9 ms·

This downward trend has long been in the works. The current government came into power riding on a wave of popularity, largely driven by their "IT cells". Now

This downward trend has long been in the works. The current government came into power riding on a wave of popularity, largely driven by their "IT cells". Now comfortably in power, they are probably dismantling the path, to avoid others who might try to follow. The government is not just in a stand-off with big-tech companies. It continues to view its own citizens as adversaries with frequent internet shutdowns [1]. [1] https://internetshutdowns.in/ https://internetshutdowns.in/

jaldhar 5y ago
Can we stop with all this IT cell bullshit? Modi got in because he was more competent than the rajputra of the Nehru dynasty. My family are from Gujarat. We’ve known about Modi since he was governor. We moved out of our ancestral village several generations ago but still return on special occasions because our kuladevi is there. The area is semi-desert. Modi got water from the Narmada dam piped in. Now cash crops can be irrigated and the kids don’t die of dysentery any more. We used to have to stop at a larger town and walk a couple of miles down a dirt track to get there. Modi got a road built and regular bus service to the nearest city. That’s why he is popular. That area was staunchly Congress since 1947 and still is but you won’t find anyone with a bad word to say about Narendra Modi. He got things done and that’s what counts. The Hindu nationalism is just icing on the cake. (Remember there was a time when Congress also used to brag about how e.g Sardar Patel rebuilt Somanath.) Now with the latest missteps such as demonetization and the COVID response etc. the bloom is off the rose a little but he is still genuinely popular and more importantly there isn’t anyone on the national scene “who might be trying to follow.”
- random314 5y ago
  He also led pogroms, segregated living areas by religion and promoted rioters and terrorists. Gujarats gdp per capita is only slightly above the median. And IT cell is a reality that has been exposed several times over. Identical copy paste tweets and interviews with ex-it cell employees.
  - colorboy 5y ago
    Speaking of copy paste, what happened of the toolkit row? Whether the objective was good or bad, should the people actively trying to trend things be called "IT cell for XYZ"? It feels a bit hypocritical
    - random314 5y ago
      They are actually paid to do it. They are employed by the IT cell of BJP. Other parties do the same, but cannot match the scale.
  - jaldhar 5y ago
    I gave you actual examples of improvements I’ve seen with my own two eyes. People can’t drink gdp. I don’t doubt there could be an IT cell. What I was reacting to was the idea that it is a major reason for Modi’s success. Like “Russian collusion” this is just cope by people who can’t accept that it is they who are the unpopular ones. People don’t understand that propaganda like hypnotism only works on people who are already primed to believe it. Why does anyone listen to this BJP IT cell? Do you know?
    - random314 5y ago
      Well people can drink their own blood. I actually knew people who were massacred in gulbarga society. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulbarg_Society_massacre https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulbarg_Society_massacre Your screed reads like an apologia for Hitler. I actually know Muslim friends in ahmedabad that cannot buy or rent a house in normal housing societies and have been ghettoized into Muslim enclaves with non existent municipal services. I am glad that I live in the United states where nobody asks me for my religion or caste before renting or selling a home. United states is never going to be "dharmic", it got rid of its "dharmic" tendencies with the civil rights movement. Edit: The dharmic comment was in response to another poster talking about United states becoming "dharmic".
      - naruvimama 5y ago
- npmn 5y ago
