Salvatore Babones, 5 questions on India's global rankings, the good, bad & some ugly

Who is Salvatore Babones, the sociologist who said,'India's intellectual class is anti-India' at the India Today Conclave? Are some International ratings unfair & who takes these seriously? Watch Episode 1110 of Cut The Clutter where ThePrint Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta explores five questions behind India's global rankings, the good, bad, ugly.

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[arindambaisya]

Salvatore is absolutely correct and he defends his ideas very coherently. Sitting in the US, I have had the opportunity of a 3rd eye view of our nation, and his words hit home. I agree completely to what he said. Janta is no longer so bewakoof that truth tellers can be "soft canceled" by 'institutions'.

[kd]

The fact the print didn't even bother to make videos on the wire meta story but instead make an entire episode of a person's comments shows how much disturbed and frustrated the intellectuals and their sidekicks are 😂😂😂😂😂

[vish_globalist]

Good to see the pushback Mr Gupta is getting from his audience. Salvotre's message is simple really -
There are double standards & cherry picking in data by different rankings & organizations. India has to fight for it's narrative. Unfortunately a lot of Indians/expats of indian origin still look for validation from US/western Europe. They ignore the double standards or knowingly support it to get ahead in their career or adopted country.

[sumityt]

I watched the full interview of Dr. Salvatore Babones and whatever he said was completely logical, fact-based and data driven. I couldn't stop laughing when Gupta ji said he is not an intellectual. Gupta ji is the very definition of what we call intellectuals in India. It's not about being gyaanee. Indian intellectuals are the people who create a facade of credibility and moral authority and push their own opinion to gullible people. This is done with cherry picking half baked "facts" and "figures" and a misleading analysis. They don’t necessarily have bad intent. They think they can improve the country with their criticism. When I was young and lived in Kolkata during late 80's and early 90s, I used to see the same type of intellectuals protesting on the street against free market policies and demanding banning computers in banks. They used to think they are doing a great intellectual service to the nation. Same way today's Indian intellectuals think they are doing great service by being anti-India and demonising the nation.

[yuvrajsingh-pwst]

As a stats student I know that how datas are manipulated to achieve a certain agenda driven goal.
It's nice to see salvatore here.

[vijayaditya]

Gupta ji going from “who cares “ to trying to clutter it carefully . Lage rahoo Gupta ji. He was talking anout people like you only.

[sivamahesh]

I think that Aus gentleman busted somany balloons with one line of shot😌😌

[AlohaKudla]

When the professor said "Indian intellectuals are anti-India" it was like a light bulb moment for me and majority of Indians. As an engineer we never had politics in college, it was entirely education related. But a friend who is poli-sci major who went to premier uni said that politics is completely dominated by left ideological groups and parties. They hardly attend classes and protest on miniscule issues, be it Indian or world affairs issue. He said the issue is not much different in US where he did masters. There he never mentioned that he is practising Hindu to his classmates. US universities are becoming den for anti-semites and anti-Hindus

[bhavanishankarchappa]

Ha ha, Finally Sekhar Gupta sir tries so hard to explain to us that freedom in India has deteriorated under Modi. He is the intellectual class of India that Dr Salvador describes.

[ronny]

I come from one of the poorest state in India. Visited my village after 14 years. Found my village has economically grown big time, better roads, almost 24x7 electricity, there are more cars and motorbikes, almost every body has Pucca house. No body is hungry, nutrionally people are doing much better.
So whatever press says- nobody believes it. People can see by themselves.

[knightatdawndonbynight]

Kato that ranks India at 119th in their Freedom Index also ranks Hongkong at 30th, Hungary at 59th, South Africa at 77th (try to test your freedom by walking alone in the streets of Johannesburg), Nepal at 84th, Bhutan at 98th (a demographically less diverse theocratic monarchy, more like a hybrid regime with a form of Buddhism as state religion- try to test freedom in Bhutan by confronting the monarchic form of system and by seeking dissolution of the status of state religion), Kazakhstan at 106th, Sierra Leone at 111th (its current president is a former military junta leader, very nice resumé to start with), Sri lanka at 112th.

[ocs]

He is not only a sociologist, but also has a masters in statistics. So he has the ability and qualifications to analyse the data put out. He also said that the raw data is collected by some agencies, which is then processed by the rating institutions. And instead of repeatedly saying they no one bothers about these rankings, it would have been better if you had instead said which rankings matter. These agencies spend a lot of money and time to bring these lists, so they must be catering to some customers/ audiences who are willing to pay for them. So who are these customers/ audiences? A very big question, which SG did not bother to answer.
One clarification on the ' foreign agent' tag of the Professor, by Australia and the US. These countries have a law that anyone working for a foreign government, which has the possibility of influencing their respective Public opinion, such persons have to register as ' Foreign agent'. SG conveniently glossed over this important information, and fubbed his way through. Even though the Institute/ organisation the professor worked for as a consultant might/ might not be funded by the government, the least SG could have done is to clarify if it was.

[aks]

1. Shekhar didn't ask the most important question that Barbones raised - whether some intellectuals are anti India.
2. Shekhar says no-one cares about these ratings and then goes on to dedicate half the video on a new rating :-)

[manishadwani]

Wait a second... How on earth can same_sex relationship ratings be @ 10 when homosexuality was literally criminalised, suddenly in 2014 halfed to 5.0 and didn't improve when the SC struck down section 377 ?

[astee.]

one man with logic and maths on his side has ratteled them world over.

[Vaderk]

SG unhyphenated journalism is no different than wire, WaPo, NYT. They all are joined at hip with common goal.

[firstsparkle]

Shekhar Gupta became so defensive in its analysis after Salvatore explanation...

[MUMBAIKAR_ADITYA]

According to intellectuals
BJP bringing UCC is More Communal other than Liberal.
Where GOA has UCC for Centuries
Which is Religion & gender Neutral !!
How perfectly He Attacked Islamists Gang of India Who Try to show Anti BJP
But end up showing Anti India
Pro Pakistan Image !!

[sankalp]

There are systematic efforts to sully India globally often carried out by obedient "Brown Sepoys". TheWire's Siddharth Varadarajan with his fake Meta story ran anti-India propaganda for a year. Ashok Swine is a prime example of an "anti-India" foreign-based intellectual. Salvatore Babones disrobed this class in an open gathering. Interestingly, whether in physical or verbal confrontations, Rajdeep Sardesai is always the punching bag.

[biswaroopmaiti]

25:22 *** Freedom of Assembly *** How is this 5.3? The way the farm movement continued for months and other marches, gheraos that keep going on every year, I would think this should be at a 10.0 Countries like UK and Canada beat down on such farmer assemblies within days, if not hours. Isn't this farcical?