Conversion VS Reconversion

The Americans take their freedom very seriously. Religious freedom or freedom of speech is protected by federal laws and the society itself. That makes the field level for all. This means that if funds and efforts from Middle East are converting poor Blacks and other minorities then that is not impeded by anyone. Of course the same goes for the reverse efforts as well. Christians can get on a pulpit and do any kind of name calling without running the risk of a fatwa. Of course Muslims can do the same. Therefore in the eyes of the law or society, all speech, religions and other basic human rights are revered and protected. The field, as they say, is level.

Now compare that with India. When Modi was the CM of Gujarat, all accusations, fair or unfair were allowed. All invectives, no matter how nasty were protected by freedom of speech. He was called “maut ka saudagar”, fascist, Nazi, mass murderer etc. with no one except the conservatives to his defence. The moment a minor campaigner from the BJP uses the kind of language used all over the country with impunity, the Rajyasabha comes to a standstill. Objections to Valentine’s Day celebration (people who want to celebrate SHOULD be allowed) are treated with extreme disdain while the VC of AMU can freely object to female students in the library. Leftists and Muslims can use any kind of language or lies to incite murderous violence and collect accolades in the English language media for their intellectual prowess. The field is far from level when it comes to speech in India.

However when it comes to religion, the field becomes even more askew if that were possible. Now ideally I would ask the RSS and others to focus on the big picture and help the PM achieve all his goals. Religion is important but in a weak nation we may not be able to protect our religion, culture and our way of life.

The problem is that so far all our governments have done nothing to stop the conversion of Hindus into Islam or Christianity. In my opinion they should not. Hindus from the weaker sections of the society should be free to convert if they think they will be treated better as Muslims or Christians. However, the aforementioned conversions have used all kinds of dirty tricks. Money, force, love jihad and deception have run amok. Even a good person like Mother Teresa and her crew used deception to convert the lepers (it is a matter of record!). They would baptize the dying lepers and tell them that they were just washing their heads. Christian missionaries would toss a wooden cross and a stone Hanumanji and tell the ignorant tribals that the stronger of the two gods is going to float. These missionaries often make their help contingent on conversions. The tricks used by Muslims is far worse. Illegal immigration encouraged by leftists, Trinamul Congress and Congress have changed the population dynamics in WB and Andhra. Now the Hindus have known about this all along and have been watching is silently. No one in the media has ever objected to all these tricks. In fact if it were not because of Christopher Hitchens, the Indians would continue to place Mother Teresa on the same level as Swami Vivekananda. No one in Rajya Sabha objected to Hindus being forced or bamboozled into converting. If the Hindu outfits have started to convert Muslims and Christians then all hell has broken loose as we can see. Even some BJP supporters have started to ask Modi to step in.

If the Muslims and Christians can convert Hindus then the Hindus should be allowed to reconvert them. If the government wants to stop this then pass a law and make all conversion illegal. The leftists and the liberals cannot have it both ways. So my appeal to the people who are so vehemently against the “Ghar Vaapsi” campaign is to please look at both sides of the coin. Be fair even if it goes against your core belief of “my way or no way”. My appeal to those BJP members who are against the reconversions is that the government needs to do their work. They are either totally separate from religious activity or totally involved with appropriate legislations. Modi cannot stop these fringe and mainstream outfits from these activities without legislation just like Angela Merkel cannot stop the right wing parties to hold peaceful rallies against Muslim immigration. In fact if you look at his record in Gujarat, he always steered clear of getting involved with such activities. He did not help Asaram Bapu despite his political heft. The government can take on multiple activities. In no way should such conversions impede development process. We as a society are fully capable of multitasking and compartmentalizing. My appeal all Indians is that please focus on the bigger picture. It is India first and everything else second. For the first time we have a capable leader at the helm. We need to help the man make India great again instead of being jerks like the ones we are seeing in Rajyasabha.

Having said that I would like to iterate that religious activity should be personal and everyone should be free to do what they want. But the law should be the same for all and the field level. Because if it is not then society will always be in chaos. Even a capable man like Modi cannot perform and deliver in chaos.

Please read some of our articles on the same topic at:
http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2011/01/religious-coversion-and-our.html
http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2012/04/future-of-india-lies-in-hindu-unity.html
http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2010/06/casteism-honour-killings-and-our.html

Will The Pakistanis Learn?

In a marketplace, a young girl runs after two men on a motorcycle, carrying a bag she thought they were forgetting. The man looked back at the girl and sped away. The bag blew up. The girl died. Imagine the cold bloodedness involved. This happened in India. The two men probably were working at the behest of some terror merchant in Pakistan. The cruelty showed by these two men resembles the cruelty demonstrated by the terrorists who gunned down all those children in Peshawar. When you talk of Pakistan, the line between terrorists and establishment i.e. the army gets really blurred. The killing that the Pakistani army carried out in Bangladesh is a matter of record. The brutality with which they snuffed dissension in the Baltistan area or Balochistan is shocking. Since early 1990s and the inception of Taliban the deaths on both sides of the border have left the sensible searching for answers.

Terrorist attacks in Pakistan are a regular occurrence. Yet another example of Frankenstein turning against it’s creator. The too clever by half Pakistanis thought that the terrorists will do all their dirty work and stay in the shadows. When the time comes they will melt their guns, forge plows out of them and lead peaceful lives. I would like to sell them the big chunk of ice floating at the South Pole. Their naiveté is flabbergasting. When the TTP or the LeJ or any of those groups were killing Indians or Balochis or Shias or just hapless Pakistanis, the Paki army was just fine with it. Now that they have killed their children, they are upset. They are carrying out serious bombings in that area. They are demanding the Afghanis extradite the man responsible for the attack on the school. I would like to remind those bastards of someone by the name of Dawood Ibrahim. We have been demanding his extradition along with another 20 odd terrorists for almost two decades now. The Paki establishment has refused us repeatedly but now they are demanding justice. Only the blind and the liberals cannot spot the hypocrisy in this behavior.

My heart really goes out to the parents of those children. Even the cruel Paki army men do not deserve to see this done to their children. Those unfortunate children ended up paying dearly for their fathers’ sins. I am not indulging in schadenfraude. I am just stating the facts. Now the Pakistanis may get the guys who did this or they may not. After all, Osama dodged the vast American war machine for close to a decade. The real question is that are the Pakistanis ready to stop using terrorism as an extension of their foreign policy? My guess is that they will not. Men like Hamid Gul and Parvez Musharraf are extremely cruel people who will, after sometime, describe even this loss as collateral damage and go on supporting the terrorists. For them the end is so precious that any and all means are acceptable to them. No loss is too great, no life too valuable. Here in India we are holding two minute silences and praying for the dead children. There in Pakistan, less than 24 hours later we have the darling of the Pakistani establishment, terror meister Hafeez Syed blaming the tragedy on India and vowing retaliation. No. Pakistanis are not going to learn from this extreme tragedy. Somehow I think that the hatred for India makes Pakistanis stupid beyond reason. Stupid enough to burn their house down. Stupid enough to kill their children.

My suggestion to my fellow Indians is that sympathize with the parents of the dead children. Pray for their departed souls. But under no circumstance, drop your guard down. Pakistan will never learn.

Indian Americans: Please Vote Right In 2016

All democracies are created equal. Some are more equal than others. On one hand, the US goes around supporting the cause of democracy in the middle east, spending hard earned tax payer money and precious lives of their young soldiers on the other when it comes to supporting a well established democracy like India, they start to take sides and play favorites with a toilet like Pakistan. Do they love the brown skinned Pakistanis more than the equally brown skinned Indians? Do they prefer the monotheistic Muslims over Hindus? I do think so. If they do, it is not overt anymore. However, when you are America with less than 10% population of the world but consume more than 40% resources then you have to have a self serving agenda. If that agenda trumps the cause of democracy then so be it. India will NEVER tow the US line. We have too much ego and pride and now (with Modi as PM) ability to jump up and down at the US command.

