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@Evening: 🙃 How Indians Get Ahead Abroad, Explained Super Incorrectly
1. 🆕 What's New: 📰 Catch-up
Third front in the making? Kejriwal, Akhilesh, and Pinarayi Vijayan attend KCR’s mega rally in Telangana.
"Erroneus and far-fetched to interpret that I suggested changing name of state to 'Tamizhagam'," says TN Governor R N Ravi in clarification.
Former Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal quits Congress and joins the BJP.
Bengaluru metro purple line extension is set for commercial operation in March — first of three new lines set to kick off in 2023.
Pakistan may lose its major non-Nato ally status after a bill was moved in the US House.
2. 🤔 Twitter Think: 🏃 Indians get ahead in the West how?!
This Twitter take by someone who is not a fan of 'diversity' suggests how Indians get ahead outside India: head to the West, "get all the perks" using their "minority status," and sprinkle in some "nepotism." That's it.
This is the opinion of Lana Lokteff, who is the host of a talk radio programme — called Radio 3Fourteen — "heavily focusing on European identity and culture."
Radio 3Fourteen is an offering of Red Ice, which covers "politics, entertainment and current events from a pro-European perspective."
"Indians are the second largest ethnic group in America and are now boasting about "taking over" corporate America," reads the description of a Red Ice TV episode.
"Sad reality for Indian and Hindu Americans--this kind of bigotry comes at us every day from the far right, far left and too many corners of the American academy," Hindu American Foundation executive director Suhag A Shukla tweeted in response.
"Indian propensity for being intelligent, educated and productive is now coming to fruition since the shackles of colonialism (Western European & Islamic) are thrown off. Let's hope for an Indian takeover of US industry and politics so the US can stop funding Pakistan & Turkey," Paul Antonopoulos of the Greek City Times said in a tweet.
Meanwhile... it would be worthwhile to pay that ever-growing list of Indian CEOs of top technology companies a visit.
3. 📚 Word Watch: ✍️ Boris Johnson is writing a memoir
The former British prime minister is penning his life story, presumably occupied predominantly by a personal account of his turbulent time as the country's leader.
Publisher HarperCollins has bought the rights to the as-yet-untitled memoir.
We don't have a publication date as yet, since the announcement came in just a couple of days ago.
Williams Collins Books, an imprint of HarperCollins UK, will publish the book.
The book will be a "prime ministerial memoir like no other," according to Arabella Pike, publishing director at William Collins.
Johnson is no stranger to writing, as he worked as a journalist before becoming prime minister.
His previously published books include the bestseller The Churchill Factor.
Johnson stepped down in July last year as the leader of the ruling Conservative Party, ending an unprecedented political crisis and triggering an election for a Tory leader to succeed him.
What led to the resignation was a series of criticisms and allegations involving flouting of rules, a lack of confidence in his leadership, and poor administration.
Johnson's exit was reminiscent of other similar dramatic departures in recent times of his predecessors, especially former PM Theresa May.
The memoir promises to reveal some of what happened during his time, even if it will only be Johnson's side of things.
🎧 Swarajya audiobook: Chip War
Almost three years after the pandemic, where lies the biggest calamity?
Economic historian Prof Chris Miller answers this question in what Swarajya writer Tushar Gupta calls "the best non-fiction book of the year 2022."
In fact, it was the FT business book of the year 2022.
The book in question is Chip War: The Fight For The World’s Most Critical Technology.
Tushar speaks at length with host Diksha Yadav about the book and its hotly trending subject — the battle over the chip supply chain, which has intensified over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic — on a Swarajya audiobook.
4. 📷 Picture Speaks: 👎 Break courtesy to break the news
Pictured, in a shot captured by photo editor Anantha Subramanyam K, is the media collectively hounding a poor man for a "story."
A 71-year-old man was seen — in a video on social media — getting dragged by a scooter across the street in Bengaluru.
He was taken to hospital for treatment, while the police got to work and registered a case against the accused.
It was at the hospital where it appears that the injured man had to face up to the media unasked and with apparently little control over a terribly sad situation.
The media must know and behave better.
5. 📔 Culture Cutlet: 📽️ The Kashmir Files re-releasing on 19 January
The date 19 January is Kashmiri Hindu Genocide Day.
It marks the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandit community from the Valley in 1990 due to threats and killings by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists.
"This is the first time ever a film is releasing twice in a year," The Kashmir Files director Vivek Agnihotri said in his announcement tweet today.
It's another chance to watch the film on the big screen, for those who are interested.
The Kashmir Files was among the Indian films in the Oscars shortlist of films eligible for the next round of nominations.
"A great year for Indian cinema," Agnihotri had said after the Oscars news.
For why Hindi cinema might never be the same again after The Kashmir Files, read this article on Swarajya. (Plus, this, this, and this for further reading.)
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