ANOTHER TOTAL REVOLUTION IN THE MAKING: Widespread protests are taking place across the country over SIR deletion of millions of voters from the electoral rolls. This is not the first time nationwide protests have taken place in recent times. This time they are demanding resignation of Chief Election Commissioner who they say is the architect of this mischief and other electoral frauds like rigging. The growing discontent and the escalating agitations over various issues provide a flashback to 1977 when a misleading application of a "total revolution" brought about a historic change that put India on an unstable path. JP (Jayprakash Narayan) the intellectual acted naively or foolishly by lending his immaculate reputation and learning and coined the utterly meaningless slogan that served as a glue to a disparate bunch of frustrated power-hungry Opposition groups to unite. There is nothing called "Total Revolution" that meant everything and nothing at the same time. Because it lacked a specific, actionable blueprint for governance—So, in Post-2026 too, the Indian polity will grope in the dark. A refined methodology of agitation (current) cannot throw light onto a desirable future. They are two entirely separate animals.

OPINION: This is merely a calculated concession (reverting) from the ruling class to the very people who create the nation's wealth—or, as everyday shopkeepers see it, create funds for third-rate politicians who squander public money at whim. It is a classic trick played by these small-time characters enjoying short-term power: a slap in the face followed by a hollow apology boosts their approval ratings.

For small business owners, who generate the bulk of this tax revenue, earning a basic livelihood has never been harder. Beyond the financial drain, compliance has become a parallel, unpaid full-time job that forces them to pull exhausting all-nighters.

When democracy comes to India, the political elite who have dominated the scene for over seven decades and a half—treating governance as their inherited fiefdom and dictating terms—will find themselves utterly exposed and stripped of their power, and will run for cover without a stitch.

COMMENT: Meanwhile, a PIL has been filed in the apex court challenging the Central Government's decision to roll back the statutory zero-MDR protection for UPI transactions. The petition asks how and why Rs 2,000 was chosen as the threshold. It further argues that a framework of this scale should not be enforced through a press release.

These two matters raised here look minor and inconsequential. But they explain exactly why—despite 75 years of independence—we are precisely where we started. Fabricated GDP percentages and the rise of a glittering neo-riche class do not define true democracy or real prosperity. The pedants who put together the Constitution had never understood what actually builds a substantive democracy as opposed to a purely procedural one.

It is this exact lapse of critical application—this chronic absence of basic systemic intelligence—that gave rise to the mushroom growth of splinter political parties. These are created by self-seeking opportunists who survive solely by draining the blood of manipulated vote banks. On the flip side are the equally dangerous agendawallahs, quietly implementing top-down, secret mandates under the camouflage of modern populism.

This situation is set to worsen until the ordinary, so-called "illiterate" masses are given the tools to see the light. The solution will come from unimaginably simple, innovative, and relatable "Oh! I knew this!" kind of truths. Only those simple answers can light the lamp and finally turn the tables on the system.

OPINION: In India it is all about getting or not getting a Government job. But let it be known: the Government machinery is the bane of this country, pinning it to its original position. That is also the only non-living thing in the world that reproduces itself (Read Parkinson’s Law). Look at its size and flab, the exponential growth over the years. For those getting in, of course, it is a lottery's first prize—while the masses on empty stomachs are kept at bay.

It is also a neutral fortress for the coming-and-going politicians who enthusiastically proclaim—quite 'sharamlessly'—the creation of lakhs of more jobs in the Government every other day (what is the work?) not knowing the money they are splurging is not coming from their homes.

In India, Government jobs are the only guarantee for a secure, stable life till end, including for your spouse, not excluding benefits for your children. Where else, except perhaps in Britain's colonial history, do the clerks carve out a kingdom for themselves.

We do not know what work defines a permanent job. But we do know even nature's greatest gift of breastfeeding is a time-bound service!

OPINION: One of the many frantic activities taking place across the country is the quiet, rapid rush to build highways to every Indian doorstep. Yet, the public remains blind to the hidden motives—hidden through twisted subterranean tunnels—distracted by frivolous social media memes and posts. If you try to look for these highways in two or three years, you will fail to find them even with a microscope. In this country, anything goes because there are mountains of public money to splurge and loot—money that nobody feels ownership over. This systemic exploitation has been going on for over seven decades, and it will continue unchecked until true democracy finally dawns in the country.

Commercial flight operations are officially scheduled to kick off on August 17. There are 40 check-in counters, and the runway has a capacity flow of 10 to 12 flights per hour.

The Supreme Court has opened a window for a transformative conversation about the very fundamentals of democracy. Let a debate open Pandora’s box to reveal that there can be only "One Democracy." Currently, there are as many versions of democracy as there are countries. In India, because of a derivative Constitution, we have been pedalling for decades without moving an inch, still pedalling but we are where we were! Much like the fallacy of collective responsibility, our much-touted system of checks and balances has acted as a bane, functioning like police barricades on streets that prevent forward motion, stopping us in our tracks. That is the reality. What then, in essence, does a meaningful Constitution look like? It cannot be a Bible or a Gita that dictates what future generations should eat or wear. Let them have their own.

