The Power Structure

As the election is getting closer, the Congress Party is working feverishly to protect its turf. They have not yet anointed the chosen ‘one’. Perhaps out of fear that they are about to get trounced in the election and they want to protect their brand, the Gandhi brand. Or maybe they have some grandstanding gesture up their sleeves akin to recent ordinance bill drama that will launch Rahul Gandhi in a positive light. Their recent maneuvers like freeing Mulayam Singh, imprisoning Lalu etc. are little confusing to me. I mean the Congress Party owns the government, they own the bureaucracy, they brazenly toy with the law and with the Supreme Court verdicts; they own CBI and they even own the media. It is really hard to beat them. If they win enough seats, around 200, then the Lalu’s and Mulayam will flock to them anyways.  Not sure what are they worried about!

Perhaps, Narendra Modi?

I always wonder how the Congress Party survives. The sycophancy, the moral, ethical and mental corruption, general lack of creativity and inability to keep up with the changing times should have obliterated the party long time ago.  Instead it got second wind ten years ago and it’s still kicking strong. The dynasty of Gandhi has been pretty successful.  They took advantage of parliamentary politics and used the dictatorial powers where necessary. Except for brief period of Shastri and Narsimharao government, these Gandhis have maintained absolute strong hold over Congress party. So much so that it is hard to believe that Congress party was the political voice of India before independence.  

How do you create a dynasty and maintain the power? First you destroy your enemies and win the ultimate seat of power. Then, you ruthlessly and efficiently weed out any internal opposition and create divisions among the rest. And finally, you create a system of favors and kick-backs that balances the contesting interest and ensure your supreme authority. Mind you achieving these targets is not easy. Especially the last part of granting favors appropriately is a very tough act. Once you figure out the balancing act, the results can be fabulous though. You have uncontested power that attracts money, which in turn, gives you more power to rule and dole out favors. The whole structure props itself up. Not a bad position to be! The Gandhis did exactly that with the Congress party.

The party of Congress soon became party of Nehru and Gandhis after independence. Jawaharlaal Nehru wasn’t the most popular by any stretch nor was he competent. But he was Mahatma Gandhi’s favorite and in pre-independence era that’s all it mattered. So Nehru was forced India as our first Prime Minster. So the first part of dynastic politics – grabbing power, was made easy for Gandhis ironically by another Gandhi.  What followed was systematic destruction of anything resembling democracy in the party. Nehru and his progenies became de-facto leaders. For example, Nehru installed Indira Gandhi as chief of Congress Party in 1958 in spite of presence of senior leadership in the party. There after the party slowly descended from party of people to private properly of Gandhis. Nehru-Gandhis became the rulers of India and Congress party became the instrument to rule.  Allegiance and prostration to Gandhi’s became primary criteria to survive and thrive in the Party. Their favors will get anyone a Lok-Sabha seat, a plum position in the government and open doors of riches for you. If you are in their good books you are sort of ‘made man’.  

Important to note here is that such submission was always by choice. No one has asked Manmohan to be who he is or to be in a position that he is. Sonia Gandhi did him a favor by choosing him as her Prime Minister over others and in return Manmohan will do anything to please her. Same applies to all sycophants from the era of Indira Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi.  The latest example is of Digvijay Singh, the erstwhile Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. His ticket back to power is to stoop to any depths for Rahul Gandhi. His erratic, borderline anti-national statements are well planned to deflect any attention on the government failures and on Gandhi family. For his services he will be awarded at least a cabinet minister position if Congress is to come to power.

There is no wonder that these folks, the party, Gandhis and scores of beneficiaries of this structure hate Narendra Modi to the core. These people are enjoying fruits of power for last ten years. The Vajpayee era was bad for these folks, no power, no avenues to siphon money, nothing else to do. It took certain amount of luck to come back to power after Mr. Vajpayee. They ain’t gonna let power slip through their fingers easily. The systemic ways CBI was used to prosecute certain individuals while exonerating others is just the beginning. The ‘system’ will be in full force before election to ensure return of Gandhis to the power. 

