Modi Jeeta, Tho Wohi Sikandar

An important / significant message that all political pundits and the secular media have deliberately or inadvertently ignored about Modi’s victory is the “JO JEETA WHOI SIKANDAR” maxim. A victory, which was not once, not twice but sort of record setting third time and that too after a decade long, sustained attack of negative campaign and mud slinging. To make these attacks formidable and overwhelming, senior officials of the government machinery were used alongside loyal secular English language media journalist and NGO’s. At the end, the Modi baiters were a frustrated lot because nothing stuck. It did not stick because of Modi’s innocence rather than legal wrangling.

What is now obvious is that Narendra Modi must be the most thoroughly VETTED leader in the whole world subjected to such vicious and vigorous “agni-pareeksha”. Yet, despite overwhelming odds stacked against him, he has endured and WON. Again and again and again. So Bhai Narendra Modi is the undisputed SIKANDAR.

The exposés have become particularly vicious during the election years. The attached 2007 video of Hindustan Times & CNN IBN Leadership Summit is relevant even today and clearly demonstrates the deep rooted anti Modi bias of famous media personalities who have since fallen from grace and continue to question and attack Mr. Modi. Rajdeep Sardesai continues his relentless attack questioning Modi’s morality in his election victory. In the video Modi rightly counter questions Rajdeep’s deep rooted negativity that does not allow him to acknowledge the greater good in Modi’s economic reforms and only look to highlight the small percentage of flaws in Gujarat’s development. Slandering Modi has become a habit and a hobby for many so-called liberal and secular political pundits. After the Supreme Court appointed SIT cleared Modi’s name in the 2002 Godhra riots, journalists like Vir Sanghvi and Barkha Dutt continued their hateful rhetoric, calling Modi a mass murderer. Of course one should ask what credibility and moral right do Vir Sanghvi (mentioned in this video) and Barkha Dutt have to do so when they themselves have been exposed to involvement in the Nira Radia tapes of the 2G scam. The hypocrisy of these media mavens knows no bounds.

Louise Khurshid the wife of the Congress external affairs minister Salman Khurshid can be seen questioning Modi on the percentage of vote that he won with during 2002 only to get a smart and logical rebut from Modi. Per Modi, what this woman conveniently ignored was that the corrupt Congress regime that her husband is part of, is ruling the entire country with far less vote percent than Modi has ruled Gujarat.

Now that he has been exonerated for atrocities and marginalizing the minorities, the media has found new rhetoric against Modi which is malnutrition in Gujarat and his “exaggerated development” achievements.

Pratap Bhanu Mehta in his article title “A Modi-fied politics” in The Indian Express writes: “If the Central government had been subjected to the kind of scrutiny Gujarat has been subjected to, our economic history would have been entirely different.

I would like to point out that the people who have used the term Hindutva to vilify Modi, stand exposed as charlatans and poseurs who do not understand the term at all. As Modi explains in the video, the entire Hindutva philosophy is based on the important Rig Veda verse “Ekam Sat, Viprah Bahudha Vadanti” i.e. “Truth is one but men describe it differently” or “That which exists is ONE sages call it by various names “or “God is one but there are different way to attain Him”. Now what can be more secular and inclusive than this? Compare this with the “Holier-than-thou or “Kafir the Non-believer” attitude. It’s an unfortunate irony that Hindutva has been branded as being communal while the organized religions are celebrated as secular.
It is expected that with Modi’s move to the center becoming imminent, the pseudo secularist will try to dig out more dirt and become even more vicious in their attacks.

Here is another post from early this year by one Vinod K Jose titled “The Emperor Uncrowned” detailing Modi’s rise can be read at: http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/emperor-uncrowned

Finally all I have to say to the Modi baiter is “When you point one finger, there are three fingers pointing back at you”. Also wish to add an improvised Ghalib’s sher:

Chalta hoon thodi door har ek Tez rau ke saath, 
Pahchanta hoon abhi Raahbar ko main

(I join everyone who is ahead in the caravan, /I have recognized the leader who will show me the way).

