The Changing Paradigm of Indian Politics

The elections in five states concluded recently. The results were as expected. The cacophony of political commentary was also along the line of expectations. AAP winning a state is used to overshadow BJP winning other 4 big states. Why did BJP win? Hindutva, RSS, anti-Muslim, Congress not doing its job, Rahul Gandhi's leadership, disparate opposition, it's not BJPs win but Modi's, it's not Modi's win - it is Yogi's, it's not Modi or Yogi's win but Shah's win -  the list is long, banal, old and incoherent. Some political Pundits decided to up the ante. They started talking about how BJP actually did not win UP. It was a moral victory for the Samajwadi Party. For these stalwarts, Akhilesh becoming second largest party is a win that's worthy of jubilation. Ok, I did not see that line of thinking coming but then majority of India's so called Media and political analyst are either compromised or virulently stupid. In any case, it is no surprise that yet again the Media and the analysts failed to understand why BJP keeps winning and they will continue to do so in near future. 

1) In current political arena, BJP is the only party that has a strong ideology, a strong ideology believing cadre, a strong view on culture, country, civilization, a long view on development, consistently updated and changing leadership, strong state level leadership and most importantly, a strong identity. Suffice to say, there is literally no other political party in India that has any of the above. Apart from Communists, all other non-BJP parties are either family run fiefdoms or a gang lead by a rabid and bloodthirsty personality. It is ironic that Communists, at least on paper, have ideology, ideology believing cadre and an identity. They also have a strong view on culture, country and civilization. But Communists are strongly anti-development, and when situation arises, they brazenly go anti-India as well. They are virulently anti-Hindu as well, something, they hide under the garb of anti-Brahminism. In short, on all fronts, Communists are outdated in thinking, outdated in their political gimmicks and literally, 'outdated' in its leadership. 

2) Modi and BJP have ensured they continue to work on agenda items from their manifesto. Political parties in India always treated their election manifesto as a toilet paper. It's a document they would put together for show. Even general populace assumed that nothing from that document will ever get implemented. Modi and BJP changed that drastically. Not only they worked hard on implementing the points but they ensured that this gets communicated across the electoral spectrum. They may bungle some items (farm laws), they may go slow (labor laws) or they may succeed in a spectacular fashion (Article 370, Ram Mandir) but voters know that what's coming their way. 

3) Development, development and development! One of Modi govts. greatest success has been implementing policies to provide basic necessities to the poor. Modi govt. ensured that the marginal sections and poor sections of the society feel feel empowered (Jan Dhan Yojana, UPI) to take advantage of the opportunities. The much vaunted 'Garib' of our country is finally treated as a human being and a partner in the growth. The govt. will no longer play the role of 'Maay-baap'. The economy will create opportunities and the government will work hard to ensure that everyone gets opportunity to take advantage of it. Whether it's massive road building program or building tens of airports and port or fanatically working towards providing piped water facility at every house or empowering the masses through UPIs, the govt. is working towards increasing the productivity of an individual. The economic growth through increasing productivity will be able to withstand any future shocks with relatively ease. 

4) Playing politics through electoral way. Since the fall of Rajiv Gandhi govt. in 1989, Indian national politics was stuck in the backdoor politicking under the guise of coalition politics. Sonia Congress was master of deal making and it ensured their stronghold on national politics for couple of decades. This type of politics lulled all political parties into thinking that they don't need to worry about voters anymore since a deal can always be stuck later on. Modi lead BJP changed that scenario for good. Everything has to pass through the litmus test of what common voters opinion. And to ensure voters do get their say, BJP has been fighting elections at every level and in every state. This shrank the base of national political parties rapidly. And unless regional parties change their ways, their imprints will vanish equally rapidly. For now, the Indian voter is firmly in the driver's seat. She gets to decide the fate of the country and this is one of the biggest success of BJP and Modi. 

All the ink I spilled above does not obfuscate the shortcomings of BJP. It does not mean BJP is doing God's work. BJP is after all a political party and they will act in their own political interest first. Just look at the Mamta orchestrated post-poll violence in West Bengal, BJP simply left its cadre in lurch. However, within the framework of democracy, democratic principles, party politics and associated complexities, BJP and Modi has changed the game drastically. And it is heartening to see that the game is finally benefitting the common man!  

The Five State Results and Afzal Sena

The recent elections in five states have upended the primary media narrative around BJP winning, yet again! However, the narrative in the mainstream media remains the same. The talk, the stories, the reasonings behind the results steadfastly orbits around the black hole of Secularism and Hindutva. That's not surprising, obviously. The mainstream media missed out on the rise of Modi in 2014. They insisted that this is one off. Then came numerous state elections where BJP continued to win or continued to increase the vote share yet it was brushed off for one or the other reason. Then came 2019 General Elections. The atmosphere was built as if Modi will not have majority at all, at best or he and BJP will lose power altogether. Of course, the reality on the ground was far different. Now came the 5 state elections where BJP won handsomely in four states yet the focus was either on AAP winning BJP or how Congress dysfunction led to BJPs win. The results are not because of decline of Congress or leadership of Gandhis. The decline of Congress and pungent leadership of Gandhis are not a secret for at least 20 years. The results are not because of banal sounding poll rhetoric of opposition parties and past the due date dynast political parties. The enquiry is never how BJP continues to win. I mean, there's some enquiry but mostly that enquiry is conducted through the lens of Hindutva or through the term 'Majoritism'. Is BJP winning because of better governance? But Is BJP winning because there hasn't been a single corruption accusation against the central govt.? Is BJP winning because they and Modi handled the global pandemic far better? Is BJP winning because they are building more roads, more ports and more airports? Is BJP winning because govt.'s deft handling of foreign relations? Is BJP winning because inflation has been largely been kept in check for almost a decade? Is it because the so called activist have taken over Opposition space, which may be a grand media spectacle but not so much a political and election strategy?

Perhaps, and this is critical, BJP and the BJP govt. is keeping in sync with changing aspirations and expectations of the voters? And, actually delivering on a lot of those promises, fulfilling the aspirations? 

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The political game that's been underway in Maharashtra is like an 'unputtable' Dan Brown novel for students of politics (Not political analyst!). The way the current Uddhav Thakrey govt. was formed, the parties that came together to keep BJP out of power was of staggeringly unholy. Of course, there's nothing unholy in politics. No one, literally no one insisted for BJP to ally with Shiv Sena. In fact, a good chunk advised them against allying with that party. Yet, BJP decided to go ahead with the alliance and the in return they got Baba ji ka Thullu at every juncture since the elections. And as if that inane alliance wasn't enough, BJP in a brain-freeze movement decided to form an ill fated alliance with Ajit Pawar. That move reeked such an awful odor that even this author decided not to vote for BJP. Fortunately, that move didn't even last for 24 hours. It was, as it turned out to be, a power move by Sharad Pawar to force Congress's hand in forming an alliance with Shiv Sena. Fast forward couple of years, Ambani bomb threats, multiple corruption scandals, Home Minister absconding, DGP of the state absconding, Hindu-Muslim riots etc. and we are still left with this unholy alliance of three parties. 

I had guessed that this alliance will not survive more than six months. I was absolutely wrong. But I am glad BJP is making amends for its earlier mistakes and taking a long view. They continued to make in-roads into rural MH. They fought hard in local elections - from Panchayat to Municipal elections. They are clearly the largest party in MH right now but still shy of absolute majority. Of course, local elections may not be indicative of Assembly elections but winning local elections shows strong cadre base and enthusiasm at the ground level. BJP's resurgence in UP started with them fighting at local elections only. Second, BJP is refusing to pull the govt. down but at the same time, they are doing everything in their power to show the real face of this utterly corrupt govt. The ED raids is proving to be very successful since it's hurting where it supposed to hurt - the moneybags. The only way these politician will get worried about is losing their corrupt money. And as it's very apparent, they have been doing very shabby job in money laundering. 

When will this govt. fall? Hard to say that now. Maybe after Mumbai municipality elections. The indication is BJP will emerge the largest party in Mumbai municipality but more than that, if Shiv Sena gets decimated then they will lose their hold over money they siphon off from this richest municipality in India. The death by thousand cuts will be too much bear and govt. may fall. 

However, whenever the govt. is to fall, few things are certain. BJP has emerged as the largest party in MH. Congress will continue to lose it's share to NCP, however, NCP will not grow much beyond it's current confines. But this mess also means NCP will survive. Worse will befall on Shiv Sena though. They will get decimated electorally. But that's not the worse part. By the end of this drama, the only mainstream regional party that was avowedly Hindutva would have turned into Afzal Sena. An utterly despicable way to go! 

