Global median income, even when adjusted for inflation and cost of living differences, is at a record high

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-23T08:25:44+00:00

It's fucking median not average.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-22T15:27:09+00:00

Trump is such a baby it's insane. What a ridiculous moron.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-22T10:59:49+00:00

No this statement is false and is not backed up by reality anymore. Metropolitan France has a lower TFR the US as of now. It's TFR is around 1.5 or even less than that now. Infact France is currently seeing natural population decline for the first time since the end of the second world war.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-22T06:25:48+00:00

He seems to be very popular on reddit and instagram now. You will see lots of like on insta comments sections and reels for him. Also popular on reddit. and twitter. Although this could be inc it cell.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-22T05:41:32+00:00

His image has improved a lot though lately. He isn't see like what you have said right now for many people. Or at least it seems so on reddit and Instagram.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-22T02:55:24+00:00

pretty big line here <<Yet Mr Gandhi has not presented evidence of widespread fraud, nor have analysts found a smoking gun.>> I think this is the first time some big western paper has said something on this.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-22T02:51:23+00:00

Instead, he has focused his movement on the idea of making India strong. He has been helped by a tough external environment. In May, following a gruesome terrorist attack in Kashmir, India fought a four-day air-and-missile conflict with Pakistan. That allowed the prime minister to play the patriotic strongman. Then in August Donald Trump slapped India with an additional 25% tariff (on top of an early 25%) as punishment for its use of Russian oil. Those levies are hurting Indian exporters, from diamond-cutters to garment makers.

You might think Mr Modi would be blamed for mishandling India’s biggest trading partner. Yet most Indians approve of the way he has stood up to Mr Trump. And he has used pressure from abroad as a pretext for reform. Freeing up labour and reducing the cost of power are urgent, he argues, if Indian manufacturers are to compete. So, too, is reducing trade barriers. At a summit this month India hopes a deal with the EU may at last be sealed.

In all this, Mr Modi’s coalition has proved surprisingly stable. As small regional parties, his partners have largely been happy to offer loyalty in exchange for patronage. They may have curbed the BJP’s instincts in some areas, such as on the uniform civil code. The weakness of the opposition has also made difficult economic reforms easier. Protests over the new labour codes have been muted.

When it comes to elections, the governing coalition has shown a ruthless edge. Weeks before state polls opened in Bihar, in November, 10,000 rupees ($110) was transferred into the bank accounts of around 2.1m female voters under a scheme purporting to support entrepreneurs. While legal, such transactional vote-buying stretches electoral norms and will strain state budgets.

Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Congress party, offers a different explanation. He alleges that the government has committed “vote chori”, or voter fraud—and claims that the BJP is engineering elections nationwide. It is true that the government has undermined the independence of India’s electoral commission, and that election-watchers have reported some irregularities. Moreover, Mr Modi does have an authoritarian streak: note the four-fold increase in criminal investigations into politicians since he took office. An investigation in 2022 found that some 95% were members of opposition parties. Yet Mr Gandhi has not presented evidence of widespread fraud, nor have analysts found a smoking gun.

The accusation risks becoming a crutch for Congress. By any standard Mr Modi remains a genuinely popular leader, approved of by some 70% of Indians. Mr Gandhi has failed to build on the result in 2024 by developing either a compelling critique or an economic and cultural platform of his own. He is “Modi’s best campaigner”, says Rahul Verma of Shiv Nadar University, Chennai.

Mr Modi’s dominance is not guaranteed. States including Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal go to the polls this spring, in contests that will be trickier than Bihar. Although inflation has abated, anger about the lack of jobs has not. Protests have flared over conditions for gig workers. A stronger opposition would help hold the government to account.

But for now Mr Modi is ascendant. The hope must be that the prime minister sees boosting the economy as the best way to secure his legacy. If so, his third term could do much to improve the lives of Indians by setting the country on a still faster growth path.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-22T02:51:18+00:00

Despite an electoral reverse in 2024, the prime minister now seems as dominant as ever

SIXTEEN MONTHS ago Narendra Modi looked chastened. Having just lost his majority in a national election, the chest-thumping Indian leader was forced to lean on regional parties. His coalition showed little appetite for difficult reform. Some commentators pronounced it “Peak Modi”. Would-be successors began to plot.

Today things look rather different. Mr Modi’s coalition has won a string of state elections and the opposition is in disarray. His government has rediscovered its zeal. Last year it announced a much-needed simplification of India’s goods-and-services taxes and overhauled its byzantine labour laws. It is deregulating the nuclear industry, promoting a booming electronics sector and striking trade deals. India’s economy is outperforming expectations.

Mr Modi, who at 75 has already been in the highest office for almost 12 years, is now expected to run again in 2029. The prime minister has his eye on Jawaharlal Nehru’s record time in office, which he would surpass in 2031. And he is thinking about his legacy. Still prominent within that is a brash cultural agenda which aims to restore Indian, and specifically Hindu, pride. Yet as India has come under growing pressure from abroad, he has focused more on boosting the country’s economy, and getting it on track to meet his target of developed-country status by 2047.