The US is used to getting what they want using any and all means at their disposal - “Carrots or Sticks” as they say in the west or “saam daam dand bhed” as we say in India. A friendship with the US will be a friendship of the unequals. Therefore, as NV Subramanian says that all this talk of US and India being natural allies is hollow rhetoric. It will be foolish on our part to think that the US will do anything out of magnanimity or because it is the right thing to do. They will do what is in their interest –security or financial. Now if we want to ally with them then we need to position ourselves in such a way that our interests coincide. In fact that is how most nations, in absence of an ideology, make friends. With PM Modi at helm we see right moves being made.

Israelis have used their Diaspora and American Jews to their advantage. We must take a page out of the Israeli book and make use of our Diaspora as well. Indian Americans are fast becoming a super minority with economic and financial power. US politicians need to be made aware of our concerns through lobbying and networking. There exists a lot of bad institutional memory in the US vis a vis Indo-US relations. Despite the US being the biggest trade partner and money donor we voted against them in the UN over 70% of the votes (until the late 1980s). This sowed seeds of extreme distrust especially in the Republican Party. That we were Soviet supporting Hindus did not win us any favors there. This is why people like Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney who used to be part of the Nixon / Ford / Reagan administration, hated us. That era politicians are now retired. We now have to deal with US foreign policy forged during the Clinton Administration which has now become the new institutional memory. During the Clinton days it almost seems that the Indo-US relations were single handedly ruined by the then South Asia secretary Robin Raphel who was a close friend of the Clintons. A poisonous person like Raphel who has had the ears of the Clintons for almost three decades must have some effect on their impression of India (all the singing and dancing Bill Clinton does in India notwithstanding). It is said that Preet Bharara who is the US attorney for the Southern District of New York will become the Attorney General in a possible Hillary Clinton cabinet. Those of us who followed Devyani Khobragade (a corrupt Indian diplomat in her own right) episode and then the ensuing issuance of the court summons against PM Modi know that this despicable man has decided to prove his fairness by going to extra mile when it comes to indicting and punishing Indians. Moreover with Hillary Clinton in the white house, every anti Indian leftist in the US will have an extremely powerful ally.

The Indian American voters, from what I see and hear tend to vote democratic despite being conservatives in their personal lives. I can understand that. Republicans are a white Christian party and we are neither white nor Christian so we gravitate towards the Democratic party against our natural tendencies. However the new generation of Republicans do not have the Reagan era institutional memory and are pragmatic politicians. The two non white Republican governors are Indian Americans (both have converted but that is still a minor point). The Republicans trusted Neel Tushar Kashkari who is a Hindu to challenge Jerry Brown for the Governorship of California. Kashkari lost but he still managed to garner 42% votes.

My appeal to the Indian American voters is that they need to take a hard look at the Republican party. For that they may need to overcome a lot of their biases but it is for the betterment of Indo-US relations. We do not need lip service providing Democrats who appoint Indian Americans to a lot of junior and unimportant posts but hurt us when it comes to real issues. The Indian American voters need to overcome their own institutional memory and look at the 2016 candidates pragmatically. A person like Hillary Clinton will not be good for India. We do not know who will be the Republican candidate but he or she deserves an unbiased look from the Indian American voters. Please don’t underestimate your own power. Your votes, your lobbying and your voice is extremely important for Indo-US relations.

NV Subramanian's article on the Indo-US "friendship" can be read at:
http://www.newsinsight.net/Raphel%E2%80%99sAmerica.aspx#page=page-1

Racist Indians

We are the ultimate kiss up – kick down people. What it means is that we do our best to please whom we deem superior and inflict on whom we deem lesser. I guess the class system instilled into us by the Mughal and British rule combined with our own caste system created a perfect storm. This forces us to misbehave with anyone who is remotely different from us.

I sat on a lunch table in Thane where a man who has a PhD proclaimed all north Indians are bastards. He of course is a Marathi. He said that in front of a person who was from the north. That there no fisticuffs or curses exchanged clearly indicated the “non-bastard” like behavior of the north Indian – a point totally lost on Dr. Marathi. I was also in a gathering at a work place in West Bengal where in presence of a person from UP, this Bengali lady (I use the term because I have to) proclaimed that everyone from UP and Bihar are idiots. The man from UP had a degree from one of the original IITs and a degree from an established American University. But that did not deter this Bengali lady who clearly was an intellectual inferior to make her proclamation. People in UP have been known to refer to everyone from south of the Vindhyas as a “Madarasi”. They mock the heavily accented Hindi of South Indians ignoring the fact that their own knowledge of Tamil or Telugu is less than zero. Indians in the south repay this favor in kind to anyone from the north visiting Chennai or Madurai or any of the great tourist or holy destinations.

The aforementioned examples were made to highlight the ugly Indian behavior but all the name calling and put-downs are nothing compared to violent behavior against people from the great Indian North East. In the current economic climate in India it is impossible to hope to stay in your own home state. You go where the opportunities are. We all do it and should expect others to do the same. India belongs to all of us – every inch of it. We should feel safe and protected by the system no matter who we are and where we are. Classifying Indians as Chinkis (“Oriental looking easterners”), “bhaiyyas”, Gujjus, “Mallus”, “Gultis”, “Madrasis” etc. betrays our own insecurities. This behavior is a detriment to the unity of the nation. Our PM goes to the UN and talks about the Hindu ethos and the concept of “Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam” and we can’t follow his advice at home? Indians who go to the west and complain about racism at the drop of the hat continue to misbehave grossly at home. One would think that serving as slaves to the British and paying Jaziya to the Muslims would give us a better understanding of basic human rights. We have learned nothing from the history and that is why we continue to be such kiss up – kick down people.

Xenophobia, the fear of the unknown and skepticism towards the different are part of human behavior. It is in all of us to do what I have talked about so far. We are all capable of racism and casteism. The tribal mentality is part of our genome. However if we really want to be different from the primitive and the animal then we have to teach ourselves to do what is right. What is more important is that we teach our children that such behavior has no place in India. If we want to become a great nation and take our rightful place in the world then we must shun this divisive behavior. Knowing the first name should be enough. Insistence on the last name / surname should be avoided at all cost. India is our tribe. We are Indians first and everything else much much later.

I hope that the Home Ministry would initiate an ad campaign highlighting and talking about the great North East and the problems facing them. We all should know exactly what is going on in those states. More knowledge, increased familiarity will definitely solve a lot of these problems. The criminals who hurt our fellow NE Indians need to be punished to the full extent of the law. But the real solution lies with us. We need to believe in the concept of “Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam” rather than using it as a catch phrase to earn applause in the west.

Haidar: Ban No. Boycott Yes.

I have not seen Haidar. I do not plan to see Haidar. Ever! Does that deny me the right to talk about the movie? I am sure you can decide that for yourself.

Moviemakers in general are leftist liberals and anti-establishment (as long as the establishment is conservative). You have leftist luminaries like Vishal Bharadwaj, Anurag Kashyap, Rajkumar Santoshi, Gulzar et. al. from India. There are a whole bunch of them in Hollywood with the most rabid of them all, Oliver Stone leading the pack. The ones in Europe are using their bully pulpits to rail against Israel. So when you hear that a movie is political in nature or the background is that of some kind of political conflict, you can bet your last Rupee that it will be of extreme left in nature. Of course you have directors like Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, Sidney Lumet, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Martin Scorsese, who have also broached the topic of social injustice albeit in really sensitive and balanced ways; ways that force you to contemplate and not go on the defensive. But that is not the style practiced by most movie makers, especially Indian moviemakers who are about as subtle as the Kolhapuri or Kathiawadi curries.

