Is Arun Shourie Right On Modi Sarkar?

Respected journalist Mr. Arun Shourie in an interview with a well know media hatchet-man Karan Thapar has slammed the Modi Sarkar while saying the following about Modi:

"I like him. He is the only person who can give us leadership."

Since the buck stops with Modi, let us assume that Shourie is lying about his likeness for Modi because Modi is responsible for all the failures of his government. Shourie said that because he just does not want to burn every bridge with the party he used to belong.

But Shourie’s accusations should not be taken lightly. After all he is one of the most respected journalists who is known for fairness (at least so far). Let us examine his accusations (Parts of Shourie interview are in red followed by our response in black).

He said the one-year rule of Modi was "good in parts", his transformation as prime minister was good in foreign policy, but the promised turnaround in economy has not happened.

Jan Dhan Yojna: PM Narendra Modi came up with a brilliant idea to link all the Indian families with the banking system because most of the people in rural areas do not even have a bank account which they fall victims to local money lenders.So far in this program about 12.5 crore bank accounts have been opened in just 5 months which way more than it was anticipated target of 7.5 crores till Jan 25, 2015.

Direct Benefit Transfer scheme (PAHAL): The finance ministry advised that a direct benefit transfer scheme for all the LPG gas cylinder subscribers will be able to stop the ongoing corruption in providing subsidy to the beneficiaries! It was proposed that subsidies on cooking gas and kerosene will be transferred directly to the bank account of beneficiaries. The Indian govt. will save around Rs. 14,000 crore by implementing this scheme.

Inflation and GDP:Because of steps taken by Modi Sarkar, Inflation has hit a low of about 5% in the month of December. Onion and potato have been included in essential elements list so that its black marketing stops. Moreover, he gave clear guidelines to state governments to take serious actions against the hoarders!! The rising cost of food during UPA rule was a severe burden on us. GDP of India has increased from 5.02% in 2013 to 5.64% in 2014 and it is expected to grow even more in the coming years!
Figures released by Coal Secretary Anil Swarup show that the proceeds from the sale of 32 mines in the coal block e-auctions have crossed Rs2 lakh crore. The amount surpasses the CAG's estimate of Rs1.86-lakh-crore loss on account of the allocation of blocks without auction during the UPA regime.

Shourie, who is not active in BJP these days, said despite promises the fears of foreign investors on retrospective taxes and incentives for manufacturing have not materialised on the ground. Asked if the Modi government had done enough to put India on growth path, Shourie said that it was "all hyperbole". "Such claims are meant to grab headlines but lack substance,"

Narendra Modi’s decision to scrap the Soviet-era government scheme has definitely empowered states and other stakeholders to make their own decisions which is clearly a bold move unthinkable so far even by the Atalji government of which Shourie was an integral part. Also disbanded were the nine empowered groups of ministers (EGoMs) and 21 groups of ministers (GoMs) that were in operation because of coalition politics which is another bold move which when coupled with the cleaning and tightening of the Indian bureaucracy will remove the red tape and improve investments and other economic activities.

The smaller size of the ministry, restrictions on the travel of ministers including junkets and five star travel has greatly reduced the financial burden on the exchequer. As far as headlines are concerned, with 24 hour news channels and activist journalists it is hard to stay out of headlines especially for Modi who has a huge bull’s eye on his back.

Shourie has very graciously accepted the good performance of Modi in foreign policy matters but has conveniently ignored the immediate and potential financial impact of Modi’s foreign policy initiatives. I really do agree that ground reality does not portray the potential impact but I would like to remind that even for the US, it took more than three years to come out of the economic downturn of the last decade and then have the most robust system in the world in place. I am quite sure that the impact of Modi’s decisions will start yielding dividends soon.

On the social front, Shourie said there was "great anxiety" among the minorities in the wake of the incidents of attack on Christian institutions and the "Ghar Wapsi" and "Love Jihad" campaigns. He was critical of Modi's "silence" on issues relating to social tensions on account of activities of right wing organisations and statements by some party MPs and leaders.

After the BJP victory, all of the fringe Hindu groups who were left out began to feel their oats and started to speak their mind. While these groups are guys were ignored for saying and doing the same things during the UPA regime (Ghar wapsi and other campaigns did not start after Modi became PM; they became newsworthy), they are now being looked upon as Modi spokespersons when the truth is that during his tenure as Gujarat CM, Modi antagonized the RSS and VHP. In fact before he became the candidate for PM, a lot of fence mending was done with the RSS. I am surprised that Shourie has forgotten all that. We are not even going to talk about the social programs the nation has embarked upon under Modi’s leadership otherwise this already large article will become even larger.

