In Delhi there are two kinds of politicians – the insiders and the outsiders. A typical insider is someone who may or may not have a good voter-base (most of the time they do not) but are very well connected in Delhi to politicians from ALL the parties. These insiders always survive and always benefit no matter who is in the government – a finger in every pie so to speak.
Congress is filled with this kind but our own BJP has its share of the insiders who by their proximity to the center have an extreme sense of entitlement. On their own in the states they are powerless but in Delhi with their connections they are very powerful. They can challenge a PM candidate, berate him, conspire against him and upon his victory have the chutzpah to demand “samman-janak” portfolio. Yes, I am talking about Sushma Swaraj who has to depend upon winnable seats to enter Loksabha. Another one is Arun Jaitley who has never won an elections and yet somehow always manage to get plum posts. These two and others like them always profit even when Congress was in power. The Congress leaders realize that they may not be in power forever and will need support in all the parties to stay out of jail. A typical trading of favors. Rahul Gandhi gets caught at Boston airport with contraband and Atalji gets him out. It has been over a year with Modi sarkar in power and Robert Vadra is still roaming free with nary a worry in the world. Welcome to the world of Delhi insiders.
So when this Lalit Modi story started to come out, I was not surprised that Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje (even though from BJP) were very much part of that gigantic scam known as the IPL. In fact is there any point in defending these two and for that matter pretending that only these two are involved with the sleazy mega-crook Lalit Modi? I am sure that more politicians are involved in this mega-scam than not.
A 180 degree opposite of the Delhi insider is our esteemed PM who is probably the most honest PM (other than LB Shastri) we have had. He is a very strong leader with a stronger sense of ethics and yet stronger voter-base. He is where he is because of his work and voters rather than connections of any kind. He won on the promise of performance and clean government. Clearly he is still clean and performing as are a number of his ministers but there are some who are neither clean nor making it easy for PM to implement his vision and agenda (I am always afraid of these Delhi insider-IAS nexus). The PM clearly is handling his foreign policy with the dexterity of an old experienced diplomat. So a lamp post in the Foreign Office will be as good and Swaraj. As far as Jaitley is concerned, earning the moniker of Chidambaran lite is not exactly a ringing endorsement. In fact Jaitley has not performed and continues to be the biggest knock on Modi Sarkar.
The Lalitmodigate is the biggest crisis that Modi Sarkar has faced. They are on the defensive which is not where a strong PM should ever find himself. In fact in a really small way it is like Manmohan Singh claiming that he is clean but his ministers are stealing with impunity. I am sure that this is a new experience for PM Modi. But this crisis is also an opportunity. What he should do is that use this as an excuse to rid his Sarkar of this baggage and bring up the junior ministers who are really doing the heavy lifting. This is what should happen ideally. Raje and Swaraj should be shown the door. Neither’s departure will affect BJP’s electoral prospects anywhere. Jaitley should also be made to retire on health grounds (man can’t even stand for 30 minutes). This is the only way Modi Sarkar can regain the moral high ground against the people who are using Lalit Modi as a stick to beat them.
If that does not happen then at the very least a demotion in their stature should be enforced as a message for all the other BJP Delhi insiders. It is imperative that this happen. Otherwise unflattering comparisons will be made between PM Modi and his predecessor. That we will not like.
Sun Tzu says the following in Art of War:
If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.
In the recent days a lot of tough talk and chest thumping has been done by Modi Sarkar. Much to the chagrin of our liberal press. Also to the chagrin of some of his own soldiers. Of course it has reduced the Pakistanis to a group of rabid cretins – confused and angry. This all really begs the question as to why would you make a nuclear powered enemy of your country this angry? After all aren’t we all supposed to follow US President Roosevelt’s rule of speaking softly and carrying a big stick?
First of all, we elected Modi and his Sarkar so we have to give them five years like we have to every incompetent government so far. Perils of democracy I suppose. Now before this every government including one of Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a proponent of peace with Pakistan no matter what the cost. Point to note is that every PM before Modi was born before partition of the nation and thus had fond memories of their days in Lahore or Karachi. Now Modi and his people have no fond memories of Pakistan. They remember the four wars, the decade long jihadi campaign in J&K, Pakistani support for the Khalistani terror campaign and various other attacks on our nation. Therefore it is safe to assume that Modi Sarkar has a more pragmatic rather than a romantic approach to our security concerns vis a vis Pakistan.
We also must concede that the current NSA Mr. Ajeet Doval has forgotten more about national security than most experts know about. After all the man’s resume (the little that we know of) can make even fictional spies jealous. Let us also assume that everything that is happening and every word that is being uttered is also calculated. Then why would a smart man like Manohar Parrikar make that statement about fighting terror with terror?
It seems that Modi Sarkar has a two pronged approach. One is to show Pakistan what they are losing by keeping a hardline policy against us (as supported by the Mullah-Military alliance). This was achieved by one visit to Bangladesh where deals were signed the kind of which we have refused with Pakistan (land and potentially water). We offered them infrastructure development which unlike the China sponsored economic corridor in Pakistan is actually going to happen. Making Bangladesh a part of a new economic block which includes the willing members of the SAARC shows that South Asia is on the move without Pakistan and their obduracy. Pakistan stands sidelined and this sows a serious discord between the business community and the security mandarins in Pakistan. All you have to do is to watch some videos on YouTube to realize the success of this approach. We hope that the money beats the guns in Pakistan.
The second approach is to rattle the defense establishment as per Sun Tzu’s philosophy. We are every bit as temperamental as Pakistanis but we do not have their arrogance (Pakistanis believe that one of theirs is equal to five of ours). It is this arrogance which forces them in a race for one-upmanship which they have no chance of winning. All this makes rattling them easier.
I think it was it was important to reveal to the world that India is willing to chase her enemies across the borders – at least this time. When America speaks softly people look for hidden menace. When India spoke softly well – ho hum! That is why it was important for the world to know that there is a new sheriff in town. From here onwards terrorists will think twice before attacking us on our eastern borders. The cost for the Chinese proxy terror in the east has gone up. Moreover Bangladesh and Myanmar are no longer under Chinese control (you have to read the Chinese reaction to Modi’s visit to Bangladesh in Xinhua to realize that). From now on we can also afford to speak softly because the world has seen our stick.
The western border, as the Indian presstitutes would jump to remind you, is a different issue. Clearly we cannot carry out Myanmar kind of operation there. But what we CAN do is to make the Pakistani allegation of India backed operations in Pakistan true. I don’t think that we actually have carried out any dirty trick campaigns in Pakistan yet – the local terrorists in Pakistan are quite capable of doing that on their own. However if you combine what Parrikar said with the Doval doctrine of offensive-defense then you get an idea of what we CAN do in Pakistan. Now that is what is causing serious dismay distress and confusion in Pakistani security establishment because they know how difficult it is to fight a proxy war (having waged against India for a long time). In fact we do not even have to do anything – just ensure that the threat is heard loud and clear in Pakistan. The mere threat will spread the Pakistani army thin and the monetary cost will go up for them which helps us. We want them to stay busy looking for threats and chase ghosts while we carry out the PM’s vision of a prosperous India.
The whole “exclusive story or first to report” attitude of the Indian media combined with their visceral hatred for Modi deprives them looking beyond the obvious. The voters however need to trust Modi Sarkar and give them the same leeway as they did the previous governments. I am sure they will be rewarded for their patience.