Bharadwaj clearly has some talent. He has made some real clunkers but also good ones like Maqbool and Omkara (adaptations of Macbeth and Othello). His latest is an adaptation of Hamlet. Shashi Kapoor adapted Mahabharat in a way that did not ruffle any feathers. Kalyug was a fine and timely adaptation of a religious book. Bharadwaj himself adapted two of the Bard’s works without causing any controversies. Had he adapted Hamlet in the Indian corporate world electoral politics or almost any other social background, I am sure that the movie would have been a fine one like the other two. But the fact that he chose the Kashmiri terrorism at its worst as his palate with Basharat Peer as a co-author betrays his insidious leftist agenda. That the movie is released in the wake of the floods in Jammu and Kashmir where the death toll would have skyrocketed without the Indian Army’s efforts makes the movie downright despicable.

The real answer to such movies is yet another movie where the truth is spoken from all points of view. The plights of J&K Hindus who are refugees in their own country have not been portrayed in any movies. Bravery of our soldiers is either not shown at all or the portrayal becomes a mockery with singing and dancing. In the late 1990’s my wife had met Brigadier Chandpuri at the house of a common friend. The man was an extremely unassuming sort. However, he was portrayed in Border by a hysterical Sunny Deol. Add some song and dance and you have the perfect caricature of a brave son of Mother India. We have a long history of bravery in our country going back centuries. I will give you an example on just one soldier:

The first time the IMSF would see action would be a hazardous operation to blow up the Jaffna jetty. This was a crucial link to the LTTE’s suicide boats that was threatening the IPKF’s naval supply ships as well as the Sri Lankan navy. India’s naval operations decided to use the first batch of the IMSF to put together a team that would take out the jetty.

Naturally, the man they chose to lead the operation was Lt Arvind Singh. In the late hours of a summer night, Singh and his men slipped off an Indian naval ship and began to swim towards their objective a good 10-12 km away. Carrying their weapons and demolitions, the team slipped into the Jaffna harbour and laid their charges. As soon as the jetty blew up, the LTTE immediately detected the IMSF team and began to harass them with withering fire. Singh and his men returned the fire and began their long swim back to their ship. They returned without any casualties and, a year later, Singh would walk up the steps of Rashtrapati Bhawan to receive his Maha Vir Chakra.

Can the Indian moviemakers make movies on men like Arvind Singh or the Kargil operation or Battle of Longewal without making a mockery of these brave souls? No they cannot!! All they can do is spew their venom and spit in the eyes of the Hindu nationalists. These bastards need to pull out their heads from the mud and take in the smell of the burning flesh coming from various Muslim countries including the one next door that they so love.

So what do we do about it? Some people are asking for a ban on the movie. That is not an option. India is a free democracy with right of freedom of speech to all. If JNU leftists want to portray Hindus as cannibals waiting to feast of the flesh of Muslim babies then it is their right. But the Hindus are not without a weapon in the matter. It is vote and money. You vote against anti-national leftists and boycott books, movies and any creative outlets of the leftists or by the leftists. If you boycott Haidar and threaten to boycott anything made by UTV then you will see an immediate change in their attitude. Money talks and leftism walks. Lack of success and eventually funding will shut Bharadwaj and his ilk.

I encourage you to read our post: http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2011/05/brave-indian-soldiers-cowardly.html

"Attacker" Wrong. Sardesai Wrong And Worse.

I heard about Rajdeep Sardesai attacked by an NRI in New York. My first reaction was that it was wrong. Journalists, good or bad should not be touched. That is the first rule of a free society and a democracy. Violence must and can never be the way to express your point of view. It is not the Hindu way. VIOLENCE AGAINST JOURNALISTS SHOULD BE SHUNNED AT ALL COSTS.

Then I saw the video of the entire event. It started off as a heated argument with two Indian men. Nothing wrong with that. It still is a free exchange of views. But then out of the blue, Sardesai uses a profanity and lunges at the NRI. It was shocking to see that the “attacker” was actually the victim. It should not have been be shocking knowing the violent proclivities of leftists like Sardesai who want to be right no matter what the cost.

After watching the video, I must say that the moment Sardesai lunged at the NRI, he ceased to be a responsible journalist and became a leftist goon in the vein of the CPI or Trinamool or SP or BSP goons / “gundas”. After that all bets are off. I am happy to see that fellow NRIs did not join in and beat the daylights out of Sardesai in a fit of anger. Good show guys!! We are proud of the NRI’s showing this kind of restraint.

There is a bigger issue at work here. The typical Indian English media maven will sell themselves to the highest bidder and if shortchanged, will shamelessly use the bully pulpit i.e. yelling and screaming and try to shame their customer in public to get what they want. Sardesai and his entire ilk hold everyone who disagrees with them in pathetically low esteem. If you are a conservative Hindu nationalist who cannot speak fluent English then you really are down on their list with drug dealers and pimps; even lower than terrorists (you can guess why). What my venting indicates is that their behavior is infuriating. You really want to tear this bastard into pieces but you must control your anger. You must find another outlet to express your point of view. VIOLENCE MUST BE SHUNNED AT ALL COSTS. If you really want to punish the left wing media, then stop watching their TV shows. Lower TRPs will destroy these irresponsible journalists.

Going back to the event in Manhattan, you can see that despite of being the aggressor, this wretch managed to manipulate things and project himself as the victim. He has the media and fellow irresponsible wretches in the Editors Guild who were only too quick to jump to this man’s defence. The NRI who is just a common man has no one to back and support him. We are all helpless at the hands of these mass manipulators yelling lies on TV. Bleak, isn’t it? Not really.

We have gotten our revenge on every single pimp in the Indian media. They ran a systematic campaign to destroy Narendra Modi for over a decade, left no stone unturned to deny him the top job. And yet, we Indian went and voted for the man and won him the seat in an overwhelming margin. And if that were not enough, we can clearly see that Modi has shown media their real place in Indian polity - under the voter's shoe.

Q: CAN THERE BE A HARDER, MORE VISCIOUS SLAP ON RAJDEEP SARDESAI AND HIS ILK THAN NARENDRA MODI IN PM’s CHAIR?
A: NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear fellow Indians. I beg of you. Do not get angry and take matters in your own hands. We have the right man in PM’s chair who knows exactly how to handle Sardesai and his ilk. Work hard to ensure Modi’s success – now and in future. Ensure that BJP wins every forthcoming election. That would be our revenge on the criminally biased leftist English language media in India and every left wing thug who has made you feel small and helpless. Let your effort and vote do the slapping not your hand.

Modi Needs To Revamp His Cabinet

Modi Sarkar completed 100 days a while ago. People from both sides are evaluating the performance with predictable results. Two things do not set well with me with the 100 day evaluation.

First of all, this is not a movie where one can ascribe a Rupee figure and evaluate “Hit or Flop”. 100 day evaluation is something that is done in the west. In India other than providing the talking heads a topic to rant or rave, it does precious little. This brings me to the second point. In India, the moment the government machinery gets involved with all the babus in fray, things move at a glacier like speed. Getting anything done in 100 days is a miracle which is beyond even a miracle worker like Modi. However, one can get a sense of the direction of the government by the decisions taken. Most decisions taken so far are the kind which will any kinds of dividends any time soon.

So what DO I make of the government’s performance so far? Clearly Modi himself has changed the ways in which our government works. He has a vision which is evident in the “macro-decisions”. He is getting India involved in major deals with the three biggest economies in the world and that is in just over three months. Clearly he is as different from his predecessors as night and day. However he has come to the center from a high performing state and thus is going through a learning curve – clearly leading Gujarat and India are two different tasks. What we were hoping was that the cabinet he chooses will ease that learning curve and Delhi insiders like Jaitley, Swaraj and Rajnath Singh will do the heavy lifting thereby freeing some time for Modi to focus on governance. It is at this point that things start to become murky.

