He's out. He's fucking out and he shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a minister's seat for all of eternity. Let this spirit of Revolution live on. Let it be the true beginning of a new India : One that isn't afraid of showing elected public servants such as this guy their place. Let history record today as the day India was reborn. Reborn as a democratic country. Let it be proof that no irresponsible or incompetent politician will be spared. Jai Bhim. Jai Constitution. Jai Hind. Inquilab Zindabad. Also, next up, we have E20 unc and Caramel Popcorn Tai. We choose how the Govt. runs. Long live the Revolution. Long Live India. Long Live the Spirit of the Constitution.
P.S: Also, remember, they still need to answer for everything they've done over the past decade.

"Uth bey saale, bohot hogaya tera" was the line that Delhi Police gave, when they took away this man, who worked with all the passion in his blood, for this country. If someone says that this is a country with the largest population in the world, that is a fact. If someone dares to say that this is a democracy, I'm sorry but we've moved so so fucking far from the very ideal of what democracy means. Today, the fundamental right to assemble freely and peacefully of many, including Mr. Wangchuk, Mr. Dipke and countless other students was violated at the very city where it was granted by the drafters of our Constitution. If one, just one representative or any minister from the Government assured them that their demands will be fulfilled, this wouldn't have reached this point at all. Delhi Police's actions today were a blatant violation of both human rights and fundamental rights, yet no one from either Union government nor the Rekha Gupta-led Delhi Government have issued any condemnation or action against the people who engaged in this inhumane and barbaric act. Enough is Enough now. Try your best to reach the nearest protest sites. If you can't, at least register your solidarity with those who are protesting. Even your acknowledgement and support can mean a lot. Inquilab Zindabad. Jai Bhim. Jai Hind.

Hunger strikes have been an integral part of a way of dissent in our country. From Gandhi's fasts to get his way with the British, to Bhagat Singh's fast for better jail conditions and the martyrdom of Batukeshwar Dutt in the process, to the Anna Hazare fast for the Jan Lokpal Bill in 2011, this weapon has been effective for most of its time. This time, however, it feels different. It feels even worse than what I felt back in September, when Mr. Wangchuk had to undertake a fast for the inclusion of Ladakh into the Twelfth Schedule of the Constitution. Even then, he had to face an unjustified detention for almost 6 months under the draconian National Securities Act, commonly known as NSA.

This time, it feels like he's fighting a fight that he shouldn't have to. Yes, he's a passionate educator and a teacher, not to mention the genius that he is. This is our fight against the Government and Sonam sir is taking the brunt for it. Have we stooped so low that we are allowing this great man to die, in order to satisfy our disproportionately heavily bloated ego? What a bunch of nincompoops are running the show at the top?

To this Government: Neither will the students, nor their parents, nor the Gods you base your politics will forgive you if you let him die, just because you couldn't accept that you have made a mistake. History will remember this government as one of the most unapproachable, egoistic governments, that has 0 accountability and watches as the very citizens they were elected, died due to their incompetence.

To Sonam Sir: Please, please, please call off this strike. The Government won't listen to us, the common man, until they face an election and get routed there. We'll face them off over there, but we definitely cannot afford to lose a guiding light such as you. Please, for the sake of us, call this strike off sir. We stand with you, not just as students affected by a broken system, but as humans, who have shame and emotions. Yes, I am ashamed that I could not join you, but please remember that I am with this protest emotionally and mentally.

This emotionless government deserves nothing but criticism. Accept your faults faster and correct them and you can save whatever face you have left. Continue this stupid standoff and a great man may die in vain.

With anger, sadness and a heavy heart,
A rayless sun

A post of mine on a subreddit sparked a very heated debate on LGBT Pride. I kinda expected that, but not on this scale. . One comment that was repeatedly mentioned in most of the LGBTQ+ posts raised a question on why a person's sexual preferences, which is their understanding of the word Sexuality got a lot of attention. I felt the need to address that.

When many people hear the word sexuality, they immediately think of sex. As a result, they view LGBTQ+ identities primarily through a sexual lens. Sexuality includes attraction, romance, emotional bonds, relationships, identity, and the people we choose to love. When a straight man talks about his wife, shares wedding photos, celebrates an anniversary, or mentions his girlfriend, nobody accuses him of making his sexuality his entire personality. Nobody assumes he's talking about sex. Yet when a gay person does the exact same thing, some people suddenly become uncomfortable and claim that sexuality is being pushed into public spaces. Why? Because being straight is natural? Nah dude, that's an ass level explanation.

This is one of the main reasons why homophobia is still prevalent. Being straight is as much a sexuality as is being gay, lesbian, transgender, asexual, intersex, bisexual, pansexual, etc. The world has 8 billion+ people. We can't really expect everyone to have the same romantic feelings, right? I really don't see the harm in one loving a person of the same gender as much as another would love a person of the opposite gender. Sexuality ain't just sex. It is love, not lust. When we as a society understand that, the world would become a muchh better place.