"You tweet when Sania Mirza wins championship or greet someone on birthdays but you don't do such things when moral questions are involved. "We have to wake up," he said, adding that people like Ribeiro and former Punjab top cop KPS Gill had saved Punjab for India.

It is kind of churlish of Shourie to use well liked personalities to score points in a debate and settle scores.

Talking about alienation of Muslim youth in the context of "Love Jihad" and Moradabad violence, Shourie said, "if 100 muslim youth come together and conclude that we are not getting justice here and that ISIS is right then we have a problem at hand".

Has Shourie become an apologist for terrorists and their recruitment efforts?

Shourie also invoked the controversial monogrammed pin-striped suit that Modi wore during his interaction with US President Barack Obama earlier this year.

"It was inexplicable, incomprehensible and a big critical mistake," Shourie said. "I fail to understand why he accepted and then wore that suit. You cannot take Gandhiji's name and wear such a thing," he said.

Wow! To bring the goddamned suit in a discussion while discussing national problems is tabloid journalism suited for the likes of Barkha Dutt and Arnab Goswami. Is Shourie okay with politicians with huge bank accounts but wear khadi?

But, he said there were "contradictory signals" on Pakistan. "There should be steadier thinking, steadier guage." "It is not a good idea that in the fascination for out of box ideas to ignore the institutional memory embedded in the Ministry of External Affairs and outside," he added.

For the first time the national security is being looked after by men like Modi (a decision maker) and Doval (a man who really understands Pakistan unlike people who carry small torches for Pakistan and India’s united past). Shourie should know that institutional memory is the problem not the solution which is why the Indian voter has brought in outsiders like Modi.

As wrong as Shourie is, his criticism should not be brushed aside. He is a good journalist at the core and even in anger (we all know why he is angry) he makes some good points. Modi’s ascendance has done wonders for the economy and other aspects of the society. But the path forward needs action and hard decisions. The nation is waiting with bated breaths for the PM to take those decisions. If he has to reshuffle his cabinet and fire the lackluster Finance Minister or the fumbling HRD minister then by all means he should. He still has a lot of political cache. He also needs to do what he did in Gujarat i.e. clamp down on the likes of Sakshi Maharaj. But most of all, he needs to initiate programs with visible results positively affecting the middle and the poorer classes affecting the so as to calm his anxious supporters and shut up his detractors.

The article referred above can be found at:

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-bjp-ideologue-arun-shourie-launches-scathing-attack-on-narendra-modi-government-2082415

http://www.quora.com/What-has-been-accomplished-by-the-Modi-government-in-the-8-5-months-of-its-tenure
www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/Modi-Outlines-Work-for-Top-Bureaucrats/2014/06/05/article2264016.ece

http://www.mensxp.com/special-features/today/24453-17-incredible-ways-in-which-modi-sarkar-has-changed-india.html

1990: The Year That Changed India And Pakistan

It is easy for a person to look back at their lives and pinpoint a time or a decision which was a turning point in their lives. We can do that for nations also although it may be a period rather than a date or a series of decisions rather than just one which could be construed as the turning points.

I have selected 1990 (for convenience because it actually was a period of two to three years) as the year when India and Pakistan changed their paths. At that time Pakistan was ahead of India in many social and economic yardsticks. They had earned the gratitude of the Americans by fighting their proxy war against the USSR. Anyone who follows history knows that the US has always helped such countries become economic powerhouses (Germany, Japan and South Korea), But they threw all that away. We all know what happened but discussing the two stories together it puts things in perspective and could offer a compass for a path forward.

A decade long proxy war against the USSR benefited the Pakistanis greatly. They developed their nuclear program during those days. The US knew about that nefarious program but did not do anything because they needed the Pakistanis who in turn squeezed the Americans for large amounts of money and weapons. The Pakistanis also developed the Taliban and various other terrorist outfits to control Afghanistan for strategic depths thinking once again that they will be the first ones in the history of mankind to control the monsters they had created. But once the Soviets were defeated, the US left with Pakistan holding the bag. They could still have done the right thing and rehabilitated the Talibs and they could have either controlled the terrorist groups like LeT of marginalized them by starving them of funds and personnel. But what they did would constitute this turning point in their history. All this happened in the 1989-90.