Rajnath Singh’s tenure so far has proven to be a damp squib. No key decisions have been made since he took over the all-important ministry. This is what NV Subramanian says about him:

Hitting a low, he has been identified with the chauvinistic pro-Hindi drive of his government which will end up destroying goodwill for it across the country, but is that all Rajnath Singh stands for as home minister Rajnath Singh shows no pride and does not have the bearing of a home minister. Now newspaper reports say Singh has been cut out of the appointment process of senior officials.

Arun Jaitley who has lost the only election he contested has shown only one talent – being at the right place at the right time and identifying Modi’s ascending star. He has positioned himself in getting not one but two plum ministries. This for a man who has no public or party worker support (how can lower level party worked support and respect a man who has never won an election?) and is in such terrible shape that he cannot stand for more than 30 min. He clearly suffers from every disease known to affect the super-rich. This is what NV Subramanian says about his first budget:

Arun Jaitley’s first budget was thunderously underwhelming. People inside government say Modi had little hand in the budget apart from making suggestions here and there because he did not want to cramp Jaitley’s independence. Very likely, he was testing his minister of finance. Whatever the prime minister’s verdict, the country was far from being satisfied. It reflected in comments that it was a “UPA-3” budget which might as well have been presented by Chidambaram. Smug Chidambaram said the same.

Not only has he presented a lackluster budget but also failed to rein in food prices. I do not know under whose purview the price control falls but it has to be under Finance or Home (bringing the hoarders to justice) but clearly these two men have utterly failed in price control and thus earned the sole black mark against the Modi government so far. Of course only Narendra Bhai knows why a seldom performing minister like Jaitley is handling two very important ministries.

The lesser said about Swaraj, the better it is. The woman who, after failing at every attempt to scuttle the good ship Modi, demanded a “samman janak” ministry. Right now she is no more than a glorified bureaucrat with Modi doing all the heavy lifting. Of course making deals with the three biggest economies is a task too important to be left with a person who could not rule Delhi effectively.

When Modi took office, he had to make compromises in doling out ministries. Pressures from RSS and Delhi establishment would have been too much to bear for a man who was a newcomer to the cesspool known as New Delhi. He is repeating what he did when he became a new CM – learn the ropes from people in the know. This is why he selected a number of people from the Vivekananda Foundation. These are people whose ability and patriotism are beyond reproach. The same cannot be said about his ministry because he had to select people from a certain pool of elected and selected (by RSS and Delhi establishment) people. Unfortunately, Modi does not have the luxury of a gradual learning curve. He has a learn fast, act soon and show immediate results so he can lay a claim to a much needed and an essential second term.

If you read an article by NV Subramanian, Modi is surrounded by people whose lives have been altered; whose morals have been questioned; whose hitherto pathetic work ethics streamlined with Modi’s own; whose easygoing lifestyles of entitlements challenged and changed. These are powerful people who are not going to give up the fight easily. Modi is up to the challenge as we saw during his tenure in Gujarat. However, he needs performers and people he can trust – the sort he had in Gujarat.

Modi needs to revamp his cabinet. He is firmly ensconced in the PM’s chair and has given his cabinet enough opportunity to show, if not results then vision and direction. His mid level ministers (the ones with less than samman-janak portfolios) have responded very well. Modi needs to identify the snake in the grass babus and non-performing ministers in his government and weed them out before they become millstones around his neck. Clearly Jaitley (who is just one of them) with his ongoing health issues need to take leave and enjoy his crores and leave governance to people who know how. Now that sacrifice would be patriotic and endear him to people like me. If he and others like him do not leave with dignity then they need to be dragged out screaming. Otherwise Modi can forget about his second term.

NV Subramanian’s article on evaluating ministers can be read at:
http://newsinsight.net/TeamModi-4..aspx#page=page-1

NVS’ article on the chakravyuh around Modi can be read at:

http://newsinsight.net/Aheadofthegame.aspx#page=page-1

Dear Brits: Indians And Pakistanis Are Different.

We write after the Scottish vote on freedom from England. You may think that all is well in the Queen’s backyard. Hardly so. The Brits may be loath to admit it but some of their decisions made in the past are coming back to haunt them in the worst possible ways. As victims of their brutality, we could not care less about those chickens coming to roost but when it affects us or our names we do care. I will explain.

If you understand the concept of “Hum-kitaab” you can understand the mutual respect between Muslims and Christians. “Hum-kitaab” refers to overlap between Bible and Quran. No such overlap exists between Hinduism and those religions which would explain constant mistrust rather than mutual respect between the west and India. While it did not erase it, some of the mutual respect between Christians and Muslims evaporated in the aftermath of the 9/11 carnage.

It is quite amazing that despite of repeated proofs of the peace loving nature of Hinduism we are still looked upon as some sort of brain washed cult followers. On the flip side despite well-established penchant for violence demonstrated by Muslims, they continue to find favors with the west. In fact if it was not for Israel and the anti-Jewish violence and hatred demonstrated by the Muslims we would be deeper waters.

The history of raj days especially that of British dealings with Hindus and Muslims and eventually India and Pakistan depends a lot on whom you listen to. Muslims / pakis / Indian liberals will tell you one story while the nationalists will tell you another. Being a nationalist myself, I tend to believe the latter. While their version of history can be debated, the results of their version is there for all to see.

Of course if you go back in our History, it is quite obvious that the British preferred dealing with Muslims. It clearly went beyond their “divide and rule” policy. It could have been due to their familiarity with Islam. If we look at the goings on during the partition, it is clear that the British thought that a Muslims Pakistan would be a better bulwark against spread of communism. They conveyed this to the American who then went to ally with the pakis. This alliance was so precious to them that they chose not to tell Nehru about the impending attack by the Pakistani army on J&K which resulted on the loss of huge amount of land in J&K to Pakistanis who then went and gifted some of it to the Chinese. Clear case of Pakistan over India. Go a decade ahead and you will see another blunder by the Brits. When cloth mill workers were needed in England then chose to import all those workers from Pakistan (current day accounts say that Indian workers were taken as well but that is a lie or a token number of workers may have been taken). Those workers are now part of the establishments (as in voters and politicians) and their children are creating a havoc in England. Britain has become a steady source of terrorists to the world now. We saw the terrorists associated with the Finsbury Park Mosque. Now we are seeing a steady stream of British Muslim terrorists into Iraq. The ISIS superstar Jihadi John if from London. Things have become so bad that people refer to London as Londonistan. All this is because of the British policy of appeasement. The British conservative will have you believe that it is because of political correctness. Are these the same people who killed 1500 people in Jallianwallah? Are these the same people who led by Churchill denied tens of lakhs of famine victims of Bengal any relief because they could not take away any resources from British navy? These people ruthlessly ruled India and now they are telling that they are helpless at the hands of Labor Party / Liberal media’s political correctness? Of course if you look at the Indian immigrants and their children in England who are doing exceedingly well, the current state of British Muslims becomes a real head scratcher. It is clear that over two centuries of rule did not teach them the difference between Hindus and Muslims. Either that or they refused to do so because of their extreme hatred for us.

If the British policies of the past and recent past are yielding so many terrorists then aren’t the British responsible for them? It started off with Biryani and now it is bombs. If Jihadi John is beheading American and Israeli journalists and a British muslim woman is running a brothel with Yazidi girls for the muslim terrorists of ISIS amongst other atrocities, then what is the culpability of the British government?

If this were not bad enough another example of bad British policies has reared its ugly head in the town of Rotterham. This what was said in a report by John 'O Sullivan: 

Britain has felt real shock and horror over the report that 1,400 young women in the South Yorkshire town of Rotherham had been groomed, raped, prostituted, trafficked, and brutally abused in almost every possible way by a criminal gang for the last 16 years.

This what was said in another article:

The researcher, who was seconded to Rotherham council by the Home Office, was told she must "never, ever" again refer to the fact that the abusers were predominantly Asian men.
Speaking to the BBC's Panorama programme under the condition of anonymity, the researcher said that she identified more 270 victims of trafficking and underage prostitution by mainly Muslim gangs in Rotherham.