Narendra Modi was never part of any system, he carries no sycophants or‘chamachas’ in his back pocket, he is incorruptible, he has no family history and no intention to establish dynastic politics. He is a shrewd politician who understands the necessities of playing dirty politics and he has huge mass appeal. In short he is anti-thesis of what Congress party and Gandhis stands for. Since he does not belong to the system, he has the best chance to beat the odds. I hope he does exactly that.

The Cash, The Caste and The Election

The next general election is around the corner. Technically there is at least one more year to ago but there may be an early call for the election or perhaps, the government will crumble before that. In any case the country is in so much misery that I sincerely hope that Congress party is booted out. Our Prime Minister, the so called economist, never had any grip over governance. It was never any secret that he lacks political acumen, oratory or rudimentary leadership skills but what was surprising was his lack of understanding in economics and financial sector. He royally messed up Indian economy and it will take years to come out of hole he dug for us. The FDI is in shambles, the infrastructure is miserable, the rupee is coming down the pike with no breaks and the inflation is through the roof. Now economy is not an exact science, I know. You can argue about one aspect by justifying the measures taken for other aspect. But when you screw everything in one go, especially when the economic engine Manmohan inherited was roaring and ready to shift to next gear, then either the folks at the helm are illiterate and incompetent and/or corrupt. I can vouch that Manmohan is not an illiterate; I have seen him reading his speeches. And, I am tired of typing incompetent, corrupt and Manmohan in same sentence.

Did we talk about the foreign policy? Don’t get me started on that topic. An unmitigated disaster!  He pushed India’s standing downwards, he demoralized the troops and he should be held partly responsible for all the terrorist attacks that killed scores of innocent folks in last ten years.

Even I.K Gujral and H.D. Dewe Gowada are thinking “Man…I was better than this!”

As if that wasn’t enough the shrill election rhetoric of Congress party is deafening and disorienting. The nerve to whitewash the failures, the audacity to put country second to their personal gains is mind-numbing. How many times they will talk about communalism? I guess till the cows come home. And cows won’t ever come home because they have already sold’em to the butchers.

For an outsider observer the only topic on the agenda seems to be communalism and secularism. There is a whole industry – media, politicians and the so-called experts, feeding families on this topic. But winning election is little more complicated than honking communalism horns! The two big C that caste wide shadow over election is Cash and Caste. It is incredible to see how government of India over last sixty years aggressively tried to eradicate caste system and yet, how powerful the system remains. Folks still vote along the caste lines. A political party has to be aware of caste equations and field candidate accordingly. Of course, opposition party also fields a candidate from that caste. So pandering for caste votes begins. Throwing goodies like reservation policies, job quotas etc. ensues. It’s a downward spiral from there. Since development of any sort is not on anyone’s mind the country as a whole suffers while caste identities remain deeply entrenched.

The cash is of course necessary for running an election campaigning. You need bundles of it for holding large rallies, for TV advertisements, for banners but aside from that, cash is king in a very old fashioned way. You can buy votes with cash. Cash can be distributed for votes or bribe the official who count the votes. Bam, problem solved!

I recently watched Mr. Modi’s rebuttal to the government on food security bill. Now, if Congress party was in opposition then they would simply resort to food security bill being communal. No need to read the bill or suggest any changes, no need to educate the voters. Nothing! The bill is communal and they would rest their case. On the other hand, Mr. Modi methodically and objectively shed light on the aspects of the bill. I for one did not know anything about the bill. Though I knew the bill must be full of typical Manmohan crap since any bill he proposes is usually bulls%^t. But when I watched Mr. Modi’s speech I realized why the bill is such a bad idea. In short Mr. Modi did what he was supposed to do. He studied a topic and presented its nuances to the voters. He tried to educate the voters rather than just pandering for their votes. Let the voters decide how he/she wants to proceed on the bill; politician’s job is to present the contrasting views. There are scores of such videos where Mr. Modi elucidates on various topics. There is nothing communal about it! This is a prime example of constructive opposition. Whether you agree with him or not, you know more about a topic than before. You have better tools to make decision than before. He is not trying to fool you or woo you. He respects your intelligence and asks you to make sensible choice by providing more information. Obviously, by providing more information he negates Caste and Cash effects. Voters will start voting on the issues rather than for the candidate. In short, voters will be empowered.