  Modi government is competent at marketing everything as his contribution, he is highly egoistic, doesn't accept any mistakes, or tries to push the blame to the Nehru Dynasty, Opposition etc. BJP IT Cell is one the most active proponent in pushing the image of Narendra Modi as the savior, whereas in reality, literally any leader who would have listened to experts instead of the election gurus, would have taken more sensible steps. Modi government is full of yes man, and due to his popularity, the BJP party has itself become smaller than Modi, as elections are won in the name of the Prime Minister instead of the actual leader. The government is also known for buying elected people post elections using money or power(CBI,ED intimidation) and known for manipulative numbers (they even changed the definition of GDP to make the numbers more attractive). Modi actually follows Trump modulus of operandi, where instead of calling his opposition/critical news reports as fake news, he more conveniently calls them anti-national or pro-pakistani or western influences. Anyways this stupid notion of no national alternative was also propogated the BJP IT Cell and BJP owned Media Houses only. Sadly a lot of Indians, including the commenter above have actually bought into it. If you actually look at numbers, India was falling behind on almost everything(jobs, economy etc) even before covid started. Factually speaking, the worst term of UPA(2009-2014) was actually better than the modi government's first term in lot of matrices. Here is a one such study, you can find several others by googling - (please be aware of pro-BJP sources such as https://www.opindia.com https://www.opindia.com, Republic TV etc) https://www.livemint.com/politics/policy/manmohan-singh-vs-narendra-modi-the-real-india-gdp-growth-story-1555034270688.html https://www.livemint.com/politics/policy/manmohan-singh-vs-n...
  - jaldhar 5y ago
    Let us assume that this idea of “no national alternative” is stupid. Who is this person then? Name a name.
- csomar 5y ago
  If that's the case, why would he fear the Internet so much? Your argument doesn't really hold.
  - jaldhar 5y ago
    Because that’s where his political enemies are? Most politicians don’t have very deep reasons for why they act. The set of people who worry about the state of the internet does not overlap very much with the set of people who worry if they have water and the set of people who worry about Hinduism is separate yet. In a democracy whoever can cobble together enough of these different groups (and many more) to make majority will win. If he cannot he will lose. It’s as simple as that.
- the-mitr 5y ago
  he is popular because of the propaganda, by that logic hitler was also very popular. You are cherry picking data to suit your needs. Two examples at personal level do not balance the screw ups he has done at the national level. You are speaking as if no development work was done during earlier regimes. All the development started only after 2014. Stats speak another story about the development but then that is not what you want to hear. Since you are still defending him, you must be blind to all other things seeing them as international conspiracy to defame your great leader. > there isn’t anyone on the national scene At this stage anyone, literally anyone, would be better than him But anyways people
  - jaldhar 5y ago
    Uh Hitler was very popular. (To be precise he was more popular than the other guys.). The problem people have with Hitler isn’t that he was unpopular. Really the amount of projection in some of these replies is incredible. All I’ve done is explain why one group of people have warm feelings for Modi (and FYI no development work was done in that area by prior Congress or BJP governments.) I’ve even acknowledged that he has made serious missteps. But as in parts of the US, in parts of India ORANGE MAN BAD is the only acceptable response it seems. Just a different shade of orange that’s all ;-) > At this stage anyone, literally anyone, would be better than him. If you say so. In the real world there actually has to be a person. That person has to actually have a platform, preferably something more than HES HITLER YOU GUYZ, and has to appeal to a vast an diverse electorate who will be driven primarily by parochial concerns. That’s how democracy works.
- boruto 5y ago
  I don't think people are going to like this reply mate. :)