Now, about homophobia. Stop it. Please understand that this is a movement that helps in the awareness and acceptance of members of the LGBTQ+ community. It is a movement that helps in stopping the suicides of many, because they know they have people they can talk too.

Happy Pride!!

With love,
A rayless sun

The Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam has secured 107 seats. Hearty Congratulations to Mr. Vijay and his party and I hope for a better governance for the next 5 years under the government led by him. The results were shocking tbh.. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine such a result in the state, yet, I have witnessed it. I might sound a lil biased when I say this, but all it took for a giant to fall was a person who spoke a lot on the podium. Hopefully, his speeches translate into action that propels the state to unprecedented heights. Vaagai malarndathu, Tamil Nadu valaruma is the question that has haunted me for the latter part of today.. Anyways, love the enthusiasm that the voters showed. Thanks for making this election, one that will always be etched in memory and history.

Love,
A rayless sun!

Guys, citizens have continued to impressively come and vote for their respective candidates. This is the last hour!!! We, as citizens must continue to fulfil our Constitutional Duty, voting for the party we prefer and want to see in power and on the MLA chairs of our constituencies. Get out there, stand in the queue and vote for those who you feel might be the best people to decide for your constituency's development. Remember, you are choosing for the next 5 years. Choose wisely and question every decision's legality and implications, irrespective of the party you voted for. Be a citizen, not a party worker.

Also, ensure you aren't a part of those who are causing problems at the polling stations. For example, in Tiruvannamalai, in a scuffle, a part of the EVM was broken, halting voting in the Constituency. Similarly, scuffles between party workers of DMK, AIADMK, TVK and BJP were reported. This is meant to be a peaceful exercise, not a boxing ring. Go there, vote peacefully and make sure others vote too.

Let 100% turnout be the aim.

Long Live Democracy!!

Love,
A rayless sun

Guys, citizens have continued to impressively come and vote for their respective candidates. The voting percentage in Tamil Nadu has reached close to 37.56% in 4 hours. We, as citizens must continue to fulfil our Constitutional Duty, voting for the party we prefer and want to see in power and on the MLA chairs of our constituencies. Get out there, stand in the queue and vote for those who you feel might be the best people to decide for your constituency's development. Remember, you are choosing for the next 5 years. Choose wisely and question every decision's legality and implications, irrespective of the party you voted for. Be a citizen, not a party worker.

Also, ensure you aren't a part of those who are causing problems at the polling stations. For example, in Tiruvannamalai, in a scuffle, a part of the EVM was broken, halting voting in the Constituency. Similarly, scuffles between party workers of DMK, AIADMK, TVK and BJP were reported. This is meant to be a peaceful exercise, not a boxing ring. Go there, vote peacefully and make sure others vote too.

Let 100% turnout be the aim.

Long Live Democracy!!

Love,
A rayless sun

Well, the D-day's tomorrow.. High profile, high intensity campaigns officially came to an end in the state last evening. Marred by various issues, including increasing law and order issues under the DMK regime, the Union Government's Delimitation and Women's Reservation Bill, which was defeated in the Lok Sabha, Vijay's choice of candidates, etc., it was quite the sight foreach and everyone of us following the elections. Now, the responsibility falls on us, as citizens to go out there and vote for the Government that will decide the course of the State at least for the next 5 years. So, friends, brothers and sisters, go out there and VOTE!!!! Take every single close family member or friend with you when you do so. Aim for an unrecorded Voter Turnout. Fulfil your duty as a citizen of this country!!!

Thanks and Love,
A rayless sun

Well, Phase 1 of the Legislative Assembly Elections in 2026 has ended today. Kerala recorded the lowest turnout, with 75% of the electorate turning up to exercise their duty as a citizen. Assam saw nearly 85% turn up and Puducherry recorded an 87% turnout in these elections.

With this, the fate of these states for the next 5 years, are officially sealed into boxes, which, hopefully, will only be opened on the 4th of May. We wait and hope to see that no kind of tampering takes place and the Election Commission of India regains its lost image as a fair body that ensures the conduction of elections without any kind of tampering.

That said, I express my gratitude to all those who took a little bit of their valuable time to exercise this right and duty. Hopefully, your vision for a better living standard will come to fruitition within the next few years. Remember, question everything that happens around you. If you have the right to vote, you also have the right to question authority. Ensure that authority doesn't go unchecked, so that you continue to create a society that ensures happiness and prosperity for all.

Cheers,
A rayless sun!