This is all bad for the Congress party and for Manmohan since he doesn’t like empowering people. Manmohan likes enrichment; self-enrichment that is!

It’s a long way to go before Mr. Modi gets elected. He will still have to cautiously tread along the caste line. He will still have to raise tons of money. He will still have to do back-hand deals to garner votes. But he shows glimpse of what and how things are supposed to be. 

Wanted: An Orator Visionary!

A friend of mine recently shared an old video of famed Marathi literary write P. L. Deshpande (Pu. La.) and former Prime Minster of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Both of them were attending a public function to celebrate life and works freedom fighter V.D. Savarkar (Veer Savarkar) in Pune. The video doesn’t have a date on it but based on reference to Shahabano verdict by Pu. La. I think the function took place in later part of 80’s. That decade was full of upheaval. The democratically elected dictatorship of Indira Gandhi, met ghastly end, rise of Rahul Gandhi Version 1 i.e. Rajiv Gandhi and his subsequent fall, rise of Mandal era along with coalition politics. On the international front, India was to lose thousands of soldiers in ill-fated IPKF mission and the Kashmir terrorism was about to enter the bloodiest phase. In short, the decade highlighted the complete political and ideological failure of Indian leaders.

The function was a treat to ears and to the soul. On one hand was a literary giant whose positive impact on Marathi is unquestionable. However, in this context, his other quality – he was a free thinker who did not let the traditions or social norms restrict his mind was in full galore. And then there was Vajpayee ji – who obviously need no introduction - a true leader, a true statesman, a true visionary and a true politician who always played politics for the sake of betterment than self-enrichment. But the most important characteristic of these two individuals was that they were orators of highest quality.

One more point to note from the perspective of their views on Savarkar – Pu.LA was avowed atheist and Vajapayee ji , theist who strongly believed in cultural norms, traditions and history. It is a testament to Savarkarian thoughts that in spite of coming from opposite spectrum both Pu. La. and Vajapayee ji could seamlessly paint a narrative on Savarkar.

These two giants played a role of a leader through their oratory. On the stage,  both of these individual not only succinctly captured life and thoughts of Savarkar but they also presented solutions of current issues that India was facing.

One of the key feature of a leader is his / her ability to educate and inspire the masses. Pu. La. and Vajapyee ji weaved the essence of Savarkar’s ideology and philosophy with current issues in simple terms and forced audience to introspect. Some folks are just born good in oration. It comes natural to them. Others have to work on the skill. From the perspective of leadership is not only essential but it is the hallmark of a leader. There are two key qualities a leader should possess – one, to synthesize information, map it to their experience and then see the big picture correctly. And second, it’s their duty elucidate an idea to the masses in inspiring words – the idea that for most purposes is incomprehensible to most. Add years of experience and the words gain weight of wisdom.

India was full of such leaders in 80’s and 90’s. Oration was mandatory in political circles. Whether it was chaste Hindi of Vajapayee ji or Advani ji or Bihari Hindi Lalu, holding tens of thousands of people spell bound was quite common. But something happened in last decade and half and suddenly there is absolute dearth of orator leaders. Apart from notable exceptions like L. K. Advani, Narendra Modi and Sushama Swaraj I don’t think there is any political leader left in India who can mesmerize the crowd. Sadly this speaks to the sorry state of current politics.

I remember going to a general election rallies in my hometown. The rally featured both L.K. Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Unfortunately, Vajyapee ji couldn’t attend but Advani ji spoke for more than half an hour without any notes or prompting. I couldn’t even see him from where I was standing. But his elocution, his impeccable command on Hindi and his vision for our country transfixed me. His words were full of integrity, character and truthfulness. It was an election rally so general political gimmicks were obvious yet he managed to present an idea on how we can achieve greatness as a nation A person with incorruptible character, his words carried weight of his achievements. I have watched many of Vajpayee ji’s videos yet I still rue my misfortune of not listening to him live.