jaldhar 5y ago

Can we stop with all this IT cell bullshit? Modi got in because he was more competent than the rajputra of the Nehru dynasty. My family are from Gujarat. We’ve known about Modi since he was governor. We moved out of our ancestral village several generations ago but still return on special occasions because our kuladevi is there. The area is semi-desert. Modi got water from the Narmada dam piped in. Now cash crops can be irrigated and the kids don’t die of dysentery any more. We used to have to stop at a larger town and walk a couple of miles down a dirt track to get there. Modi got a road built and regular bus service to the nearest city. That’s why he is popular. That area was staunchly Congress since 1947 and still is but you won’t find anyone with a bad word to say about Narendra Modi. He got things done and that’s what counts. The Hindu nationalism is just icing on the cake. (Remember there was a time when Congress also used to brag about how e.g Sardar Patel rebuilt Somanath.) Now with the latest missteps such as demonetization and the COVID response etc. the bloom is off the rose a little but he is still genuinely popular and more importantly there isn’t anyone on the national scene “who might be trying to follow.”

random314 5y ago
He also led pogroms, segregated living areas by religion and promoted rioters and terrorists. Gujarats gdp per capita is only slightly above the median. And IT cell is a reality that has been exposed several times over. Identical copy paste tweets and interviews with ex-it cell employees.
- colorboy 5y ago
  Speaking of copy paste, what happened of the toolkit row? Whether the objective was good or bad, should the people actively trying to trend things be called "IT cell for XYZ"? It feels a bit hypocritical
  - random314 5y ago
    They are actually paid to do it. They are employed by the IT cell of BJP. Other parties do the same, but cannot match the scale.
- jaldhar 5y ago
  I gave you actual examples of improvements I’ve seen with my own two eyes. People can’t drink gdp. I don’t doubt there could be an IT cell. What I was reacting to was the idea that it is a major reason for Modi’s success. Like “Russian collusion” this is just cope by people who can’t accept that it is they who are the unpopular ones. People don’t understand that propaganda like hypnotism only works on people who are already primed to believe it. Why does anyone listen to this BJP IT cell? Do you know?
  - random314 5y ago
    Well people can drink their own blood. I actually knew people who were massacred in gulbarga society. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulbarg_Society_massacre https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulbarg_Society_massacre Your screed reads like an apologia for Hitler. I actually know Muslim friends in ahmedabad that cannot buy or rent a house in normal housing societies and have been ghettoized into Muslim enclaves with non existent municipal services. I am glad that I live in the United states where nobody asks me for my religion or caste before renting or selling a home. United states is never going to be "dharmic", it got rid of its "dharmic" tendencies with the civil rights movement. Edit: The dharmic comment was in response to another poster talking about United states becoming "dharmic".
    - naruvimama 5y ago
npmn 5y ago
Modi government is competent at marketing everything as his contribution, he is highly egoistic, doesn't accept any mistakes, or tries to push the blame to the Nehru Dynasty, Opposition etc. BJP IT Cell is one the most active proponent in pushing the image of Narendra Modi as the savior, whereas in reality, literally any leader who would have listened to experts instead of the election gurus, would have taken more sensible steps. Modi government is full of yes man, and due to his popularity, the BJP party has itself become smaller than Modi, as elections are won in the name of the Prime Minister instead of the actual leader. The government is also known for buying elected people post elections using money or power(CBI,ED intimidation) and known for manipulative numbers (they even changed the definition of GDP to make the numbers more attractive). Modi actually follows Trump modulus of operandi, where instead of calling his opposition/critical news reports as fake news, he more conveniently calls them anti-national or pro-pakistani or western influences. Anyways this stupid notion of no national alternative was also propogated the BJP IT Cell and BJP owned Media Houses only. Sadly a lot of Indians, including the commenter above have actually bought into it. If you actually look at numbers, India was falling behind on almost everything(jobs, economy etc) even before covid started. Factually speaking, the worst term of UPA(2009-2014) was actually better than the modi government's first term in lot of matrices. Here is a one such study, you can find several others by googling - (please be aware of pro-BJP sources such as https://www.opindia.com https://www.opindia.com, Republic TV etc) https://www.livemint.com/politics/policy/manmohan-singh-vs-narendra-modi-the-real-india-gdp-growth-story-1555034270688.html https://www.livemint.com/politics/policy/manmohan-singh-vs-n...
- jaldhar 5y ago
  Let us assume that this idea of “no national alternative” is stupid. Who is this person then? Name a name.
csomar 5y ago
If that's the case, why would he fear the Internet so much? Your argument doesn't really hold.
- jaldhar 5y ago
  Because that’s where his political enemies are? Most politicians don’t have very deep reasons for why they act. The set of people who worry about the state of the internet does not overlap very much with the set of people who worry if they have water and the set of people who worry about Hinduism is separate yet. In a democracy whoever can cobble together enough of these different groups (and many more) to make majority will win. If he cannot he will lose. It’s as simple as that.
the-mitr 5y ago
he is popular because of the propaganda, by that logic hitler was also very popular. You are cherry picking data to suit your needs. Two examples at personal level do not balance the screw ups he has done at the national level. You are speaking as if no development work was done during earlier regimes. All the development started only after 2014. Stats speak another story about the development but then that is not what you want to hear. Since you are still defending him, you must be blind to all other things seeing them as international conspiracy to defame your great leader. > there isn’t anyone on the national scene At this stage anyone, literally anyone, would be better than him But anyways people
- jaldhar 5y ago
  Uh Hitler was very popular. (To be precise he was more popular than the other guys.). The problem people have with Hitler isn’t that he was unpopular. Really the amount of projection in some of these replies is incredible. All I’ve done is explain why one group of people have warm feelings for Modi (and FYI no development work was done in that area by prior Congress or BJP governments.) I’ve even acknowledged that he has made serious missteps. But as in parts of the US, in parts of India ORANGE MAN BAD is the only acceptable response it seems. Just a different shade of orange that’s all ;-) > At this stage anyone, literally anyone, would be better than him. If you say so. In the real world there actually has to be a person. That person has to actually have a platform, preferably something more than HES HITLER YOU GUYZ, and has to appeal to a vast an diverse electorate who will be driven primarily by parochial concerns. That’s how democracy works.
boruto 5y ago
I don't think people are going to like this reply mate. :)