plunder against crores of people.

One may argue that the crimes of her society is water under the bridge but that does not make
it any less horrific or criminal. Her society and she who still profits from the genocides are yet to publicly apologize for their crimes and pay fair repatriations.

The actions of her hateful , genocidal society is still affecting millions of people
across the globe.

But I digress, we are talking about rapes here. In the spirit of fairness let us see how
the BBC conducts itself.

  1. Jill Dando a TV host was shot dead in London on April 26 1999. She was investigating a pedophile ring that was in all probability run by big name BBC stars. When she tried her bosses to get the issue investigated, she was told that "No one wanted to know". How very posh and British. After all it is only the dirty Indians who have a sick society and not the honourable, white Anglos Saxons with a white man's burden on their shoulders. https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/24508189/tv-presenter-suspected-bbc-pedophile-ring/   http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/490169/Dando-alarm-paedophile-ring-BBC
  2. Jimmy Saville the "celebrated" muderous paedophile of BBC was even knighted by the queen of genocidal Brits. They call him Sir James Savile, how very posh and British. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Savile
  3. Organised paedophile ring operated at BBC. Now that is very British of them. http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/jimmy-savile-new-victims-say-organised-paedophile-ring-operated-at-bbc-8224562.html
  4. 40 british MPs implicated in a paedophile scandal. Some of them are even knighted. http://scgnews.com/the-uk-political-pedophile-ring-scandal-is-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-the-full-story-is-much-more-d
  5. The rot in the BBC is at the top too. http://ukpaedos-exposed.com/jimmy-saville-witch-hunt-or-paedophile/bbc-boss-knew-jimmy-savile-was-a-paedophile-two-years-ago-report-reveals/
  6. Garry Glitter and others. BBC protecting paedos and war criminals. Not surprising behaviour from a company that has profited immensely from the genocide that it's society committed. http://www.sott.net/article/253598-The-BBC-Protecting-Pedophiles-and-War-Criminals-Since-2004

Arya Samaj supported the idea of One God, Women education and remarrying of widows. It opposed caste based discrimination. But it has never been the part of leftist liberal cabal. Have you wondered why?

[24 December 2017] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arya_Samaj

Arya Samaj was a liberal movement started in late 19th century by Dayanand Saraswati. It was a major reformist movement in its times. It has believed in idea of one God and rejected the idea of worshiping of idols.

The leading leaders of 20th century should have hailed Arya Samaj but instead it gradually dropped from the main scene. Though Arya Samaj is still active but you never see our famed liberals, seculars and leftists with Arya Samaj leaders. Have you ever wondered why? Why the Arya Samaj movement has neither been able to be the main stream of Hindu society nor the people who supposedly hate all the evils within the Hindu society?

Because Arya Samaj dared to do what Muslims and Christians see as their birth right since the inception of their respective cults - Conversion.

Nehru tried to discredit Arya Samaj movement by calling them as the ones who introduced proselytization in Hinduism.  What is wrong in proselytization in Hinduism? Muslims and Christians keep doing it all the time. Zakir Naik does it live on TV. We hail Asoka and his children to spread Buddhism as their state policy. So what is wrong to re-introduce people to a reformed version of Hinduism. As a result, you do not see enough credit being given to Arya Samaj in its role in Indian freedom struggle. Only notable Arya Samaji in our books is Lala Lajpat Rai. I believe if his death would not have been avenged by Bhagat Singh and his associates, his role in our history would also have been diluted.

Arya Samaj started Shudhhikaran movement - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuddhi

For which they had to face lot of resistance from the minority communities, even by Christians.

Swami Dayanand was killed by a Muslim Nauch girl - Nanhi Jaan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayananda_Saraswati#Assassination

Swam Shradhhanand was killed by a Muslim Abdul Rashid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Shraddhanand#Assassination

However in the period of Communalisation of Indian politics, Arya Samaj played a vital role. They managed to convert lot of people back to Hinduism ,notably Malkana Rajputs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malkana

http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/15012001/Art26.htm

Malkana Rajput community can be hailed as a truly secular community today but I guess many people would hate them.

