What Modi will do now?

Narendra Modi's spectacular win in the general elections 2019, and returning to power by an astonishing margin -- defying expectations, leaving the political opposition gutted and securing nearly two-thirds of the Lok Sabha. This election has proved how wildly popular Modi really is. The big question is: What is he going to do with that? He will probably continue along the same path.

• But there is a sizable chunk of India that voted against Modi, and many members of this anti-Modi crowd are deeply worried about his having a stronger hand.
• They see India as increasingly divided along caste and religious fault lines and an emboldened  Modi will send India farther down the path of becoming a religious Hindu state, which could be dangerous for minorities.
• Hindu extremists did very well in the election. Though Modi has not publicly used their same language, he has also done nothing yet to separate himself from them.
• Modi is not a soft liner. Modi’s deepening reliance on Amit Shah is a sign of the agenda ahead. Amit Shah is the man who recently referred to illegal Muslim immigrants as termites.
• Modi will come under pressure from within BJP to deliver on contentious planks of the party including building Ram temple over the ruins of a destroyed mosque in Ayodhya, abrogate Article 370 for Kashmir and removing special protections that allow India’s minority Muslim community to follow its own system of family law.
• Modi has no reason to deviate from the core agenda, because he received an unprecedented mandate despite the poor economic record and social disharmony.
• India’s path forward during Modi’s second term hinges on just who the real Modi might be.
• Those who studied Modi (68) say he is a complicated man: isolated, ascetic, trusting few, close to even fewer; a blend of populist, nationalist and a self-made success story. He is passionate about his Hindu beliefs and committed to economic development.
• After 5 years, the economy is not doing well and Modi is aware of how economy could define both his legacy and his future political fortunes.
• Modi has demonstrated desire to take his place on the global stage as the leader of world economic super power.
• In Kashmir, Modi might try to tighten control. So far India’s attempts to stamp out dissent have bred only growing resistance. Any further pressure put on Kashmir could mean more tension with Pakistan. Part of Modi’s election surge came from his appearing tough on Pakistan, trading military strikes across the border. The brinkmanship caused anxiety around the world, and Modi may well decide to continue that stance.
• Given the electoral victory he just won, he is unlikely to see any reason to change what has worked for him.
• At the top of his priorities is the urgency to create more jobs, and that is likely to require new laws to grant the government the power of eminent domain to seize land for companies to use to build factories.

Read  the source article

India is at the whim of one man

This election has produced the strongest government India has had. Even Jawaharlal Nehru did not have as much control over his party as Modi does. There was something surreal about this election. The fact that we've reached a point where truth does not seem to matter and that is a dangerous point for a democracy because democracy survives on the fragmentation of power. When people trust each other and distrust their leaders, you get democracy. When people distrust each other and completely trust their leaders, you get dictatorship. We are at the second moment right now. Armed with full majority, non existent opposition and tamed institutions -- Modi will continue with renewed vigor his hate filled destructive and disruptive policies. Only empty coffers, economic, agriculture and unemployment  problems will control him to certain extent.

Nehru is the greatest PM India

The modern history of India cannot be analysed without understanding the decisive roles played by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. These two leaders were the founders of modern India. Among the two, the contribution of Jawaharlal Nehru has been so significant that it will have an impact on generations to come. Nehru pulled India out of the economic crisis after Independence. As a result, India is almost at par with other industrialized countries of the world.

• At the time of independence, India is saddled with poverty, illiteracy and distressed farmers. Hence Nehru prioritized development. His policies always kept the poorest sections of society in mind. He allocated the nation’s wealth without ignoring the poor.
• India was never a poor country. Its wealth was drained after 200 years of colonial rule. 
• After Independence, Nehru wanted the direct involvement of poor people in the process of development. This way their lost self-esteem and pride could be restored. He had a conflict of interest with other party leaders regarding the establishment of parliamentary democracy in India. There was a point where he stood against his father Motilal Nehru’s Swaraj Party.
• India today is just a glimpse of Jawaharlal Nehru’s foresight.
• Some critics hold Nehru responsible for the Kashmir issue. But they forget that Jammu and Kashmir was a princely state. It was Maharaja Hari Singh of Riyat who expressed his desire to join India when Pakistan invaded the princely state.
• It was the education system created by Nehru that enabled students from ordinary families to reach extraordinary heights. Nehru also strengthened the health services like the AIIMS. But today we have destroyed Nehru’s legacy by turning educational institutions as well as hospitals to mere money-making machines.
• Nehru ultimately passed away one and a half years after China’s betrayal in 1962, shaken to the core.
• Indira Gandhi also faced severe economic crisis after the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri. But she tackled it by devaluing the currency for the first time. Indira Gandhi showed that the Partition of Pakistan in 1971 was a political ploy in the name of religion. 
• V.P. Singh who took Indians one step backward as a civilisation by dividing them on the basis of their caste, creed and ethnicity. The country’s economy had already been eroded to a great extent by the policies of V.P. Singh and Chandrashekhar. 
• Notwithstanding the contributions of PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh in saving India going bankrupt in 1992 with liberalization, Rao has been the weakest and most inefficient prime minister of this country by far. He opened the markets to foreign investors which in turn robbed the hard-earned wealth of Indians. Narasimha Rao nervously opened the Indian market to foreign companies and agreed to put off foreign exchange payoff. Narasimha Rao completely destroyed the secular heritage by letting Babri Masjid get demolished in front of his own eyes. This has led to communal tensions in the country. 
• Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government ruled for six years. In spite of this, it could not reduce financial scams in the country. He formed a new disinvestment ministry to sell off government assets. Vajpayee used humour to further parliamentary democracy. Yet to a great extent, he has kept the spirit of Nehru alive in his policy decisions.
• Charan Singh, Deve Gowda, IK Gujral and Manmohan Singh had been ‘accidental’ Prime Ministers. It is not known why Morarji Desai was honoured with Pakistan’s biggest national honour of “Nishan-e-Pakistan”. 