It is TIME we accept Narendra Modi is the undisputed Sikandar.

Delhi Gangrape and Congress’ Cruel Indifference

A girl gets brutally raped and left for dead. There is outrage. Unusually more. It was the proverbial last straw. The anger grew. The protests grew. It was all very unusual in New Delhi, which sees more rapes than any other Indian city. However, the response of the Congress state and central government was usual. Yes. As usual, after seeing the outrage, Sheila Dixit and Sonia Gandhi condescended to step out and offer platitudes to the protesters. Of course when that was not enough, the police dealt the protesters with decisive force. There is outrage at the nature of police actions. Are you surprised?

The Congress Government’s incompetence and corruption is exceeded by their cruel indifference to the miseries of aam aadmi. It does not seem possible but every time you think that these decision makers have reached the bottom, they surprise you. Manmohan Singh’s crack economic team redefined poverty to fight it. Per the economic genius Montek Ahluwalia whose foreign travel budget is in crores, people making Rs. 35 are not poor. Not to be done by this sorry excuse of an Indian, Sheila Dixit comes out and says that a family of five can feed themselves for a month with Rs. 600. No invective is apt enough to describe these cruel Indians. So we lower our expectations. If you cannot feed us properly, surely you can keep us safe. WRONG. If you are a woman living in New Delhi, the chance of your getting raped is very high, much higher than the rest of the civilized world (if we can call ourselves civilized). If you go out to protest against an injustice like rape and murder, then you get worse treatment than the rapists themselves.

In an analysis of the current situation, Mr. B Raman who has pointed out all the issues but has decided to drag in Narendra Modi in this article when Modi’s own state has no problem of this kind. I am flabbergasted by Mr. Raman’s desire to be fair in blame distribution when it comes to this kind of cruel incompetence. He writes the following:

The de jure power and decision-making vacuum in the Prime Minister's Office and the de facto accumulation of power in circles close to Sonia Gandhi have added to the command and control confusion. During a discussion on the current situation among retired government servants who had served under previous prime ministers, someone posed the questions: Who is taking the key decisions? Where are the key decisions being taken -- in the Congress headquarters or in the PMO? Who is responsible for ensuring the clarity and sophistication of public communications and interactions? Who monitors the developments and suggests action and policy options to the PM?

This has been the case for every situation since the UPA won in 2004. Why is Raman now showing his surprise? If these media mavens and self styled policy stalwarts had started to lay the blame where it belonged, maybe we would not be in this pile of dung. Of course the decision-making is extremely quick when it comes to punishing people who dare to oppose the might of Congress. General VK Singh has been stripped off all his security details. Meanwhile people who are not fit to wipe Singh’s shoes are enjoying Z+ security. Only in India can this happen.

Meanwhile Mr. NV Subramanian says the following in an article where he does not shy away from laying blame where it lies:

What prevented Pranab Mukherjee from walking up to the students protesting at the ramparts of Rashtrapati Bhawan? The President is not above the people of the country. The protestors weren’t terrorists or Maoists as Sushil Shinde alludes to them. Why couldn’t Sushma Swaraj forgo Twitter for a while and go to India Gate? Was she afraid of lynching? Why so? Couldn’t an all-party delegation have met the students?

Sheila Dixit, in her anxiety to deflect attention from her own incompetence, is demanding Neeraj Kumar’s head. But even for form’s sake, has the Bharatiya Janata Party, the so-called principal opposition party, made a similar demand? Have Sushma Swaraj or Arun Jaitley, reputedly chums of the police commissioner, if you believe Ram Jethmalani?

Of course, the real blame lies with the voters. You deserve the government you elect. Shame on every one who voted for Congress. I hope you are big enough to admit your blunder. To the youth who are protesting today, I have two questions to ask:

a. Is the status quo acceptable to you?
b. If not, what do you intend to do about it?