The ostracised Ahmaddiya community calls Arya Samaj as a militant Hindu organisation: https://www.alislam.org/library/book/brief-history-ahmadiyya-muslim/malkana-movement/
During 1922-23 the militant wing of the Hindu Arya Samaj devised a plan to reconvert these people to Hinduism. Consequently scores of Malkana Muslims reverted to Hinduism. As soon as Hazrat Khalifat al-Masih the Second came to know of this apostasy movement he immediately launched a counter campaign.
I have always wondered why Arya Samaj is not credited for all of their efforts to reform Hindu religion during those times when it was most difficult. Today I got the answer. Doston, criticize Hindu religion, abuse it but never try to bring people to embrace Hinduism even the reformed version of it.

Islam is all about Choice and minority rights.

Christianity is the coolest thing.


Original post by user ranjan_zehereela2014 on indianews.reddit.com

Who are the people behind Kashmir's terrorism? A study of two individuals from opposing camps, working together. A Kashmiri separatist businessman and a Punjabi ex-cop BJP politician.

[18 January 2018] Now this one is a real deep hole of time but packed with insights.

The name of Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali stuck out, so I googled it. Turns out he is the owner of a multinational group of companies named Trison. source.

Google "Trison Group Kashmir" and the first article is this. Excerpts:
He was earlier arrested in 1990 by Jammu and Kashmir police, when some anti-national activists were found present in his house at Bagat Barzulla, Srinagar. He was taken into custody along with Yaseen Malik, Sajjad Gani Lone, Bilal Lone and others and was jailed for eight months at Jammu.
So the Government of India has known since 1990 that Watali is a separatist and facilitator, but did nothing about it. WOW.
The NIA statement said that Watali was also accused of travelling on a cancelled/invalid passport despite having full knowledge of its being invalid/cancelled. 
“Instead of surrendering the cancelled passport to the authorities, he travelled abroad on cancelled/invalid passport on March 21 last year in violation of the law and again when he tried to do so, his invalid passport was seized at Delhi by the authorities,” NIA said.
Not only did the govt do nothing about it, someone in the govt tipped him off and made him so desperate that he tried to leave the country with a passport he knew was cancelled. Get it? He knows his passport is cancelled, he knows he is going to get caught at the airport, but decides to take his chances anyway. Do you get how desperate he must have been?

And why do I say he was tipped off? This is in March 2017. Still 2 months away from India Today's Hurriyat Sting release. The TV release came in first half of May 2017, and NIA action was publicly initiated in second half of May 2017, raids etc started later in the year.

So Watali knew something in March 2017 before the sting took place in May 2017.

Now, I have always maintained that India Today could not have independently pulled off the sting: for something as comprehensive as that, Indian intelligence had to have helped. The chain of events after the sting confirms that NIA intended to take action, and brilliantly (I would call it a masterstroke) pre-empted any and all criticism of media backlash by getting the corruption among separatists exposed by the media itself! For any NDTV/The Hindu presstitute to have attempted a whitewashing of separatists, they would have to argue it with India Today, a publication with a formidable presence across all media (TV, newsprint, magazine, even radio (Red FM)).

Coming back to Watali, he is a Kashmiri businessman, highly successful, with interests in everything from local plywood and orchard to land and resorts in New Zealand and Saudi. Even his own business interests aren't all legitimate as company listings for his DIN are facetiously low: just two companies registered in his name. This is the ideal man to be the conduit for money and materials between Pakistan and terrorists in Kashmir.