The hatred that the Pakistanis have for Hindus is unfathomable. It is this hatred that led to the policy of using the Taliban to control Afghanistan for a strategic depth in case of a war with India and use terrorist groups like Let to bleed India. They did bleed us and in the process destroyed J&K, forced a Hindu exodus from the valley and caused a lot of deaths- civilian as well as military. Every peace effort between the politicians of India and Pakistan was sabotaged by either ill-conceived military operation like Kargil or a terror attack. It was a lost decade for Indian citizens of J&K. Indian defence forces finally prevailed and ensured the safety of J&K for the most part. But the price paid for the giving birth to Taliban and Osama Bin Laden was very steep for the US and Pakistan.

When the terrorists and the talibs ran out of targets, they turned on their masters. In the last decade, Pakistanis have lost over 50,000 people to a very bloody terror campaign. As usual, they responded by differentiating between good terrorists (ones who kill Hindus and assorted non-Muslims) and bad terrorists. In fact it wasn't until 140 or so children of Sunni military personnel were gunned down, the Pakistanis were still hesitant in clamping down on their strategic assets. Now that they have started a campaign against various terrorist outfits, one hopes that they succeed. Aside from the loss of life, the economic ruin that these attacks have brought are incalculable. Pakistan has gone from what could have been a reasonably prosperous country to a basket case snatching that title from their estranged Bangladeshi brethren.

Around the same time in India, even with fires burning in J&K we had the good luck of seeing a non Gandhi family Congress PM. As per Wikipedia: With India’s foreign exchange reserves at $1.2 billion in January 1991[2][3][4] and depleted by half by June,[4] barely enough to last for roughly 3 weeks of essential imports,[3][5]India was only weeks way from defaulting on its external balance of payment obligations.

PV Narsimha Rao who was the best Congress PM (the most honest one being LB Shastri) abandoned Nehruvian economics and appointed his second choice for Finance Minister i.e. Manmohan Singh. Again, as per Wikipedia,

Major reforms in India's capital markets led to an influx of foreign portfolio investment. The major economic policies adopted by Rao include:
• Abolishing in 1992 the Controller of Capital Issues which decided the prices and number of shares that firms could issue.[31][33]
• Introducing the SEBI Act of 1992 and the Security Laws (Amendment) which gave SEBI the legal authority to register and regulate all security market intermediaries.[31][34]
• Opening up in 1992 of India's equity markets to investment by foreign institutional investors and permitting Indian firms to raise capital on international markets by issuingGlobal Depository Receipts (GDRs).[35]
• Starting in 1994 of the National Stock Exchange as a computer-based trading system which served as an instrument to leverage reforms of India's other stock exchanges. The NSE emerged as India's largest exchange by 1996.[36]
• Reducing tariffs from an average of 85 percent to 25 percent, and rolling back quantitative controls. (The rupee was made convertible on trade account.)[37]
• Encouraging foreign direct investment by increasing the maximum limit on share of foreign capital in joint ventures from 40 to 51% with 100% foreign equity permitted in priority sectors.[38]
• Streamlining procedures for FDI approvals, and in at least 35 industries, automatically approving projects within the limits for foreign participation.[31][39]

The impact of these reforms may be gauged from the fact that total foreign investment (including foreign direct investment, portfolio investment, and investment raised on international capital markets) in India grew from a minuscule US $132 million in 1991–92 to $5.3 billion in 1995–96.[38] Rao began industrial policy reforms with the manufacturing sector. He slashed industrial licensing, leaving only 18 industries subject to licensing. Industrial regulation was rationalised.[31]

The path PM Rao put us on was the turning point for India. In fact it enabled us to utilize our hitherto untapped potential. In fact even during the disastrous ten years of Manmohan Singh who abandoned his own ways in exchange for the PM’s seat could not derail what he had initiated. When the central government tried to move away from our newly found path, the state governments like Gujarat took that and developed it even further. With the current PM, there can be no stopping us (even with the bureaucracy and the socialistic opposition’s mischief).

My analysis may sound simplistic but while watching a video where Moeed Pirzada (who is a very rational man until his hatred for India overtakes his rational part of his brain, is interviewing Simbal Khan comes to the same conclusion as I did or vice versa. Not only him but scores of Pakistani analysts have tried to analyze the mess they are in. Some of them have started to the conclusion that their proxy war with India has nearly destroyed them. Unfortunately for the poor Pakistanis, they keep placing inordinate amount of trust in the only functional organization in their country which is their army which is the solution and cause of their problems. Maybe there is no real hope for that country. That is unfortunate for all concerned including us.