New signboards were installed at the Park Town and MGR Central railway stations in Chennai and at Kallakurichi.

ANALYSIS: Those who resisted did so not because they comprehended the purpose. They could only go to the extent they saw it as violation of freedoms. No further! The purpose they missed: To make it—by practising over the years and decades—a religious occasion or what is called in social sciences as a 'totem'! And a mythological interpolation, unlike what Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory XIII did to January 1st. They were honouring Janus, the mythological character, not manipulating the future. The machination behind testing the waters in the Indian case was to slowly associate a religious modifier—a halo—to Republic Day. When images of dates and offices and functions are created for facilitating governance, life will be shaped and governed by religious folklores rather than by decisions based on biological realities. That may truly be diagnosed as institutionalised obsession. What is sacrosanct about R-Day? What happned in Koraput was that religious pretenders surreptitiously made the district collector to issue such an order. He himself has cleared the air. But the event is programmed to repeat over the years for acceptance. However, there is still some sense if we stick to the scriptures: The universe was created on the first day of Chaitra Navratri! (Birth of Time).

The arrest of Indian-origin Ashley Tellis (64), foreign policy adviser to the US Government since 2001, who has worked at US Department of State, the National Security Council and the Department of Defence, has sent shockwaves through diplomatic and academic circles, given Tellis’s longstanding role in shaping Indo-US relations and his deep involvement in strategic policy formulation.

The arrest has sparked intense speculation about the nature and intent behind the alleged offences. It is certainly India-centric.

1. The fault is that he was the architect of Indo-US relations for a long time, especially his behind-the-scenes role in the nuclear agreement of 2008.
2. His essay “India’s Great-Power Delusions” published in Foreign Affairs in July/August 2025 provided the spark for getting targeted although he was seen as playing a partisan role in Indian politics in India and abroad for long.
3. It can consume President Trump any time, if the Democrats get to the root of the issue, not the symptoms.
4. What is the quid pro quo?

The ultimate trick of an instant money transfer of such a huge amount to the women folk—who in most villages do not get to see currency notes in their life time—has earned Modi an unending stream of bouquets and brickbats, with just one stroke of a button. This windfall looked surreal, unlike of all other freebies born earlier.

TO MR. DONALD THE NEW TRUMP: Thank you, Mr Trump, for doing more good for India than for America—like the 50% tariff! That said, India's Keynesian tribe remains ill-equipped to grasp the long-term implications of your new visa and tariff regimes—assuming they endure.

Paradoxically, domestic prices in the US are bound to rise. This will be the consequence of the pattern of your actions on illegal immigration, tariffs on goods and services, and the overhaul of the H-1B visa program. Brace for that event, Mr Trump!

You were honest and forthright. You wear no mask! You don’t act to please “friends”; you’ve shown that your role has no permanent allies. You make no bones about what you believe must be done. And, you have shown absolute courage. Symbolically, Jerome Powell was the last barrier to fall in your relentless march toward absolute power.

Your approach—and your American culture—is alien to vote-bank politics. Unlike in India, where many a politician cloaks the intentions behind welfare schemes and legions of projects and consolidates vote-banks—you operate with unapologetic clarity. In India, vote banks define the entire polity where crooks, pretenders, fake elites, masqueraders and 'masketeers' rule the roost (But it takes just a day to change what it has been there for over seven decades!).

Mussoorie, a popular tourist destination, Haridwar, a great sanctum of salvation, Rishikesh, the abode of the saints, Tehri and Nainital, also a tourist spot, are all cut off. The historic Tapkeshwar Mahadev temple in Doon is submerged, with water levels rising above the idols. Earlier, the newly built highways to the Char Dhams—major pilgrim centres—built by breaking the Himalayas and that with tens of thousands of crores of rupees of the poor people, converting the shrines into tourist spots, were destroyed in a series of flash floods as if ordained from above. The devastation is now complete for Uttarakhand. Pilgrim centres were set up by the ancients not for pleasure hounds but to be trekked for various other benefits for humanity.

A Critique: What matters is not merely the installation of a female Prime Minister for the first time. In the historical context of Nepal, what truly matters is the transformative shift within a society long perceived as primitive. The people have asserted themselves, like in Lanka, but unlike the 'Buddhist' upsurge, here it has been a million times more intense, more fierce, more violent—compressed into the shortest span of 24 hours.

Breaking free from a perceived inevitability, the revolution, unlike any other in modern history, shows they are no longer a tribe ordained to live by the strength of their brawn—as security guards, as Gorkhas. A people have come of age.

"We were taught to see a world beyond just ourselves. To be conscious and compassionate about the struggles of all people." - Kamala Harris, Vice-President-elect, United States of America. She is releasing a series of her reminiscences of her early period, of people and events that had deep influence on the course of her life and thoughts, in the coming days leading up to her inauguration as the Vice-President of America, the first woman ever to occupy a position that high in the greatest democracy yet.