And that's what he did. In 1994 he was arrested for supplying money and arms to a terrorist group named Al Buraq (from this other article on Watali). This is the same group that pulled off the 7/7 attack on London (2005): https://www.trackingterrorism.org/group/al-barq
Al-Baraq is a joint Pakistani and Kashmiri terrorist organization that conducts operations in Kashmir. For much of its history, al-Barq was aligned with the Muttahida (United) Jihad Council, a union of fundamentalist Islamic terrorist organizations operating under Pakistani control. Al-Baraq is known to be running effective terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Kashmir. With the closure of the Taliban's and al-Qaeda's Afghani bases, these camps have become notorious for training numerous militants and terrorists for international assaults. The perpetrators of the 7/7/05 London bombings were trained in Pakistani camps run by al-Barq.
Perhaps from the British investigation, GoI also knew that Watali was using his FCRA accounts to transfer money to terrorists in Kashmir:
Watali had a FCNRE account in HSBC, GK-I branch, Delhi, into which large foreign inward remittances were received prior to 2005. Though FCNRE facility is available to those who remain away from India for at least 180 days in a financial year, a scrutiny of his immigration records had revealed that he had not been away from India for as many days during the relevant period.
Still there's no evidence of any meaningful action taken against him.

Conclusion #1: Successive Congress governments knew about, and failed to act against, at least one source of terrorist funding. For decades.

The Daily Excelsior article dropped another name which turns out to be extremely interesting *and* disturbing.
“He owns Trison Group consisting of  Kashmir Veener Industry (Plywood), Trison Farms and constructions private limited, Trison International Commercial Brokers, LIC, Dubai, UAE, NZ International Ajman, UAE, Ittefaq Trading and Logistics (Cross LoC trade), Trison Power Private limited and Three Starr Enterprises (wood furniture)”, the NIA sources said. 
They said that Zahoor is learnt to have bought some properties outside the state in New Delhi, Gurgaon, Punjab also in close collaboration/partnership with PS Gill, former DG Punjab Police.
Wow, okay. Not outside the realm of possibilities. If the entire defence, intelligence, police, and political network has failed to act against roots of terrorism in Kashmir, it's not unimaginable that terrorists have powerful friends in those establishments. But business associations? This means that the "friendships" are rooted in money after all. So who is this PS Gill?

Paramdeep Singh Gill is a 1974/75 batch IPS of J&K Cadre who is described thusly by even his admirers:
Referring to former Director General of Police Punjab Paramdeep Singh Gill, Chandel said, “How such a stupendous success has been achieved is a saga of one man’s true grit, personality, and some unusual methods that will outrage civil libertarians. His physical courage and tactical sharpness have won him many professional admirers. Gill is a great nationalist and a natural leader.

"Unusual" is indeed how the earliest mention of PS Gill can be described. In short, in 1997 he tried to pass off the mortal remains of an Indian villager as that of Paul Wells, a victim of the 1995 kidnapping and murder of foreign tourists in Kashmir, one of the watershed moments in history which ended foreign tourism in the state. His goal was to receive a USD 2 million "prize" set by US Dept of Justice + 2 separate prizes of INR 10 lakhs each set by UDDoJ and GoJ&K for tracing the remains of any of the four hostages whose bodies had not been found. His attempt was foiled when a DNA test in UK showed that the body belonged to a "South Asian", and not a white dude.

From roughly 1999 through 2007 he was IGP Kashmir. Things were rough in Kashmir at the time and he is said to have been particularly brutal, but his ineffectiveness is plain to see even now. Terrorism kept growing, separatism gained critical momentum, the infamous Ikhwan were aided in myriad ways which ended up hurting the Indian cause more than helping it. J&K Secretariat in Srinagar was attacked in 1999 not once but twice. He was transferred to Punjab in 2009 jumping over at least 3 superior officers having spent ten years "fighting terrorists".

After that there's no particular note of Gill's work, and he retired in 2011. Immediately after retirement he is appointed as advisor to Home Ministry of Punjab under SAD. A few months later he joined SAD, contested and lost 2012 elections from Moga to a Congress candidate.