The source of the information for the article are as follows:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/indo-pak-1990.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Kashmir_conflict

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._V._Narasimha_Rao

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Indian_economic_crisis

Giriraj Singh Is Right

The definition of racism is as follows:

rac·ism: The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.

What does it imply when in a lot of our poetry, the woman is referred to as “Gori” (the fair one)? What does it imply when a woman’s face is compared to a moon as in “Chaand sa chehra” (a white orb in a dark background)? What does it imply when in ads for marriages, the groom’s parents explicitly demand a fair girl or the bride’s parents go out of their way to describe their daughter in terms which make her sound fair (using terms like wheatish etc to describe the skin tone)? What does it say about us when a whole lot of our beauty products are supposed to make you fairer? Does this make us racists? It does not and I will explain later.

Spike Lee who is a brilliant moviemaker tackled the issue in his movie “Jungle Fever” where there exist a preference in black population for black women with lighter skin tones. Does that make them racist? I don’t think so. What about the obsession of the white population all over the world who are willing to risk melanoma for a tanned skin? In my dealings with white people I have heard them mock fellow whites with very pale skin? Does that make them racist? No.

Racism is about hatred not about preference. People with darker skin prefer lighter skin because that makes them unique. Same goes for people with white skin who prefer darker skin tones. It is our self loathing that makes us do so not our hatred for others. This preference is a collective burden, our cross to bear if you will.

That said, we in India have another issue adds to the burden that is our natural preference for lighter skin and that is our institutional memory of the British rule. For many Indians, white skin and English language makes us acutely aware of our insecurities. Even the most aggressive Indians tend to abandon their natural tendencies when faced with a person of European origin. I have seen this in the US.

Now coming to the main point I would like to ask you one thing – If Sonia Gandhi had not married Rajiv Gandhi will she be a leader of equal power and prominence in Italy? Will she be locking horns with Silvio Berlusconi and other Italian conservatives for the right of Italian poor? Before you answer that remember her background. In fact her only qualification is that she married the right guy. Before we condemn Giriraj Singh to the depths of hell, we should not forget that the only reason why the Congress leaders brought her to the fore. She has the Gandhi family name which Congress worker worships and she is unique which will be her USP for the voters. What makes her unique? Is it her staggering intellect? Is it her prior experience as a CM of a state or a minister in Central Government or a senior bureaucrat? If she were this brilliant statesperson, then why would Congress be in such doldrums? Going back to the last days of PV Narsimha Rao when Congress wanted a new direction, how did the Congress bigwigs like Janardhan Dwivedi, Oscar Fernandez, Ambika Soni et. al fathom Sonia Gandhi’s administrative capabilities? All of it points to the only thing that makes her unique. If Rajiv Gandhi had married a Hindu or a Muslim housewife like so many other prominent Indian politicians, do you think we would be having this discussion? Clearly Giriraj Singh, in his attempts to make this statement with a dramatic flair decided to go to the other extreme of the color spectrum and replaced white Italian with a Black Nigerian.

Giriraj Singh’s statement should not offend Sonia Gandhi. She is only guilty of the usual human follies. The people who thought her leadership would get a typical Indian voter curious and vote for her are the ones who are guilty of racism. The voters who voted for her because of her “unique features” are also guilty of ignorance and their aforementioned racial burden. So of what is Giriraj Singh guilty? All he did was point out our own weaknesses.

Giriraj Singh is clearly not a diplomat. He has a remarkable ability to say the wrong thing at the worst possible time making him a huge liability for the BJP. However, with his latest remark he has inadvertently brought attention to not only his but the entire country’s attitude about races. Condemn him if you must but look within. See if you or your loved ones have a completely clear conscience about racism.

After Nina Davuluri won the Miss America contest, it was said that she would never win the equivalent title in India. Why? Because she is too dark skinned. Giriraj Singh may be a loudmouth but for once, he is right.

PS: We support Giriraj Singh's right of freedom of speech as we always do. I wish the usual leftist brigade who are for complete freedom of speech will throw their weight behind Singh.

