Straight Bat

#straightbatwithrajdeep #rajdeepsardesai #tamilnews #dmk #rnravi

A defining image this week has been a Governor of a state walking out of the state assembly while a resolution is being read out against him by the chief minister. What happened in Tamil Nadu this week is deplorable. And is dangerous for a federal constitutional democracy. I will not get into the blame game of the events that led to the walk out but I will say this: a Governor who goes to the extent of making politically loaded statements like calling for a change in the name of Tamil Nadu, needs to seriously introspect. RN ravi is a retired bureaucrat, a police officer who served with distinction in IB and CBI and also in insurgency affected states. Surely someone like him should have realised the limits to the powers of a Governor. A Governor cannot be a political player but sadly that’s exactly what Governor Ravi has become: he has on crucial bills, has been making statements against the ruling DMK, and even deviated from the prepared text of the prepared text of the speech in the assembly.

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#straightbat #rajdeepsardesai #rahulgandhi #incindia #bharatjodoyatra #100daysofyatra

Last week, the Rahul Gandhi led Bharat jodo yatra completed 100 days. In an era where no Hindi movie lasts that long, when attention spans are reduced to nano seconds that’s quite an achievement. So, having journeyed on the yatra for 2 days in Rajasthan.. here are my 10 takeaways in less than 10 minutes.

#rajdeepsardesai #straightbatwithrajdeep #modi #gujaratresults #himachalelection2022

Hello and welcome to Straight Bat, my weekly video blog where as the title suggests, I comment with a straight bat. Verdict 2022 has been delivered.. its time for my ten takeaways.

#rajdeepsardesai #straightbatwithrajdeep #gujaratmodel #modi #bjp #aapgujarat

Hello and welcome to Straight Bat. My weekly video blog where I comment with a straight bat. I have spent much of the last ten days around Gujarat.. the latest election battleground state and a state that has special importance because it is PM Modi’s home state. Ten days.. ten takeaways has a nice ring to it.. so that’s exactly what I will try and do.

#rajdeepsardesai #straightbatwithrajdeep #modi #gujaratmodel #muslim

Hindu-Musalman-Pakistan is a familiar narrative now in Indian elections.. And when the state going to the polls is Gujarat, then this narrative seems to get even more potent. So when a union minister Kailash Chaudhary is heard on the campaign trail claiming that Pakistan wants Congress to form a government in Gujarat, it comes as no surprise. The Pakistan card has been almost routinely played in Gujarat elections in recent times.

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All political roads are leading to Gujarat over the next fortnight as the state goes to the polls.. Now kicking off the BJP’s campaign, prime minister Narendra Modi has said something that has stuck with me: ‘We built this Gujarat’ he roared at an election rally.. some newspapers reported the prime minister saying ‘I built this Gujarat’.. but the exact words used were ‘aa Gujarat ame banavyu che..’

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#antiindia #modi

Salvatore Babones | Demonising A Democracy? | India Today Conclave 2022
Full Interview : https://youtu.be/nGkFwDk7TUQ

We are in the age of viral videos.. more often than not when someone says something dramatic and controversial, the video goes viral. A well analysed argument is less likely to go viral than a provocative one. I realised the power of the viral video earlier this week when at the India Today Mumbai conclave I interviewed one Prof Salvatore Barbones. Now, just a week ago, I might have said Prof Barbones who? In fact, when I was assigned his interview, my first reaction was to wonder just who and why was this Professor being projected as a star guest at the conclave.

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Images of workmen hastily refurbishing the crumbling civil hospital in Gujarat’s Morbi ahead of a prime ministerial visit offer a glimpse of a dystopian reality. As a small town recovers from the unimaginable tragedy of a bridge collapse caused by criminal negligence leading to loss of scores of lives, the idea that grief can be hidden from public gaze by an extra coat of paint is just appalling. But then it is election season in Gujarat and the ‘chamak’ or glitter of a much-hyped ‘Gujarat model’ must mask the grime of a rundown government hospital and an ineffectual local administration. We are, after all, in the age of flashy optics where the perfect photo-op matters above all else.

#rajdeepsardesai #straightbatwithrajdeep #rishisunak #ukprimeminister

This has been a week when a slice of history has been created: Britain has just anointed in Rishi Sunak, its first prime minister of British Asian origin, a truly historic moment. I recall being a student at Oxford in the 1980s in a Thatcherite Britain and to be honest, it was a period when racial prejudice was unmistakable. I was at a Saturday football match once and when we were returning home, a group of beer guzzling louts stopped us and one of them shouted at me, “Get out of here you bloody Indian!”