The next prominent mention of PS Gill is in 2014, when he is reported to have illegally have the land records mutated getting him the ownership of 157 acres of environmentally protected public land that was supposed to be shared by all the people of an area. Such an land is called shamlat deh and illegal occupation of shamlat deh land is a common scam in the region. And Gill apparently pulled it off a mere month before he'd contested in 2012, and only after losing did this scam come to light (in 2013). As can be expected, no FIR was filed against him, so no court case either. Even the babu who had mutated records was on suspension for a short while.

Without meaning to write this like a Tarantino movie, it should be noted that PS's father was a Congress MLA from Moga, the family's hometown, killed by militants in 1991, and whose killers were all acquitted in 2014.

After news of the scam, Gill was denied the ticket to contest Moga bypolls, so guess what he does? He joins BJP! In Aug 2014, after Modi has won national elections Amit Shah has firmly taken control of the party, Gill is now a BJP politician. He is credited with helping BJP win 25 seats in Dec 2014 J&K Assembly Elections, and is on his way to becoming Governor of J&K in 2015 to replace NN Vohra, but is stopped cold by Mehbooba Mufti who cites his closeness to the Abdullah Clan as the reason.

Let's take a step back and summarize the portrait of former Punjab DGP Paramdeep Singh Gill. On the surface he appears to be a nationalist, and someone the Right Wing of India trusts, so much so that his involvement is solicited by Amarnath Yatra board, even though he has joint land deals outside Kashmir with Watali, a separatist with ISI links for funding and harboring terrorists, widely known to have been one since 1996. Despite having spent considerable IPS career in Punjab and building considerable power in it, he has no standing locally. Not even enough to win MLA elections in his hometown where his own father was shot by terrorists, theoretically validating at least a sympathy votebank.

Vocally nationalist, jingoistic, greedy and corrupt, unscrupulous enough to do business with terrorists, intelligent and powerful yet unpopular.

Conclusion #2: While BJP under Modi has been successful in getting to the root of Kashmir's terrorist problem, the moles are now making home inside BJP and there's no telling what damage they can do. They have one Doval, but do we know how many PS Gills there are?

Original post by user le_clochard on indianews.reddit.com

Yogi is winning hearts and minds not through speeches but through actual work, and is getting recognition for them but only locally.

[8 April 2018] The gag on Yogi's revolutionary governance in UP continues as I observed in my first post ever. So it has become necessary to search social media for reports of developments in the state, even though I didn't want to.

UP is an agrarian economy, and without helping farmers improve their lot, UP won't go anywhere. You help the farmers, lower castes who form bulk of the workforce, automatically benefit. When all of them prosper, they spur the economy, buy vehicles and whitegoods, consumption goes up and so on. Also, the SC/ST prosper, yielding crucial political dividends needed not only for votes and political stability but also improved governance.

When you have a corrupt despotic CM, everyone from IAS and IPS to lowest level clerks assume that it's a free for all. It's impossible to de-corrupt such a system. But when you have squeaky clean CMs like Shivraj and Yogi, and they show earnest desire for upliftment, it enthuses even otherwise corrupt officials to play it straight, resulting in vastly improved governance. This is visible in UP where Yogi is helping everyone from farmers and dalits through to students and women. This in turn is enthusing public servants to act with rectitude, to do their part in improving their lot. Policemen are cracking down on criminals and politicians they used to collaborate with, babus are giving fair treatment to all people, teachers are going to school and doing their job.

One such story about farmers was tweeted by a cold storage engineer who has an inside view of developments. I am reproducing the tweets below, let me know if anyone needs translation, I'll give it in the comments.


