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@dhume "If you think of Indias old license-permit raj as a way to enhance productivity it was obviously bonkers. But if you think of it instead as a sophisticated system to extract bribes from businessmen it was well designed. From Backstage: The Story Behind Indias High Growth Years by Montek Singh Ahluwalia"
@dhume on X 2025-07-23 04:29:09 UTC 174.1K followers, 12.1K engagements

"Jibes about Modis English are tiresome and juvenile. Like many Indians in public life he understands English perfectly well. He does not speak it with the fluency of a native speaker but so what English is Modis third or fourth language after Gujarati Hindi and (possibly) Marathi. How many of the people who make fun of Modi can speak a third or fourth language as well as Modi speaks English"
@dhume on X 2025-06-18 15:09:30 UTC 174.1K followers, 819.3K engagements

"I agree that the foreign policy question is the most debatable of the four. Certainly true that the strategic significance of the creation of Bangladesh overshadows any single achievement of any other prime minister in this domain. But we need to also take into account IG getting sweet talked by Bhutto in Shimla allowing Pakistan to acquire nuclear weapons and pursuing destructive economic policies that diminished Indias stature on the world stage"
@dhume on X 2025-07-27 17:32:52 UTC 174.1K followers, 1775 engagements

"@sthyagu If you genuinely believe that Modi getting a White House dinner and buying the S-400 are bigger achievements than Indira Gandhi splitting Pakistan in half then I honestly dont know what to say to you"
@dhume on X 2025-07-27 19:32:05 UTC 174.1K followers, XXX engagements

"I dont hate NPR. Ive appeared on it as a guest many times and have always been impressed by the quality of its journalism. There is nothing on right wing radio that approaches NPRs thoroughness and professionalism though the right does have some good podcasts. But its also true that some years back it began to feel like every second story on NPR was about race gender or sexuality. Old NPR came across as staffed mostly by left-of-center journalists striving for objectivity. New NPR felt like it was staffednot entirely but to a large extentby activists who had already made up their minds about"
@dhume on X 2025-07-21 14:48:34 UTC 174.1K followers, 9433 engagements

"@gaajiking88 If it had to be along a dramatically different frontier then Im not sure that I would characterize it as fulfilling his potential"
@dhume on X 2025-07-26 03:55:09 UTC 174.1K followers, 1771 engagements

"Unfashionable opinion: X. @rohini_sgh is right. Journalists did have much more freedom to criticize the government during UPA especially UPA2 than they do under Modi. For instance in 2012-14 Arnab Goswami was an actual journalist performing the role of holding elected officials to account. X. If you take a long view of modern Indian history then the period 1991-2014relatively free media relatively independent courts no social media lynch mobsis an anomaly born of coalition politics. All Indian governments with a single-party majority have used it to intimidate the media and the judiciary. In"
@dhume on X 2025-07-14 13:33:43 UTC 174.1K followers, 29.1K engagements

"I dont like to dunk on Rajdeep but the fact that he needs to proclaim that the Raj is long gone in 2025 is kind of pathetic. At what point will Indians be able to get over this chip on their collective shoulder and treat England like just another country albeit one with which a section of Indians have closer familial cultural and intellectual ties than they do with most countries I wonder if in the year 2147 well still see this strange need to refract every contretemps through a resentful lens of injured pride Sometimes a sport is just a sport. One team wants to get its players off the field"
@dhume on X 2025-07-28 03:40:45 UTC 174.1K followers, 66.3K engagements

"The BJP has obviously not created a dynasty. Modi has no children and nobody in their right mind thinks Jay Shah will ever be PM. You could however argue that Modi has ended the collective decision-making culture of the BJP. Vajpayee-Advani (or at times Advani-Vajpayee) dominated the party for some three decades but they never centralized power to the degree that Modi-Shah have done. So its probably fair to say that the BJP under Modi has created a high command a la Congress. But its ridiculous to call this high command dynastic"
@dhume on X 2025-07-23 05:51:03 UTC 174.1K followers, 16.4K engagements

"@hamishpricenz @pilotwit Thats super-interesting. Were they part of the original settlement of Wellington by any chance"
@dhume on X 2025-07-28 04:32:01 UTC 174.1K followers, XX engagements

"Australians Americans and Japanese all see China as the top threat to their nations. For the Indian public its Pakistan. v @conradhackett"
@dhume on X 2025-07-15 15:41:31 UTC 174.1K followers, 4977 engagements

"@sansiddh Thats a narrow way of looking at it. Heres a broader perspective: For six decades a certain proportion of Indias smartest people have felt the need to leave India in order to fulfill their potential. Why is this so"
@dhume on X 2025-07-26 03:49:36 UTC 174.1K followers, XXX engagements