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The Hijabis, the Hijab, and The 'Secularists (India waale)'

The Hijab wearers and Hijabis are two entirely different species. They have different objectives and compulsions. Different history and obviously, different future. The recent Hijab row in KA is not what it seems. It's not about Hijab at all. No one is denying right of a woman to wear Hijab. The argument here is to follow the school uniform, which does not allow Hijab. The girl students can wear Talibani attire from their homes to the school - they may even walk few steps behind their fathers or walk in chains, for anyone to care. But if they want to take education in the school or take exams, then they need to shed Talibani attire, and transform into a normal student. Student, who aspires to learn and not carry the sword of religion everywhere. From the law and from judiciary's perspective, the row is related to the rights of school institutions to manage their own schools. Some schools don't have uniforms, some do. The expectation is for students to follow the mandate School authorities have established. And, if they don't want to follow it then they can enroll into schools that aligns with their dressing preferences. That's it. That's the extent of this whole thing. 

But are these so called students really looking for explanation or even answers on their concerns with dress code? 

The 'Hijabis':

The question for the ' Hijabis' is not the dress code or religious attire. Especially since these Hijabis aren't the one wearing the Hijab. The question is not even the freedom of attire. The real question is, can Hijabis impose the Hijab not only on the hapless Muslim women of India but also, indirectly, on the non-Muslim population of India? Can they impose their regressive, militant and  medieval thought process on forward looking and largely secular country? Can they force the judiciary to move away from reason, rationality, constitution and law? Can they force political parties to toe their line? Can they establish their version of Islam supremacy over everyone? Can they change definition of secularism so much so that Jihadi mindset is now considered as a legitimate Secularism in India? By the way, there's nothing new to this sort of religious imperialism. Whether it's cutting the country into pieces for the sake of religion, to having a different personal law, from having a different govt. body to look after their interests, to having govt. subsidies to travel to Hajj; these Hijabi's have done it all and then some. The list of such 'triumphs' of Hijabis is long and still continuing. At some level, one has to give them credit for being so successful in their mission - they ethnically cleansed Hindus from Kashmir and yet managed to portray Kashmir as a cause for Muslim persecution! 

The Hijab: 

This one is a tough one. Some Muslim ladies obviously like to wear their Hijab. There is nothing wrong in that, their choice. However, considering how in post WWII world has generally progressed, and how the Hijab essentially demarcates line between modern world and not-so-modern world, one need to question the the sudden love towards Hijab. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan are some of the few countries that enforces Hijab and these countries are entirely non-democratic. The timeline and scale of enforcement is also varied.  Iran enforced the Hijab only after 1979 and Afghanistan enforced it after 1995. What's more amusing is Iran doesn't impose head-to-toe Burqa the way these so called Muslims 'feminist' students of Karnataka are demanding. Moreover, throughout the history of Islam, the dress code varied per the geographic region. For example, Kashmiri Muslim women always wore traditional Kashmiri clothes till vary recently. Post WWII, situation started to shift when the oil money from Saudis started flowing into rest of the world. The Hijab started appearing conspicuously across non-Arab world. It became the symbol of pure form of religion when in reality, it only represented the effect and impact of hegemony of Saudi brand of Islam.  Perhaps, the Karnataka controversy is just an extension of that agenda? It will be impossible to prove that but it is not far fetched to surmise that  when there is no consistency on Hijab imposition even among the Islamic countries, this particular manufactured controversy is clearly a political and religious agenda setting by Islamists. 

The Secularists (Jamaat-e-Liberals): 

Now, let's talk about worse among the worse. I mean, the absolute filth, bottom of the barrel awfulness. The absolute worse among all mentioned above is not the jihadi mindset, Islamists or foreign money. It's the 'jamaat' of  self proclaimed woke, the so called liberals, the so-called Secularists that are found only in India. These dangerous morons practice a special brand of secularism. That's because these people are not liberal, nor woke and what's worse, they are so far away from Secularism that the French who devised the very concept may just be burying themselves in in Pere-Lachaise. This secular mafia has certain definitive traits. They are staunchly anti-Hindu, they are staunchly anti-India, they are staunchly anti-progress, they are generally staunchly against anything that's rationale, anything that requires dialogue, or requires understanding of context or requires mature dialogue. Moreover, they are staunchly against finding a solution or against resolving any issue. They want to maintain the status quo. Because unresolved issues helps these creatures to survive. They get to yap about it on Twitter, yap further on TV channels, write mind numbingly stupid Op-eds in the newspaper. Somehow these awful people have made into political, judicial and public discourse as well. 

For some reason, the wokenss doesn't apply to caging Muslim women in Hijab. The choice cannot be given to them. The liberalism does not have apply to rights of educational institutions to have dress code. The 'expertise' does not agree with the fact that Islamic jurisprudence does not mandates the burqa! The agenda is to rile up the issue to stratosphere, corner the government, bring the educational institutions to their knees, adversely impact student's right to education and defame the society and the country along the way. The fact these so called liberal, woke, secularists are in agreement with Talibani mindset isn't jarring enough. The reality, as it appears, is that these so called secularists are here to further the Talibani agenda! 

The hope:

But all is not lost. The controversy (and potentially violence) generating religious, quasi-state actors and the non-state 'secular' 'activists' will not be successful in their nefarious design. The Hijab or Burqa is not universally admired or agreed upon across Muslims in India. Time and again, Indian Muslim women have risen above and shown the world their worth. Numerous examples across broad social spectrum have succeeded in variety of fields to emphasize the point that patriarchal structure of their religion can be won over. Similar controversy was generated against Triple Talaq but it failed to garner any traction. Same fate awaits this issue as well. In the meantime, the emergence of Muslim women as a voting block has potential to disrupt electoral structure across the country. The continued success of BJP in numerous state and central elections points towards the potential that Muslim women might be voting for BJP. 

The irony is, though this issue is manufactured through college going Muslim women, it is the Muslim women only who can win this fight. I still have high hopes that this time they will fight. The children of Shah Bano will triumph. 

The Identity of Victimhood

We are celebrating 75 years of independence this year. The achievement is not just merely a number reflecting years our country stayed independent and stayed together but it signifies the immense hard work that has gone into getting our country out of poverty and destitution. From literally running out of food in 1960s to a grain surplus nation, from rationing Milk to a country with one of the highest milk productions. The achievements are too numerous to mention and each one of it is of staggering proportion (Polio eradication!). 

And all this despite our democracy which is lead, generally speaking, by myopic, corrupt and family centric business/mafia enterprises masquerading as political outfits. However, at a macro level, political parties across the spectrum and since independence have done their bit in strengthening democratic fabric. They all fought elections rather than grabbing the power by, well, Power. All political actors abided by the rule of the land and abided by the court rulings. And most importantly, they all accepted people's mandate graciously. But democracy has its limitations. As in, it attracts the crowd that wants to win at any cost. It does not necessarily attract the best and the brightest. It attracts hustlers. The myopic nature of political parties is not the fault with politicians, it's the design fault of the democracy. One of the necessary way to win the elections is to create fear among the electorate. Creating the want or need of agitation is the key ingredient. The lack of mature conversation and dialogue is not a fault with democracy, it's an essential and unfortunate necessary evil. 

Issue manufacturing is almost a requirement for running an election. However, sometimes this issue mongering goes out of hand and threatens not just the mentality of the society but pose grave danger to the future as well. In India, one such issue that's becoming draconian in its reach is the constant sense of victimhood by everyone. Everyone is a victim in India. They are victims of caste, class, religion, gender(s), region, language, food preferences, capitalism, socialism, communism, of history, of future...you can come up with 'n' number of dimension and there will be some group in India that will be grieving and aggrieved. This week NDTV published a column by a Muslim IT professional who is allegedly persecuted as a tenant because, what he surmises, he is a Muslim and a meat eater. Is the writer simply a stupid with a megaphone? Or there's something more to it? 

Discrimination does happen, at all levels, all the time. Theoretically speaking, it should not happen. At least not because of identities such as caste, religion or eating preferences. But to surmise that he is discriminated only because he is a Muslim and that this sort of discrimination is faced only by Muslims and that's why, by extension, India fails as a nation is nefarious attempt to tarnish the image of the hard-working country.  Ask any Marathi person in Mumbai trying to rent or buy an apartment in Gujrati dominated societies how they were discriminated. Ask any Hindu trying to rent or buy an apt in Muslim dominated areas and listen to their stories. Such narratives are numerous and across the broad spectrum of the social fabric.

The key aspect to note is that there is recourse for all such issues. A person can go to the police and file a complaint, go to the court with grievance. The laws are strictly against any sort of discrimination. What does it signify when one,  without using any of these avenues, simply starts shouting from the rooftop? 

The answer is emergence of new 'identity' on a social and political platform -  the identity as a Victim - a perpetually bereaved class. Mind you, Muslims polity and Muslim politics are Granddaddy’s of Victim politics. Everything is an affront to them, and everything is a danger to them. But now game is picked up by everyone. Farmers, despite not paying taxes and getting free electricity are the victims of ....well, for being farmers. Students? Remember the Rohit Vemula suicide controversy? No one knows what exactly happened, yet the unfortunate death of a young person was leveraged by everyone for their own interest and Victimhood was claimed on the basis of caste, religion, student status, student politics on college campus etc. A glass pane is broken in church? - all Christians are now in danger in India - they are all victims of Hindutva, Hinduism, Brahminism....I don't even know what else. Bring a rule to make it easy for persecuted minorities from Islamic nations to come to India? For the reasons no one knows, Muslims in India are suddenly now in danger. The list just goes on and on. And once you claim the status then you are free to do anything in the name of Victimhood. Go on rampage, destroy property, kill people but the so-called journalists and so-called Press will side with you. 

