Messi10

Remembering Rajiv Gandhi on the anniversary of his tragic death. He was one of the warmest, most decent human beings to become Prime Minister of India. With him, what you saw was what you got; there was no deviousness, no subterfuge & certainly, no megalomania. When he made mistakes he admitted it. When he felt he had been unfair to people he apologised. And despite growing up in a political family he never let the cynicism that characterises Indian politics get to him. We often forget that he may have been the first Indian PM to have ever held a regular job, to have paid income tax and PF. This gave him an understanding of how salaried people in India lived & how the system was tilted against them. During his time taxes were lowered,the stock market boomed and India prepared for the digital age. He went too soon. If he had lived he would have returned to power sooner rather than later. By the time he died, he had learned from the early mistakes that his inexperience led him to make & was ideally placed to lead India into the 21 st Century and to forge a society that had no room for divisiveness & hatred. As even his critics will concede, he was at heart a unifier, signing accords in Punjab, Assam & Mizoram, ending conflicts and building a better India.

“I was thrown out of my job because I’m the finest independent journalist who asked tough ques to the govt.” ~Tanushree Pandey Here’s a clip of Tanushree Pande telling then JNUSU VP Saket what to say from the script once the camera turns on during the sensitive Hathras case. The same woman shamelessly posted a thread of videos from the cremation ground. Sharm karle kuch DaIIi.

At the National Press Club in the US on 9 Nov, 1961 Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru was grilled by the foreign press. Yet he stood there alone & answered each question himself without hiding behind a wall of bureaucrats or script & teleprompter didn't exist then. I know this tweet will draw a flood of abuse and trolls becoz, in today’s India, Nehru is the prime villain. Yet I couldn’t stop myself from saying it again - Bro Nehru was different and you will never even come close to him, irrespective of your electoral victories. Cope it harder.