The current ruling party, it should rather be called as ruling mafia, lacks public speakers of even rudimentary caliber. This is not only because majority of these folks do not know what to say unless prompted by high command but also because they do not have anything worthwhile to say. They have achieved nothing and they have no principals but to sit at the feet of high command. They do not have any experiences that can enrich anyone’s life and they do not have any vision to inspire anyone. They know they do not serve the people but rather rule them. Have you heard of any of the British rulers or viceroys being great public speakers? No, because they never had to. They ruled us, we were their slaves. You don’t need to lead your slaves; you don’t have to inspire them. You don’t have to make their life better. All you do is to make sure they work hard, punish them if they don’t and crush them if they try to be independent.

In 80’s and early 90’s, the Congress leaders at least had decency to make tall claims in public rallies. I remember Rajiv Gandhi making grandstanding statements like ‘Garibi Hatao’.  They would lie but at least had guts to stand in front of people to do so. Now, they simply publish a press report or plant fake, paid news through the newspapers. The Rahul Gandhi show is such a sorry state in spite of ‘arranged’ positive press coverage, that people are simply ignoring it. Gone are the days of political gimmicks where one of these Gandhi would at least sweat in sun to lie in front of crowd. Yesterday government proceeded to publish a laughable report about how poverty has been reduced in last six years. Our ‘economist’ Prime Minster did not even bother to talk about it. Of course, he is timid and mute but still quite clever. So instead of actually reducing poverty by raising income, standards of living, education and health index etc. he simply changed the definition of poverty. So now, only beggars are officially below poverty but if you are working and yet struggling to provide even basic food to your family or send kids to a decent public school where they can actually learning something then tough luck folks, you are fucked! Didn’t you read the report?

I digressed but I can’t stop myself from ranting about current state of Indian government. My point is that political situation in India is so dire that there is a serious want of good leader who is a visionary, a well-read and accomplished individual, who knows how India breaths, who knows our history, our culture, who can lay out our problems, treat all of us like sensible individual, who can enthrall a crowd with his oration, who can lay-out our future and then lead us.

Mod ji, we definitely, certainly, unquestionably, 100% need you. 

The End Of An Era

The news didn’t hit me hard as expected. The unraveling started last year when offered with more money Ray still opted to play with the Heat. That did not feel right. KG, Paul and Rajon were still there but without Ray it just did not feel right. I expected some important players to join the team over the summer but that did not happen. Jason certainly is a good player but one, he is past his prime and second, well, he ain’t Ray! I didn’t know much about Courtney then and don’t know much about him now. He went into hiding the moment he joined the team. Apart from these two additions there wasn’t much worth mentioning. Danny screwed up quite a bit here.

The session started alright. Typical Celt style, always catching up! I kept my horses tied and waited for the ‘shit just real’ moment that would typically announce start of Celtics session in last Jan or Feb. That moment never showed up. Instead, Rajon’s ACL quit on him. And she took whatever left of the session. Yes, everyone knew that Cetls will play in the playoffs but everyone also knew that they won’t beat anyone there. Their ranking (8^th) for majority of the session was, unfortunately, absolutely spot-on.. They still beat the Heat once and came awfully close to beating them again (and breaking Heat’s record win streak) but that has more to do with indomitable spirit of KG and Paul than anything else. Them old dogs knew where’s the bone! The whole affair felt like last rites, placidly going in the ground. No last hurrah, no heroic wins, no more comebacks. Once proud bunch slowly fading into past.

I couldn’t watch their games anymore. Irrespective of their brief rejuvenation in Game 4, the series against Knicks was painful. It was time to draw curtains.

The Celtics era of 2008-2013 was so intertwined with my stay in Boston their demise feels personal. I moved to Boston a month after KG and Ray showed up on the banks of Charles. I was entering into a relatively stable stage in my life and had more time and enthusiasm for basketball again. Watching Celtics 2007-08 was magical. They played the game in truest fashion. Their defense was a clinic presented every game and their offense, though always in need of spark, worked utterly efficient. Rajon was still learning his trade but he was still the master. KG was a year away from parting with his ACL, Paul was still couple of years removed from old age. And Ray, well, was Ray. Their championship run was well deserved. They were the best, hands down.

As I engrained myself into Celtics culture, the team continued to provide wholesome entertainment. They never won championship, coming awfully close twice; it was a treat watching them. And even though I moved to west coast I continued to bleed green.