I think that no non-Congress member will say yes to the first question. As far as the second question is considered, protest is one way. Change of guard is another. We have another general election on the horizon. Clearly, the central leadership of BJP has failed to offer a good solution. As we saw in Himachal Pradesh, local level BJP leadership has also failed. However, we have an impending change of guard in the BJP. The man from Gujarat, who is waiting in the wings, has clearly established rock solid credentials in every aspect of governance. My suggestion to the youth of today is the following. Take a stand. Do not fall for the English language media hogwash. Look beyond the lies of the pseudo-secular establishment and examine Gujarat’s safety and prosperity. Wouldn’t you like to repeat the same for the entire country?

Narendra Modi’s Victory Was Real, Big And Significant.

As per a common practice in a contest you should always lower the expectations. That way, you have an excuse for defeat and marginal wins. In case of a big win, you can claim modesty and come out looking like a gracious winner. A corollary to all this is that your opponent  builds up huge and unreal expectations of your victory. That way even a big victory by you looks like a defeat and his defeat a gain. Smart move by your enemy, especially if you do not counter your opponent’s expectation building scheme.

The BJP leadership was too busy with intra-party confusion that they did not pay attention to the media’s scheme of building up possibility of a huge win by Narendra Modi. Modi himself did not come out with his own estimates and left it to the pro-Congress media and other outfits with their unrealistic polls. It made Bhai Narendra Modi’s victory look like a lesser version of what it actually was. The conspiracy theorist in me tells me that this exercise was pre-planned by Congress media mavens to make Modi’s victory look small and Congress’s defeat look like a gain of some sort.

First and foremost, I must congratulate all the Congress contestants in Gujarat. They really did perform very well. They gained over 61 seats and a very significant vote percent 39 (which is much higher than their national vote percent). They did this with absolutely no achievements to show for in Gujarat and nationally except for increasing the size of scams, price, inflation, poverty etc. In fact the only thing that has gone down during Congress rule is the value of human life.

The only state with uninterrupted three terms or more is West Bengal where voters kept electing the communists until they could no more. That streak had little to do with performance and more to do with politics of manipulation. That is the reason why Narendra Modi’s third term victory is so significant. He has done so in a state where the opposition is very strong (39% votes for Congress implies that a powerful third party or a small vote flip flop could have turned the table the other way). He has done so with an overwhelming majority in the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha (comments from the Congress leaders notwithstanding). He has done so with no help from the Central government which takes a lot more in taxes than it gives back in help (drought etc.). He has done so with little to help from his own party. He has done so despite of the best efforts of a disillusioned Keshubhai Patel. He has done so in face of ten years of incessant maelstrom of negative attacks from the Congress controlled media, central government installed judiciary, false charges drummed up by NGOs and stooges like Sanjiv Bhatt. A lesser man would have folded but not him. He won a third term totally based on merit and performance. No matter what the losers like Salman Khurshid and Chidambaran say, Modi’s win was big, real and significant.

Bhai Narendra Modi has proven to be one of those “once in a lifetime” kind of leaders. I hope and pray that the Indian voters will get a chance to elect him and then vote him in the office of the Prime Minister of India. It would be nice to see a real leader adorn that seat, a seat that so far has been occupied by bit players, poseurs and frauds.

Why Did We Invite Rehman Malik?

Mr. B Raman, one of our foremost security experts says the following:

For India to expect that Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik and his police will act against the ISI-protected Lashkar-e-Tayiba is to live in a fool's paradise.

By announcing the arrest of another suspect in the Samjhauta explosion during his visit, we have unwittingly given him an opportunity to go back to Pakistan and claim to the fundamentalists and the Army that he succeeded in forcing India to act against the remaining suspects in the Samjhauta case. This shows how naive we can be in matters concerning Pakistan.

