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Fab India Politics!

#rajdeepsardesai #straightbatwithrajdeep #fabindia

This week, I am going to speak on the politics of Fab India.. but first a disclosure.. I do know the Fab India family well: I have witnessed how the retail clothes company has grown remarkably across the country, how it has provided a much needed link between artisans and small rural businesses and urban consumers. Fab India’s clothes, its kurtas in particular have made ethnic wear accessible and enduring. It has now branched into many more home products.

The Politics of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

#rajdeepsardesai #straightbatwithrajdeep #priyankagandhi

Today, as the title suggests I am going to comment on the much talked about politics of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra but first with a clarification and an apology. Seven years ago in November 2014, at a lit fest event around by book 2014: The Election that changed India, I was in conversation with Shobha De. One of the questions that Ms De asked me then was how I viewed the politics of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Remember this was 2014 when Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had campaigned almost solely in the Gandhi family bastions of Amethi and Rae Bareli. My response to Shobha De was” ‘Politics is now ruthlessly competitive 24×7. There is no place for guest appearances or item numbers.’ Next day, in an article on the event, the headline of the newspaper DNA was: ‘Priyanka Gandhi does politics like an item girl.’

Lakhimpur: Real Life Mirzapur

#rajdeepsardesai #straightbatwithrajdeep #lakhimpurkheri

This week has been dominated by two stories: one from rural UP, the other from Mumbai. The Mumbai story has all the elements of a Bollywood potboiler when the son of one of Hindi cinema’s biggest superstars is arrested in a drug bust. It’s easy to outrage over a story involving a VVIP brat: then when the VVIP brat’s father’s surname is Khan, it’s even easier to spend even more time outraging.

Dance Of Death

#rajdeepsardesai #straightbatwithrajdeep #AssamKilling

Lets start with a quiz question: how many of you know of Bijoy Shankar Bonia? My guess is that most of you don’t until I show you this photo. That right my friend, Bijoy Shankar Bonia is the photographer whose photo has gone viral, the photo of Bonia jumping, stomping and dancing over the dead body of a man who had just been shot dead by the Assam police during an eviction drive in Sipajhar in Assam’s Darrang district.

Is This Man ‘Anti National’?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOFGwe0uh5Q
‘Remote Control’ Gujarat Model
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfgq3K4J68w
In Defence of Javed Akhtar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3JvKxwPFG0
Justice Kureshi: The Judge who was denied Justice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIZ0tYP4FR0
Narayan Rane Haazir Ho!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH31tUoBjmQ
Taliban and Islamophobia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Agu-WdPV_I