Saravana Raja

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Bravo @AnthropicAI ! Business without ethics is only burglary! Appreciate your stand.

Imagine if Iran bombed 148+ school girls in the USA? Why on earth is it acceptable the other way round?

What happened today didn't start with Iran. It's long run of destroying resistance zones across the world that started with Iraq in 2003. It's a cruel validation of the concept of Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilisations. The establishment of a one world order is definitely temporary but the equal and opposite reaction will be literally painful in both time and effort.

Respect and RIP #Khamenei

சமீபத்தில் படித்ததில் மிகவும் மனவிரிவை அளித்த புத்தகம் இது...நியூட்டனிலிருந்து ஐன்ஸ்டீனுக்கு இயற்பியல் எப்படி நகர்ந்தது என்று தொடங்கி குவாண்டம் இயற்பியல், பார்ட்டிக்கிள் பிசிக்ஸ் வரை எளிமையாகப் புரியவைக்கிறது...இயற்பியலும் ஆழமான தத்துவக் கேள்விகளும் இணையும் இடமாக இந்தப் புத்தகம் உள்ளது...இயற்பியலில் ஆர்வம் இருப்பவருக்குப் பரிந்துரைக்கிறேன்....@ruminternpub @தமிழ் புத்தகங்கள்

கொற்றவை போற்றுதும். காளை வாகனத்தை மகிசாசுரனாக்கிய பொய் நாக்குகள் பொசுக்குதும் தாயே!

No analysis of #Iran is complete if you reduce what's unfolding in the country into a simplistic binary of an oppressive regime vs a freedom-loving people. That's a liberal trap. I have serious disagreements with the character of the Iranian state (which I have with a lot of regimes), but that doesn't stop me from trying to understand the broader picture. Iran has lived under crippling sanctions for decades--and those who imposed the sanctions wanted to make everyday life miserable in the hope that the public would rise against the regime which would open a window for the liberal interventionists. Why is Iran under sanctions? Mainly because of its nuclear programme. Iran exists in a very hostile region. Just look at the map -- Iran is the only Persian Gulf country that doesn't host an American military base. It sits in a region where Israel is the only nuclear power. The mistake Iran did -- as I have always argued -- was that it did not make the bomb. They thought they could leverage a nuclear threshold status for both security and economic relief. That was a blunder in a world of jungle. Tehran signed the nuclear deal in 2015. Trump demolished it in 2018 and reimposed sanctions. Europe just follows the line given from Washington. Despite the hostility in the region, Iran enjoyed relative deterrence due its so-called axis of resistance. The US first killed Soleimani, one of the architects of the axis. And then Israel, post-Oct 7, with American help, chipped away at the axis. Because for both Israel and the US, Iran is the only revisionist power in West Asia. You take Syria out, Iran would be weakened. And you take Iran out, the whole region could be redrawn. Look at what happened. Hamas was pushed into the ruins of Gaza. Hezbollah has been degraded. Houthis are fighting their own battles. And the Syrian regime, Iran's only state ally in the region, collapsed. Russia is stuck in Ukraine. China remains too self-occupied. Iran suddenly lay vulnerable to external threats. And then the Israelis bombed Iran in June. Trump happily joined in. Europe followed suit in the subsequent months by reimposing snapback sanctions--because Iran violated a deal that Trump killed in 2018! In the middle of all this, Iran had elected a reformist as its president in an election in which more than 30 million people voted. But the government’s hands were tied when it came to economic issues because of the sanctions. And there is genuine public resentment which was what triggered the shopkeepers' protests on January 1. But on Jan 2, after meeting Netanyahu in Florida, Trump said he was “locked and loaded”. Mossad started amplifying anti-regime messages in Farsi via social media. It even posted on X that “we are with you in the field” (I wrote here on X on the day the US attacked Venezuela and abducted President Maduro that Iran was next). The protests started turning violent. Reza Pahlavi, son of the deposed monarch who is living in the US, suddenly emerged as the “Crown Prince”. Someone who hasn’t set foot in Iran for over four decades, emerged in western TV and press as the rightful voice of Iran’s opposition and he called for urgent American bombing of Iran! Garbage propaganda channels such as Iran International unleashed a firestorm of misinformation. Reports about the situation on the ground came from “rights groups” based in Oslo and Washington. The liberal mills, which were conspicuously silent during Israel’s genocide of Palestinians for two years, started firing on all cylinders. Iran, they said, wants freedom through American and Israeli bombings. And now Trump is asking the “protesters” to take over institutions. #IranProtests

Sorry, we've just lived through over 2 years of witnessing a livestreamed genocide, funded and supported by the West with money, weapons, and rhetoric. We've not been able to stop the suffering. But in our helpless state, we told ourselves that we'll never let people like you feign righteousness about oppression ever again. So you're not doing this ever again. We're calling out your BS. Hypocrite.

