This Weekend I Pause - But Drishtikone Expands with Vishleshan

Dear Readers,

I hope you are all doing well. I want to take a brief pause this weekend.

A small but much-needed break to recharge, reflect, and return with deeper clarity.

Creating Drishtikone each week is a privilege I cherish, and your steady support, engagement, and encouragement have been my greatest source of motivation.

I am truly grateful for every message, every share, and every moment you spend reading these thoughts.

This short break is simply a moment of rejuvenation so that I can come back with sharper insights and stronger writing.

Drishtikone has always been about depth, nuance, and understanding the world beyond the noise. Sometimes, stepping back for a breath helps strengthen that commitment.

In the meantime, I’m delighted to share something new. I have launched a fresh program on the Drishtikone TV YouTube channel — Vishleshan (means analysis in Hindi).

It’s a regular analytical series where I break down the political, geopolitical, and cultural currents shaping India and the world.

Each episode is crafted in the same spirit as this newsletter: clear reasoning, historical context, and unapologetic honesty.

I invite you to watch, subscribe, and share your feedback. The aim is to build a thoughtful community that engages beyond headlines and hashtags.

Thank you once again for being part of this journey. I’ll resume the newsletter after the weekend, refreshed and energized, and I look forward to continuing our exploration of the world with you.

Warm regards,
Desh

Lies of RJ Sayema on Jihad and Kafir

The debate around the meaning of “Jihad” and “Kafir” has been deliberately softened in recent years, reduced to feel-good phrases and Instagram-friendly interpretations.

But beneath these modern narratives lies a vast, uncompromising tradition of classical Islamic jurisprudence. Textual, detailed, and completely at odds with today’s whitewashed explanations.

In this Vishleshan episode, we examine how public figures like RJ Sayema project a comforting reinterpretation of Islamic concepts, while the foundational texts of Maududi, Sayyid Qutb, Deoband, Ibn Rushd, and classical lexicons such as Lisan al-Arab and Tāj al-‘Arūs define Jihad and Kafir in ways dramatically different from the modern PR version. These interpretations are not fringe—they shaped the doctrinal backbone of global jihadist movements from the Taliban to Al-Qaeda.

This episode asks the uncomfortable but necessary question:

Victims of terror deserve honesty. Truth does not lie in selective reinterpretation—it lies in confronting the canon itself.

Watch the full breakdown and decide for yourself.

Kashmir Times SIA Raids

The recent SIA raid on the Jammu office of Kashmir Times has exposed a troubling dimension of India’s information landscape—one that goes far beyond the standard “press freedom vs state power” debate.

Inside a supposedly “shut for years” media office, officers recovered AK-47 cartridges, pistol ammunition, and grenade levers.

These are not symbols of journalism; they are markers of an ecosystem where media spaces may be doubling as logistical nodes for networks India has long underestimated.

In this Vishleshan episode, we examine not just the raid, but the reflexive narrative machinery that activated within minutes: activists, NGOs, and sections of the press instantly reframed the incident as “authoritarian overreach,” completely bypassing the question that should concern any responsible democracy—why was ammunition found in a newsroom?

The investigation’s timing also intersects with the ongoing NIA probe into the Red Fort blast module, which was experimenting with drone-based terror tactics. The possibility of a coordinated propaganda or support network cannot be dismissed.

This case forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth: India is now facing a multi-layered information war, where journalism, activism, and foreign strategic interests often intersect in dangerous ways. We owe it to ourselves to examine this without filters or fear.

Facts on SIR process shared

The political storm unfolding around Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is not a debate on democracy—it is a crisis of credibility for the Opposition.

Over the past weeks, Opposition parties have aggressively framed SIR as a sudden, suspicious, and politically motivated move.

But the historical and institutional record tells a very different story.

SIR is not new. It is not experimental. And it is certainly not a Bihar-specific conspiracy.

The Election Commission has carried out multiple nationwide intensive revisions since the 1950s, including full-scale clean-ups in 1983–84, 1992–93, and 2002–04.

Both Bihar and West Bengal underwent major SIR exercises two decades ago. The legal basis is crystal-clear: Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act empowers the ECI to order an intensive revision whenever rolls accumulate dead, duplicate, or shifted entries.

That is exactly what happened in 2025. Bihar’s voter rolls had swollen with millions of invalid names—deceased voters, duplicate entries, and outdated records. The moment this artificial inflation was removed, the Opposition’s electoral arithmetic collapsed. And so emerged a desperate attempt to delegitimise the process itself.

This episode of Vishleshan dismantles the fiction, exposes the fakery, and brings forward the uncomfortable truth: a clean roll threatens only those whose politics depend on a dirty one.