Unfortunately, instead of having a nuanced dialogue political parties act as a megaphone for such incidences. In fact, it is increasingly becoming impossible to discern the reality from fabrication. Is a particular incidence actually an incidence with some merit or it's simply a political stunt? The Delhi University fracas is a great example how issue manufacturing and Victimhood narrative is imposed on public so as to help few political parties and start political careers of some individuals. 

One can argue that this is all part and parcel of the politics. And the real issue is politics has seeped too much into our social fabric (is there even a single social or culture program in India that gets inaugurated by a non-Politician now?) Maybe, the argument has its merits. Not all Christians feel that they are in danger because Barkha Dutt proclaimed that a broken window in a Church tantamount to religious persecution. Not all Muslims feel in danger because a law is made for persecuted minorities of outside nations. Yet and this is where the tire hits the actual road, - no Muslim or Christian organization ever came forward to denounce this narrative setting. No archdiocese, who otherwise will eagerly defend rapist padre in Kerala, has come forward to denounce Barkha Dutt and her drama of birthing Victims. No Muslim organization has come forward and said that Muslims are not and will not be victims of a law that has nothing to do with citizens of India. And that's because it is clear to these organizations that playing the card of Victimhood pays dividend. The constant bombarding of stories that one or the other is a Victim in India, because of other Indians, because of Indian state or a society, in an 'inceptionian' way started forming a narrative in psyche. In a generation or so, people will start hating their own background, their own country, their own society, history, their own civilization. 

By the way, this has happened before. We are still suffering self doubt as a nation because of British imperialists leveraging issue manufacturing and Victimhood complex (Muslims, as usual, were always the victims even during British rule). The self doubt is evident in our foreign policy and military strategies even now.

The reality is, asking political parties to mend their ways is a tall ask. They are not different animals than us. For better or for worse, they are extension of us. If we want to emerge as a strong nation then the work starts at much micro level. We need to become strong in minds, understand the context, not fall for traps and for short term benefits. And, vote accordingly. 

Of course, all this has been said before. I am simply rehashing! 

 

 

Talibans, Talibs and New Age Indian ‘Taliberals’

The speed with which Talibans took over Afghanistan may seem astonishing but there was nothing surprising about it. The question was ‘If’ rather than ‘When’. The American resolve (if there was any such thing!) was vanishing rapidly since Trump came to Presidency. Biden’s poll promise was a pull-back at the earliest as well. Both Presidents acted in their own fashion - blundered through strategically, tactically, geo-politically and logically. The backdoor deals and discussions were happening for last few years. These deals weren’t about what to do with Talibans. The discussions provided space for one superpower to hold on to its last shred of dignity, a past superpower to meddle again to gain some footing on world level and an emerging self-proclaimed superpower to showcase their prowess. Ohh and then there were drug lords – who wanted to ensure heroine keep flowing uninterrupted and oil and gas companies who have been eying Afghanistan’s natural gas reserves for decades now.  All in all, there are so many actors with competing priorities that, having a strong central player as a ruler in Afghanistan was a critical requirement. Requirement of these external parties, not of Afghan people. No one, literally, no one gives a damn about these poor souls. They are proverbial ants in this game of giants.

Talibans trace their ideology to Deoband -  small dusty town in North India. Talibs means students. In this context, students of Deobandi school of Islamic thought. The ideology is conservative, bloody and violent. Something that even Talibans readily agree to. When Talibans first took over Afghanistan in 1990’s they were dubbed as Islamic terrorists’ outfit. They were accepted as legitimate only by UAE and by Pakistan, while rest of the world shunned them. This time though, the soft corner for them is emerging from all quarters. Articles about them being ‘reformed’ are getting printed in western press. And so called public celebrities in India are siding with them. Majority of the people who are showing soft corner for Talibans are self-proclaimed liberals and woke. These new age Taliban sympathizers or ‘Taliberals’ are not united nor do they work towards a central goal. For example, in India the so called woke liberals are opposed to Modi govt. The opposition as a political ideology is natural form of dissent but these self proclaimed ‘secular’ ‘ liberals’ are closet extremists. The goal of  Indian Taliberals is myopic and insidious.  They do not believe in democratic values and to defame the democratically elected govt. in India, they are in the process of throwing their lot with Talibans. The first step is to equate Talibans with Hindu nationalists. The second step is to whitewash Talibani past and highlight phony caste and religious violence in India. Third step is to willfully ignore new cycle of Talibans are unleashing in Afghanistan, especially on women. It’s ironic that if Talibans ever come to power in India, they will be hanging these so called woke liberals first.

But why are these Indian Taliberals dangerous? After all, this same lot sided with Yakub Menon – one of the mastermind behind Bombay bomb blasts that killed over 300 people, who was convicted by Supreme Court of India after due course of law? The same lot opposed Triple Talaq even though the law safeguarded interests of Indian Muslim women and they continue to oppose abrogation of Article 370 even though the law was anti-India and anti-Hindu.

These Taliberals are dangerous because they are now attempting to take their nefarious agenda international and take decisive steps towards siding with India’s sworn enemies. And, the important part is, they are still virtually untouchables in India. They still glide over the rough tides with ease, they still are impervious to justice and law. They still are heavily funded by foreign money. They still have access to NYT, The Economist and most of the foreign press and they are increasingly getting forum in US and European universities. Deeply ensconced within democratic nation and democratic fabrics the Taliberals are getting ready to unleash the cycle of misinformation, agenda driven narration and their habit of equivocating. 

The Talibans are not fighters by any stretch. They can never face a military power. They won because they could wait longer than US but if they ever face any sort of military again, they will simply run away hiding in burqas. They can be defeated but these newly emerging Taliberals are a whole different ball game. The fight will be long but it’s necessary to be on vigil against these new age enemies within.

Note: I did not coin the term 'Taliberals'. It's courtesy of Twitter. Forgot where I saw that term but I thought it's the most apt representation of new age 'woke' 'liberals'

Pan-Islamism - Dying By Multiple Cuts!

Pan-Islamism and solidarity among all Islamic nations have long been a pipe dream throughout Islamic history. And this delusion carried itself further post-1950s as multiple nation-states that professes their allegiance to Islam were established. The Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) was established with a vision of forming a bloc of Islamic nations that stretches from Morocco to Southeast Asia that will counter the western, liberal influence on geopolitics. The reality is far different. There has never been pan-Muslim solidarity throughout the history of Islam. And the situation did not change at all despite the establishment of OIC. And given the competing priorities of some of the strong (and some delusional) Islamic nations, one can safely bet that such unity will continue to be a pipe dream. 

The Israel Question:

The issue of Israel is quite interesting here. It's been going on for so long that it's hard to remember what is it about, to begin with. But the issue did serve its purpose for multiple state actors for decades. Under the guise of fighting with Israel, various Islamic nations of middle-east attempted to either spread their influence or straight up gobble additional geographic areas. For this blog's scope, let's have in-scope only the Arab nations and Iran. That is, let's ignore the Islamic nations of southeast Asia, Africa, and Pakistan. Now, get ready for the whirlpool of competing priorities and messed-up histories! 

Saudi wants to assert itself as the vanguard of Islam. That means taking up every issue - real or imagined, related to Islam. Since Israel - a Jewish state is established literally at the heart of Islam's birthplace, Saudis have to fight against them. Since they are too lazy to fight, they outsourced it to Hamas. But the fight against Israel is rather secondary when it comes to priorities. The priority is to project Saudis are the only ones steadfastly fighting against Israel and as the only true friends of Palestine. That's the important objective. Because they do not want Persians (Iran) or Turkic (Turkey) influence to grow in their backyard. The conflicting ethnicities of these three nations are to be paid attention to here. 

This brings us to Iran - For Iranian theocracy to survive, they have to keep fighting the enemies of the state - real or imagined. These enemies are Israel and US. Since the US is too far for Iran to showcase any sort of 'fighting' spirit against, they have to make do with Israel. All the big and fervent rallies in Tehran aside, the reality is Iran does not possess any military capabilities to harm Israel. So Iran chooses the Saudi way of outsourcing the fight. They support Hizbollah - another terrorist organization. Iran funds them and asks them to die so that they can tell their domestic audience how Shia power is growing and how they are raining hellfire on the Jews. 

Since Saudis are Sunnis who hate Shias and Iran is Shias who hate Sunnis for Sunnis hating them, the fight between them, for all practical purposes, eternal. Hate each other more than they hate Israel! The cause is Israel and the battleground is Palestine, far far away from their lands. 

Now, Turkey is an interesting case here. They believe they are Europeans but they also think they ought to own pretty much the whole of middle-east since it once belonged to the Ottoman empire. And, also, most importantly, they believe all Islamic nations should bow to them since they were the last Caliphs. (The Caliphate was discontinued post-WW 1 by Britishers. For some reason, Gandhi in India decided to start a moment - the 'Khilafat' movement against this British decision. The so-called devoutly Hindu leader wanted to bring back the Caliphate, which will disfranchise Hindus as non-believers. But let's not digress here!) 