It's a long-form content that any intellectually active person must give a read. Considering the multiple branches and timelines in the story, it's a painstaking work and it has a completeness that can provide you a perspective, whether you are right, left or center. Maybe it's too much to ask for in a troll world. But hope is the only hope left. Kudos to the author and her team.

Signs of a deep malaise.

Reminds me of the FDFS of the movie. A brilliant work. Not only his movies, Dibakar Banerjee himself never got his due appreciation and is sadly underrated till date.

Yogi Adityanath govt moves the court to drop charges against the killers of Mohd Akhlaq. Meanwhile in Bihar, Mohd Athar is brutally beaten, tied, tortured and lynched to death by a mob. Happy Sunday !!

Thanks to Rana Ayyub's recommendation. Watching #TheGreatShamsuddinFamily back to back. In a technical sense, it's more of a play than cinema. But the nuanced dialogues, amazing screenplay and a flawless casting make the film, a laughter riot yet deep. Well done Anusha Rizvi!

You cannot be my friend if you don't like vinnai thandi varuvaya 🧘🧘

Often, Mr. Gurumurthy, His Thuglaq Excellency, loves to speak in points, as in his latest Republic TV appearance, with self-attested facts. Let me also respond in points. 1. At the outset, by claiming disputed facts were undisputed and undisputed facts were disputed, Gurumurthy creates a distortion to set the counter-narrative of what's happening in Tamil Nadu, in the name of "Karthigai Deepam." 2. Let's look back at the history and rewind to the point when Ram Lalla was clandestinely installed inside Babri Masjid overnight. When the facts were physically twisted that night, the entire narrative got changed completely as Ram "appeared" and it became a disputable "fact."  3. Now, in the same way, animal sacrifice, which was an undisputed fact for centuries, became a disputable fact last year in a planned manner by the Hindutva outfits. It led to harassing the Muslims selectively for animal sacrifice, while it was both "Hindus" and Muslims who have been sacrificing animals in Thiruparankundram Temple for centuries now.  4. This year, thanks to the court ignoring the historical litigation outcomes and facts, Deepa Thoon (A pillar to light the lamp) in the temple became a disputed fact. Instead of the Deepa Thoon in the temple, now the Hindutva outfits claimed that a British-era survey stone (a GST marker), at the top of the mountain, near the Sikandar Dargah, is the actual Deepa Thoon. This is the core dispute that created all the ruckus.  5. Nobody is interested in whether a particular judge is always thinking through a Hindutva lens or at times. This is an absurd argument. Whoever it is, the matter at hand determines what one has expressed in words and deeds and not the past to establish their impartial credentials.  6. The pipe dream of Hindu resurgence with passive Hindus rising for Lord Muruga is out of the imagined success in creating a tension, although the ordinary majority "Hindus" clearly demarcate the difference between devotion and religious fanaticism, be it Thiruparankundram or any part of Tamil Nadu.

The RSS Project is out now! Explore the network map here: rssproject.caravanmagazine.in For a deeper reflection on why such an intervention is necessary, see Felix Pal’s (@FelixPal8) essay, “Exposing the largest far-right network in history”, read here: caravanmagazine.in/politics/unvei…

The best fiery speech a liberal can offer. youtu.be/Tiwsv-p-yfg?si…

#homebound is a fantastic magic that has happened after a long time. It's amazing to see the narrative shifting from richie rich world to real India of the impoverished classes. The nuanced, layered portrayal without melodrama is finely crafted. Wished the movie had been longer in telling the story of all the characters, dissecting the political and social currents of the country, in the last few years. From the top of my mind, I would say this is the best film Hindi cinema has created after #DhobiGhat