"@ShineHamesha Because Bangladeshi is an independent country that gets to make decisions you may not like. Do you think foreign governments get to tell India which houses it ought to preserve and which it needs to demolish"
@dhume on X 2025-07-18 14:15:20 UTC 174.1K followers, 2376 engagements

"Republicans who call Zohran Mamdani an Islamist are speaking nonsense. But the mayoral candidate does represent a de facto alliance between Islamists and the left based on a shared antipathy toward Israel. My take"
@dhume on X 2025-07-17 00:32:39 UTC 174.1K followers, 51.4K engagements

"I believe IGs record on pluralism is superior to NMs for the following reasons: X. Ideology: Congress did not have an anti-Muslim orientation. X. Representation: Look at the cabinet. Look at Parliament. No question that Muslims had a greater share of power in IGs time. To dismiss this as tokenism is unconvincing and ironically an argument that one would normally expect to hear from Pakistani critics of Indian democracy. X. Personal attitudes: IG and her closest advisors did not view politics through a religious prism. She would have been appalled by beef lynchings and love jihad laws. In sum"
@dhume on X 2025-07-27 18:03:11 UTC 174.1K followers, 2821 engagements

"As a goods exporter India is roughly in the same weight class as Russia and Spain. You could view this as a disappointment considering Indias large population but its also a vast improvement from the sad old days of the license raj. v @husainhaqqani"
@dhume on X 2025-07-26 16:42:35 UTC 174.1K followers, 8099 engagements

"@sushantsareen I dont think India is playing Pakistan to virtue signal. I think it comes down to BCCI being too greedy to turn its back on a few extra dollars and too politically well-connected to be reined in by the government"
@dhume on X 2025-07-27 17:45:56 UTC 174.1K followers, 3467 engagements

"@pegobry_en Agree. Simple test: Imagine what 10/7 would have looked like if Hamas was as militarily strong as Israel"
@dhume on X 2025-07-25 13:39:01 UTC 174.1K followers, XXX engagements

"Just leaving this here: Shanghai and Beijing in 2011 when Chinas GDP per capita (PPP) was roughly the same as Indias is today"
@dhume on X 2025-07-15 11:16:44 UTC 174.1K followers, 47.9K engagements

"This Reddit post by an Indian tourist who visited Kuala Lumpur and was shocked by how far ahead it is of Indian cities has gone viral. Protip: He had better not visit Dubai or Singapore"
@dhume on X 2025-07-13 23:41:36 UTC 174.1K followers, 99.7K engagements

"Worth reading this @ScottMGreer article if youre trying to understand why much of MAGA is up in arms about the (non-existent) Epstein files"
@dhume on X 2025-07-15 13:26:22 UTC 174.1K followers, 1966 engagements

"@stellensatz It will be harder for sure but I think the U.S. will find a way to remain open to extraordinary talent even while clamping down on immigration more broadly"
@dhume on X 2025-07-26 04:51:52 UTC 174.1K followers, XXX engagements

"The question this raises has been the same for a long time: Could Aravind Srinivas achieve his full potential without leaving India"
@dhume on X 2025-07-26 03:25:15 UTC 174.1K followers, 92.8K engagements

"Question for cricket fans: Was this man chosen as Indias coach for his competence fairness and deep knowledge of the sport All responses welcome"
@dhume on X 2025-07-26 05:52:05 UTC 174.1K followers, 22K engagements

"Quite a few people here are comparing Indira Gandhi whose first tenure as PM lasted XX years (1966-77) with Narendra Modi who has now been PM for as long (2014-2025). Heres how I think they stack up: X. Economy: Modi Indira. This is a no-brainer not because NM has been great but because IG was a disaster. X. Democracy: Modi Indira. Another no-brainer. I agree with much of the criticism of NM on this score but you cant really compare him with the PM who declared Emergency and regularly dismissed state governments on a whim. X. Pluralism: Indira Modi. For all her flaws IG and her party were not"
@dhume on X 2025-07-27 14:28:16 UTC 174.1K followers, 45.4K engagements

"These are both responses to the same tweet"
@dhume on X 2025-07-25 04:10:46 UTC 174.1K followers, 2149 engagements

"The richest states in India are poorer than the poorest states in Brazil Mexico and China. v @Fullantho"
@dhume on X 2025-07-27 20:09:13 UTC 174.1K followers, 28.2K engagements

"It turns out that random Reddit dude wasnt the only Indian impressed by Kuala Lumpur. Back in 1990 Prime Minister V.P. Singh also noticed its transformation. Source: Backstage by Montek Singh Ahluwalia"
@dhume on X 2025-07-21 02:01:13 UTC 174.1K followers, 2409 engagements