One only has to read any one of the dozens of articles written to read about the brutality inflicted on these girls. These girls may have been wayward and unloved at home but they deserved better. They were collectively let down by the British society in the name of political correctness. Hindus are quite capable of inflicting unspeakable cruelties as was witnessed in the Nirbahaya Rape case. However, the way the Pakistanis carried out this systematically is what blows one’s mind. We can see that in some articles which try to point the blame at vote-bank politics of Muslim appeasement in England (sounds familiar?). Labor party is like SP / BSP / Congress / CPI of England. It for this reason that the British liberals refer to the Pakistanis as Asians, grouping them with Indians and Chinese.

So what is my problem? Britain raised terrorists are beheading westerners but they will eventually get to us. Will the stiff upper lipped, self-righteous British society stand up and accept their culpability in these beheadings?

Why am I upset about the rapes perpetuated on British girls? It is because all this while they kept saying that Asian gangs are committing these atrocities. It is only now that some of them are getting up and saying that Pakistani men are carrying out these systematic and brutal atrocities. My appeal to the Brits is as follows: Indians in England (on an average) doing better than the white natives. You know what and where the Pakistanis (on an average) are. So please differentiate between Indians and Pakistanis. We are not the same. You should know. You created the two countries.

What started off with Biryani let to Bombs and beheadings and now “Balaatkaar”? The British are responsible for what is going on in their country. I am not taking pleasure in all this but I could not pass up an opportunity to say – I told you so!

Articles mentioned above can be read at:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/387428/1400-english-girls-raped-multiculturalism-dennis-prager
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11069178/Rotherham-researcher-sent-on-diversity-course-after-raising-alarm.html

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/386648/rotherhams-and-englands-shame-john-osullivan

Hindustan , India and Bharatvarsh !

(This article was written by a friend of the
 blog)

Every Independence Day, our August 15th, brings with it a moment to reflect about being a Hindu, an Indian and a Bharatiya! History tells us that once upon a time the undivided Bharat extended as far as Takshila and Gandhar in the west, what we now know as Afghanistan and Baluchistan, with references in the holy Hindu texts to prove the fact. We all know that with the passage of time, invasions, occupation by foreign invading forces, Bharat kept cutting away various parts of its body allowing the creation of countries that did not exist before -Afghanistan , Pakistan and Bangladesh, all declared as Islamic nations. India had to suffer the ignominy of being ruled by Mughals and the British from as early as 1200 AD onwards only to gain full freedom on August 15, 1947 because we lost various wars since we were not united as a nation and due to the policy of Ahimsa, became a non-warrior community.

There was no Hindustan or India until the invasions disrupted life in an otherwise peaceful and prosperous region where the key principles of Hindutva was a way of life! Amongst so many kernels of wisdom and guiding principles of Vedanta and Sanatan Dharma, two most well known are : "Sarvay bhavantu sukhina , sarvay santu niramaya ...." and the much known and quoted phrase of "Vasudhaiva kutumbakam". The recorded history tells us that a peaceful and prosperous Bharat became victim of religious wars and expansionism of Islam and Christianity (also known as the crusades and jihads) and the accessing the rest of the world by the western imperial powers for economic plunder and destruction. Every Indian today must know its glorious past as also the inglorious moments in history. It is these invaders who gave us the names of India and Hindustan , depicting thereby a country inhabited by Hindus !

Therefore, a question that nags me all the time is why a country of over 1.2 billion people of which over 80% are Hindus, the original inhabitants, does not call itself a Hindu nation? I recognize the politics of it all as the politically correct word "secular" got in the play ever since Independence and the Nehruvian Fabian socialism! As a result of which a country which is home to the largest population of Hindus cannot call itself as a Hindu state because somehow it will lose its secular credentials if India calls itself as such! In reality, theory and practice, Hinduism is the most liberal, democratic, religious and secular social practice in the world that somehow got lost in translation. Among the warring and aggressive Christian and the Islamic faiths the world is divided as Christian and Islamic countries. We now once again see a resurgence of the clash of civilizations with ISIS calling to raise its flag on the White House itself ! While the democratic form and reforms of governance has brought social shifts in accepting the principles of human rights, separation of the church and political governance in the western world, Islamic nations continue to remain within the shackles and impositions of conditions of Sharia.

The question therefore is what about us Hindus? Are we going to, once again, get caught in the battle between Christianity and Islam as a victim or remain an unwilling mute and a marginal player? Or we will have the courage to emerge as courageous nation (not nonaligned) and act or get to really establish and claim the rightful place in the world teaching, spreading and inculcating the values of the Sanatan Dharma and Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam in true sense of the word? That too without ANYONE having to convert himself from his original faith he/she was born in? Hindus and Indians must assert themselves, an act they seem to have forgotten, about how religious acceptance as practiced by Hindus is far superior to the policy of religious tolerance ! Bharat was welcoming of all faiths from all over the world and the practices of Hinduism allowed people to follow their own consciousness to pray to whoever and whatever they wanted to if that is what got the best out of them as human beings. The worshippers of Ram do not insult Krishna worshippers. Arya Samajis have no quarrels with Brahmo Samajis . Ganesh celebration has no clash with Durga worshippers and Hindus visit temples whether it is Guruvayoor or Mahabalipuram in the South or Krishna temple in Mathura or Pashupatinath in Kathmandu !

The world is in terrible religious and political conflict on the one hand, and war today, on the other. It is incumbent on us Hindus to assume our rightful place in the world as the mediator of peace. As Indians it is our obligation and duty to share with the world that there has never been a war between two sects or followers of Hindu beliefs. Shiva worshippers do not kill Durga worshippers and most often every temple is home to all incarnations of various Gods. If Shia and Sunnis accept Hindu principles and practices, it will mean that so many innocent children and people will not have to lose their lives and become an unwilling victim in all the conflicts threatening the world peace. If Christianity is threatened by Jihadis/ISIS extremists in the Middle East , let us collectively condemn the act of religious conversion as an act against God's original wish. If God wanted me to be a Christian or a Muslim, He would chosen my parents accordingly as well ! But He chose a Hindu family and I am so grateful to Him. Thank you God for making me a Hindu.
I hope India, that is Bharat, assumes the role that is waiting to happen.

New York based Vibhuti Jha is President, Human Potential Project. Prior to joining HP2, he was a senior officer with A m e r i c a n Express Bank International.

Wake Up Call For Modi Sarkar

An article written last month on this blog suggested that Modi government needs to show some immediate and tangible results as proof of their efforts. Bypoll results just declared show the importance of that. Losing to Lalloo-Nitish combine is a painful reminder of two things that Modi seems to have forgotten very quickly.

a. All politics is local.
b. Typical Indian voter has a very short attention span.

A Hollywood director and one of my favorites, Quentin Tarantino recently announced his latest movie, The Hateful Eight. He is not even done with casting and he has already put out a teaser trailer. This is to keep his fans and investors happy that work in ongoing on a movie which will get released in the end of next year. A very wise move if you think about it. There is a lesson in this for Modi Sarkar.

Ever since taking over the PM’s office, Modi has taken tough and right decisions in a timely fashion. He has shown sagacity, vision, clarity and political courage. But most of the decisions taken are the kind to show their impact in the long run. Dismantling of the Planning Commission and RTOs are bold and timely moves but do not impact the voters’ lives immediately. In NOIDA area potatoes are selling at over Rs 80/kg. A person struggling with prices of the most basic needs is not going to be impressed by what India may or may not become over the next decade. I had to reluctantly agree with Rashid Alvi’s criticism of Modi’s Independence day speech. While everything about the speech was groundbreaking and inspiring (what a welcome change from speeches we have come to expect from our PMs including Atalji) , what clearly was missing was any mention of the rising prices. Modi did everything right except what matters the most. Voters are willing to forgive a lot (sadak, bijli and paani). If I had heard any mention of plans to curb the prices in the same vein as other relevant issues, I would have rested easy knowing that a clown like Alvi will have no ammunition to attack Modi. If the government is unable to control the prices then they need to offer a plan along with a mea culpa. If they cannot do that then they can kiss getting a majority in the Rajya Sabha goodbye.

