There was a very apt meme response to the very first tweet you posted. It said something akin to "800 less towels and slippers shall be stolen from Turkish hotels" ..... :-)
Thank you for writing this, Prem. Been shaking my head at the boycott-as-performance drama that's been playing out (and applauded!) over the past couple of days.
Tickets to Azerbaijan and Turkey being cancelled in righteous rage, via phones and laptops manufactured in China. You can't make this stuff up.
I remember when Doklam happened a bunch of my nationalistic friends very patriotically decided to delete all the Chinese Apps from their Chinese made phones as a show of their solidarity with the nation!
Ironically, China is the major weapons supplier to Pakistan by a distance, but now no talk of any boycotts -- in fact, UP chief minister spoke just yesterday of a tie up with China to develop UP's footwear manufacturing industry. (China, meanwhile, is blocking the export of certain key components to India).
Oh, and I remember we -- briefly -- boycotted Maldives.
Turkey drones were used to attack Indian civilians and Turkey had their contractors on site during the attacks…2 of them died in the counter attack by India.
India is not the only country that has BDS Movements. America, China, Malaysia and many other countries globally have been BDS Wokeism advocates which was evident during the Oct 7 terror attack on Israel and the subsequent counter attack on Gaza by Israel.
Btw, Celebi stock nosedived 20% in 48 Hours on ISTANBUL Stock Exchange.
Many Universities in India and ACADEMIA have step forward to suspend MOUs with Universities in Turkey. JNU VC message was very well articulated on the reason for suspending MOUs with Turkey universities.
Traders Association have also cut imports from Turkey.
Good message to countries in support of Terror. Enough is Enough!
Agree. In Geopolitics there is no permanent friends and there is no permanent enemies, only permanent interests.
The Red Line was crossed this time for India.
Pakistan’s HM 2 nation theory rhetoric with the subsequent terror attacks in Pahalgam is a clear intention to destabilise India at a time when the world is in the midst of a US-China Global Trade War.
India is seen as a potential gainer with preferable trade agreements with US, UK and EU as these countries are looking at diverting trade supply chain from China.
China is another backer for Pakistan in this terror attack on India. This is a distraction tactic from India’s focus on economic growth to National Security Threat.
Turkey’s backing for Pakistan is to get the Kashmir issue back on world stage. Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia have been trying to break away from the OIC block to revive the Ottoman Empire as the alternative power bloc amongst the Muslim nations.
In the end, its all about power play on the global stage.
Bhai Prem, All good. Got your point. It must have taken a lot of effort to collect and collate all this data. And there are a lot of interested parties who would do that. If Turkey is not going to be bothered and worried about whatever little gains they are getting out of tourism and trade with India, why are you labouring your point so much? Okay Modi tried to get close with them the same way he did with Sharif. Is it a crime? Maybe in the hope that they will come to a middle ground. They did not. Theek Hai. Why do you mock ordinary people who find it "morally" reprehensible to tour that place. The ordinary man may be only a David, but I respect him more than you who seem clearly to have an interest. Canadians are doing the same to you know whom.
Very nice mail, Rao-bhai, ticks every box. 1. Why are you bothering to research and write facts? 2. Okay maybe Modi tried and failed, what is the problem? 3. Ordinary man making fact-free decisions good, reporter trying to present facts bad. 4. You must have some ulterior motive.
Like I said, ticks every box. Thanks for reading, stay safe.
Good read. Well-researched article. However, I slightly differ from the author when asked: why the anger of RW is only on Turkey not on China, when both supplied arms to Pak? He must know the psychology of protesters. Turkey is an Islamic nation like Pakistan. Whereas China is not. It also subjects Uyghur Muslims to untold suffering. In any case, the protesters must be reminded that Turkey-India relationship is ancient, centuries old. They were first Muslims that entered India.
I know why Turkey (and Azerbaijan) is a soft target -- that was a rhetorical question, aimed to underline the point that this was not about Turkey supplying arms, it was just the need for some hate object to vent at.
The whole point of the IT Cell and more widely, paid propaganda is precisely that -- to deflect, to obscure, from the sort of things they do behind the scenes.
Laughed so hard at "What, did you imagine that Pakistan Swiggy-ed a few Turkish drones and other weaponry just last week?"
You have just given Bollywood producers an idea for the conveyor belt of Op. Sindoor movies they're going to bombard us with. And they will legitimately make it look like Turkey have now sided with Pak because the Indian PM didn't like sufi music. Cue: Swiggy -> 2 kgs bananas, low-fat curd, and 1 drone.
*grin* Exasperation is the mother of verbal invention. As to the other, I so dread all those movies we are going to be bombarded with in a year or so. Interestingly, I just recorded a podcast for News Minute -- should drop today or tomorrow -- and Sushant Singh, a co-panelist, recommended watching the movie Vijeta, the 1982 Govind Nihalani film, to get a sense of the true cost of (aerial) war.
