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Time of India
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Return of Saudagar
Arnab Ray is the author of "May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss" and "The Mine". He blogs at and can be followed at @greatbong. Megalomaniacs turn up the heat, we grab the popcorn We always knew this day would come – the epic fallout between the richest man in the world and the most powerful. A bromance between megalomaniacs was never built to last. As a recovering Bollywood addict, I can't help but think of Saudagar (1991). Like the film's titans – Veeru Singh (Dilip Kumar) and Rajeshwar Singh (Raaj Kumar) – Trump and Musk have transformed from best friends to blood enemies. Remember when they danced through metaphorical meadows plotting to dismantle old empires, singing 'Is jangal main hum do sher, chal ghar jaldi crypto beche pher?' – Kings of the jungle cooking crypto gravy. Musk once declared he loved Trump 'as much as a straight man can love a man'. Trump gave him magical powers beyond any law. Then came the schemers. Chuniya (played by JD Vance – sorry, Amrish Puri) and Baliram (played by Steve Bannon – sorry again, Gulshan Grover) set fire to the friendship. Suddenly accusations fly. Veeru hints at Epstein files, Rajeshwar threatens federal contracts. Somewhere, Dilip Kumar delivers the killer line: 'Hum tumhe marenge aur zaroor marenge, lekin woh kanoon bhi humara hoga, policy bhi humari hogi, aur waqt bhi humara hoga' – We will get you, law is ours, policy is ours, time will be ours. The only suspense? Who 'humara' will be – MAGA or the billionaire oligarch libertarian cabal battling for America's future. Today's kids won't know the joy of front-row seats at Priya cinema, but they can re-experience Saudagar by logging onto X and Truth Social to watch these ex-yaars hurl insults and subpoenas. Musk now hints at bankrolling Trump's opposition, declaring: 'Jab Musk dosti nibhata hai, toh Starlink free kar deta hai. Aur jab dushmani karta hai, toh blue checkmarks chheen leta hai' – In friendship he gave free Starlink, in feud he will take away the blue tick. Trump's flex isn't far behind. 'Yeh Thakur Trump, itihaas batata naheen, executive order likhta hai' – Forget history, Thakur writes executive orders. Will they reconcile in the third act? Will Chuniya twirl his hair and whisper 'Balirama, telephone kat kar, Tesla ko short kar' – Let's start shorting Tesla. Who knows. All I know is I'm grabbing popcorn for this battle royale. As they said in Saudagar, 'There is no worse enemy than a man who was once a friend.' Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Time of India
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
The right word: Terrorist
Arnab Ray is the author of "May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss" and "The Mine". He blogs at and can be followed at @greatbong. On Pahalgam and the West's 'militant' bias Words matter. The progressive liberati tell us they matter so much that your survival as a decent human being depends on being sensitive enough to correctly gender a houseplant on social media. Nouns, adjectives and pronouns must be treated with the reverence accorded to ancient artifacts found at an archaeological dig. You would imagine that when Hindus are hunted down and murdered in Pahalgam, Kashmir – murdered for the crime of existing – then NYT would deploy that same obsessive precision. Surely, they would reach for a familiar, correct word, the word they use for the perpetrators of 9/11. You know, terrorists. But no. When Hindus die, the term that gently floats down is 'militant' – a word so gloriously beige that it sounds like someone got a bit rowdy at a PTA meeting. 'Militant' – not a monster, not a butcher – just a spirited political activist with poor anger management. Makes you wonder if the target of their attack were soldiers and tanks…or families on vacation. Spoiler: it was families. Jacques Derrida – patron saint of people who quote books they've never finished – taught us that language encodes hidden power structures. Well, here's an easy one: when Western media call terrorists 'militants', it's because Hindus, in their worldview, can never be victims. Hindus are cast as permanent oppressors, with violence against them cast as 'punching up'. No different than storming the Bastille – violence, sure, but to be seen in the larger context of historical justice, or, wait, there is a word for it, karma. There is a side-show of clowns that enable this, pushing a pseudo-academic thread of messaging, namely that Hinduphobia isn't real. It's a 'constructed term', they say, from the comfort of panel discussions that smell faintly of Sauvignon Blanc and moral cowardice, used by Hindu fascists to protest when the chickens come home to roost – or militants come to do their 'militanty' things. Terror exists. All religions are targeted where they are in the minority. Some groups, though, get murdered twice: first by bullets and again by the slow suffocation of their truth. Meanwhile, their killers get to keep their moral alibi, polished and gleaming, courtesy of Western media houses. Yes, words matter, especially when they come from organisations of influence. It's long past time we used the right words. And called out those who do not. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