A similar article can be read at: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/what-if-rajiv-had-married-a-nigerian-indians-are-racist-giriraj-singh-is-right-2182249.html

It Is Wrong To Ban Rape Documentary

It is very easy to control others. “Saam, daam, dand and bhed” are some of the ways to achieve that. It is well near impossible for a person to control themselves. Just ask a person addicted to any of the vices or anger or violence or any of the bad behaviors. There are no techniques for this.

It is very easy to point out mistakes in others. You can afford to be objective, creative, eloquent etc. but looking in the mirror is extremely difficult. Standing up and accepting your own culpability does not come easy to us. When it comes to the neighbor’s son, it is easy to call him names but when your own son does something wrong, we all start looking for excuses.

In a world where male children are looked upon as path to prosperity and salvation, life becomes difficult for girls. In countries like India and China where boys are not only preferred but preferred so much that killing a female fetus or a girl almost justifies it for some. Imagine a boy born in such families. The father and the grandparents spoil this boy rotten. Everyone around this brat becomes part of a support system for him. I heard a story from a friend in the US. This Indian American boy used to live with three other boys (non-Indians). They used to share cleaning responsibilities especially the toilet. When it was the Indian boy’s turn to clean up the toilets, his mother would come and clean it up for him. This is a true story. Now imagine. If this boy thinks so little of the woman who gave birth to him and raised him, what would he think of women who are not related to him by blood? Now think of what he thinks of women around him when he is excited and “in heat”. Do you think that this brat is used to hearing no from a girl? In a sting operation carried out in San Francisco (Bay area) by an American channel over sixty percent caught were Indian boys who thought it is was OK to have sex with a thirteen year old white girl. Imagine that.

The entire society is to be blamed for the behavior of these men especially their parents. Boys need to be brought up not like alpha wolves but responsible citizens and human beings. This documentary (unimportant how it was made) is akin to looking in the mirror. Every parent with a son should be made to watch this instead of banning it.

Banning this documentary is not only against the freedom of speech (so was banning the AIB roast but that is in a different vein of importance) but also a bad cover up job. MODI GOVERNMENT IS WRONG! This shows Indian men in a very bad light but if it saves even one girl’s life then it is worth it.

Getting defensive and pointing out that rapes happen in a much larger percentage in UK and the rest of the west does not justify this cover up. This is the time to show the world that Hinduism and our culture is superior to others. Standing up and accepting your fault is the real masculine trait. Modi and his 56 inch chest should step in and overturn this ban.

It is a topic which is very important to me. We have written many articles on the topic. Please read the following and other articles mentioned in it.

http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2013/04/rapes-in-india-criminal-and-social.html?showComment=1417128296819

Yes To Gandhi-free Congress. No To Congress-free India.

Congress lost the general elections in a big way. Since then every election they have contested even in their areas have resulted in bog losses. Their projected performance the recent Delhi elections have to alarm the most loyal lapdogs of the Gandhi family. That Congress is imploding will be an understatement. We have written many articles on the perils of dynastic rules. We expected that things will go bad for Congress. We took great pleasure in their losses and rightly so. That party has done more damage to the nation than any elected party in any democracy. But their current state is worrisome to any Indian who is concerned about the state of Indian democracy.

The way Modi-Shah combine is working, it is clear that the BJP will become a true blue national party with presence in every state. They are not depending on “friendly regional parties” as did LK Advani and his ilk. That is really good for the health of Indian democracy. After all, parties with regional aspirations with focused agendas are detrimental to a balanced administration because they tend to use their spoiler status to squeeze undeserved funds to run their populist agendas. Central government gets reduced to the status of an ATM in the hands of regional mandarins. So in that regards, a strong BJP presence in any state offers the voters a viable alternative especially if the state BJP has strong and capable local leaders.

Congress was that party. Once upon a time they had a presence in all the states. Their ground level organization was strong and the workers loyal. It was all because the leadership which may have been corrupt and misguided (read socialists) but they were consummate politicians with reasonable to good intellect. After India Gandhi, the rot began because she would not let any other leader come up. It became a family dynasty. After Rajiv Gandhi, the party had a bit of respite and they had their most capable leader since LB Shastri. PVN Rao did wonders for the Indian economy. But the Gandhi family loyalists could not leave well enough alone. We all know what happened after that. Even today, no one is ready to put the blame at the feet of Sonia Gandhi. It is like the Harry Potter series of novels where no one took the name of Voldemort. It is the story of the king without the clothes-no one has the guts to say that she is truly incapable intellectually and every other way to head anything except maybe a household where the major decision is what is for dinner. After the party stands in ruins, people have gathered some guts and have started to question Rahul Gandhi’s decisions when it is Sonia all along. Congress is getting destroyed and they are still not ready to question Sonia Gandhi. If they do not get rid of the mother-son duo, there will not be any party left.