The only way Turkey can showcase their military chops, you guessed it right - is by going after Israel. For the record, modern-day Turkey was not like this for the last several decades. The emergence of Erdogan meant the emergence of the delusional self of Turkey. Now Turkey is not only meddling or trying to meddle with Israel but attempting to increase its sphere of influence in various theaters. They want to be an actor in Syria / Lebanon conflict. They are openly siding with Pakistan against India. They are trying to play a role in Azerbaijan - Armenia conflict. They are all over! But this is what happens when one gets free money and free armaments for years. Turkey has been one of the largest recipients of military aid from the US for decades. 

Turkey not only considers their identity as Caliphs of Islam, which puts them at odds with Saudi and Iran, but their Turkic ethnicity is increasingly becoming a focal point of its expansionist mindset. Turkey readily supporting Azarbaijan in a recent skirmish between Armenia and Azarbaijan is an indicator of this new worldview. 

Iran is Persian, a proud one at that. Saudis are Arabs, a proud one at that too. So, not only Turkey is fighting with Saudi Arabs and Irani Persians for a numero uno position in the Islamic world, both Irani and Saudis are worried about ethnic Turks overpowering them again as the Ottomans once did. All in all, it's an excruciatingly confusing theater of violent ethnic-nationalistic-Islamic secretariat conflict. 

This brings us back to the recent development of the UAE embracing Israel. For the last several decades this anti-Israel mindset had a great hold over the Islamic nation bloc's foreign policy. The first break in the rank was Egypt deciding to be diplomatic with Israel in 1979 and then Jordan following the course in 1994. However, for the next two decades, the so-called resistance in Palestine intensified further. Till the lull that happened in the mid-to-late part of the 2010s. As the realization that the Palestine issue is no longer critical to even Israel and the fact that Palestine is nothing but a pawn leveraged by external powers to serve their interests sets in, more Arab countries will join the bandwagon of being friends with Israel.  

However, this does not mean the state actors, the self-proclaimed vanguard of Islam, will stop their attempt to establish hegemony. That will continue. It will only need a new enemy. And the whole cycle will begin again. 

The Proverbial Marathi Manoos and Thakrey's Party (aka Shiv Sena)

It is nauseating to see Shiv Sena ('Thakrey party' henceforth!) spewing venom in the name of Marathi manoos again. I always been wary of this so called ideology. I am not from Mumbai, though I am as Marathi as one can get, this Marathi manoos philosophy gets hollower as you move away from Mumbai. And by the time you hit Nagpur - which is the second capital of Maharashtra, this Marathi Manoos thing is nothing but a drum that's already broken. But fortunately, this issue has lived its life and heading towards a quiet exit. That's because this political outfit isn't going to last long! 

I am extremely proud of Marathi language, Marathi history, Marathi culture and everything Marathi. I am privileged to be born in Marathi land, Marathi house and to Marathi family. It must have been punya-karma of my last birth that my mother tongue is Marathi and I thank my parents that they put me in Marathi 'medium' for my education. I know history of Maratha empire by heart, by dates, by battles fought, by battles won and lost. I can recite the poem on Shivaji Maharaj by Kavi Bhushan

"साजि चतुरंग सैन अंग में उमंग धरि
सरजा सिवाजी जंग जीतन चलत है"

And this is where this political 'ideology' is lost to me. You see, Kavi Bhushan was not a Marathi. In fact, if to go with the typical slur by Thakrey party then he was a 'Bhaiyya'. Now, what do we have to say about him in current circumstances? Do we kick him out of Maharashtra? Call him names? Tell world that he is taking jobs of Marathi poet? Even though he wrote his poems exalting greatness of Shivaji Maharaj in Braj-bhasha in current political situation, he will be kicked out for being a bhaiyya and for using non-Marathi language to talk about great Shivaji! 

The ideology or the confidence should be strong enough to assimilate and make non-Marathis into strong Marathis. Alas, that's a lot of work and who has time for that?

Thakrey party is a reactionary force, brought to birth with congress moneybags and meant only to keep commies at bay. To that objective, they have succeeded. At one point MH cultural and literary life had strong odor of communism and that stench could really have spread into political arena. Fortunately it did not since whatever small political space left by Congress was slowly taken over by Thakrey's. 

But the objective that was met, was of Congress's. Not of this so called Hindutva leaning party or ideology. In fact, Thakrey's party barely posed any serious political challenge to Congress. Even after Congress split right in the middle with formation of NCP. The seats that Thakrey's party won in 1995 when they formed first non-Congress state government in MH with the help of BJP - their highest, was in late 60s. Guess the number of seats they won in 2019 elections - late 50s. 

In today's world, Thakrey's party's stance was only to gain power. Nothing else. They attempted to create besieged feeling among Marathi masses to carve out political space. But that was very much limited to Mumbai and its immediate surroundings. Beyond that geography, the Marathi manoos talk never carried any weight or meaning. For that, they relied on Hindutva ideology. They were firebrand for sure, but again, it was only to serve their political purposes. MH is a fairly right-wing leaning state. Shivaji Maharaj still rules the hearts of masses, so even sonia's secularism infested Congress is decidedly Hindutva leaning. With anti non-Marathi stance and organizationally weak outside of MH to gain from their Hindutva brand means Thakrey's party not only remained a decidedly regional party but they largly  remained a local, Mumbai area-centric outfit.   

Thakrey's party and their thinking heads believe that harping on Marathi Manoos and creating controversy by beating this dead horse will help them survive. Not sure if this political maneuvering makes any sense.  It never gave them life to begin with, so, for that reactionary political plank to pay any dividend now is nothing but delusional. The proverbial Marathi manoos that Thakrey's party supposedly stood for has moved on long time ago. The results of last Bruhan Mumbai Municipal Elections (BMC) are a clear indication that this Marathi manoos now identifies itself more with a 'Gujju bhai' lead BJP. The voting share of Thakrey party in non-Mumbai areas of MH has at best remained stagnant and worse, have been completely devoured by BJP lead by Devendra Fadnavis's governance oriented personality. 

Another fun fact - despite Congress's massive reversals in political fortunes, the vote share of Thakrey party in 2019 MH assembly elections is barely a percentage more than Congress party!

This brings me to Rhea Chakraborty saga. There is no evidence of any connection between her and Thakrey party. At least, there should not be. But there is some life to this conjuncture. Otherwise, why would Tharkey's unofficial spokesperson and their mouthpiece has taken extraordinary steps to either divert the attention of the media and public away from this saga involving Rhea? And when it is apparent it is not working, why are they going ludicrous extent to somehow connect this to Mumbai pride and Marathi manoos? 

This is because, Thakrey party and Rhea are not that different. Talent less, morally bankrupt, and full of shady dealings. Somehow them being connected through either Sushant Singh Rajput's death or through money laundering or through drugs makes perfect sense. 

In any case, all this will quiet down post Bihar election and most importantly, post fall of Thakrey party MH government. People will move on and the sordid saga involving Rhea will be relegated to last pages of the news paper. And, this party of Thakrey's will join the long list of reactionary regional political outfit that ran the due course and went down without a bloop! 

The Temple!

The temple is getting built where it is supposed to.  There are at least few thousands such spots where temples should be standing but that's not the case because these temples were destroyed as an act of oppression, as an act of bigotry, as an act of suppression, as an attempt to destroy a civilization, as an attempt to destroy a culture, as an attempt of destroy a language, as an attempt to destroy a philosophy, as an attempt to impose fundamentalism, as an attempt to impose a foreign ideology that has no relation with this land, as an act of subjugation. 

Let there be no equivocation or political correctness about it. Let there be no debate over whether we should build a hospital or a school at that site. That whataboutery has wasted precious resources of our nation for decades and worse, made us double guess our faith, our tradition and our history. The truth alone has prevailed but not without sacrifice of lakhs and not without absolute faith of crores. 

Now on to Kashi and Mathura!

Deja' Vu (aka the Congress Drama!)

The soft mutiny by Sachin Pilot has taken national media's attention away from China. For now. China will be back soon, and so will the long due conflict with them. But currently the spicy family drama of Congress is unfolding in full public view. The narrative in media and even among some of the BJP supporters is, how Congress is again sticking to Gandhi's and ready to let go of their young talent. On how smug the Gandhis are that even in this day and age, a person like Sachin Pilot who is an MLA and deputy Chief Minister biggest state (in terms of area) of country cannot get their appointment. How Sachin Pilot single-handedly revived Congress in RJ and wrested power from BJP in last assembly elections. And for some reason how Amit Shah and Modi is killing democracy because they are allowing Congress to implode internally! Ok. I am not going to answer the last question. I cannot stoop that low. That's Ramchandra Guha territory.