Last year’s loss to Heat in game 7 was excruciatingly painful to stomach. I guess in hindsight that was indeed the last hurrah. This year was one year too much. There was no way the group would have continued. I expected changes but still, I didn’t expect all of my folks to leave in haste. They didn’t even say Bye. They were just gone taking an era with them.

So long my friends, you were the best! Thanks for the memories, I will always appreciate them.

The Great Fix!

The news was not expected, to me at least. It was impossible to argue, in spite of lack of concrete evidence, that IPL is not rigged. It turned out to be worse than I thought. My feeling was that the tournament was fixed from the top i.e. the administration is fixing the results to suit them. And though I think that still is the case (Chennai’s team is owned by chief of BCCI, how fucked up that conflict of interest has to be!), it has emerged that even players were fixing the games. I do not think the trio currently in bind are the only ones. Two of the players are virtually unknown to have any effect on the results on sustained basis. The fixing goes down deeper, the so called super-stars have to be involved.

It is a batsman’s game. The fixing plan, as per Delhi Police, was bowlers will leak out pre-determined number of runs in a particular over. There was an elaborate system to signal bookies about the players where bowlers were going to ‘take a dive’. But if batsman refuses to hit the bowl, even if the delivery is mother of all lose delivery then what? Also, what if batsman is dumb enough to get out or mishit and gets caught? Also, if two of the bowlers in question were at best fringe players for their respective state teams. If they had this kind of precision to leak the runs then they would be fucking playing for India by now. The only way this plan would work is if batsman was also part of the fix. The bowler will throw a dumb delivery and batsman, knowing this, will hit for the boundary.

Can anyone please ask these questions to the cops? Oh right, the media and the press already work for BCCI and IPL, they will summarily bury this issue in a week or so.  

Even if these bowlers had not got caught, the signs of IPL being fixed are all over the place. The teams are structured haphazardly; the ownerships are shrouded in mystery and the source of funding is murky. If that wasn’t enough then BCCI administration was transitioning into a political organization headed by one of the most corrupt politician in the country. Do you think he really gave a shit about Cricket? He saw the opportunity to siphon money and he jumped in with his two feet. His cotire is who’s who of power and money and IPL was their call to duty.

The prices of teams were beyond wildest imagination. To give readers some perspective – NBA's Boston Celtics was sold to new owners in 2001 for around $340 Million. The team has highest number of championships in the history of NBA; they were the pioneers of employing black players and hiring a black coach. They won unprecedented 9 championships in a row, the feat hasn’t been accomplished again. They, in short, defined Basketball and NBA. On the other hand, Pune’s IPL sold for the same price with virtually no history in IPL and no solid future plan. And, I am discounting the fact that Boston is in US where $ is the currency while Pune is in India where Rs. Is the currency and $1 is equivalent to Rs.55 that means the you have to multiply $340 by  55 to get the valuation of team in Rupee.

Okay…I will stop here….what I meant to say is this shit is fucked up!

I have already ranted about how IPL is ruining Indian cricket. It was befuddling to see players like Sehwag and Gambhir throw away their privilege of playing for India, just so that they could earn more money playing in IPL. By the way, playing for India does earn them millions of dollars (again multiply it by 55 to get their real income in Rupee!) I argued that lure of money shouldn’t be a reason for them to act like this and I also said that this precedent will kill Cricket. I didn’t realize that these players have sold their soul for money.

To be honest all of this doesn’t matter as long as public is flocking to watch the games and flock they will! If we don’t demand honesty then we will only get crooks, if we don’t demand commitment then we will only get money mongers. We get what we deserve, nothing more nothing less!

Kai Po Che - An Alternate Version!

Recently tried to watch Kai Po Che. I didn’t finish it. I couldn’t. I could see how the movie will unfold within first half and hour. I was enraged. But it wouldn’t be sincere to criticize a movie without watching it. So I read the movie synopsis and guess what, I was furious!
 
The movie quality was excellent. The actors played their role sincerely and direction had a purpose. Overall a quality product. But the movie wasn’t a typical run of the mill love story for me to let it go. The subject wasn’t benign. The story is written by Chetan Bhagat, one of the most popular modern day English language author in India. I have never read any of his material but the movie he wrote was such a farce.
 