Kya bolun Premji? I think we are a ba.na.na.republic. When we needed it we found ourselves A-kela. Serious question though? If Turkey, Russia, Hungary etc are all ruled by these strongmen, the people continue to go about their daily business right? I mean, never seen protests in Russia against Putin. Yes he puts his political adversaries to sleep (poisons them), but people seem to be okay. I don't know really. So may be we too will totter and dodder along. Or..? We will keep voting, same party will win, the judiciary will continue to add to its 50 million pending cases, we will slide down several indices, Press Freedom, GDP, poverty, Health etc. These guys will continue to hyperventilate...but we will continue to live na? I mean it is gloom everywhere but for aam aadmi like me what changes? Nothing. So I continue on my merry way. Right? Wrong?
'Keep calm and carry on living' is a good coping mechanism, the only one available to us. With the caveat, keep your eyes open to the world around you -- even if you can't influence the course of events, it is important to know where we, and the world we live in, are going.
Seems to me that the whole world is jealous of India's progress under Modi ji's charismatic leadership. That is why the world is conspiring against 56-inchi-vishwa-guru.
Besides Turkey, I think we should also boycott Azerbaijan.
Sarcasm apart, this falling down of brand India has been so swift and steep, that it will take at least 20 years just to stop going down further. And God only knows how long after that to come back to where we were in 2010.
The fall of brand India has been neither swift nor steep, though. It has been happening for years now, gradually. It is just that at a moment of adversity, this is coming up in sharp relief.
When I said "not steep", I meant that it has been incremental and over time, and we are pretty much at rock bottom now. I didn't mean that the slide hasn't been steep. :-)
There was a very apt meme response to the very first tweet you posted. It said something akin to "800 less towels and slippers shall be stolen from Turkish hotels" ..... :-)
😂
Thank you for writing this, Prem. Been shaking my head at the boycott-as-performance drama that's been playing out (and applauded!) over the past couple of days.
Tickets to Azerbaijan and Turkey being cancelled in righteous rage, via phones and laptops manufactured in China. You can't make this stuff up.
Yeah - got totally grossed out by the appalling chest-thumping and jingoism and, worse, by the underlying ignorance.
PS: If anyone believes an 800-strong group was planning to travel en masse to Turkey, I've got a weapons system to sell them.
Hahaha. For all you know, if you put that out on X, they may offer to buy it.
I remember when Doklam happened a bunch of my nationalistic friends very patriotically decided to delete all the Chinese Apps from their Chinese made phones as a show of their solidarity with the nation!
Ironically, China is the major weapons supplier to Pakistan by a distance, but now no talk of any boycotts -- in fact, UP chief minister spoke just yesterday of a tie up with China to develop UP's footwear manufacturing industry. (China, meanwhile, is blocking the export of certain key components to India).
Oh, and I remember we -- briefly -- boycotted Maldives.
Turkey drones were used to attack Indian civilians and Turkey had their contractors on site during the attacks…2 of them died in the counter attack by India.
India is not the only country that has BDS Movements. America, China, Malaysia and many other countries globally have been BDS Wokeism advocates which was evident during the Oct 7 terror attack on Israel and the subsequent counter attack on Gaza by Israel.
Btw, Celebi stock nosedived 20% in 48 Hours on ISTANBUL Stock Exchange.
Many Universities in India and ACADEMIA have step forward to suspend MOUs with Universities in Turkey. JNU VC message was very well articulated on the reason for suspending MOUs with Turkey universities.
Traders Association have also cut imports from Turkey.
Good message to countries in support of Terror. Enough is Enough!
Both your points are on point. My own limited point was that Turkey has been an enabler for Pakistan, in a big way, for ever.
Agree. In Geopolitics there is no permanent friends and there is no permanent enemies, only permanent interests.
The Red Line was crossed this time for India.
Pakistan’s HM 2 nation theory rhetoric with the subsequent terror attacks in Pahalgam is a clear intention to destabilise India at a time when the world is in the midst of a US-China Global Trade War.
India is seen as a potential gainer with preferable trade agreements with US, UK and EU as these countries are looking at diverting trade supply chain from China.
China is another backer for Pakistan in this terror attack on India. This is a distraction tactic from India’s focus on economic growth to National Security Threat.
Turkey’s backing for Pakistan is to get the Kashmir issue back on world stage. Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia have been trying to break away from the OIC block to revive the Ottoman Empire as the alternative power bloc amongst the Muslim nations.
In the end, its all about power play on the global stage.