  • किसानों की कम आमदनी एक महत्वपूर्ण समस्या रही है। खासकर आलू प्याज जैसी फसलों के किसानों की बदहाली की कहानियां हर साल सुनने को मिलती हैं। मैं स्वयं आलू के भंडारण के व्यवसाय से लंबे समय से जुड़ा रहा हूँ और जानता हूँ कि यह समस्या वास्तविक है। 1/n
  • जब बाजार में किसान को उसके फसल की न्यूनतम कीमत भी नहीं मिलती तो या तो वह घाटे पर बेचता है और या फिर सड़क पर फेंक देता है। अभी पिछले साल ही किसान कोल्ड स्टोरेज से अपना आलू उठाने तक नहीं आए। 2/n
  • कैसे यह स्थिति बदलेगी, इस पर बहुत बहस हो सकती है। हुई भी बहुत है। पर हल क्या निकला? किसानों के नाम पर राजनीति करने वाले दलों ने आलू किसान के लिए इतना भी नहीं सोचा कि वह लागत ही निकाल पाए। 3/n
  • फिर उत्तर प्रदेश में @myogiadityanath सरकार आई और इस दिशा में बात शुरू हुई। बेहतर मूल्य की मांग करने वालों में परम श्रद्धेय @yadavakhilesh जी भी थे, जिन्हें पूरे पांच साल ऐसी कोई समस्या दिखी ही नहीं थी। 4/n
  • खैर, योगी आदित्यनाथ सरकार ने आलू का समर्थन मूल्य घोषित किया 549 रुपए प्रति क्विंटल। ढुलाई और प्रोत्साहन वगैरह जोड़ कर प्रति क्विंटल 686 रुपये मिलने सुनिश्चित हुए। यह किसानों के लिए इसलिए भी बड़ी राहत थी कि इस बार जिन किसानों ने फसल लगाई थी वो पिछले साल से बेहतर हुई है। 5/n
  • पर जैसा कहा जाता है कि साहस ही सौभाग्य लाता है, आज का आलू का थोक बाजार का दाम 1150 रुपये प्रति क्विंटल हो गया है। सभी बाजार से जुड़े लोग जानते हैं कि कैसे समर्थन मूल्य की घोषणा ने बाजार को पंख लगा दिए। अंत में आपको एक वीडियो के साथ छोड़ जाता हूँ जो मेरी बात की पुष्टि करेगा। video in tweet (video is from Gujarat though) 6/n
  • 2 अप्रैल की हाथरस के एक काश्तकार के सौदे की रसीद आपके समक्ष प्रस्तुत है। 761 रुपये प्रति पैकेट यानी 1522 रुपये प्रति कुंतल की दर से आलू के बिक्री हुई। ऐसे न जाने कितने ही सौदे इस समय आगरा मंडल में हो रहे हैं। देसी भाषा में, 3 साल से बेहाल किसान के दिन बहुर गए। 7/n pic of receipt
The fact that these policies are getting delivered to the masses is the real achievement. We all know, and Yogi too has echoed our sentiments that India can fully prosper if Indians simply get benefits of existing schemes. This will scale back everything from poverty to forced conversions, and no new schemes are needed.

This is what he is doing.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/dalits-benefited-most-from-govt-schemes-under-yogi-adityanath/articleshow/63664313.cms
“Out of the 8.85 lakh houses built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, 6.50 lakh have been given to Dalits. Besides, 37 lakh Dalits have been issued ration cards for the first time. While the previous government got no work done in most backward classes-dominated 1,556 villages, the BJP government has ensured that all amenities reached there. Under the Saubhagya Yojana, 32 lakh power connections have been given to Dalits,” said an official. Data shared by the government further shows that out of 40 lakh toilets built, 36 lakh have been for Dalits.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/thats-how-i-do-it-up-cop-whips-rape-accused-with-belt-in-police-station-1834300
The police arrested the accused and sent the teen for a medical test. The video which surfaced recently showed the cop accusing the man and demanding to know where he took her. The angry cop continued to whip him and even used cuss words when he claimed "that's how I beat such men". He warned him to confess else the lashing won't stop.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/three-hindu-yuva-vahini-activists-arrested-on-rape-charge/article19154248.ece
The Uttar Pradesh police arrested three activists of the Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV), an organisation formed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on charges of gang rape and beating a police officer in Bareilly, on Tuesday.
Even the police sees that Yogi doesn't spare even his own HYV members, and they admire him for that.