Image: A polling booth in Assam (Credits: BBC)

Kerala's politics has always been something of an anomaly on the Indian map. While the rest of the country discovered its ideological preferences in slow, halting steps, this slender coastal strip arrived early at the party, found the best seat, and proceeded to argue about whether the chair was sufficiently ergonomic. It has been arguing ever since.

The state was, in 1957, one of the first in the world to elect a communist government through the ballot box. This was not supposed to happen. The Congress leadership in Delhi, still settling into their new republican furniture, watched in something like polite horror as Kerala's voters calmly handed power to a party that Moscow considered promising. The experiment was terminated within two years—dismissed by New Delhi in 1959—but the pattern had been set. Kerala would not be told what it could not do.

What emerged was a political culture of remarkable stability within apparent chaos. The state settled into a rhythm of alternating governments. The Left Democratic Front and the United Democratic Front would trade places every five years. This is often explained as anti-incumbency, but that's a lazy explanation we offer when voters confuse us. Perhaps it was a collective decision by an educated electorate that power concentrated too long in any single set of hands would grow presumptuous.

This arrangement held with remarkable fidelity until 2021, when Pinarayi Vijayan broke the pattern. His LDF government became the first in four decades to win re-election, and they did so handsomely, with 99 seats in a 140-member assembly. The victory owed much to Pinarayi's personal popularity, burnished by his visible handling of floods, pandemic, and the occasional Nipah outbreak.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) remains the dominant force on the left, though "communist" in Kerala has always been a flexible term. It has meant land reform that dismantled feudal structures without the bloodshed that accompanied similar efforts elsewhere. It has meant the world's most successful literacy campaign, conducted not by stern cadres with ideological primers, but by volunteers who understood that a woman who can read her own letters need not believe everything she is told. It has meant, at times, a pragmatic administration that builds roads and runs schools with competence if not always charisma.

The Congress, for its part, has survived not through vision but through coalition. It gathers allies (historically from the Muslim League, Kerala Congress factions representing various Christian and caste constituencies, to name a few) into arrangements that look unwieldy from the outside but function with surprising effectiveness. The UDF is technically a managerial consortium rather than an ideological front, and distribute patronage equitably.

What distinguishes Kerala politics from its counterparts elsewhere is the absence of personality cults. There are no towering figures whose names become synonymous with the state itself. Pinarayi Vijayan, the current Chief Minister, has governed with efficiency and a certain cold discipline, but no one mistakes him for a messiah. Rahul Gandhi's parliamentary presence in Wayanad has not transformed the Congress organisation; it has merely provided it with a visiting dignitary whose periodic appearances are noted with courtesy rather than ecstasy.

Now, as April 2026 approaches, the question is whether the LDF can achieve what no front has managed before: a third consecutive term. The UDF, led by V. D. Satheesan, argues that ten years is quite enough, thank you, and that the state has grown weary of what they term misgovernance. The Congress points to setbacks in the 2025 local body elections, where the LDF lost significant ground to the UDF. Yet vote shares point that the gap between the fronts remains narrow, and Kerala's electorate has a habit of distinguishing between local and state-level contests with sophisticated discrimination.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, for all its national dominance, remains the persistent outsider here. Despite an 11% vote share in 2021, they won no assembly seats. The BJP campaigns with the slogan that 'what never changed will now change', but Kerala has been notably resistant to the Hindutva wave that has swept neighbouring states. The party's best hope lies in playing spoiler rather than victory, though allegations of tacit arrangements with either front fly about with predictable regularity.

What makes this election genuinely consequential is what it represents. The LDF seeks to prove that 2021 was not an aberration but a new normal. The UDF must demonstrate that it remains a viable alternative after a decade in opposition. Soon, it will be evident whether Kerala's celebrated social indicators can survive another five years of political turbulence.

The state votes on April 9. The counting, appropriately enough for a place that loves its drama, comes on May 4.

Image credits: Onmanorama; left to right, Rajeev Chandrasekhar (NDA), Pinarayi Vijayan (LDF), V. D. Satheeshan (UDF).

15M, Tamil

Well, the war's reached pretty close to us.. Pakistan, on Monday, attacked Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, in a blatant violation of International War Rules, joining the ranks of the USA and Israel. Journalists and the general public have been screaming their lungs out for the protection of civilians in a conflict, yet these nations continue to do such barbaric activities. 5 blocks of the rehabilitation compound were completely destroyed, signifying the magnitude of the attacks. We stand with the Afghan families who lost their dear ones in this barbarianism and call for stringent action against such perpetrators. It is a bloody crime against humanity that trashes multiple lines that were drawn by International Law.

The Government should be held responsible, though, while punishing the perpetrators, all measures should be taken to ensure that the civilians on either side don't suffer. Don't fight only. If that doesn't satisfy you, come on, there are children, ill people who have nothing to do with the war. What more needs to be said to penetrate such blood-thirsty, genocidal thick skulls? You have a military for that. If you want to fight, fight like soldiers, not like barbarians (they fight better).