Now I do not know which of the ministers deals with the rising prices. If it is a financial matter then it is Jaitley. If it is criminal hoarding by dalaals, then it is the Home Minister’s fault. But at the end of the day, it is not Jaitley Sarkar or Rajnath Sarkar. It is Modi Sarkar. If his people cannot get the results then the ultimate responsibility lies with Modi.

There are a lot of things that can be done to show that the government is on the job and doing their best. A cursory read of our post on the matter (url below) will give you a sense that quick and visible results are important and doable. A smart and politically savvy man like Modi needs to realize that, forget the ballpark, governing India is not even the same sport as governing Gujarat. Just looking at the bigger picture while ignoring the details is fraught with political perils. He needs to produce fast or else his job is going to become very difficult.

Our post with suggestions about some quick results can be read at: http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2014/07/modi-sarkar-needs-to-show-results.html

True Indian History: Does It Help Or Hurt Us?

It is said that winners write history. This clearly implies that history is the winners’ version of the truth. Our PM recently mentioned 1200 years of slavery. These 1200 years were followed by six decade long rule by Congress and their agenda supporting minions. Anyone not living in a cave knows about Congress’ votebank politics. This means is that in the last 1260 years truth has been one of the big casualties.

For the first time Indian Conservatives have power (Atalji was bound by coalition dharma so his power was hostage to the likes of Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu). Modi sarkar wants to right some of these wrongs and include oft ignored truths and blatant Congress serving lies. This has left the yesteryears victors i.e. the leftists in a tizzy. Everyone with access to any kind of a media outlet is spewing venom. The latest is an article written by Mihir Sharma (“Eminently Funny Historians” – google it to read the article if you want to). A legend in his own mind, Sharma is clearly having a hard time accepting defeat of Congress and destruction of Indian left. He rants against the appointment of Y Sudarshan Rao as the head of the Indian Council of Historical Research. Sharma thinks that Indian History will be rewritten, undoing all the work of the Indian left. All Sharma offers in the way of argument are sarcasm and vitriol. He also rants against pro BJP bloggers and social media (we should thank him for indirectly giving us some credit for the BJP’s landslide victory). Sharma has no options other than biting the bullet and hope that Congress finds some way of winning in 2019. Good Luck with that Sharmaji!

Vivek Gumaste whose articles are always a pleasure has expressed his opinion on the matter. Here is an excerpt from that article (Gumaste refers to Rajeev Srinivasan):

“The West Bengal government in 1989 issued guidelines that said: ‘Muslim rule should never attract any criticism. Destruction of temples by Muslim rulers and invaders should not be mentioned.’ Dated 28 April, 1989, it [the circular] is issued by the West Bengal Secondary Board. It is in Bengali, and carries the number “Syl/89/1”.
Written in Bengali and designated as true (Shuddo) and false (Ashuddo), some of these deliberate distortions are listed below.
Ashuddo: “Sultan Mahmud used force for widespread murder, loot, destruction and conversion.”
Shuddo: “There was widespread loot and destruction by Mahmud”, i.e. no reference to murder or forcible conversion.
Ashuddo: “The non-believers had to embrace Islam or death”.
Shuddo: All matters on this page to be deleted.
Ashuddo: “He looted valuables worth 2 crore dirham from the Somnath temple and used the Shivling as a step leading to the masjid in Ghazni.”
Shuddo: Delete “and used the Shivling as a step leading to the masjid in Ghazni.”

Clearly these half truths are perpetuated in the name of communal harmony but the truth is a lot more insidious with far reaching and damaging effects. True Hindu Muslim unity and peace cannot be obtained by hiding the truths. Today Germans and Israelis have achieved peace but only after Germany have accepted their culpability in the Holocaust. This brings us to the issue I really want to address. How important is history to us? Do we need to or just deserve to know the unvarnished truth?

It is said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I suppose 1200 years of slavery is proof of that. If we had learned our lesson from the India’s occupation by the Mughals then we may have dealt with the British in a different way. History teaches us what NOT to do. It also tells us what we should be proud of. Patriotism may be the last refuge for many a scoundrel but for the man on the street it is also a panacea for all kinds of society ills. Patriotism teaches us about collective responsibility which can solve many a problem we are facing. Leftists who are afraid of patriotism degrading into jingoism leading us away from free thought are either lying to themselves out of ignorance or to the others for self serving reasons. Citizens of western democracies especially the US are very patriotic people at micro level (strong collective sense of responsibility for their neighborhood and community) and at macro level (the entire nation). And yet those societies are far from regressive and closed in nature.

India as a whole could benefit from learning the unvarnished truth about our nation. If the truth exposes skeletons in the Muslim closet (atrocities against Hindus) or the Hindu closets (sati, dowry, female feticide, atrocities on lower castes) then so be it. It is high time that all the Indians looked into the mirror and accept their culpability and responsibility. Otherwise we are doomed to live a lie and repeat the mistakes of our forefathers.

I had great hopes from Modi sarkar. The stress of the government should be on the truth and nothing but the truth. They really should stay away from embellishing or demonizing any one. They should tell the truth and let the people be the judge. I can understand not naming the countries involved in Netaji’s disappearance. Although those countries, if confident and mature like Germany then should come clean. What I do not understand the extreme reticence in coming clean on the 1962 debacle with China. Current leaders and future generations need to know what mistakes were made by Nehru or anyone else. Arun Jaitley is in no position to make a judgment on the matter. He is not even an elected person. HE DOES NOT REPRESENT ANYONE! I want to know PM Modi’s word on the subject.

Lies and half truths of the past are like shackles, keeping us from achieving the true freedom of thought. We cannot make informed decisions about the future if we brush the past under the proverbial carpet. I hope that Narendra Modi government would be different from the governments of the past. He needs to trust his voters and should let them decide what to do with history.
The Gumaste article with references to Rajeev Srinivasan's original article can be found at:
http://www.rediff.com/news/column/the-bjp-is-not-rewriting-history/20140722.htm

PM Modi, President Obama and the potential new swing in India-US relationship

by Vibhuti Jha, President, Human Potential Project

The election of Mr. Narendra Modi and his party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to lead India ,for the next five years , has been a watershed moment in the Indian political scene in as many years. After a long time, one single party has been voted in with majority to overcome the malaise and sufferings of “coalition politics” the country had to endure for the past ten years of the Congress party led UPA. The people of India are anxious to see India reach its full potential to become a true leader in the world economy leading to higher employment, bring good jobs and better livelihood for all. The majority given to BJP leaves it with no excuse if it were to fail in that promise made to the people of India. In a complex and complicated country like India, patience is running short and the electorate will be, as it must, very unforgiving, as the leaders of the UPA government experienced in the recently concluded national elections.

With the United States as the leading economy, struggling with massive debts and in need of new markets, India and the US are keenly poised to take advantage of the opportunity that exists today for both the countries. To let that opportunity go by will prove to be the undoing of the promises made to the people of both countries.

President Obama called former PM Manmohan Singh a "wise" and "decent" man. I am sure he will be very wisely selecting the most appropriate words to define and describe Mr. Modi when the two meet in Washington, DC, Come September, pun intended! India and the US have enjoyed a bitter sweet romantic relationship with lots of promises and also suffered a relationship mired with exuberance and disappointments. Both the countries share an equal amount of frustration , unhappiness, hope and possibility and are now poised to transcend the relationship to a deservingly high levels.