Bhai Prem, All good. Got your point. It must have taken a lot of effort to collect and collate all this data. And there are a lot of interested parties who would do that. If Turkey is not going to be bothered and worried about whatever little gains they are getting out of tourism and trade with India, why are you labouring your point so much? Okay Modi tried to get close with them the same way he did with Sharif. Is it a crime? Maybe in the hope that they will come to a middle ground. They did not. Theek Hai. Why do you mock ordinary people who find it "morally" reprehensible to tour that place. The ordinary man may be only a David, but I respect him more than you who seem clearly to have an interest. Canadians are doing the same to you know whom.
Very nice mail, Rao-bhai, ticks every box. 1. Why are you bothering to research and write facts? 2. Okay maybe Modi tried and failed, what is the problem? 3. Ordinary man making fact-free decisions good, reporter trying to present facts bad. 4. You must have some ulterior motive.
Like I said, ticks every box. Thanks for reading, stay safe.
Good read. Well-researched article. However, I slightly differ from the author when asked: why the anger of RW is only on Turkey not on China, when both supplied arms to Pak? He must know the psychology of protesters. Turkey is an Islamic nation like Pakistan. Whereas China is not. It also subjects Uyghur Muslims to untold suffering. In any case, the protesters must be reminded that Turkey-India relationship is ancient, centuries old. They were first Muslims that entered India.
I know why Turkey (and Azerbaijan) is a soft target -- that was a rhetorical question, aimed to underline the point that this was not about Turkey supplying arms, it was just the need for some hate object to vent at.
Thank you for this brilliantly informative eye opener - especially about the airport contacts - how does one even begin to swallow that?
We're simply showing our social media/ Bhakt IT cell addled reactions to something beyond most people's comprehension.
The whole point of the IT Cell and more widely, paid propaganda is precisely that -- to deflect, to obscure, from the sort of things they do behind the scenes.
Laughed so hard at "What, did you imagine that Pakistan Swiggy-ed a few Turkish drones and other weaponry just last week?"
You have just given Bollywood producers an idea for the conveyor belt of Op. Sindoor movies they're going to bombard us with. And they will legitimately make it look like Turkey have now sided with Pak because the Indian PM didn't like sufi music. Cue: Swiggy -> 2 kgs bananas, low-fat curd, and 1 drone.
*grin* Exasperation is the mother of verbal invention. As to the other, I so dread all those movies we are going to be bombarded with in a year or so. Interestingly, I just recorded a podcast for News Minute -- should drop today or tomorrow -- and Sushant Singh, a co-panelist, recommended watching the movie Vijeta, the 1982 Govind Nihalani film, to get a sense of the true cost of (aerial) war.
Great piece. Kangana tweets at the end were the cherry on top - she's the queen of delulu, as the kids say
That lady is a walking talking cautionary tale.
Enjoying ure articles...
Thank you for reading.
Kya bolun Premji? I think we are a ba.na.na.republic. When we needed it we found ourselves A-kela. Serious question though? If Turkey, Russia, Hungary etc are all ruled by these strongmen, the people continue to go about their daily business right? I mean, never seen protests in Russia against Putin. Yes he puts his political adversaries to sleep (poisons them), but people seem to be okay. I don't know really. So may be we too will totter and dodder along. Or..? We will keep voting, same party will win, the judiciary will continue to add to its 50 million pending cases, we will slide down several indices, Press Freedom, GDP, poverty, Health etc. These guys will continue to hyperventilate...but we will continue to live na? I mean it is gloom everywhere but for aam aadmi like me what changes? Nothing. So I continue on my merry way. Right? Wrong?
'Keep calm and carry on living' is a good coping mechanism, the only one available to us. With the caveat, keep your eyes open to the world around you -- even if you can't influence the course of events, it is important to know where we, and the world we live in, are going.
100%. Agree. Noted. Doing that. And inhaling and exhaling. No choice. Thank you.
Seems to me that the whole world is jealous of India's progress under Modi ji's charismatic leadership. That is why the world is conspiring against 56-inchi-vishwa-guru.
Besides Turkey, I think we should also boycott Azerbaijan.
Sarcasm apart, this falling down of brand India has been so swift and steep, that it will take at least 20 years just to stop going down further. And God only knows how long after that to come back to where we were in 2010.
The fall of brand India has been neither swift nor steep, though. It has been happening for years now, gradually. It is just that at a moment of adversity, this is coming up in sharp relief.
When I said "not steep", I meant that it has been incremental and over time, and we are pretty much at rock bottom now. I didn't mean that the slide hasn't been steep. :-)
True.. and looking back at my comment, I realize that I was not clear.
What I meant was that in terms of history, 15 years is not a long time. Yet we managed it.
These 15 years will cost us at least a generation and a half to recover.
Provided we start now.