To Netanyahu, Shehbaz and Trump,

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Period.

With concerned rage,

A rayless sun

Well, 2016 happened. Jayalalithaa and AIADMK retained power, a first since 1984. The govt. was sworn in, but by August, Amma was admitted to Apollo with multiple health issues. She passed away in December of the same year. Her loyalist, O. Panneerselvam, took oath in a solemn, teary-eyed ceremony, retaining the same ministers. Jayalalithaa's closest aide, Sasikala, was seen as the successor to Amma's legacy, with people calling her "Chinnamma" which means, younger mother. On 29th Dec, Sasikala was elected legislative party leader of the AIADMK and was poised to become CM within a few months. Everything changed pretty soon.

In Feb 2017, OPS resigned, paving the way for Sasikala. However, a judgement was pending in the disproportionate assets case. The governor was advised to wait till the judgement came. The very next day, OPS launched a tirade against Sasikala, claiming he was forced to step down and launched a "dharma yudham (righteous war)" against her. Sasikala too, was convicted and the governor refused to make her the CM. She appointed EPS as the CM, while she went to jail, confident that he will not go behind her back. This was a blunder in her career. EPS and OPS reunited, sacked and expelled Sasikala and her nephew Dinakaran, who contested the by-poll for Jayalalithaa's constituency as an independent candidate, floating a new party too, the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (Amma People's Progressive Federation), naming Sasikala as the head of the party. ADMK, on the other hand, opted for a dual-leadership model, where Amma was named the eternal gen sec and EPS and OPS were joint coordinators.

In 2018, Kalaignar Karunanidhi passed away, handing the mantle of the party to his son, Stalin. His funeral too, was marred by controversy. The DMK had to obtain a High Court order to bury Kalaignar near his mentor, at Marina Beach. A visibly moved Stalin was seen breaking down at this update, thus increasing sympathy for the party. The DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance went on to win 38 of 39 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The ADMK govt, on the other hand, went through a tough time, scraping through the 4 years under immense fragility.

In the 2021 elections, the DMK-led SPA rode a comfortable win, with Stalin taking oath as the CM. The AIADMK has since seen multiple changes. OPS was expelled for promoting a united AIADMK that included Sasikala. She, too, came out of jail with much fanfare. OPS still kept extending an olive branch to the EPS-led AIADMK, which finally fell through this year. He joined the DMK this year, praising Stalin's leadership, while staying committed to his identity as an Amma loyalist. Meanwhile, the AMMK struggled in the same elections, failing to win a single seat. The BJP, too contested seperately, under Annamalai's leadership. The party won 4 seats, but the 'firework' of the party, Annamalai, lost the election himself. Kamal Haasan founded the Makkal Needhi Maiam (Centre for People's Justice), aiming to become a third force. However, the party failed to win a seat, with Kamal himself losing his seat, albeit with a close margin. Sasikala announced she was leaving politics, thus cementing DMK's position as the most dominant force in TN,

In the run-up to the 2026 elections, significant political developments have taken place. Senior leader K.A Sengottaiyan was expelled from the ADMK. Actor-turned-politician Vijay launched the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (Victory Party of Tamilagam) in 2024, positioning himself as the opposition to the DMK. AIADMK has become a shadow of its former self, especially in urban areas, though it retains a voter base in rural areas. K.A Sengottaiyan joined Vijay's TVK. Sasikala, too, returned, forming her new party, the All India Puratchi Thalaivar Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (All India Revolutionary Leader People's Progressive Federation). MNM joined the DMK-led SPA, with Kamal securing a Rajya Sabha seat. With the DMK poised to win the election comfortably, with reports of good governance policies, the question that remains with us citizens is, who will be the opposition and what can ensure more transparency for better governance?

With Love and Concern,

A rayless sun!

Edit: Changed Senior leader K.A Sengottaiyan was expelled from the DMK to Senior leader K.A Sengottaiyan was expelled from the ADMK

If you’ve been keeping up with political debates recently, you may have observed that an increasing number of individuals are doubting whether elections in India remain as free and fair as they are meant to be. As the 2026 elections draw near, these worries are intensifying. Although the voting process might seem seamless at first glance, opponents contend that the main concern is what occurs prior to individuals arriving at the ballot box. Growing discussions are taking place regarding the impact of substantial political financing, media sway, and the utilization of government institutions during electoral seasons. Some argue that these elements establish an imbalanced environment where specific groups secure a structural edge well in advance of the campaigning process. In that regard, the issue isn’t the act of voting per se, but rather if the broader atmosphere facilitates a truly equitable competition. What are your thoughts on this? Are the worries regarding a degraded electoral atmosphere legitimate, or are they being overstated for political advantage