Despite massive possibilities, the potential has never reached levels that was expected. Therefore it may perhaps be useful to examine the potential and possibilities, and also what is missing, to take this association and relationship to a trusting and sustainable levels. Both leaders owe this to their people, who elected them in the first place and who they are supposed to protect and defend at all times as their primary responsibility. It is equally important to note that despite differences at the Government and official levels, at the people to people levels both countries have enormous respect for each other. Both India and the US are champions of diversity and are home to virtually all faiths and religions of the world. Both are authentic melting pots!

I was once asked in a PBS TV program conversation as to what India could teach the US. I said there is hardly anything for India to teach but there is a lot to share and learn from each other. India and the US are world’s two premier democracies , in size, tradition and demography with truly diverse populations and both are a genuine melting pot and champion of diversity. Both the countries have an enormous opportunity to build on these elements and must try to fill in the gaps in disagreements with all sincerity! Mere word play and offering praise for each other’s history , traditions and possibilities will no longer be sufficient to mollify the feelings. People of India will be keenly watching and observing the outcomes of this summit with reference to specific actions put in place.

In fairness to both leaders, they have already risen above the moment of crisis and have shown exemplary attitude, maturity and fortitude to seize the moment. Mr. Modi did not allow the personal insult, of denial of visa, to visit US and Mr. Obama overcame this moment to invite him for a full discussion with Mr. Modi at the White House after the UN meet in New York, instead of meeting him on the “sidelines” of the UN General Assembly. For both, the national self-interest is the guiding principle to get to know each other to further an actionable relationship. While the mandarins of Indian Foreign Service and various economic ministries, on the one hand, and the US State Department and business interests, on the other, will be working overtime to fashion a good PR spectacle, both the leaders will be well advised to get to know each other better than just serving verbal platitudes.

In the light of the above, let us here look at only a few aspects of the opportunity that merits a serious consideration.

One, both countries need each other for revival of the two economies. India needs US technology, manufacturing processes and defense cooperation to bolster its economy and security concerns. The US needs the Indian market and its potential to create a sustainable economic future for itself. While Mr. Modi won the elections on the promise of “Growth and Governance” as his clarion call to the people of India, Mr. Obama is working overtime to remove income inequality and improve social justice to his people. Both the leaders are tweaking the capitalist process in their own way. India is heading towards encouraging a true free enterprise economy for better growth, higher incomes, new employment opportunities for the youth of India and unfettered opportunity, the US is attempting to provide its people more social justice. There is so much to learn and share with each other and get over the avoidable mistakes in the process.

Secondly, the United States must recognize and acknowledge the fact that India and Indians are perhaps the closest friends it can have. This is true despite the American frustration and gripe about India’s flawed and pompous non-alignment policy. Indian concern and reservations about the US policy is directly related to the American penchant for sleeping with its enemies! Both India and the US are direct victims of the shenanigans of its so-called friend and India’s neighbor, Pakistan. People of India and the US have been targeted victims and lost hundreds of lives and both have invested time and wasted resources in Pakistan to no avail or any tangible outcomes. Pakistan is a political curse for India and an economic drain and loss of precious American lives on both the countries. We need to jointly address that concern. If the US wants to improve the bilateral economic ties taking it from current 100 billion US dollars to a goal of 500 Billion US Dollars, the US will have to look at the security concerns of India with more seriousness than it does today. If the US-India business have to reach that great target, the US will have to invest in creating an environment of peace and being responsible to protect and defend its own allies and investments.

India faces an existential threat from the marauding and barbaric hordes of Islamic terrorism and so does the USA. Everyone and his pet knows that Pakistan is the training ground for major terrorist acts where they all return to after committing their murderous acts. The American people are bewildered by the fact that it almost appears as if we Americans fund Pakistan to kill American lives. We the people of America need to know and ask of our leaders why Pakistan has such Anaconda like grip on the US.

Finally, for the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, this is the golden opportunity to define himself and set the narrative to the western media and news barons! So far, he has had to suffer the indignity of being defined by the self-appointed and self-anointed “India experts” to the extent that one prominent, award winning Indian journalist called him a man with “a dark side of Hindu nationalism”, as if a “white or fair side of Hindu nationalism” would have been acceptable as a lesser evil! The narrative of India and Indians has to be restated as the world’s IT hub, educated man power, eager and anxious to grow , accepting diversity as way of life , willing to adapt and accommodate all faiths and religions. He must tell the world, who doubt India’s credibility as a secular nation, that India had, in the last ten years, a Sikh as the Prime Minister, a muslim and a woman occupied the office of the President of the country and the then ruling party (now the largest opposition party) had/has the Roman catholic Italian woman as its leader. No country in the world can claim or boast of acceptance of such diversity and the opportunities everyone enjoys in India. The world needs to know and learn from the Indian way of life, despite all its inadequacies as we know about. India is ready for the enhanced role in global affairs, be it economic and politics or both and she must claim it. This meeting between the US President, Barrack Obama, and the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, has epochal significance for both the countries and the time to embrace change has arrived. They cannot allow or blame an angry duck across the street from taking the big step forward.

The article was published in: http://www.nalandainternational.org/index.php/85-article-catergories/all-articles/730-pm-modi-president-obama-and-the-potential-new-swing-in-india-us-relationship

Modi Sarkar Needs To Show Results

Voters all around the world have a notoriously short attention span. How else can you explain UPA-II? The current government was elected with great hopes by the voters after promises of all kinds were made by the Modi campaign. Now that the campaigning is over and it is down to business, the fickle minded voters are going to demand results. With Congress leaving India in the fields (can’t really say toilet now can I?) there cannot be any honeymoon period for Modi.

By all indications, the man is a workaholic and a taskmaster to boot. Anyone who can make desi babus to work is aces in my book. Every move that he has made, every decision that he has taken has received kudos from non politicians. The politicians especially the Congress variety who are still in denial about the drubbing, continue to show entitlement. Despite of clear cut rules, they are demanding the opposition leadership. Unable to shed off the 800 pound monkey AKA Gandhi Family of their backs, the Congress are offering invalid criticism sounding more petulant than responsible. Their criticism of the Rail budget is pathetic (A man who is in no position to talk of vision and future, Rahul says the budget lacks vision. WOW!). Meanwhile similar sharpening of knives are being seen elsewhere as well. If you understand politics then you know that all this is expected.

Important state elections are on the horizon. Modi govt. knows that and are asking for 12 to 18 months for results. It is not too long to ask to clean up a decade of criminal neglect, incompetence and corruption. Indian voter should be patience and give this govt. a real chance to solve these problems. However, we all know that the voter is a fickle person. Prices are still high, electricity still scarce, temperature still high and a poor monsoon is expected. Except the hardcore BJP supporters, Indians will be asking for results – sooner than later. Unfortunately for the BJP all the aforementioned problems are going to take a while to get resolved. Economy cannot be fixed overnight. Infrastructure could take better part of the next five years. To win the upcoming state elections and maintain the voter confidence, Modi sarkar really needs to show tangible results and measurable success before long. Here are some suggestions.

1. They need to go after hoarders and middle men in the consumable goods market. Distribution of food in storages need to be taken up with extreme urgency. If there is going to be a drought (no matter how partial), the poor are going to get affected. Distribution and price control of basic food needs to be taken at a war footing.

2. Power plants are not running at their optimum because of shortage on coal supply. Sounds like an eminently solvable problem. This also needs to be addressed in a hurry.

3. The Rail budget is a very good move. However people need to see that increased fare is resulting in better services. At the very least safety and cleanliness in our trains need to be addressed quickly.