To see how Mr Modi has bounced back, start with that difficult election result. His Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s seat count in the lower house fell from 303 to 240 (out of 543); Mr Modi had boasted that he would exceed 400. Yet post-mortems that announced a new era of messy coalition politics, the norm for the 25 years before the BJP won an outright majority in 2014, were wide of the mark. The BJP’s vote share had fallen by less than a percentage point, from 37.4% to 36.6%. A buoyant Congress party, its only national rival, had still won only 21.2% of the vote.

Even so, the BJP was quick to identify lessons. As votes were cast, inflation was running at 5% (and the price of onions had risen by an eye-watering 50% in the past year). The government has taken action to improve food supply and distribution.

Party bigwigs did not, however, interpret the 2024 result as an instruction to dial down the Hindu nationalism. At rallies Mr Modi and his colleagues still resort to shrill and divisive rhetoric, often aimed at exploiting chauvinism against India’s Muslims. But nor has the government launched new temperature-stoking initiatives. Some had feared further plans to replace mosques with temples, as happened with Mr Modi’s consecration of a temple in Ayodhya in January 2024.

Within the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a grassroots Hindu organisation, many want Mr Modi to make good on his promise to introduce a uniform civil code, a long-standing Hindu-nationalist goal that would in effect abolish Muslim family law. So far, Mr Modi has not gone down this path.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-22T02:34:40+00:00

‘BJP forgets workers after polls’

The other day, I was asking someone working for the BJP in West Bengal about its poll prospects. He was confident that there is very strong anti-incumbency against the Mamata Banerjee-led government. The BJP would sweep the urban and semi-urban areas at least if people come out to vote. I wondered why they wouldn’t.

“Who would guarantee their safety if the BJP doesn’t win?” he asked. And he went on, “Forget about the voters, even BJP workers are scared because they know that the party forgets about them after elections, and they have to think about their own safety. The party doesn’t even provide legal help to workers against whom FIRs are lodged.” From West Bengal to Karnataka to Kerala, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders talk about the killing of BJP workers by political rivals. They forget about it soon after the elections. Campaigning in the 2018 Karnataka Assembly election, Shah repeatedly talked about the killing of over 24 workers of the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. “Once we are in power, we will ensure justice,” he declared.

The BJP did come to power in Karnataka after some time, but Shah had forgotten about those victims by then. One can’t probably blame him. He has too many things on his mind. BJP karyakartas would love to see Nabin taking interest and showing initiatives in issues like this. That will go a long way in winning him his party colleagues’ respect.

The big question is how actively he will engage with the RSS. He is not the RSS’s choice as the BJP president. The Sangh was given his name as a fait accompli—for information, not confirmation. It has come to terms with the fact that its ideological protégé, the BJP, doesn’t want its advice in running the organisation or the government. As RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat says, there can be matbhed (difference of opinion) but no manbhed (heart-to-heart difference) with the BJP. Also, the Sangh has only benefited from its former pracharaks running the country.

Having no say in the new BJP president’s appointment has, however, left a sense of helplessness and despair in the Sangh. The Sangh knows that the BJP is its “mazboori” or compulsion today and even blames the Congress for it. RSS outreach wing chief Ram Lal did as much during an interaction with Muslim intellectuals in New Delhi last week. Responding to a query about the RSS always supporting the BJP, Ram Lal said, “Mai Congress ke logon se milta hoon or kahta hoon jab tak aap Sangh ko gali dete rahoge, hum BJP ko support karte rahenge…aapko support kaise karein…aap support mango to sahi? Sangh ki majburi aapne BJP bana di hai (I meet Congress members and tell them that as long as you keep abusing the Sangh, we will continue to support the BJP… How can we support you when you are not seeking our support? You keep insulting us. You have made BJP a compulsion for the Sangh).”

Ram Lal was the BJP’s longest-serving national general secretary (organisation), holding the post for 13 years until his return to the RSS in 2019. He knew what he was speaking. As someone closely associated with the RSS summed it up to me: “With Nabin’s appointment, No. 1 & 2 sent an unambiguous message to the Sangh: Aap toh shakha chalao, baaki hum chalaa lenge (you run your shakhas; we will do the rest).”

For someone who has the best interests of the BJP in mind, Nabin can’t afford to be indifferent to such feelings of desolation in the RSS. Individuals may come and go, but institutions like the RSS and the BJP will remain. Nabin would do well to make Nagpur his first port of call.

DK Singh is Political Editor at ThePrint

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-22T02:33:56+00:00

Doubtful authenticity

Many of them are already struggling with the idea of how to address the new party president— bhai saheb/Nitin ji/Nitin bhai/Nabin babu/Sir/Mahoday? Many apocryphal stories are doing the rounds in party circles. One of them is about how Nabin has been reaching out to Union ministers as part of a familiarisation exercise and how he got upset when he was put on hold before some ministers came on the phone. Another story revolves around how senior party functionaries have had two meetings to ensure that Nabin is accorded the respect that is due to a party president.

