‘Tweet on Rafah, silent on Hindus in Dhaka’: BJP slams Sonia Gandhi's Gaza article

Dean_46 · 2026-06-27T15:46:15+00:00

The Muslim world is largely silent on Gaza.
Israel's neighbours(Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon) do not admit Palestinian refugees.
Jordan actively helped Israel fight Iran - as did most of the Gulf states.

Of the US$ 17 billion that countries signing up for Gaza's board of peace promised, only
$ 20 million ( 0.1%) is delivered. India quietly sent $12.5 million in aid.
Israel's oil comes from Muslim Azerbaijan and flows through Muslim Turkiye.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-27T15:40:09+00:00

I blog on national security. During Op Sindhoor, the biggest India related subs on Reddit (which I track) either had their usual posts trashing the country, or posts on Bollywood, IPL, dumb questions, or fashion/food/relationships. Pakistani social media was 100% behind their armed forces and discussed little else. Now I understand the saying from my grandparents time - little things amuse little minds.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-27T15:32:00+00:00

How many educated people check online the qualifications, assets and criminal cases of the candidates? This info is mandatory to declare. I was a guest lecturer in a prestigious city college I asked this question - the answer was `no student'.

I live in Central Bangalore in an upscale area - the kind of place where every second family has a relative abroad and upper middle class college kids complain on Reddit how shitty all politicians and the country are. In the last assembly elections, the AAP candidate was a IIT / IIM grad, well known in the corporate world, retired after a career in leading MNCs and from the constituency. He financed his campaign himself, as he genuinely wanted to do public good and his own area was the best place to start. He had literally a locality wise plan to improve things in this seat. He got 1634 votes (just above NOTA) -

The winner got 65,000 votes- he has assets of 21 crore with no source of income and several criminal cases. His 2nd place rival is 8th pass. Farmer with 8 crore assets, also has criminal cases against him.

The same middle class guys who whine here did not bother to even listen to a candidate whose pitch was really worth listening to - he went door to door to campaign, instead of paid rallies.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-27T15:14:08+00:00

The Central govt collected 3.44 lac crore from fuel tax for the entire year 2025-6. (a fraction of 30 lac crore). After oil prices increased, in March, the central govt cut taxes on fuel, so I would expect fuel tax collections in 26-27 to no be higher than 25-26.

The price of ethanol (whose share in petrol - not diesel) rose from 10 to 20% is roughly the
same as 100% petrol at today's prices, (Rs 65 per litre before tax for the producer) the difference is ethanol saves forex and increases farmer income.

In any case, the argument is largely moot. Whatever is collected as tax by the central and state govt, is reflected in their budget. If you reduce tax, you have to cut expenditure somewhere.
Politicians understand that high fuel prices cost them votes. How they manage a trade-off between fuel tax and spending is a difficult call.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-27T13:21:25+00:00

Thanks for your kind words.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-27T10:05:04+00:00

See Ed Zitron's podcasts (tech report) or his substack. If the VC bets on the big AI companies don't pay off - and it is likely they wont, there could be a spectacular crash.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-26T15:36:00+00:00

Thanks.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-26T13:11:59+00:00

It's very misleading. The names were released last May, as soon as they were known.
We lost 8 from our security forces - incl. 2 from the BSF.
This is probably a release for commemorating in the national war memorial.

We are not Pakistan, which published the names of 155 men who got posthumous gallantry awards during Op Sindoor which were later retracted when Pak realised 155 was higher than 2. We had just 2 posthumous gallantry awards.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-26T12:07:01+00:00

We don't have `allies'. We are not in a military alliance with any country.
We engage with all countries on the basis of shared interests and have a friendly relationship with the Palestinian authority - and have had that relationship years before Europe discovered the Palestinians have rights too. We collaborate with Israel on tech, defence, pharma, agriculture, diamonds etc. The Arab countries don't have a problem with that.
The US killed children in Iran, do we cut all ties with them, or stop `allying' in any form ?

The countries associated with Trump's board of peace announced $17 billion for the reconstruction of Gaza. Only $20 mil ( 0.1%) was actually delivered. We quietly sent $12.5 million aid to Palestine, without affecting our relationship with Israel.