https://mobile.twitter.com/ANINewsUP/status/982732479776817155/photo/1
Gorakhpur: No seat left vacant in Primary School Karmaini after more parents enrolled their children seeing increase of facilities in the government school; students say, 'we sit on benches and study with help of computer and projector. Now, we like attending school'
http://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/yogi-adityanath-government-to-soon-promulgate-ordinance-to-check-arbitrary-fee-hike-by-schools-says-dinesh-sharma/1123805/
The Uttar Pradesh government will soon promulgate an ordinance to check arbitrary fee hike by private schools, including minority institutions, in the state, Deputy Chief Minister Dr Dinesh Sharma Schools with Classes 1 to 12 charging over Rs 20,000 per annum as fees will come under its ambit. “Once the ordinance is notified, the new rules will come into effect from the present academic session (2018-19) prohibiting schools from raising fees arbitrarily,” he told PTI in an interview here. Sharma, also holds the education portfolio. He said that in case schools want to hike fees, they will have to consult a regulatory committee headed by a divisional commissioner. The panel will also have representatives of parents and school management as members, he said. The new legislation will cover all private schools. However, pre-schools have been kept outside its ambit, Sharma said.
http://www.financialexpress.com/industry/technology/boost-to-up-farmers-yogi-adityanath-government-to-provide-better-internet-speed-in-enam-mandis-soon-heres-how/1125663/
Uttar Pradesh farmers trading in 100 electronic National Agriculture Markets (eNAM) can expect better internet speed soon as the state government has initiated the work for installation of leased line in these regulated wholesale mandis. UP has set up 100 eNAM mandis in the country and are operational with 27.31 lakh registered farmers so far. At present, farmers are trading online within a mandi in the state. Inter-mandi trading is also being tested on a pilot basis in selective mandis. “Poor internet connectivity is a major problem. Internet speed is necessary for both to operate eNAM app on mobile phone and even on desktop. We have issued a tender to BSNL to install leased lines. The work has begun,” a senior Agriculture Ministry official, posted in Lucknow, told PTI.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/up-tops-rural-housing-chart-yogi-govt-disburses-rs-100-bn-subsidy-118040100394_1.html
Uttar Pradesh has topped the list in providing housing to the rural poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana by scoring more than double the national average.
Against the national average of 34%, UP has scored 85% in constructing houses under the national scheme during 2017-18. The second and third placed Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have clocked aggregates of 47% and 45% respectively.
In UP, the beneficiaries have been provided with direct benefit transfer of Rs 100 billion under the scheme. In fact, the state of UP accounted for 25% of all rural housing units constructed during the period, while states figuring at the bottom of the list accounted for 0% of their targets.

Needless to say, of the above, largest majority of recipients are Dalits. Relevant to recall that Yogi's fight against conversion of Hindus, especially the down trodden, makes it a central point to get all the special schemes ear-marked for lower castes to get delivered to them. It's simple logic and it actually works. In my first post I had mentioned that he especially fights for Musahar Bantangiya community rights. In the first year of his rule itself he has delivered on that promise and has given them the status of Revenue Villages, which means that now, for the first time since Independence of India, these poorest of poor can finally avail even a single Govt of India scheme. Please re-read that. Till now a huge number of desperately poor Indians didn't have equal rights in a country where separatists and terrorists get special rights.

https://www.indiatoday.in/pti-feed/story/up-cm-declares-18-vantangiya-settlements-as-revenue-villages-1120028-2018-01-01