To say the truth was twisted is an overwhelmingly understatement.
 
When I first heard that the story is set at the backdrop of 2001 Gujarat Riots, I knew the ‘secular’ bias will creep in. It wasn’t simply a story of friendship evolving amidst riots. The riots were central and the bias was essential to the story line. The oft littered Om’s, Swastika’s, photos of gods and goddesses, the backdrop of Temple in every frame, seemingly innocuous, had a dark motive. These symbolism was essential in communicating the‘Hindu conservative’ upbringing of the central characters. The main antagonist, a politician, is a pop culture misrepresentation of BJP/RSS/Shiv Sena leadership. He was portrayed in most negative light – a coward, corrupt and a power hungry anti-Muslim opportunist who would take advantage of his ‘bhanja’ in his nefarious design. I mean Hindi films usually portray mafia underworld in a positive light! Special sequence was created to emphasize the divisive nature of this Hindu politician when he purposefully helps only Hindus after the earthquake. On the other hand, Muslims are showed in best possible lights with no religious fundamentalism whatsoever. The burning of 60 Hindus in Godhra by Muslim mob was fleetingly mentioned as if it was a natural occurrence.

I am not saying Muslims should have shown in a negative light but to clearly demarcate between politicians with Hindu leanings being hell-bent on destroying the lives of peace loving, hard-working, and poor Muslims is a disgusting way of defining the secularism. I don’t think there’s any country in the world where the concept of secularism is disfigured as it is in India. The majority is hostage in their own country! (No, I am not saying minorities do not belong to this country. India is their country too but they are not special because of their religion.)  


The story was loyal to how media and the so called ‘secular’ politicians usually present the reality. The nuance of Hindu-Muslim interaction, their wretched history, the current political pandering for Muslim votes and Muslim communities increasing insistence on not taking advantage of advancing economy is purposefully neglected. The blame was put on Hindus for the riots and politicians with Hindu leanings were shown as conspiring against Muslims. A new reality was created out of thin air and packaged as a serious take of 2001 riots.

In any case, since when the fuck did Indians started caring about truth or reality?

How about an alternate story line: Three Muslim friends start a cricket academy. They spot a raw talent, a young boy with penchant for hitting sixes. He happens to be a Hindu. They started training him hard. They ensure that his training goes well in spite of many challenges (like earthquake and stuff!). Then the riots started. Awfulness ensued but these three Muslim youth protect our Hindu boy and his family. They fight against other Muslims in saving these Hindus and one of the friend dies heroically for the cause. Rest of the two friends then exposes the Muslim politicians and terrorist who burnt the Godhra train.

Anyone wants to produce this storyline? I will write the script for free!

The Reality Of History

I am almost 1/3 way ‘kindling’ “The People’s History of United States” by Howard Zinn. (I am copyrighting the term ‘Kindling’ i.e. reading a book on Kindle!) First time I learned about this book when Mr. Zinn was making at my college for a lecture. The book's been on my reading list since then. The book is a factual history of people and for people. The ‘people’ are the working class poor, the downtrodden, and the sufferers. The book presents history as is, without white-washing (literally!). And it surely does an admirable job. The book was written to counter the ‘official’ history popular with the masses and taught in the schools. I don’t know how American history book present their past but it is safe to assume that sharp edges are sawed-off and bloody aspects washed clean. It is hard to teach kids that the ‘land of free’ is built by systematically removing native Indians from their own land or enslaving millions of soul simply because of their skin color. It ain’t sexy, you know!

The premise of the book is that the country always excluded majority population from ruling and in essence, is not a true democracy. The rich and the powerful interests always governed and laws are structured to serve them. The blacks, native Indians, woman (all of them) and poor whites were systematically disfranchised right from the declaration of independence. Even the Civil War of 1861 was stimulated more by economic interests of rich than actual opposition to Slavery. (That is not to say there was no opposition to slavery. The north-eastern states had banned slavery for almost 100 years prior to civil war but if it wasn’t for necessity of opening of southern markets and emergence of western frontier, the emancipation of blacks would have been delayed further.)

I am currently going through the Civil War chapter.