Congress is not a political party. It was a family business since independence and for last two decade it has become a mafia business. Congressi's have always stuck with Gandhis. Always! Except for communists and Jan Sangh / BJP, pretty much all parties are splinters of Congress. And these off shoots splintered because they challenged Gandhi's. In short, this drama of today is not new. Second, Congress hasn't had young talents in decade now. Sachin Pilot is 42. That's not young by any parameter. Scindia Jr. is 49! Suffice to say, Congress is not letting go of any 'young' talent. Third, Gandhis never grant easy access. The book 'Durbar' by Tavleen Singh tell us how Gandhi's governed their fiefdom through exclusivity of access to them. Whether it's a politician or a businessman or a journalist, you doing things for them will grant you access and that in turn means, you do more things for them. Amazing!  But it worked for last two decades now. It should be a psychology case study.

Lastly, the talk about how Pilot won the elections for Congress in 2018 Rajasthan Assembly elections is unicorns running on rainbows level hallucination. Yes, he did work at grass root level. But For last twenty years Rajasthan have voted alternatively for BJP or Congress. And the voters did this by giving each party an overwhelming majority. The result was like a clock work. Given BJP had won rather massively in 2013, potential for Congress winning in 2018 was quite high regardless. And that's precisely what happened. Congress did not get absolute majority, so, one can argue that the advantage Congress got was because of Sachin Pilot's work. And perhaps, that's true but let's not get carried away here by saying Sachin Pilot revived Congress.

All this brings me to the point that has been bothering me since unfolding of this drama. Pilot isn't waging any holy war against dynasty rule in Congress. He himself is a classic case of a dynasty. His father was a political heavyweight in Congress before losing out to Sonia Gandhi. He doesn't have much presence beyond Rajasthan, as in, he has no national stature. He enjoyed the fruits of sucking up to Gandhis all along. Now that he is unable to cage his ambition of becoming CM of the state, he is revolting. That's the simple reality. Nothing wrong in what he is doing. This is politics after all. But it's jarring to see him getting painted heroic.

I don't know which Pilot will go. He is unlikely to find much warmth in BJP. Scindia's case was different because rest of his family, except for him and his late father, has been backbone of Jan Sangh and BJP. Pilot's not the same case. I say BJP shouldn't take him onboard. RJ will come their way in three years anyway. Why take on a person who may harbor hatred towards Hindutva and towards BJP? Let him set up a regional shop. He will eat into Congress share to begin with.

Congress party is already pretty thin when it comes to state leadership. But rest assured whichever way Pilot decides to chart his way, this kind of drama will repeat in Congress again and again till only three of Gandhis remain in the party. 

The Guns of UP and Woke Liberals

The recent killing of Vikas Dubey - a criminal par excellence, during an encounter has sent India's new age secularists, old fart liberals and Uttar Pradesh's opposition parties into a fit. It's hard to imagine that a person like Vikas Dubey's death can have any voice supporting him. It's time to celebrate actually. He was not just a career criminal but his connections in political parties means he was virtually untouchable from law perspective. So, in his death, why would he find new set of supporters? Especially when his own father is not planning to take his body from cops for last rites.

Let's first draw boundaries for our argument here. I don't plan to write about why SP, BSP or "I am grand daughter of my grand mother" fame madame 420, are saying what they are saying. I am not planning to counter the new age secularists who are suddenly feeling woke to Vikas Dubey's caste.

This brings me to old fart liberals. This specie is unique in every possible sense. They are highly insecure, to be begin with. Their arguments for the sake of liberalism lacks practicality, reality and most importantly, truth of the matter. They want to speak for the rights of perpetrators while happily ignoring rights and feelings of the victims. Though most of these folks are honest fools, in India at least, a good chunk of 'liberal' public figures have put themselves 'On Sale'. These special specie class includes movie celebrities, so called NGO activists, so called journalists and most importantly, lawyers. It's easy to dismiss them as shrill nuisance. But during UPA II era, they have firmly entrenched themselves within judiciary. That's why you see their PILs getting listed in SC pronto. The process that has evolved over last decade is like this -  a controversy is fanned into a national emergency by 'liberal' media. Then right on cue, a 'liberal' lawyer will straight go to Supreme Court of India to file a case. It may be a stay, or a request to transfer case out of said State's jurisdiction or perhaps, to set up a SC monitored investigation. But worse is yet to come. Our honorable Supreme Court actually used to take cognizance of such frivolous matter on urgent basis. For example, Yakub Menon got hearing midnight when lakhs of people don't even get their matter listed in SC for years. Another classic example is Teesta Setalvad getting bail when SC judges decided to hear her plea over PHONE on a weekend!

Coming back to our topic in hand, what all this eco-system had to do with Vikas Dubey? They were all hoping either Vikas Dubey not to get caught ever - thus they will probably go to court to haul UP  govt (read Yogi Adityanath!) in courts and request a court mandated and monitored investigation to look into UP govt. hiding or helping Vikas Dubey. Or if Vikas Dubey is to get caught then first, ensure he gets bail and second, his case gets transferred out of UP so that they can prolong it for decades. In short, Vikas Dubey becomes a stick to needle Yogi Adityanath and BJP constantly. This would be punishment for Yogi ji for ensuring law order remains strong during Shaheen bagh bullshit. These so called liberals managed to execute on this plan by making a massive firestorm controversy over encounter of Prajapati (a known underworld Don) and of Ishrat Jahan (a supposedly innocent girl, happen to be travelling with 5 dreaded LeT islamic terrorists.). Modi and Shah had to face agni-pariksha for executing on their duties for almost a decade. It's an entirely different matter that this ploy, though worked in short term, lead to downfall of the very dynasty that fed them.

One thing these 'liberals' did not take into account in there calculation is the person they are dealing with. Modi-Shah were only CM then. The BJP central leadership wasn't necessarily tuned to the agenda and schemes of these liberals. So, Modi had to fight it alone. In Yogi ji's case not only the central leadership strongly standing behind Yogi ji, the man himself is exceptionally clear in his talks and actions. Just like Modi, Yogi ji has no family to feed and no money to make for anyone. All he is expected to do is the govern the way government is supposed to do.

All the liberals shouting hoarse of death of judiciary because of Vikas Dubey's encounter, never realize that justice was never alive when Vikas Dubey was roaming free. Yogi ji understands this clearly. Perhaps, he could have interrogated if he was to alive. But what happened when a dreaded criminal is arrested in the past? Did it lead to further arrests? Classic case is of Abdul Telgi. (Stamp paper scam) Didn't he testify? Didn't he spilled the beans? Didn't he named the politicians? Did anyone ever got arrested? And, Where is Abdul Telgi?

Indian judiciary is littered with such case. Where convicts never faced prison and people that should be convicted never even got accused. What is one supposed to do under such circumstances? Here we have a dreaded criminal who killed 8 police in cold blood and then cut fingers and head of the constable who lead the police search party. And then there is a whole 'woke' 'liberal' agenda-driven eco-system of Mumbai and Delhi ready and waiting not only to rescue the criminal but then use it to stick it to the govt?

I wish Vikas Dubey was alive in jail. I wish he had confessed for his crimes and named the names. I wish the names were put in jail and put on trial and most importantly, convicted. But till the point such time comes, Vikas Dubey's of this world had to be dealt with per the demands of current circumstances.

  

Cheeni Kam

Growing up, we never called China as Chaay-na. It was always Cheeen. In Marathi, the name is still written that way only. World, in general, would do better if we have little less of Cheen-i in our life. The Covid havoc Cheen-i has unleashed on world is unprecedented in recent memory. And if that wasn't enough then Cheen is attempting to inflict more pain on the countries that are in a geographically unfortunate situation of being their neighbor. The strategy Cheen-i leadership have adopted since last couple of months is not only surprising but frankly, delusional and self-destructive. Pressure, power and threat rarely work together for long period of time against one country and it definitely will not work if employed against multiple countries, at the same time!

China is currently simultaneously engaged in hostile stand-off with India in Ladakh region, with Taiwan in, well, all of Taiwan region, with Japan in East China sea, with Vietnam and Philippines in South China Sea. They are also attempting to subdue Hong Kong using strong arm tactics. The moves seems calculated to a certain extent. Which to be honest is quite impressive since only the strongest nations in history have managed to compartmentalized their foreign affairs and deal with multiple parties - hostile and friendly, simultaneously. China already considers itself a super-power and perhaps, this is their way to show the world that they have arrived.

But achieving hegemony requires time and patience. And if history (emergence of British hegemony or American hegemony in last 150 odd years) is any precursor then little bit of luck as well. China is showing no patience and them spreading corona virus isn't the lucky break they are hoping for. America is still the numero uno military power in the world. And while one can argue that China is number two, the chasm between #1 and #2 is so vast that one may even say that there is no competition. Moreover, other nations are fast catching up with China as well. In short, below the deck of American military hegemony, world is a multilateral. And the status quo is not changing anytime soon.

Forget about world dominance, even China's immidiate neighbors are no pushovers. Indian military is battle hardened and technological fairly advanced. Japan is heavily militarizing in last one decade. South Korea is also a strong military nation. Vietnam, Philippines and other South-East Asian nations have also armed themselves to the extent they can. These countries are fairly stable politically as well.