NV Subramanian whom we admire greatly, writes the following:

Those in this country that speak of peace with Pakistan (the flag-bearers of Aman ki Asha) have not the faintest notion of Pakistan’s founding ideology, the Two-Nation Theory of Hindus and Muslims being never able to co-exist, which has put Pakistan forever in violent competition and confrontation mode with India, whose by-products are terrorist leaders such as Hafiz Mohammed Sayeed. Rehman Malik, who controversially visited India last week, is merely a buffoonish sample of Establishment Pakistan’s dyed-in-the-wool India baiters.

Pakistan is not ready for peace with India. It does not want peace. Peace with India militates against its founding ideology.

Mr. MJ Akbar who is one of the most level headed (for the most part) journalists, wrote the following:

Have Dr Manmohan Singh and Mrs Sonia Gandhi decided that it is time India forgot about Mumbai and moved on, as Rehman Malik publicly urged India to do? I imagine that our leaders squirmed a little when Rehman Malik declared Hafiz Saeed innocent, or indeed when he blamed the death of Kargil martyr Saurabh Kalia on the weather rather than enemy atrocity.

A majority of Indians wants peace with Pakistan, but they want peace with justice. Indians know that Mumbai might fade from memory but will never disappear, and that Pakistan can do something to ease the pain. Pakistan can ensure that the Mumbai masterminds do not laugh derisively while Indian hearts burn. Is that too much to ask, Dr Singh?

The two words which stand out in the Raman article are fool and naïve. That aptly describes a lot of people involved in the current “peace talks”. What become clear from the Subramanian article is our attitude towards peace at all costs, ignoring the history (and doomed to repeat it over and over). The Akbar article only reinforces the Subramanian contention. Our home ministers are people who are known better for their dress sense than abilities. The current guy kept addressing Hafiz Syed as Mr. or Shri Syed. Wow! Narendra Modi is referred to as “Maut ka Saudagar “ by Shinde’s Boss while a murdering terrorist is treated with respect! This is what happens when your foreign policy is based on hope and good faith rather than strength and realistic diplomacy. Basic things like human dignity and justice were sacrificed by Manmohan Singh’s desire for peace with Pakistan. Our own Atalji, who was a Paki-phile, feted and treated that bastard Pervez Musharraf with state honors and hospitality. All he did was piss all over us and insult us at every stage possible. Of course it is too much to ask from our leaders to learn from history. They invited that bimbo of their foreign minister and we all know what came out of that. Not to be deterred by historical precedence, we invited Rehman Malik who essentially came over to cement his own political standing in Pakistan by pissing all over us and making himself look tough. Of course at the same time, we were showing our fair-mindedness and bolstering our secular credentials by arresting yet another hapless Hindu for Samjhauta express bombing. A lamppost would have shown better gumption and backbone than our current leaders.

Peace with India is not beneficial to Pakistan’s establishment or army. To buy time (while they try to deal with problems with the US / Afghanistan), they make meaningless concessions to our government who is so desperate to show an achievement that they fall for simple Paki tricks.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. What do we say about fooling me the umpteenth number of times?

The Raman article can be read at: http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-malik-s-india-visit-how-naive-can-we-be/20121217.htm
The Subramanian article can be read at: http://newsinsight.net/Stuckintherut.aspx#page=page-1
The Akbar article can be read at: http://www.sunday-guardian.com/analysis/peace-but-with-justice

Leftist Intellectuals Taking Modi To Task

The Indian leftists are getting smarter when it comes to Modi. They know that the whole name calling (“Maut Ka Saudagar”) bit is not working. In fact in face of relentless name calling and false attacks by NGOs, the man has gone from strength to strength and converted Gujarat into what we would want our states to become. What the leftists are now trying is a subtle form of reverse psychology. They are trying to appeal to the “good senses” of Hindus in some cases. In other cases, they are criticizing the Congress and the Gandhi family and then coming after Modi. That way they can claim a balanced approach to journalism. We had dealt with the former approach in one of our blogs where a Muslim scribe tried to shame Hindu voters. You can read my rebuttal to that man in the url at the end of this post.