4. Safety. Even a slight improvement is going to get noticed. The way the stranded Indians have been brought back from Iraq has not gone unnoticed even in the BJP unfriendly state of Kerala. The BJP really need to establish courts to expedite the rape cases. These cases really need to be adjudicated and the rapists need to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Maneka Gandhi was never the best person for the job but now that she has it, she really needs to step up and ensure the welfare of our women. Terror cases also need to be addressed. The lingering ones need to be solved and the guilty punished. Going after criminal infrastructure of people like Dawood Ibrahim will also get noticed. Rajnath Singh needs to justify his appointment to the second most important post in the government.

5. Black money in and out of India. I never understood why we could not go after black money in India. Arvind and Tinu Joshi who is the IAS couple from MP, accused and proven to have stolen more than 300 crores are still in the employ of the Indian government. Why is it taking so long to expel them from the services and send them to jail. Imagine the message sent to the babus and the voters. As far as the money abroad, we now have the attention of the western world. They know India is open for business. We really need to use that clout and force the foreign banks to return the Indian black money. Even If it the return gets initiated, Modi sarkar can claim a huge victory which will be appreciated by the Indian voters.

The list is by no means complete. I am sure that there are many other ways that Modi sarkar can show tangible and immediate progress to the voters. But the voters need to see their government in action. They need to see the results. They need to see someone unlike the leaders before, is in charge. The Gujarati Lion needs to transmogrify into the Indian Tiger. Modi needs to earn his stripes. He needs to do it in a hurry. He needs the voters to see that.

"Big Troubles Are Coming ..Soon"

by Vibhuti Jha , President , Human Potential Project

At a recent celebration of NaMo victory, at the Hindu Temple in Queens , New York , I met with someone after a long time. He was obviously a little concerned about the presence of so many Hindus at the temple who , for the first time perhaps , felt proud being a Hindu and had great expectations from the new Government. The Hindus have so far been made to feel that they were a benign and an irrelevant majority in their own country, given the much talked about secular principles and values of which every political party other than BJP held claims to ! Since BJP was a Hindu party it couldn't potentially lay a claim to being secular despite the fact that Hinduism and Hindu practices are remarkably secular and democratic in theory and practice !! India has never led a program to extend the territory either via religious proselytization or political expansion via a war!

As the conversation moved forward about the opportunity , expectations , fear and realities , I was told "Big troubles are coming.. soon" !

It is true that NaMo win has indeed created hitherto unknown expectations and ambitions in the people of India. Perhaps rightly so. We read reports about the new work timings and ethics set by the PM himself that ministers and bureaucrats are trying hard to cope up with and adjusting to the new norms. There is so much to do and there is almost so little time , given that expectations are running wild amongst the supporters. If there was ever a real need for patience , it is now. To overhaul the practices overnight , set in place by the 60 plus years of Congress party rule , is expecting miracles to happen at your own will. That's not going to happen unless the new Ministers are able to handle the smart , intelligent bureaucrats who are designed to protect the status quo and historical lame precedence's. What India needs is a change and unshackling from its past and far beyond the games of thrones played by people who cant go beyond being " Yes Minister and/or Yes Prime Minister" !

Mr. Modi is following Mahatama Gandhi's famous statement about being the change that you want to be and bring about, in every sense of the term a work environment of service , governance and performance that we have not known before. Indian leadership needs big declarations and big actions to fulfil the promises made to the people with full awareness that incrementalism will just not work. India needs transformational practices to replace incremental behavior and practices which has become a cultural disgrace of what is called the common minimum program... translated in simple language means doing something for the namesake.

So what steps need to be taken to avoid the "big troubles" ?

One of the worlds greatest scientist , Albert Einstein said , that "any intelligent fool can complicate a simple problem, it takes a courageous one to move in the other direction" ! India , Indian leadership and the Indian people need to urgently recognize this priceless advice that no consulting company or a bureaucrat will offer. It is in the nature of creating complexity that we seek greater solutions, while in reality , the best solutions emerge when we remove the clutter and confusion that breeds inefficiency and inaction. Just as you can't lose 20 pounds of weight overnight , despite having full knowledge about how to do it, likewise to transform the current culture of mistrust , cynicism , apathy , corrupt practices which breeds mistrust in the system and process , will take time and real undoing of old practices. Habits die hard and to that end to break that strangle hold of old habits , new practices need to be put in place. Many people at the moment must be waiting for old habits to return to churn the same old again ! There are two potential areas where one can visualize big troubles emerging from. One relates to the real high expectations of a real change from a frustrated and unhappy people who voted congress out and welcomed Namo's call for growth and governance. The second relates to the communal harmony and the disease of fear factor in the being ignited in the minds of the minorities.

The newspapers are full of advices from ten point to fifteen point agendas which in essence are good directions and pointers for issues that need immediate attention by the government. But most of them point out the obvious urgency for s many things to be attended to. The need of the hour, however, is to introduce PRACTICES that changes the paradigm. For example , the country has got into a mind set of "cheapest tender lowest bid, " for every tender notification be it for civil work or whatever. Since the government has been the owner of these public projects , resource conservation has been the rationale for the "cheapest and lowest bid" . Consequently , the public works itself suffers due to lack of quality and poor performance in every sense of the term. The projects are in conditions of virtual and constant repair all the time resulting in poor outcomes, huge inconveniences for the public and waste of resources. This leads to a general malaise of quality suffering in almost all aspects of social and economic life and causes the reality that India does not produce quality products. We admire and appreciate the "quality" work done by the foreigners but never ever attempt to do it ourselves. And all this while India has the largest number of Deming Juran certified engineers in the world !! There are many more items we could talk about but I will restrict to this one single item for the moment. The essential message being to enforce quality as a means to living and dispel the concept of common minimum program which has translated into an apology for doing very little. Of course this does not mean not to do the bare essential to survive, after all stich in time saves nine ! Setting expectation is key to prevention of disappointment.

The other problem seems to be emerging out of the politically crafted fear factor that the minorities are somehow no longer "safe" in the country with a real good Hindu at the helm of leadership. This is nothing else but a canard and a farcical fear factor imposed by the British and as though only the Congress party is the protector of the minority interests. We must tell the world and everybody in India , a well known fact , that the Hindu way of life is perhaps the most democratic and pluralistic in essence and practice for all concerned. Hindus have never led a war to extend territories and never indulged in proselytization. For example , the believers in Arya Samaj do not fight with Brhama Samajis and Krishna worshippers do not claim that Krishna was better than Lord Ram in any sense of the term and vice versa. Ganesh worshippers do not quarrel or kill Durga worshippers and Kali worshippers are as non violent as Lakshmi and Saraswati worshippers ! And all of these Gods are housed and prayers are offered under a single roof in a temple most of the time. There is an undeniable move to further divide India on religious lines which is evident from the statements made by irresponsible people and incidents created by miscreants. The time is for vigilance and not vigilantism. Sanatan Dharm serves a purpose and has been relevant for ever. The world must know that and we must educate the world about how our Dharma is essentially peaceful and our process a proven example to emulate. The real challenge lies in the fact that we are, in truth , the only country where about 1.2 billion Hindus live. As a country we are truly alone ! Rest of the world is either Christian or Islamic. Therefore the world immediately reacts to any incident of minority abuse whatever it might be. While India is home to virtually every religious practice in the world , few know about it. In addition that India is only country in the world that was under the rule of minorities for the last ten years is hardly known around. We must tell the world that in the last ten years , a Sikh was the Prime Minister , a muslim and a woman were the President of the country , a Roman catholic Italian woman was the leader of the ruling party! How many countries in the world can talk about a record of this kind ? Therefore if the minorities suddenly begin to feel unsafe , it is actually their own make belief world.

Finally, the Hindus must come out and teach the world about the values and principles of Hinduism as it is today. There can't be any shame doing so , in fact it is that moment in the life of humanity to begin a conversation that God did not create religion, people did , inspired as they were by whoever. God does not ask anyone to kill other people but insecure people do kill in the name of God and that must be exposed , stopped and prevented from doing so.

By Vibhuti Jha , President , Human Potential Project (June 2014)