Then why is China picking up fights on all fronts? As I said before, perhaps, they think now is the time to shine bright and arrive on the world stage as a super power. If this is the case then we are in more trouble since they would want to start a war with someone to showcase their military strength and worse, win the war. Given that they simply do not care about human life -their own or for others, the war will have to be won at any cost. That means more destruction and loss of human life.

Or, perhaps, they think world is not going to react to their mischief and they get to push the envelope further than before without getting penalized. They are the greatest land grabbers since '13 colony' United States of America. Their policy towards neighbors is to grab land whenever they can and constantly pushing to grab more land from the neighbors. Chinese simply unable to stop from claiming literally EVERYTHING!

I believe that it's likely to be second option. Chinese leadership is delusional for sure but I believe they still understand limits of their power and strength. But by regularly poking fingers into neighbors, proverbial, butts, they get to test their own strength as well as their neighbors. They can test neighboring nations' leadership, resoluteness and political, social and military readiness. And in this process if they can grab few hundred square km land then that's icing on the cake.

Another aspect behind these shenanigans is to divert withering attention away Chinese virus aka corona virus.  Chinese leadership knows that their worldwide popularity, despite 'investing' heavily into foreign nations academia and in journalists / press of foreign nations, is all time low. They are aware that such disenchantment can lead to policy decisions that can have negative impact on Chinese economy. For example, anti-China rhetoric in India has led to cancellation of multi billion dollar infrastructure projects awarded to Chinese construction companies. Now, to be honest, the impact of such measures is less than negligible to Chinese economy but avalanche always start slow.

However, notwithstanding the short term cost, I believe the neighboring nation should play this game resolutely and teach some bloody lesson to Chinese. I know it's easy for me to be keyboard warrior than to be in Ladakh right now. But the reality is backing down right now may save few lives (which is a worthy cause - every soldier's life matter!) but will lead to hundreds of more lives lost in near future. Because these communist Chinese are new scourge on earth and they will not stop unless forcefully stopped. 

Har Har Modi?

The lack of controversy since Modi government took over is stunning. There is literally nothing that is worth mentioning here. Granted, the opposition is decimated to the core and is completely voiceless. But Media is not and we all know how deafening these media crooks (aka Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Ghosh et al. ) can get. Yet, even they couldn't find muck to throw at Modi and his government. It is hard to believe especially when the last government was so infested with anti-government, anti-national types elements that media was getting news without even doing the show of reporting. The Manmohan government was like bunch of steel utensils stuffed in a a sack. Useless and constantly making noise. Anyways, coming back to Modi government, I think the lack of controversies is not surprising at all. It is a all together different paradigm unfolding right in front of us. I am not saying I could have predicted such lack of controversies when Modi took over the helm. But if one thing that can be said about Mod is this, the status-quo won't be maintained for most purposes. Old vestiges will be dismantled and corrupt fat of cronies and hangers will be surgically removed and moreover, governance will be implemented as it should be. The last point, and I will elaborate on it later with few telling examples, is by far the most important aspect that will define the next decade as the one where India will actually come close to attain its illusory potential.

Modi is not what Media portrays. He is not what people who claim to read the tea-leaves thinks he is. He is much better and much smarter. The biggest difference is, after more than 20  years, India finally has a shrewd politician at the helm. Apart from Indira Gandhi I think only P.V. Narasimharao qualifies as a true politician. Vajapayee ji was a great orator and a visionary and he definitely understood politics too. However, he was too much of a gentleman. Modi knows how to play politics, how to checkmate opposition and when to pick up fight. He has weathered too many storms. And most importantly given his lack of family attachments, he literally has nothing to lose.

The Media boomerang:
It was interesting to see how media crooks are completely surprised or at least feigning surprise at lack of accessibility to Modi government. Now, I know Manmohan didn't speak with media often but then that dude didn't speak at all! May be Modi is angry at media since he media virtually convicted and crucified of the crime that he did not commit but that will be trivial reason for Modi to shun media. He is a pragmatic man. He understands the power of Media and knows he cannot openly wage war against them. So he first picked and chose the media outlets he would talk to during the election campaign. Interviews and access was given individual journalists and regional news channels. He purposefully shunned people like Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai - you know, the god-complex journalists. And second, he became a media house himself. He became his own propaganda machine. He is very active both on Twitter and Facebook. I have 'Liked' his FB page, where he posts sort of personalized pictures of himself in the middle of doing various things. For example, it was heartening to see him getting welcomed so enthusiastically in Japan from his Japan Album on his FB page. Now, one can argue that this can all be a big show but what is inarguable is that folks don't need media outlets to get news on Modi. They can get it from Modi himself. Just as in recently concluded general elections, Modi's direct communication with people will play pivotal role in shaping the image of him and his government in coming few years.

Media thought that they have golden keys to create and destroy public image of politicians. And they have wielded this power enormously over last twenty years and never so negatively and obsessively as against Modi. For now at least these media houses are floored in their own game.

The Radical Maverick?: 
Modi is neither radical, nor maverick. The only way to describe him is pragmatic. For example, any sane person would take the treatment US mated out to him personally. But Modi didn't. In fact, he has scored bunch of brownie points over US even before visiting them by making all correct statements. He knows that he is a PM of a country and he cannot let personal feelings and insults hinder him from serving the interest of our nation. Similarly, the economic rejuvenation was not an overnight task. So the budget pretty much stayed the same as Manmohan government. However, the key difference was the emphasize on quick decisions and focus on implementation. There is absolutely no need to reinvent the wheel as far as the financial and economic reforms are concerned. Scores of committees appointed by past government has laid down what needs to be done. There needs to be political will and fortitude to implement the reforms. I think that's why the big ticket items that many people expected didn't happen in first 100 days. Reforms has to be slow and existing infrastructure and bureaucracy has to be utilized to implement these reforms rather inventing new mechanism. Remember just because Modi is elected doesn't mean the famed babudom of India will certainly become efficient. It will be a slow process. So many things has to be done on so many fronts that everything cannot happen at the same time. So far we have judicial reforms already underway along with some part of labor reforms. The government administrative reforms have started with abolition of time-wasting attestation requirements. These steps, though not news headline worthy, are building blocks for bigger things to come. Plus, all this is to be done keeping election politics in mind. Remember there is no brownie point for being a great PM but not getting elected in the next term. So, some compromise in short-term will have to be there to ensure vote bank stays with Modi. In short, instead of watching each and every wheel of the clock, it will pay to see the bigger picture. The clock has started ticking after long time and it will move only forward this time.

An Unnecessary War

Iraq was was a personal experience. I was very involved in current affairs discussion groups in my college. So I followed the build-up to the war and then actual happenings in Iraq closely. I remember when Bush gave his ultimatum to Saddam in a dramatic and rather fake voice I happened to watch it live and happened to be barely 300 miles from his studio. I remember reading articles about possible connections between Iraq and Al-Quida almost year and half prior to the actual start of the war and remember thinking, wtf! I remember reading an NYT news story where the term WMD was first used. I remember the press conferences of Cheney and Rumsfeld and remember thinking that they are one, arrogant pricks and second, ‘liar liar pants on fire’. (Of course, the fire was going to drop on Iraq) I remember the photo of Powell dramatically holding a test tube in UN Assembly purported to be the proof of Saddam acquiring chemical weapons.  That photo will probably be engraved on his tombstone.

The ‘test tube’, which nobody in UN bothered to actually, you know, test, was considered then as the only credible piece of evidence against Saddam. Powell, a four star Army General, had such a stellar reputation that if he is convinced of reason to go to war then the consensus was that there must actually be a valid reason for the war. 

The test tube was fake and worthless. The evidence was actually an evidence of not having any evidence. The reasons for the war were always flimsy but conjectures were presented as facts, and predictions from experts were shoved aside as white noise. The war was simply a forgone conclusion by then. The wheels of war machinery were already rolling down the hill when Powell presented the test tube ‘proof’ to the world. So many billions of dollars were already invested. Moreover, so many billions more were planned to be invested in the war that, looking back, there was no way anyone could have stopped that war. It is often said that US goes to a war every 10 to 15 years. The factoid is somewhat true but to actually witness the preparations for the war rampaging through what can technically be termed as democratic institutions is a breathtaking. The chilling reality behind that fact becomes apparent. Terms like ‘Military-Industrial complex’, something that Eisenhower warned about more than 50 years ago, and ‘War Economy’ ceased to be academic. These terms came alive with godly wrath. It is like a storm is stirred by the devil where all we can do is to witness the fury and destruction.

War is just another happening for the folks in US. The news channels go hoarse over it for a month or so and then it became the middle story and finally a back story. What these news channels look for is some sort of interesting controversy in the war. The Haditha killings for example. It is rather morose reality that the society has resigned to war – something that country should resort to as a last option, being a frequently used option. As the Iraq war dragged on, the death toll kept rising along with delusional leadership of the government. The death toll of US troops in Iraq weren’t high compared to some of the prior wars US has fought. The Vietnam war had more than 58000 casualties. The Iraq was on the other hand had little over 5000 over the span of 6 to 7 years. It’s just that lives were unnecessarily lost. The war on terror had couple of other better suited candidates but those countries were considered as friends while Iraq was targeted as terrorist. Of course, Saddam deserved to die. But if we are talking about who is worse, then Saddam kind of takes back-seat.