Their faithful in the media have already abandoned them and are already referring to Arvind Kejriwal as the national alternative to BJP. Which maybe be fine except we know that while Arvind Kejriwal may have the intellect and some political survival skills, he is not an administrator. He has not governed any organization let alone lead a national party. Even if and that is a HUGE if, he can somehow run Delhi, it is going to take him ages to become a national party. The BJP in its current avatar took close to 15 years to become a force on the national scene and this when they already had strong roots and Janasangh, backed by the RSS. How the hell can AAP become a national alternative?
What will happen is that BJP will become the only national party and they will be challenged by the regional satraps. That will suit the nation well as long as the BJP wins with comfortable majority. However, if the BJP does not get the majority they how can India expect a strong central government. We will start having elections every other year. We will be reduced to a big banana republic.

We all know that for a healthy democracy we need a strong opposition. That has to be Congress if BJP is in power and vice versa. It cannot be some ego driven rabble rouser or a family dynasty. It has to a viable national party. In the current state, the nation needs Congress. As much as I love Narendra Bhai, I cannot abide with his “Congress Mukt Bharat” campaign. What I would like to see is “Gandhi family mukt Congress”.

We need a strong Congress and BJP to provide India with a two party system and that will never happen as long as Sonia Gandhi and her yes-men are in charge. My appeal to the responsible leaders of Congress is that please, for the nation’s sake, see the light, call the spade a spade and get rid of Sonia, her son and her daughter. They are toxic and are destroying the party and in turn making the Indian democracy weak.

Will that happen? I don’t know. The Gandhi family loyalists have either gotten rid of anyone with any brains or emasculated them. Until that happens, I can hope and pray that Narendra Modi continues to occupy the PM’s chair. God forbid if he loses then that vacuum will be filled by the likes of Kejriwal or Mamata Bannerjee. Are you comfortable with that thought?

The Implications Of Delhi Elections

The Delhi elections are done. The results are not out yet but for the most part it is not important because the implications for the major players is quite clear.

For BJP it is quite clear that this will be Modi’s first loss after an extremely long time (even if the BJP miraculously wins the implications remain the same). The media made this election into a referendum against Modi as if wins in other states and a large number of seats in J&K were meaningless. But it is quite clear that the dysfunction in Delhi BJP ran too deep for Modi to do anything about. Delhi is that kind of city where power and money run amok and it affects everyone. The Delhi BJP cadre is as corrupt as everyone else. Last election when the BJP became the largest party, it had projected Dr. Harshvardhan who is that rare clean Delhi insider and he overcame the dysfunction. This time Kiran Bedi who is clean but an outsider which made it well near impossible for her to overcome Delhi BJP problems.

Delhi is a glorified municipality with no bearing on the workings of the central government. A loss here will not translate into losses in important upcoming elections in Bihar, WB and UP (now those are important states where losses will mean loss of control in Rajyasabha). Congress always did well in Delhi which never translated into wins anywhere else. But there is a clear message for Modi and Shah. Indian voters (like voters everywhere) are fickle and they want tangible and visible results. Clearly all of Modi’s decisions and work has not translated into visible results. That it has been less than a year to clean of 65 years of rot does not earn you any respite from the voters. Clearly the price control in commodities was not sold to the voters effectively. Therefore in the upcoming elections, effective communication with the voters without offering them freebies. This means discovering campaigners other than Modi.

For AAP implications could not be more important. Even if due to some extreme bad luck they lose or get lesser than expected number of seats, they have established themselves as players to be reckoned with. More importantly, everyone who hates Modi (that is a larger number) is going to rally behind AAP. They will get a disproportionate amount of press and their fundraising capabilities are going to skyrocket. Kejriwal has now become the Goliath slayer, the common man who took on big bad Modi and bested him. He will now become the shoulder upon which leftists, liberals and media mavens will fire their guns from. After the last elections he had earned monikers like AK49 or “bhagoda”. Now he will be called CM again. This time around he will not quit. We all have an idea how he will perform (especially with those large number of promised freebies) but to go into that at the time of his victory will be churlish. We should let him and the entire anti-Modi brigade enjoy this huge victory thanks to the wise voters of Delhi. Kejriwal has now become relevant again and he already is being projected by the great leftist blowhard Rajdeep Sardesai (he also has become relevant by proxy) as Congress’ alternative on the national level.