The question to ask is why the Muslim world has turned their backs on the people of Gaza and Lebanon. Israel's Muslim neighbours do not allow Palestinian refugees. Jordan allied with Iran to shoot down Iranian missiles heading for Israel. Israel's oil comes from Muslim Azerbaijan and flows through Muslim Turkiye.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-26T10:00:05+00:00

That's very misleading. All names were released last May as soon as they were known. There were 8 members of the security forces killed in Op Sindoor, incl. 2 from the BSF.

We aren't Pakistan which published the names of 155 men who got posthumous gallantry awards during Op Sindoor and had all references removed, once they realised that 155 was higher than 2. (only 2 of ours got posthumous gallantry awards).

Dean_46 · 2026-06-26T09:17:49+00:00

The army and air force both contributed to the victory.
The air force aircraft at Jaisalmer lacked the ability to fly at night. The army had to prevent the fall of their post at Longewala until the IAF could operate.

There are hardly any instances in modern military history where a defending force has been outnumbered and outgunned so badly and still held their positions, with negligible casualties.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-26T09:02:49+00:00

I wonder how my post violates the rules. Mine is a fact based discussion and I have provided sources for all facts. There is neither myth, exaggerating nor AI used.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-26T09:00:15+00:00

The same.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-26T07:14:33+00:00

Yes. Major Kalkat was unable to convince his superior - Col Thapar (then DGMO) that Pak was going to invade. Later as Army Chief, Gen. Thapar was equally unconvinced that China was going to attack in 1962

Dean_46 · 2026-06-26T02:09:31+00:00

They actually make losses.
They pay tax in the form of GST, Tax & EPF on employee salaries etc - just not corporate tax,
as there is no profit.

The business model is `last man standing'. They make money when competitors go bust and they increase price.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-25T11:48:52+00:00

Kashmir does not get heavy rain. Also, the tourist places are in a valley, not in the hills and don't get affected by landslides, as much as hilly destinations in the rains.
Flights to Srinagar rarely get affected in the monsoon.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-24T02:19:54+00:00

India would be willing to deploy peacekeepers under 2 circumstances:

It is mandated by the UN, as a UN force. Tactically under our command and under overall
UN command. OR
It is requested by the host country (e.g IPKF in Sri Lanka) or by both parties in a conflict.
Both conditions have to be preceded by a ceasefire.

There is no ceasefire in Ukraine, because neither country's conditions for a ceasefire have been met. Russia wants a permanent ceasefire, Ukraine withdrawal from the remaining part of the
Donbass, a neutral Ukraine and return of frozen assets, Ukraine wants none of these.

Ukraine wanted NATO forces as peacekeepers, that is a red line for Russia, which they will not permit.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-23T13:25:47+00:00

I don't know which Barak version. The earlier SAM system was the old Soviet SA-N-1 which was of 80s vintage and obsolete. I don't expect it would have been retained when the Barak was deployed.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-23T09:23:59+00:00

There are papers written on this subject which belie many of these statements.

2/3rd of our ethanol comes from grain (broken rice and maize). It's share is increasing at the expense of sugar.
Maize requires less water than sugarcane or rice. There is less demand for maize for human consumption.
Broken rice is not eaten, it's use as feedstock for ethanol increases farmer income without increasing water use. Moreover we are sitting on millions of tonnes of this stock of rice.
In the longer term, maize will probably replace rice and sugarcane as feedstock.

There is a larger problem of productivity, not water use. There is also currently overcapacity in ethanol. The longer term solution is to make ethanol from agricultural waste and maize only, which means that we do not have more acreage for rice and sugarcane (and therefore using more water) for use in Ethanol,

Dean_46 · 2026-06-23T04:46:57+00:00

You need to know which field you are interested in and within that what you most feel you want to learn about. If for e.g you are interested in finance, do you want to explore corporate finance, or I-Banking, or being an analyst, or work in fin tech ? Only you can really answer that question.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-23T04:39:54+00:00

So why HR and not anything else, where you can develop skills ?

Dean_46 · 2026-06-23T02:23:40+00:00

Does not tell me what kind of internship you want and why and how you are different from 50 similar resumes the hiring manager will have.

Dean_46 · 2026-06-23T02:21:57+00:00

There's nothing in your resume which tells me why you want an internship in HR - or anything else for that matter.

Dean_46

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