The WMDs and chemical weapons were never found. The invasion stirred the delicate balance of shia and sunni sects of Iraqi society. The animosity was historic but the war provided the legitimacy to the senseless slaughter these sects resorted to. The elections were held, the Iraqi military was ‘established’ and ‘trained’ but the violence between these sects ebbed and flowed, constantly threatening to very existence of Iraq as a nation. ISIS is only the recent chapter in the flux. It will probably be defeated but the seeds violence will continue to sprout. One would only hope that the violence doesn’t spill over into rest of the world.

By fifth year of war the American society lost interest in the war.  There was historic Obama election to worry about, an financial crises of unprecedented scale to bear. The Iraq war ceased to be even the back story. The impetus for the war never explained and the end no one cared about. The empire that never considers itself as an empire, it its empire like arrogance has created another Afghanistan that rest of the world now has to bear. 

Manmohan's Legacy

Discussing legacy is a tricky proposition. It is even harder when the past is still very recent and fresh. The nuances are obviously the first casualty but more than that, the emotions are still so raw that any analysis loses objectivity. In case of Manmohan though the dice on his legacy was cast the very moment he chose to accept his ‘selection’ as a PM of India. His term as a PM has still few days left but the narrative has long reached the conclusion.

By far and large Manmohan is usually considered as a clean and non-corrupt person. After Vajapayee, he may be the cleanest PM of India. The recently published book on Manmohan steadfastly holds the notion of him being absolutely non-corruptible. He has never received any bribes or monetary favors for himself or for his family and that he takes immense pride at it. Substantial majority in India also buys into this narrative. To be honest, I find that belief silly. The UPA regime has birthed scams of such a staggering scale that people like to take solace by saying at least our Prime Minister was not corrupt. It is as if Manmohan is a lotus flower amidst wretched sycophants of congress party. Though calling him a lotus flower is quite funny in current politically charged environment.

I think Manmohan is a vile old man who is morally and ethically corrupt. He is immoral because allegiance was to Sonia rather than to our nation. And he is unethical because in spite of knowing the rampant corruption that was happening under his watch, he refused to stop the corrupt or at worse, resign for his failure. A lifelong congress crony, his zeal to protect Sonia was his undoing and electing him twice was India’s.

When Sonia selected him as our PM, Manmohan clearly knew what he was getting into It was a master stroke on her part. Manmohan had a clean image and he was mostly a non-controversial figure. The regional parties could sell Manmohan to their constituencies easily and then could flock for an alliance with Congress. And that’s exactly what happened. Perhaps, Manmohan should not have agreed for this situation. If successful he, at best, was keeping seat warm for Rahul Gandhi or at worse, he would be a scapegoat for the Party’s failure. He knew that but he still opted for him. So his non-corruptibility is irrelevant. He was hungry for the power and decided to be the Prime Minister. Then, how can he not be blamed for all the despicable scandals that happened under his watch?

Ethics and morality are slippery concepts. But at root level, it is about setting self-imposed standards to abide by. Manmohan should have done scenario analysis and stress testing before accepting the Prime Ministership. That would have helped him in drawing a moral and ethical framework for himself.  For example, what would I do if a bill that I feel is good for the country is rejected by Sonia? Or as an economist, would I commit hundreds of billions of rupees that do not exist to a social reform package just because Sonia wants it? How much corruption would I tolerate and where do I draw the line and resign? Do I work for the country or Sonia? One can argue that his personal incorruptibility was his moral and ethical framework but being in a public serving environment his framework should include what he would do when people around him, people who work for him are to become corrupt.  I don’t think Manmohan did that. He did not take any measures to check unsavory activities within the government and limit the interference / influence of ex-constitutional authorities like NAC. So his personal non-corruptibility framework is not only inadequate but in fact, highly unethical. He may not have taken bribes for himself or for his family but he is corrupt in every other sense.

I keep asking myself, why didn’t he resign? His inabilities as politician are quite evident but any sane individual would say ‘f&*k this s^&t, I am leaving’.  Actually, he did use his ‘resignation’ weapon, as per Sanjay Baru’s book, during Nuclear Deal sign-off saga. The party and Sonia were not for the deal but Manmohan had already personally promised the deal to Obama and US. In this intra-party, intra-government stand-off Manmohan came out on the top in spite of intervention from Sonia. They obviously couldn’t afford his resignation. So the deal was signed. Alas, that was the extent of Manmohan standing up for something, being in charge. He went back to being a mute spectator after that.

There is an underlying reason as to why Manmohan acted the way he did. I touched this point briefly in the beginning. Manmohan wasn’t working for our country. He was working for Sonia. His allegiance was towards Gandhi family, not towards India. He was more worried about keeping Gandhi family intact than work towards betterment of India. That means him resigning would have endangered Gandhi family’s hold on power. Manmohan couldn’t possibly allow that; our nation be damned.

What kind of legacy Manmohan leaves? A not so great one, to say the least. Manmohan is nothing but a power-hungry, Gandhi family sycophant who presided over numerous scams and number of ghastly terrorist attacks; a morally corrupt and highly unethical individual who demoralized not just the government mechanism but also our armed forces. He and his government have left their incompetent and corrupt fingerprints on every facet of country. No one will remember A. Raja or Kalmadi, history will remember this as a Manmohan government. And as if this wasn’t enough then he will always be remembered as a person who handed baton to Rahul Gandhi. Yep, the tragedy just continues. 

Modi Tsunami? (Part II)

My last blog kind of left few things hanging. There were some obvious questions and rejoinders to be added. If Congress and Soniagress are so shrewd then how come they do not dismantle Modi for challenging them? What is the source of his power? And what’s next?

Before I dive in, let me reiterate. All this pravachan is with confidence that Modi will win this election handsomely and become next PM. If he doesn’t for whatever reason, voter fraud, voting machine fraud etc., then, well, we are in trouble.

The central government lead by Congress party approached the Modi ‘problem’ with two pronged strategy. One was to entangle him riots, fake encounter or some other flimsy legal case. Second, was to hammer him down through media. I am sure there must be a lot more that was going on behind the scene. For example, the recent Sunday Guardian article shed light on nefarious activities purported by Hillary Clinton as the foreign minister of U.S. She tasked NGO from Nordic countries to find mass graves of Gujarat riots. Even if a single bone was to be found, she was ready lodge a complaint to UN and put sanctions on India. And the article further mentions that this task was done with active help of couple of central ministers and it further insinuates that Sonia was supporting this clandestine mission. Apart from a hilarious instance where the search party mistook buffalo bones for human ones and prematurely celebrated, they did not find anything. And, that’s because there was actually nothing.  Even the Special Task Force Investigation (STI) appointed and governed by Supreme Court of India did not find any wrongdoing on Modi’s part in Gujarat riots. So from siding with anti-national forces to cajoling Supreme Court into action, the government led by Congress and Soniagress left no stone unturned on countering Modi through legal system.

Then they tried their best in attacking Modi through media. The relentless scrutiny of print and digital media on Gujarat and Modi was numbing. These people all but convicted Modi of crime against humanity. The media onslaught, they thought, would impact electoral success that Modi was enjoying. Nothing worked because there is a crucial difference between Modi and the Delhi ‘lutyenites’ as Tavleen Singh calls them. Modi has a very big mass base. He is not in power because favors are thrown at him by ‘high-command’. He has earned it – through his development, through his oration, through shrewd political moves - he kept connecting with people. In democracy people’s support tantamounts to having a combo of  Karna’s kavach-kundal and Arjuna’s Indra-astra. Pretty awesome I would say!  He keeps getting elected by people of Gujarat and his shrewd marketing tactics means he has loyal and vociferous supporters outside of Gujarat.

A more nuanced point to note - Since he did this on his own, apart from gratitude, he doesn’t owe any favors (or money!) to anyone. That obviously saves him a lot of time, which to his credit; he ably uses to make further development

There is another source of power. And that is his clean image. He does not have a single corruption charge against him. In fact, there is not even a single accusation against him. Even the fertile mind of Kejariwal couldn’t conjure anything. The best he had was the supposed cozy relationship between Adani and Modi. Of course, it’s altogether different matter that the land dealings of Modi were praised by the Supreme Court. Truth stands no chance against Kerajriwal! In this day and age where the scams have reached astronomical amounts, it is hard to find a clean politician with enough power to reach the PM post. His ‘wife’ lives on her own and Modi’s siblings make their money through jobs, that is, they own no businesses.