I agree with this premise but to argue that true democracy is an ideal state is utopian. It never happened in human history and will not happen ever. The way human psyche works and responds, there’s always someone at the top taking advantage of others who are at the bottom. Garbs could be different; they may be Kings, rich barons, military dictators, monopolist industrialists or Priests. Revolution may throw the existing system but inherent structure remains the same. The human ambition forces people to coagulate, build, destroy, annihilate and rebuild again. There is no cure for this.

I am not trying to defend the actions of European settlers (or invaders!). Without a shred of moral hesitancy, they summarily annihilated all Native Americans. The Founding Fathers of United States proclaimed a grand-standing constitution granting freedom to everyone even though they had slaves and allowed the practice of slavery, disfranchised women and voting rights were based on property owned. I am not saying that these acts should not be criticized.

But there is no denying that this is how the world works and will continue to work. Unjust and violent

Back to the book!

The Syrian Quagmire

The Syria crisis is turning murky and bloody. The civil wars are always a bloody affair so no surprise there. In today’s world, resources – human or natural, play important role in defining the world order. On the contrary Syria which contributes pretty much nothing to the world is playing such an important role in defining the future conflicts. The Syrian situation is interesting because wide array of actors with diverse interests are jostling over this ancient land. Apart from the Basher al Assad, the dictator of Syria, we have Israel, US, the Sunni block (Saudi, Egypt, Jordan etc.), Iran and the Islamic fundamentalist - Al Quida types terrorist organizations - jostling for power in Syria.

Why so much is invested in this piece of land? As I said before this country does not product anything of use. The answer is its proximity to Israel. But this is easy to understand, right? Well, no, in terms of complexity things go downhill from here. The country has been under rule of Assad’s for last 40 years and like other Arab countries, Syria maintains bitter acrimony with Israel. The Assads are Alwaite, an Islamic sect like Shia’s and Sunnis. But majority – 86%, of Syrians are Sunnis. In order to maintain their power they actively feed off Iran for weapons and money. Iran, a Shia state, shares the hatred of Sunnis with Assads. And in order to increase their power in the Arab land Iran uses Syria as a base. Please bear with me as I go deeper in this rabbit hole. The Shias, sunnis and Alwaits share hatred for Israel. So to prove their Islamic credentials they do crazy shit to mess with Israel. The sunni block supports the Palestinian movement. It’s in their interest for Palestine not to form so that they can keep fighting proxy war with Israel. Iran, instead of going through the Palestine cause, supports terrorist organizations like Hezbollah. This terrorist organization is based out of Syria and Lebanon with stated aim of wiping Israel of world map.

In short, the Shia and Sunni block is fighting proxy war with each other by fighting proxy war with Israel through anti-Israel causes and terrorist organizations.

If you are familiar with the concept of Derivative, we are in the territory of double derivatives and about to enter the triple derivatives!

The situation, already dark, turns catastrophically complex when US brings its interest to the table. The Americans are least interested in Syria. The Syrian civil war has been going on for two years already. But three issues bring US to the table. One, they have to insert themselves in the any and every Middle-East situation when Israel is in the play. The Syrian civil war is too close to home for Israel to not to take a role. I am surprised it took them this long to start moving. The Syrians has held the Lebanon hostage for more than 25 years and had made that country a launching pad for attacking Israel. I would have expected Israel to be a major player in Syrian player long time ago.

The second factor is involvement of Iran. US is setting up stage for war in Iran for last three to four years. Under various pretexts, the Americans have been ratcheting up the military presence in Gulf of Homruz. This is making Iran uneasy, to say the least! But they be damned if they reduce their stupid-ass war mongering rhetoric.  With Syria though, Iran cannot afford to lose Assads since they invested so long and so much in them.  With Iran in play in Syrian war, Americans has to jump in the fray to neutralize them. Perhaps, Iran is trying to divert US’s attention away from them.

The third factor is the Islamic fundamentalists creeping into the Syrian war. The remnants of Al-Quida are still active in pockets across the world.  These fundamentalist morons thought they will run with the Iraq war but Americans busted their chops efficiently and comprehensively. Now the ‘left-overs’ are trying to hijack the Syrian war. They have sided with anti-Assad forces, at least for now. And if Assad is to be thrown out then they are hoping to use Syria their home for their grand ambition.

