India administered the Billionth dose of COVID-19 vaccine on 21 October. The government and the ruling party are marking the occasion with huge celebrations across the country. Dr Parakala unpacks the core messaging contained in these celebrations, what it set out to say as well as what it tried to hide. He also dwells on what this entire thing tells us about what is an achievement worthy of celebration in the reckoning of the present regime and what it tells us about what it thinks of its citizens.

For the Prime Minister's Newspaper article, his televised address to the nation, and his Mann Ki Baat, please visit:

https://www.narendramodi.in/

The Vijaya Dasami Address of the Sasanghchalak of RSS is an important annual event. His address to the would be citizens of the Hindu Rashtra that is in the making is supposed to be an occasion to guide them on how to think about the world around them. And provide them with an agenda for action on the movement's foundation day. For people like us who are beyond the pale, it offers a clue to its thinking, what is likely to inform its actions in the course of the next year, and equally importantly what it chooses to ignore from among the host of issues that bedevil India as a society and as a Republic. In this Episode, Dr Parakala unpacks the messaging contained in this year's Vijaya Dasami address of the Sarsanghchalak.

It is important that we need to carefully unpack the ghastliness of Lakhimpur Kheri event. Recall what happened before and after the SUV ran over and killed the farmers. Connect those events to understand the context of the event. And to decipher its loud as well as the quiet messaging that it contains for our Republic, it’s implications for our democratic polity and for us the people in general. In this Episode, Dr Parakala Prabhakar attempts to do that.

The deep organisational crisis in the Congress Party is apparent. It is yet to confidently settle for a full time President since its massive defeat in the 2019 general elections, its second successive defeat. In this Episode, Dr Parakala shares his reflections on the background to this sorry state of the Grand Old Party and the humongous challenge it faces. 

In this Episode, Dr Parakala reflects on the attempts by the BJP, the union government and the PM Modi himself to shun the ordinary and normal, embrace the extraordinary and the abnormal, their collective need for eventification of everything done by the PM and his government, and what this collective need both reveals and hides about him, the party he dominates, and the government he leads.

In this Episode, Dr Parakala speaks about how UP CM Yogi Adityanath's Abba Jaan remark was so very predictable, and how it simply followed a pattern that is now quite normal under the New BJP. He also traces the origins of such dog whistle remarks, calculated to summon the base instincts of hatred in people, to the past two decades which also coincide with the meteoric rise of the political career of our present Prime Minister. This period also saw the shaping of the New BJP.

Last week NIRF 2021 report was released by the union education minister. In this Episode, Dr Parakala speaks about its findings, and shares his reflections on them by putting them in a global perspective.

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Link to NIRF portal:
https://www.nirfindia.org/2021/Ranking.html

Link to WIPO Portal:
https://www.wipo.int/portal/en/

Link to The Times Higher Education World University Rankings:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2021/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats

In this Episode Dr Parakala looks at the contrasting findings of surveys conducted by india Today (Mood of The Nation) and Morning Consult, and shows how they could help us understand BJP's present reluctance to engagement in Bengal, especially with regard to Bhabanipur by-election.

Link to the portal of Morning Consult: morningconsult.com

Parakala talks about the extraordinary act of omission of Jawaharlal Nehru from the Amritmahotsav poster by ICHR and points out it’s pettiness. He contrasts this brazen attempt by the funding body and its minders with the assessment of Nehru by his colleagues, and those the architects of New India claim to draw inspiration from. He says that it is important to see what the ICHR has done in the context of the seemingly sporadic and unconnected incidents of violence against and intimidation of small helpless persons by the Hindutva zealots. For, what the academic funding institution under the new dispensation has attempted to do in the domain of history and what is being done on the streets by its ideological foot soldiers are integral parts of one single political project, called New India.

Parakala dwells on what the recent developments in Afghanistan signal about the west's preparedness to fight for the values of liberal democracy world wide, and their potential to alter the terms of the global discourse on democracy, autocracy, identity, and political legitimacy. And how these events in India's neighbourhood are likely to further precipitate the contest between the sharply contrasting ideas of India that are locked in a mortal combat with each other now. Parakala deals with these issues and leaves us with a question and some thoughts to reflect upon.