I hear the recently published book of Manmohan’s media advisor is quite illuminating in this regard. I haven’t had opportunity to read the book as yet but the reviews make it clear that Manmohan was systematically made redundant by Sonia and her ilk. Whatever power he had was mostly used towards placating government’s allies. The Congress, its ministers, politicians and all the leeches on it formed a kind of eco system that served them well, nation be damned. Especially after an unexpected victory in 2009, these people completely forgot that they are in Delhi to serve the people. They were busy fighting each-other and to curry more favors from Sonia. Pretty much all of them completely lost the track of Modi who was positioning himself for Delhi. They thought raking up Gujarat riots would be enough but unfortunately for them (and fortunately for us!), the dam wasn’t good enough for a tsunami.

And, this tsunami is about to wash off the shady, underworld-esque, sycophant, arrogant, power-drunk, corrupt, incompetent, nepotism and anti-national Congress government of Delhi

Modi Tsunami?

The elections are in full swing and the opinion polls are suggesting resounding victory for Modi and BJP. I personally do feel that BJP will get closer to 250 on its own. But this is not a math calculation. And, feelings have no value. Because if that was the case then Congress, with their listless, powerless, incompetent, morally and ethically corrupt PM (i.e. our dear Manmohan), would not have won the 2004 and 2009 election. In both of those elections opinion polls had suggested strong BJP current which was completely absent from the poll results! 

I hope the history does not repeat itself this time.

Election time usually time also brings the political vitriol to the surface. I think most of this criticism and back and forth of accusation is a staged drama. Especially in last couple of decades when the corruption went through the roof, you need to work with politicians / ministers from all parties to ensure one, you can continue the corrupt ways and second, to not to get caught. But at the same time to maintain the visage of political fight these politicians ‘fight’ with each other in front of crowd. It’s all good, except for the corruption of course. It is a good thing they fight only with accusation rather than guns. But this election is different. The hatred and contempt thrown Modi’s way is real. Politicians from across the country, save for the NDA allies, have pointed their guns towards one person. All these people, especially the ‘Soniagress’, genuinely hate Modi ji. One get the feeling that per these stooges Modi has no right to contest national elections. When Sonia says that Modi and BJP will destroy the ‘Hindustaniyat’, she means that. And in a way this is true too. Of course, her definition of ‘Bharatiyata’ is little different. I think she thinks true Bharatiyata is Bharatiya being slave of her.

Forget about 2002 riots, even if hadn’t happened, the opposition to Modi would have been equally strong. This is because he is sure to destabilize the coterie of Delhi, assiduously build by Congressites over last 60 odd years. And he will impact the Congress culture in two ways – power and money.

The cliché that power is money is true only certain extent. In Delhi, Congress cultivates power for survival. The equation works this way – hold on to the power at any cost and money –tons and tons of it, will follow. And, there is a time tested formula to get this equation right. In this power pyramid Gandhi family sits at the top, always. The source of money flows to them and power emanates from them. The power game becomes a game unto itself since serving people or nation takes the back-seat. As long as you are committed to keeping Gandhis in power, you shall prosper. This model is similar to Mughal structure. And just like Mughal Sultans would venture out to take ‘care’ of rebel appointees, Gandhis either sidelined or worse, killed the local appointees who gained too much power. (Rajesh Pilot, Sindia, YSR?) Moreover, the regional power brokers such as DMK et. Al also had to stay within their state borders. The Gandhis ensured that regional politician do not threaten their standing in Delhi. The Delhi was untouchable. Either they will rule it directly or in rare instances, their appointees would be put up as rag dolls. Another important tactic they succeeded in was handling the so called elites – media as well as social, within Delhi. They ably managed the media, the academics and so called ‘thinkers’ in Delhi through favors (inam!) and other such means.

Barring the era of P.V. Narsimharao government, this power structure remained intact. Even Vajapyee government couldn’t dent it. And then of course during the era of our ‘great’ Manmohan government, the la familia regained whatever power it had lost and then some. The generation of Congress politicians who owe their existence to the bread crumbs from Gandhi family now has their second generation in motion. The second generation obviously is more submissive to the Gandhi family than their elders. The cycle continues.

The hold of la familia can still be debated because power in and in itself is hard to quantify. But corruption is very apparent and dollar value can be put on the scandals. This is where the second act of Congressites regales in full glory. The corruption even by Congress’s standards has broken all records in last ten years. And if one looks closely then the actors in these biggest scandals includes not only the Congress ministers but also regional politicians. The ‘wealth’ so to speak is being distributed among the lesser actors. This may be because Congress had to share the illicit money to stay in the power or perhaps because scams were of such staggering proportions that they couldn’t possibly gobble it alone. In any case the allies as well as Congressites established a very successful business model of siphoning billions of dollars out of India. The power was still with Gandhis but the fruits were shared with everyone. For this business model to work staying in the power was paramount. No matter what the cost is, they have to literally rule Delhi.

And then there is Modi!

For last ten years Congress’s power over Delhi was absolute. The so called opposition i.e. BJP was either lost or silent. Congress did as it pleases as if the throwback era of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. But this year’s electoral change is not a merely change in winds but a potential tsunami that will wash off all the dirt that Congress has built in Delhi.

Let’s hope that tsunami actually materializes.

The Political Start-Up - AAP

Election is on everyone's mind. Whether one likes Modi or not, the undeniable truth is that his candidacy has forced millions of people to think or talk about up-coming election. It's an achievement in itself. One more factor that briefly threatened to make this election more interesting is emergence of Kejariwal and his Aam Aadami Party. Him winning Delhi election was a watershed moment and should rightly be celebrated as epitome of our democratic process. People voted for change, people voted for honesty and in the process, voters also slapped the entrenched political establishment. Though I am a Modi supporter (just in case it was apparent from my prior blogs!), I respected Kejariwal and hoped for his continuing success. But it proved to be a mirage. The ensuing events after Kejariwal becoming CM of Delhi were both unexpected and unfortunate. Instead of building on electoral success, Kejariwal actively undermined himself and opted to go short on himself. Kejariwal worked hard and relentlessly in his beliefs and I thought, he could achieve so much more. I already ranted about Kejariwal in my prior blog. No need to add more to it. But I couldn’t help myself from dwelling on opportunity lost.

I had extensive discussion on the topic of Kejariwal and AAP with a colleague of mine. Needless to say he is a staunch AAP supporter and he presented some valid points. It made me rethink about AAP and Kejariwal for couple of days but at the end it actually increased my resentment and disappointment for Kejariwal. My colleague made following points:

• AAP is a start-up. The corruption has completely gone out of hands in India. People have just accepted corrupt and immoral activities as a new norm. AAP raises voice against it. In theory the party does give hope and strength to take a stand against status quo. 
• AAP is not based on the caste, religion or regional politics. The party is concerned about making lives better by holding politicians and bureaucrats to honest and moral standards. 
• AAP is a credible and positive counter-force to current crop of political parties that are deeply entrenched in Delhi circle.  
• He understands that AAP is a no-show in this election but he is investing in AAP – a start-up with a hope that they will grow and pay good dividends to the electorate in next five years or so.   

Though I would think Modi ji also as a positive force that is about to destabilize the Delhi culture, all in all, I agree with my friend here. It’s a unique perspective that takes the long view of this moment. It also somewhat lessens the pain of watching Kejariwal faltering in this election. Discussions aside, the reality is quite different though. Even if we consider AAP as a start-up then the ideas or ‘products’ they are putting on the table are already not resonating with its customers i.e. with voters. And without new voters i.e. without fresh capital, this start-up will fold within next five years. 

I think Kejariwal and AAP made couple of strategic mistakes after their grand show in Delhi assembly elections. And it is bound to affect survival of this start-up. 

• Kejariwal should have continued with his stint as a CM in Delhi. His antics and all, he showed his ineptness in governing a polity. He says he left the post for his ideals, for what he stands for. But if that is the case then he shouldn’t have joined the politics and stayed on course with Anna. Politics, apart from Ram-Rajya era, is another word for compromise. But a true good politician stays on course and ultimately achieves what he set for. The problems with Lokpal or with Delhi police or the interference of central government in Delhi government are not new. If he had shown that he could govern ably in spite of these issues then it would have shown to the voters that one doesn’t need to be corrupt to govern.

• The second blunder, the biggest one in that, was to target Modi on a national level. Perhaps, he thought since Congress is going to lose this national election badly, his political opponent is Modi. But there are couple of inherent fault in this thinking. One, Congress was in power in Delhi for last ten years. Those ten years are littered with staggering level of corruption. People are fed-up with Congress lead scandals, lack of leadership and price rise. In short, voters are angry at Congress, not at Modi. I am not saying BJP doesn’t have corrupt politicians in its fold, they do but the fact is that under Modi, Gujrat has progressed quite a bit and he has provided stable and decisive leadership. And most importantly there is not a single corruption charge against Modi! The strategy to target Modi instead of further chipping away Congress voters by going after Rahul or Sonia or for that matter, Shiela Dixit is proving to be a grand failure.

Doing political mistakes is okay, any new entrant has a learning curve. But with his antics, Kejariwal has a very short rope to climb out of mess. I don’t think voters will be affording many chances to him. The sad part is, now that he has jumped into politics, he cannot go back to being an activist. Not only we lost an honest and effective activist but in the process, we did not even gain a honest politician either!