Suffice to say American’s are not happy with this play. They want Al-Quida and Co. dead and buried and I don’t mean that metaphorically! The American response to Syrian crises is limited to providing food and occasional intelligence tips to the rebels. But it won’t be long before we see a concrete in place.

The US policy decisions will impact the future conflict in the middle-east. Involvement of Americans in this conflict will decide whether they have enough political will and band-width to wage full-scale war with Iran. If the Assads are thrown out then Iran will lose a key ally and that may force them to de-escalate their rhetoric with Americans but if that’s to happen then it means Islamic fundamentalist would gain upper hand in Syria and which in turn will draw further attention of Americans. The Americans cannot side with Assads since Assads are supported by Iran but US cannot necessarily side with the rebels either since that means they will be helping the Islamic fundamentalist. Talk about to be or not to be!

It is mind-numbing and impossible to predict how the glass will break but one way or another civil war in this tiny and useless piece of land will reshape the middle-eastern geo-politics.

The New Yorker recently ran an extensive article on the effect of Syrian civil war on civilians. Tens of thousands have been killed in the war so far. The war is already gruesome but it’s taking turn for worse. Assad’s don’t give a fuck about anyone. They won’t mind killing everyone if that’s to mean they can cling to the power. They have used helicopters, artillery and recently, chemical weapon on civilians. Sadly history of middle-east is littered with Assads. It’s the poor who die in troves and yet, fail to impress on any final outcome. This war is of war of empires and human life is least of anyone’s concern.

The Chinese Import

I am not sure how the Chinese incursion happened. The details are not forthcoming but it reminded me of a legend. Chandragupta Maurya had recently defeated his arch-nemesis – the Nanda dynasty. He was busy in organizing the grand ceremony of coronation. Invitations were sent out in all directions. The ceremony was meant to be more than just grand. It was meant to be a statement signifying change in geo-politics. Nanda dynasty was one of the strongest at that time and Chandragupta by defeating them had established himself to be a power center throughout Indian sub-continent. His invitation to coronation wasn’t necessarily an invitation to party but rather an order to submit to his power.

 As it happened King Purushottam, popularly known as Porus, of Sindh had other plans in his mind. Instead of accepting the invitation he proceeded to behead Mauryan ambassador. He sent the ambassador’s head as his response.

Chandragupta was not sure what to make out of this mess. He had no problem with King Purushottam, at least for now. So he decided to carry on with the coronation. Chanakya, the protagonist behind Chandragupta’s ascension to power, after hearing this incidence was furious. The legend has it that he walked in the middle of ceremony and ordered Chandragupta to stop the ceremony and gather army to attack King Purushhottam. Chandragupta did just that. He proceeded to defeat King Purushottam in a bloody battle. After that battle he accorded himself a grand coronation.

The moral of the story – you better take any challenge to your sovereign authority seriously. I mean dead seriously. There’s no messing around. When your freedom is challenged you response better be furious and apt. The message has to be clear to the instigator – you can’t f*&k around with us.

Unfortunately modern day India never got this memo. We treat our sovereignty with pinch of salt. You attacked us, no big deal; let’s have a peace talk first. You want to encroach our territory, absolutely okay with that; let’s have a talk about that too. Our message is we don’t give a s&*t about our sovereignty or freedom and neither should you! Otherwise, how on earth China continues to encroach in Arunachal Pradesh and Kashmir 50 years we fought war with them. They smacked us around in 1962 due legendary inaptness and criminal negligence of Jawahar Nehru and yet we refuse to learn our lesson, refuse to be vigilent.

The Chinese were simply testing the water. They probably wanted to see how we respond. They probably wanted to check our preparedness. They must be glad to see we failed in every front. Our armed forces failed to detect the incursion, our political class failed to show resolve, strategy or vigor and our society simply turned their back. IPL is on TV, who the fuck cares if Chinese invade us tomorrow, right?

Not sure how so many morons believe that India will be a superpower because I don’t see any characteristics of a strong society. India 2020, my a$%^!

We have IPL though, a grand achievement indeed!