Maharajganj (UP) Jan 1 (PTI) In a bid to bring the forest-dwelling Vantangiya community into the mainstream, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today declared their 18 settlements as revenue villages and accused the opposition of "befooling the poor and the deprived" for long. 
The Vantangiya community comprises people brought from Myanmar during the colonial rule to plant trees for afforestation. 
Adityanath, who, soon after taking over the reins of power in the state, had directed the officials to initiate steps for bringing members of the community to the mainstream, took part in an event in Barhava Chandanchafi village where he also distributed land patta to 3,779 Vantangiya families. 
He also laid the foundation stones for Anganwadi centres in these villages where there is also a proposal to set up primary schools, junior high schools, houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, toilets, ration shops, solar panels and extending pension benefits to the widows and the aged. 
Conversion of tribal-dominated forest villages to revenue villages under the provisions of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act will enable the administration to adopt development measures such as setting up of schools, dispensaries, and other facilities in these villages.

 Re-read that. They did not even have anganvadis till now. Something that's a feature of every single village and hamlet. Yogi has is now giving them everything from anganvadis and schools to toilets and solar panels! Imagine the sea of change for nearly 4000 families that Yogi has brought!

And he's getting recognition. The umbrella body of all Dalit orgs in UP called the Ambedkar Mahasabha have awarded him the Dalit Mitra Award. Of course there will be many who are upset with this, but the award remains in place. (There were only two dissenting Dalit leaders in the Mahasabha and both have political aspirations so they can be safely ignored.)

Narendra Modi has praised him publicly and even AAP gave him a nod when it copied his policy of stopping random days of leave for entire govt machinery and schools for random pseudo-religious occassion
Delhi will follow Uttar Pradesh in cancelling public holidays on the birth and death anniversaries of famous people, deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said today, praising UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's decision to slash 15 such holidays in his state.
If you go on Twitter you will realize that the #YogiRoxx hashtag is perpetually being used and I use it to find his good work (and some complaints against him) that will never see the light of day in mainstream media.

Original post by user yogimodi on indianews.reddit.com

Wednesday, 26 December 2018

Why UP is what UP is and the significance of Yogi's work in Uttar Pradesh: a small reveal for people unfamiliar with UP

Not exactly from UP, but way more familiar with it than most people on Reddit.

UP is like the Wild Wild West. If 80% of Indian IAS, IPS are corrupt, UP position is 99%.

  • There is an incredible nexus between politicians, bureaucrats, and criminals. 
  • Nepal being next door, criminals routinely slip in and out of the country. 
  • Police could not even think about carrying out operations in Muslim majority areas. 
  • Every religion and caste had sympathies with criminals from that group, because policing was so ineffective even in small personal conflicts (like between neighbours, or if boys from one community teased a girl from another) not the police, but your religion/caste's criminals stepped in to "resolve" the conflict. 
  • Ordinary businessmen (like kirana, mobile shop, DVD/music seller) needed protection. 
  • Big businessmen were always in danger or kidnapping-for-ransom, and had to pay protection to all political parties. And even then they could be targets of extortion murders.

I could keep going with different types of crimes in UP that are unthinkable in other states.

You remember the fiery speeches that Yogi gets calumniated for? The ones in which he says "you kill/rape one of ours, we will kill/rape 10 of yours"? There was a long backstory to them. Under SP, given the above circumstances, members of the minority community had committed a series of violent rapes in which some Hindu girls had even died. But FIRs were not registered for any of them and criminals were walking free, some bullying family of their victim to not raise the matter officially.

Fed up, these families and communities reached out to Yogi. Though Yogi was not from their district, and he had no official power, he went to those areas to give personal assurance and protection of his vigilante groups to affected families.

Here I am not justifying Yogi (I'll do that elsewhere). Here I am only showing you how things worked in UP. That the fundamental protection of police, the fundamental purpose of Law and Order apparatus, was absent in UP. That you need brawn on your side to not get brutalized. It's up to you whether you turn to a religious gang, a caste gang, or simply a paid gang. But if you need protection for being father of a pretty daughter, owner of a business, having property (wealth or land), or need any official work done, the police is not there for you, gangs or vigilante groups are  your only choice.

Original post by user yogimodi on indianews.reddit.com
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)