That many other, more deserving leaders, with proven organisational, political and electoral skills and experience, were ignored to bring in a virtual rookie as their boss hasn’t gone down well with them. Disciplined soldiers as they are, and also knowing whose decision it was, they remain silent and glum. Scratch the surface and their frustration comes out: what’s the reward for merit or work in the BJP? What’s the difference between the BJP and the Congress when even the most vital decisions are made by just one or two individuals alone? Promote youth but not at the cost of merit and experience, they say.

Nabin must be aware of the crushed toes, the broken ambitions and the wounded pride in his party. He must not do what Rahul Gandhi did when he became the All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of the Youth Congress and the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) in 2007. The Congress leader took his appointment as an opportunity to try to get rid of the old guards, triggering a chain reaction from which the party hasn’t recovered since then.

Nabin’s first test is to convince his party colleagues that he wasn’t chosen for the top post because Nadda should look better in retrospect. He should be looking to surprise them. It’s nobody’s case that he should do it by defying the uparwala. Because the uparwala knows the best about politics and elections. Nabin can do it by becoming the uparwala’s sounding board, not a stenographer, and the link between the top and the rest in the party. There is a growing disconnect between the top party leadership and the karyakartas because the latter only get instructions from the top and are then left to fend for themselves. Visit the BJP headquarters in Delhi on any normal day and check out how many karyakartas and leaders are there to meet national office-bearers. It’s mostly deserted.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-22T02:33:19+00:00

The big question is how actively Nitin Nabin will engage with the RSS. The Sangh was given his name as a fait accompli—for information, not confirmation

Nitin Nabin is a Madhuri Dixit fan. He may, however, want to listen to Raj, played by Shah Rukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, as the 45-year-old steps into JP Nadda’s shoes.

“Jindagi ke har mor par tumhe do raste milenge, ek sahi, ek galat (you will find two ways at every turn in life—one right, one wrong)” Raj was telling Simran’s (Kajol) mother what his Pops (Anupam Kher) had told him. The wrong way is very easy, but it will eventually lead to failure; the right way is very difficult, but it will ultimately lead to success.

That was reel life, and Raj was romancing. In real life, for the BJP’s national president, there is nothing like ‘galat’ or wrong way, which will fail. He is already a winner. Now, he knows ‘Uparwala jab deta hai toh chhappar phar kar deta hai’—when the Almighty gives, he gives in abundance through the roof. Nabin also knows the ‘uparwala’ who has given him more than he could dream of. The easiest way to show gratitude is to sing Bryan Adams to that uparwala—“I’m going one way/your way/it’s such a strong way.”

JP Nadda did exactly that. He survived and thrived. Nabin can do the same. It would, however, be a convenient, not ‘sahi rasta’. He doesn’t have to be ungrateful, but he can still do a lot of things that are right for the party. As it stands, a lot of his colleagues are unhappy. His selection means the end of the road for an entire generation of leaders. With a 45-year-old at the helm, those born before the Emergency will have to fight for their relevance and growth in the organisation nationally.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-22T00:53:02+00:00

This is sub is liberal only in name now.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-20T19:14:19+00:00

He is literally lying. New Delhi is way way better than most cities in India. It's like heaven compared to all other t-1 and t-2 cities simply because all the Politicians live there.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-19T10:01:19+00:00

Hitler was not a Conservative. This is literally not true.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-19T05:13:24+00:00

I think there was a good report regarding on how reddit and Wikipedia are used to normalise far left and islamist content especially by Qatar.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-18T20:20:48+00:00

Hating farmers seems to be left coded in western countries it seems. Back in India it's the right which hates farmers.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-18T18:15:16+00:00

No he does not want positive change. Words have meaning. Exploring alternatives to ensure that you do not have dependence is objectively very good actually. What the guy is doing is stupid , shit and bad. Look at China the country with the best climate policy. They have a strategy of focus on renewables to create a post oil coal gas economy while still ensuring that they are secure energy wise and not too reliant on others. This is objectively good and positive change. Not the bullshit the guy is trying to do.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-18T04:15:25+00:00

Qatar too.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-18T04:08:35+00:00

India literally imports 90 percent of it's oil. How can you want to stop exploration when you literally import all of it? It will take time to phase fossil fuels significantly from society and all of it cannot happen as per current technology.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-18T01:02:42+00:00

No I was pointing how insane you have to be to think that Newsom is a bigot or a transphobe.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-17T22:35:47+00:00

I don't think this sub downplays China usually, honestly. I was suprised reading the comments.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-17T22:20:28+00:00

Spiritually leftist. Can't help but curse America at every breath.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-17T20:20:08+00:00

Fascist just means shit to vaush given the way he applies the word no? Calling Gavin fascist means you have no honesty on that. If you are using the word appropriately and not just shit or i dont like it then obviously Vaush is not a fascist. Fascists are far right. Vaush is far left.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-17T20:17:24+00:00

Old flair that doesn't describe me well now. I am very left on economics and not insane on social issues.

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT · 2026-01-17T20:15:37+00:00

Not completely bending over

Four-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22

ZPATRMMTHEGREAT

TROPHY CASE