A premier example of the latter is Ramchandra Guha. This St. Stephens educated, so called eminent historian has managed to seduce a lot of gullible middle class Hindus by taking the Gandhi family to task. However, his fairness is only skin deep and his leftism shows once you scrap the surface. This is what he says about Modi in a recent interview published in rediff:

"Gujarat needs to introspect. Modi is a very polarising figure. He still has some admirable qualities, he's courageous, he's not corrupt. But he is also polarising, sectarian and I think ... he has a kind of megalomania -- main hi hoon, aur koi nahi hai."

'More Modi appeals in Gujarat, less he appeals outside'

See what he is doing? He is concealing his Modi hatred in the thin veneer of a praise. In the interview, Guha tries to explain Modi’s popularity and bends over backward and twists himself into knots trying to justify his stance. You know what, I have no problem with any of that. Guha is the citizen of a free country and thus afforded freedom of speech by the law. He is welcome to his opinion. I only have two things to say to him and other “intellectuals”.

1. You agree that Modi is going to win in Gujarat. Then why bother and waste time writing and analyzing the Gujarati voter behavior? You also contend that he is not going to win outside of Gujarat because he is too polarizing and you seem very sure of your contention. If you are so sure of his defeat in a general election then why bother to write and analyze his impending defeat. In fact, you should be happy. Men of Guha’s staggering intellect should not be wasting their important breath on a person like Modi who (in their opinion) is so beneath him. They should let him be and stumble.

2. The second thing I have to say is more of an appeal. The leftists and the intellectuals have secularist stalwarts like Mulayam Yadav, Mayawati, Lalu Yadav , Karunanidhi, entire Communist party, most of the Congress on their side. We only have one guy – Narendra Modi. In the name of national harmony, could you take pity on your helpless Hindu step brothers and sisters and leave him alone? Obviously Modi is no threat at the national level (as per your own opinion) then leave him and us to our own petty victory in Gujarat. Don’t tell me that you are scared of him and you do not believe in your own theory? Do you Mr. Guha?

Our rebuttal can be read at:http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2011/09/narendra-modi-and-post-godhra-massacre.html
Guha’s interview can be read at:http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-gujarat-election-more-modi-appeals-less-he-appeals-outside/20121210.htm

Big Win For Modi Is Important For BJP

We have always held that in politics like other fields, quick risers are detested while people who have come up the hard way are respected. The ground level workers will never respect people like Manmohan Singh and Arun Jaitley. On the other hand, people like Mayawati, Mullayam Yadav and Mamta Bannerjee have the respect of their supporters (for better or for worse). The BJP CM’s are a good example of such people. However, the best example of this kind is Narendra Modi who has earned his position in politics because of hard work and performance even in the face of a tsunami of negativity against him. After ten years or proving himself over and over again, he has earned the respect of a lot of his non-political detractors. Even the political ones sometime praise him by mistake. We all know that right now, his own party leaders are the biggest bumps on his road to New Delhi. We all know that Modi is going to win in Gujarat. What is crucial is that he wins big. Why? I will try to make a few points.

1. As per common wisdom, a big win is expected to shut up all of Modi detractors in the BJP. A big win will firmly place him on the top of the heap and then all the party leaders will fall behind him. Why? It is because such a victory will earn him the support of the lower to mid level workers of the party. In the last UP elections, eastern UP BJP leaders wanted Modi to campaign and rejuvenate the grass root level workers. BJP’s abject failure in UP clearly indicated that leaders who have not shown any electability in public elections (as opposed to intra-party elections like the kind shown by Gadkari, Sanjay Joshi or those old timers Lalji Tondon, Kalraj Mishra or Rajnath Singh.