For Congress the implications are dire. So dire that they merit a blogspot of its own.

For India, the implications are not good. We are back to being a fractured democracy instead of a solid two party system. Again, thank you voters of Delhi. The implications will be discussed along with the implications for Congress.

Indian History Important. Future More So.

History is important. It tells us who we were and where we came from. It can act as a compass for our future if we are wise enough to learn from it. It instills pride in us for our past accomplishments and prepares a groundwork for future actions. It is a tool in the hands of policymakers. Nationalists often use it to drum up patriotic fervor.

When it comes to history, we have some accomplishments with irrefutable proofs. On the other hand we have some accomplishments like Ayurveda and yoga which are based on traditions and despite any hard documentary proofs of their inception as an idea the world recognizes those as Indian contribution to the world. But when we start using religious scriptures as proofs for past accomplishments and claim that we knew of interplanetary air travel based on the Ramayana or reconstructive plastic surgery based on Lord Ganesha, eyebrows are bound to be raised. Such claims have been made in the past by nationalists of various kind but none of that ever attracted any attention from the mainstream media. At a recent conference in Mumbai, Dr. Harshvardhan who is a senior BJP member and official was an invited speaker. This is what an article claims about his speech.

Dr Vardhan, a surgeon by training, made the claim at the 102nd Indian Science Congress in Mumbai, which also hit headlines for claims that included assertions of ancient inter-planetary flight, of herbal pastes being used on the feet to find underground water, ways to use dung with herbs and egg white to make natural plastics, and the performance of reconstruction plastic surgery 3,500 years ago.

When we talk of Ayurveda or Yoga or our ancient achievements in the areas of Math, science and astronomy we are on real solid grounds. Prof. Manjul Bhargava who is the only person of Indian origin to win the Field’s medal (the “Math Nobel” prize) said the following on the claim that Indians discovered what is now known as the Pythagoras Theorem.

It depends on what you mean (where the Pythagorean theorem first originated)," says Dr Bhargava, the Brandon Fradd professor of mathematics at Princeton University, adding that there are different levels of knowledge of the theorem.

Another standard would involve," he adds, "the requirement of a document that explicitly states the Pythagorean theorem -- the geometric theorem. That first occurs about 800 BC in India in the Shuba Sutra of Baudhayan."

"There's the first explicitly written theorem that ways that if you have a right triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse is the sum of the square of the length of the two legs. That is written for the first time as a theorem for a general triangle in the Shuba Sutra of Baudhayan... At least, that's the first recorded instance."

"In that sense, if you want hard scientific evidence, it's accurate to say that the Pythagorean Theorem was first (recorded) in India in about 800 BC. Another standard could go beyond a mere statement," says Dr Bhargava.

This what I mean by concrete proof. Such proofs will initiate debates that can be resolved. Religious scriptures as proofs will initiate derision with loss of credibility in all those who do not follow blindly. The former will instill pride in all of us. The latter will provide a stick to the leftist liberals with which to beat the PM. The point is that our PM right now is like Arjun with his aim at the eye of the fish – which in his case is the future and economic wellbeing of India. This proclamations about our past especially those associated with the administration are totally avoidable distractions.

What we read about in our scriptures maybe true to some extent. After all, someone imagined it. All imagination is fuelled by an observation from the present. But that kind of debate will need us to take a leap of faith which is only possible for the Hindus with blind faith. A debate on that topic with sceptics, scientists and leftists all we will get is mockery and name calling. And that is really counter-productive. Past is important but future more so. Iraq was once the cradle of civilization – Babylon. Egyptians have the Pyramids and Sphinx. They can really make big and valid claims about their past. But as they stand right now, what is their future? On the other hand, the USA has essentially no history. We have monuments in almost all our cities older than the US. But with hard work and focus they have a really bright future. The question before us is that do we want to emulate the USA or be like Egypt and Iraq where past glories are used as an excuse for current day laziness and ineptitude?

The article mentioned can be read at: http://www.rediff.com/news/special/did-india-discover-pythogoras-theorem-a-top-mathematician-answers/20150109.htm

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