Protecting Boeing.

Last week, "US President Donald Trump lavished praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he is a 'great leader' and 'tough guy', who has been in power for more than 12 years." "I think Modi is very good." "Just highly respected. I know the real Modi is a very tough cookie." The Print. At the G7 Summit in France, "When PM Modi appeared to reference their social media popularity, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni quipped, 'We are the most famous couple on Instagram'." At the COP28 summit in Dubai in November 2023, Meloni posted a selfie with PM Modi on Instagram, captioned 'Good friends at COP28 #Melodi'." TOI. Meanwhile, "Allegations about theft of donations and daily offerings to the Ayodhya Ram temple, one of Narendra Modi government's showpiece achievements, appeared to gain traction...with a police seizure of cash from a shrine employees home." Apparently, Rs 1.2 million was recovered from temple staffer Luvkush's home." TT. January 2024, "PM Modi has inaugurated a grand temple to Hindu god Ram in the flashpoint city of Ayodhya." "But some Hindu seers and most of the opposition boycotted it, saying Mr Modi was using it for political gain." BBC. Great leader, indeed. Most distressing, more than one year after the devastating accident of Air India flight 171 on 12 June 2025, killing 230 passengers, 12 crew and 19 people on the ground, with 67 seriously injured (wikipedia), there seems to be a reluctance to release the exact cause of the accident. "The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has publicly accused the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) of omitting cockpit warning sequences and key technical evidence from its preliminary findings on the AI-171 disaster that killed 260 people." According to FIP's simulation, the Ram Air Turbine (RAT), which takes 18 seconds to deploy, actually deployed much earlier suggesting total electrical failure, "a theory reinforced by survivor accounts of flickering cabin lights". msn.co. Is it a craven attempt to protect Boeing, a US company? Not such a 'tough cookie', are we? The Ministry of Defence (MoD) intends to buy 114 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) Rafale fighter jets. In 2016, Mr Modi's BJP government scrapped a program to purchase 126 Rafales for $10-12 billion, "with extensive industrial participation and technology transfer with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. for local manufacturing of 108 aircraft. Now we will have to pay $40 billion for 114 aircraft without any clarity about technology transfer, wrote Rahul Bedi. Till then, "In a move aimed at sustaining the operational capability of the Indian Air Force's (IAF) legacy Anglo-French SEPECAT Jaguar fleet, India is set to receive nine retired examples of the twin-engined combat aircraft from from the United Kingdom imminently for use as a source of spare parts and sub-assemblies." This IAF's effort to keep Jaguars flying "decades after the fighter had been retired by all other users," wrote Bedi. Celebrating 12 years in power. Scrounging, like the children, who collect oil from the millions of lamps during the festival of Diwali at Ayodhya, to be used for cooking. TT. "India's predictable slide into into economic mediocrity follows a well-trodden path into a middle-income trap." "Growth is high, consumer inflation low." But, "Fresh graduates from our best institutions are taking entry-level jobs that aren't paying enough for them to be eligible to pay income tax." "High GDP growth that does not translate into more and better jobs, and results in weak inflation due to poor demand, signals a middle-incoe trap," wrote Rathin Roy. So, whence comes the greatness? "In India, music engineered to dehumanize religious minorities reaches hundreds millions of listeners," and is known as "Hindutva pop, H-Pop, the genre rooted in Hindu nationalist ideology." pbs.org. Stuck in low middle income, defending our skies with recycled junk and creating a fanatic mob of Hindu-ISIS - achievements over 12 years. Tough maybe. But, great?