2. BJP is in disarray but nothing that cannot be fixed by a charismatic leader who has shown ability to perform and win. Who better than Modi for this task.
Everyone likes to back a winner, which is why Rahul Gandhi is a lonely man right now.
3. You may hate to admit it but road to New Delhi goes through UP. BJP will have to drastically improve their performance in UP and the rest of the Hindi belt to win the next general elections. While other BJP CMs are proven performers but Modi is head and shoulders above them in abilities and charisma. A very large block of voters in UP are OBCs. Modi being an OBC is most likely to capture their attention. The Hindu middle class who has been repeatedly double-crossed by Mayawati and Mullayam Yadav are low hanging fruits in UP ready to be picked by someone who can promise them performance without corruption. No one has more credibility than Narendra Modi in the entire nation.

4. If Hindutva was the only issue which would win the elections for the BJP then there are other leaders. But we all know that while it may win at a local level but at the national level, it is not enough. On the other hand, diluting the BJP’s Hindu nationalistic ideology is out of the question. Trying to appeal to the Muslim is a total waste of time. We, therefore, need someone who embodies Hindu nationalism while demonstrating the ability to perform. Modi is the perfect answer to that quandary.

5. A significant number of seats in UP and regaining the lost seats in Rajasthan will place BJP on terra firma. The NDA allies will fall into place and back Modi despite of their love for Muslim votes. Nitish Kumar’s Deputy CM is an old time RSS hand. Winning cures all the side effects of the disease called pseudo-secularism and Modi is a proven winner. He is the only one who can appeal to all Hindus from the entire caste spectrum. OBCs can vote for him because he is one of them. Others can vote because he can perform and repeat the Gujarat experiment for the entire nation.

6. We need some strong dalit and tribal leaders. The ST’s from Gujarat have repeatedly proven to be loyal BJP supporters. Maybe Modi can identify some upstart leaders and groom them. There are many dalit leaders in the BJP. It is of paramount importance to groom them and make the BJP umbrella even larger.

All this CAN happen. We need strong leadership who are winners, organizers and performers and can go out and enthuse and inspire the party workers who can then go out and mobilize the Hindu voters to stand behind proven leadership and put India back on the road to recovery.

We need Narendra Modi.

India needs Narendra Modi.

FDI In Retail: No One Wins

Desperate to show an achievement, divert attention from numerous scams and impending defeat in Gujarat, the Congress followed the British taught and time tested method of divide and rule and got this piece of legislation passed. Anand Sharma and Kamal Nath cannot stop gloating about this “victory”. Is this really a victory? Who does this benefit? Why the hurry especially when the Walmart store will not open before 2018 when some of these Congress stalwarts may not even be alive to see it? Here are some points to ponder.

1. Bharti Electoral Trust is one of the biggest donors to Congress. Bharti group has partnered with Walmart. They are the ones who stand to benefit from this deal. This was crony capitalism at its worst. Since the chances of a Congress victory in 2014 is quite dim, the Bharti people may have leaned on the Congress to get this passed. Of course the US pressure cannot be discounted either. I think that the possibility of a loss in 2014 general elections caused the hurry.

2. The Congress paid scribes who have written in support of this deal have taken great pains into describing how this deal does not negatively impact anyone. Since when has “no loss” been a good reason to do anything? Clearly the Congress does not want their supporters knowing the real reason.

3. The consumers do not benefit at all. Walmart is a poor man’s store in the US. In India it will be anything but. Of course these stores will remain in upscale areas and thus will probably not impact the so “Kirana stores”. The aam aadmi will not get to shop with any degree of frequency in these stores. The target shoppers are the middle class Indians who have completely changed their attitude about money and treat their incomes as disposable.

4. The suppliers are going to get squeezed. Walmart executives are the corporate equivalents of pythons. They use their financial clout to run over, squeeze and swallow suppliers and competition. When Walmart started in the US, they bragged about an all American made inventory. Now it is all Chinese made inventory. As it is, the Indian markets are flooded with Chinese made crap. With Walmart at the helm, our small businesses and manufacturers are going to lose big.

5. I hope that the Dhoti clad entrepreneurs (a term coined by the intrepid Prof. Vaidyanathan of IIM Bangluru) do not get wiped out. They are one of the biggest employers in the country and any loss to them will be felt far and wide.

6. Coming back to Congress, they used the dirtiest possible tricks to bring Mayawati and Mulla-yam Yadav in line. Existing cases of corruption was used to squeeze Mayawati. Of course She does not want the general elections to move forward because she needs time to prepare for the next elections. Mulla-yam does not want to be seen voting with BJP by his Muslim voters. Of course, he needs money from the central government to make his election promises come true to the UP voters who fell for his promises. Akhilesh Yadav’s tenure has been an unmitigated disaster with almost one communal riot per moth of his rule. Of course, Karunanidhi will lay an egg if asked by Congress. So getting his vote was not a problem.

Congress may crow about this victory, which is pyrrhic at best. A huge number of small businesses are Muslim owned. Hopefully now they can open their eyes. The large number of middle class Hindu businesspersons who were stupid enough to abandon the BJP and voted for SP and BSP will suffer and rightly so. Of course the loss of credibility that the Congress will suffer after they railroaded every coalition partner will come back and bite them in this era of coalition politics. Who can rely on them? Pranab Mukherjee’s promise that the FDI vote will be unanimous has already been broken. Dare say that his supporters could be very happy. Of course the opposition has also been a loser. Mamta Bannerjee cannot team up with Congress or the Commies or the BJP (Muslim votes) anymore. The BJP continue to look rudderless but can treat this as a wakeup call.

The Congress can claim all kinds of victory but this has been anything but.

Second Generation Of BJP Leaders Show The Way.

BJP Chief Ministers, right to left, Narendra Modi (Gujarat), Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh), P K Dhumal (Himachal Pradesh), Arjun Munda (Jharkhand), Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (Uttarakhand) and Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Modi

After she was put in a bind, Sushmaji “endorsed” Narendra Modi as a “fit candidate” for PM. It was the kind of endorsement that one gives to a rival. In fact the entire core team of BJP leaders is behaving like rivals. Despite of single handedly destroying BJP’s chances in 2009, Advani is still nursing his dream. Sushmaji still has not realized her place in the party. She is a good orator with limited public appeal and a disastrous Delhi CM tenure under her belt. Gadkari knows his role exactly and that way has stayed out of this power play. Jaitley has never won a Loksabha election. He and Gadkari are probably the least qualified of all.

These people are all campaigning in Gujarat but the statements and body language betrays a lack of enthusiasm. Gujarat election has the potential of becoming a political body blow for Congress. That should enthuse even the moribund in the BJP but not this crowd. On the other hand, the CMs of all the BJP ruled states have not only endorsed Modi without any reservations but also have been campaigning for him. These two events have long-term implications on the future of the BJP. First of all, the current crop of the BJP leadership has outlived its utility. These people are mired in petty rivalries and seemed to have reached a plateau of mediocrity. On the other hand, this next generation of BJP leaders i.e. the BJP CM’s, Sushil Kumar Modi and a number of younger leaders have shown that they realize that the party has to move away from sloganeering and perform when given a chance. From that point of view, the current leadership failed miserably in handling the Karnataka situation. It was a tremendously important state, BJP’s foothold in the great Indian South but thanks to inept management, it may be lost back to Congress.

The BJP CM’s have shown how to govern with efficiency so we know that they are all competent men. None of them, other than BSY have been implicated in anything despite of the entire Congress machinery against them. We know they are all very honest. They have won elections convincingly. So we know that these guys have mass appeal and can extrapolate that to the national level. Their enthusiasm is palpable. I am sure they also have big egos but clearly that is not showing. They clearly are not bothered by the hoopla around Modi’s move to the national scene. These guys give me hope that there exists a second generation of BJP leaders who can continue to lead us for the next decade and beyond.

To have a second generation of such competent leadership will make the BJP a very important player in future. Congress high command has no desire of bringing up anyone as long as Rahul and Priyanka are around. The regional parties including Trinamul Congress are all either family run or based on a personality cult. No scope of second-generation leadership there. That only leaves the Commies who have second-generation leaders but Commies are never going to be a national force and will remain in Bengal and Kerala.

It is because of this that I feel good about the future of the BJP. If only we can lift ourselves up from the current mess and find a way to win 2014.

The image is from ahmedabadmirror.com
An article of interest is:http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_gujarat-polls-bjp-cms-slam-upa-on-campaign-trail_1769565

Jethmalani Goes. Gadkari Stays. Shameful.

So the BJP did fire someone. They gathered all the courage and took a decisive action. However, it was the wrong guy. Ram Jethmalani is an old-fashioned rabble-rouser with an acute understanding of Indian Law. In that way he is a lot like Subramnian Swamy without the political heft. He brings a keen legal mind and a propensity to speak his mind to the table. He says what most are afraid to say out loud. In that regard, he served a valuable role for the BJP. Now let us examine what Gadkari brings to the table. He brings physical heft, a loud mouth, poor management (amply demonstrated by many losses at state level under him), uninspiring leadership, and a corrupt image. You would be hard pressed to find any redeemable feature in this guy. However, as we can see, he stays and Jethmalani goes.

So we ask my favorite question – “Cui bono” i.e. “Who benefits”? Indeed. Who benefits with Gadkaris’s continuing as the BJP chief? Obviously the party has not benefitted from him. They did not win any election under him (GOA DOES NOT COUNT). In fact we lost seats in UP. His penchant for reckless statements has repeatedly left red-faced BJP leaders fumbling for answer. Does he have any kind of mass appeal, which will benefit the party? NO. Does he benefit any segment of Indian population or even (hate to say it but) a caste or a community. The answer again is a resounding NO. The only people who benefit from him being there are the RSS leaders who control the BJP using him as a remote control. Kind of like Sonia controlling the Indian government using Manmohan Singh as the remote control.

One would have thought that after getting caught in an extremely immoral way of making money, the so called nationalistic Hindu leaders of the RSS would wash their hands of this guy Of course not. The RSS leaders love the power with the responsibility or answerability like Sonia Gandhi. Even now they are hell-bent on giving Gadkari a second term. It is old-fashioned hypocrisy at work. They do not want to lose their stooge in the BJP even though he is accused of the same sin, as the worst detractors of the RSS are – corruption. Now even that may be forgivable in some alternate universe if he were an extremely competent politician (like Mulayam Yadav) but he not even that.

The current RSS leadership has either lost touch with reality or they are willing to cut their noses to spite their face. The BJP has a great opportunity to win in 2014 and install a difference making government in New Delhi. However, with Gadkari firmly ensconced (thanks to the RSS) and Swaraj/Advani/Jaitley clearly unable to provide a good leadership, the BJP continues to shoot themselves in the foot. Instead of firmly standing behind the one guy who is going to give them a huge victory in Gujarat, Swaraj et. al. are content standing on the sidelines offering platitudes and tepid support for Narendra Modi.

This is a sad story. A very apt example is that of the Republican Part in the US, who was on the verge of defeating a weak president like Barak Hussein Obama in an extremely winnable election, they shot themselves in the foot. In fact they blew their feet off (to create a new cliché). I have a sinking feeling that the BJP will find a way to lose the next general elections because of petty egos of the RSS and BJP leaders. If these people do not rise about their pathetic and petty egos then they will be responsible for BJP’s loss and re-electing Congress to yet another disgraceful term.