Read the source article by Ashwini Kumar Chopra, Resident editor,

Punjab Kesari and a BJP MP. (Translated by Gaurav Kumar)

Today, I find many people who criticize Gandhi, Nehru, Indira Gandhi etc as the cause for what ever problems we face today but I have no doubt to categorize them as ignorant, blind and mad. It is not our culture to criticize our great grand father's for what they have done or haven't done. It won't be easy to imagine the situations or dilemmas they might be facing at that time given the paucity of knowledge, talent & resources.

Modi's lies - what it means to India?

US President Donald Trump had spoken 2,140 lies, or uttered several such inaccuracies in his public life since becoming a Republican contender for the White House. Trump is not a stand-up comic artist jocularly falsifying facts to arouse amusement, or a founder of a fake news website running a political agenda. He is not just only the commander-in-chief of the world’s largest military power, but also has the largest nuclear button in the world at dangerously close proximity.

• If the most powerful leader of the free world cannot be trusted on account of his mental equanimity or is of questionable credibility, we clearly have a lot to worry about. By an uncanny coincidence, the world’s largest democracy, India, has a similar predicament; fake news, post-truth and alternative facts dominate mainstream media.
• Politicians regularly indulge in making outrageous statements and get away with it. Since their brazen lies go unchallenged and social media amplifies that mendacity, they inflict incalculable damage to society due to proliferation of misinformation, calumny and distorted history. 
• We as a nation are far too lazy to contradict the negative torrent of fake news with ulterior motives or delusional in the  false notion that automatically people will segregate the wheat from the chaff in the long-term. Or we under the current dispensation are just too scared? Several have surrendered the fight as they believe it is a Sisyphean exercise. Either way, the consequences can be serious. We are in a quicksand, and sinking.
• From the moment, Modi became the PM in 2014, India’s first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru became the target of an orchestrated BJP campaign of calumny and character assassination. A malevolent media campaign was unleashed to malign Nehru, by insinuating that there was an attempt to cover-up the untimely death of the valiant freedom-fighter and former Congress president Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in an unfortunate air crash. The BJP, using right-wing stooges with literary pretensions, dubious historians, indulgent media editors delighted to be co-conspirators and disgruntled family members of Netaji launched a vicious assault on Nehru’s character. India’s finest statesman was being stigmatised by snake oil salesmen.
• The BJP was clearly relishing the malicious and disingenuous deluge as Modi gave a generous reception to the noble cause of knowing the ultimate truth on Netaji’s death. A member of the Bose family joined the saffron brigade, contested the elections, and lost. The Sangh Parivar went to the extent of creating a fabricated letter wherein Nehru called Bose a "war criminal". It was utter balderdash, but who cared? The fact is we should.
• Modi’s speech in Parliament on February 7, 2018,  he hemorrhaged truth by saying that had Sardar Patel been the first PM, Kashmir would have been totally ours. Sure, if my aunt wore a pyjama she would be my uncle. It was a convenient political twist with no historical foundations, but Modi continues to violate the basic precept of political morality by populating ludicrous charges on all and sundry, especially targeting the Nehru-Gandhi family. We are scraping the bottom of the barrel in our daily discourse.
• Politics was always about perceptions, but in the world of Facebook feeds, YouTube videos, Twitter trolls and WhatsApp forwards, truth itself is subjected to Amazonian proportions of vulnerability. No one is safe. No one has a constant bulletproof against sustained malignant accusations. There are no vanguards.
• It is a disconcerting reality that the process of transparent news dissemination has become carnivalesque and that Netaji indeed died in the plane crash at Taipei on August 18, 1945, was acknowledged by Modi sarkar in an obscure part of a daily newspaper.
• The vituperative anti-Nehru strategy was quickly consigned to the backwaters. Several susceptible minds subjected to the carcinogenic tirade against Nehru, would still be wondering  what is the real truth? That residual doubt that lingers long is exactly what fake news really wishes to accomplish. 
• Remember that the human mind can be extremely fragile to sustained bulldozing. Recollect the Holocaust? That Netaji named one of his infantry brigades in the Indian National Army after Nehru, or that the Nehru wore his barrister robes for the first time to defend the INA army soldiers charged with treason by the British are nonchalantly overlooked.
• Fake news, consciously elliptical, still triumphs. It is like heads I win, tails you lose.
• Another masterly deception is a work-in-progress and it even boasts of a grand edifice, the Statue of Unity, allegedly the tallest such in the world. Modi’s ideological mentors and political strategists is the RSS, without whose support he would not have even become the chief minister of Gujarat. It would seem like political incongruity that Modi is lionising Sardar Patel, the same man who banned the RSS for creating a poisonous environment that led to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. 
• Nehru and Patel were brothers-in-arms, each other’s conscience keepers, but Modi and the BJP are burning the midnight oil to tell the country otherwise. It is a cunning project to deceive India. Political hypocrisy has reached epic proportions.
• Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s Hindu Mahasabha assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation. Savarkar himself miraculously escaped conviction by the skin of his teeth. Modi has publicly called Savarkar a patriot. The rest is left for public wisdom.

Read the source article

Is terrorism the only problem India is facing?

India is facing several type of terrorist movements: (1) Paskistan is training and then sending 1000s of terrorists into Kashmir. (2) A large number of north east's locals are waging guerrilla type war against Indian state. (3) Not yet, but soon, India will face a secessionist movement from Bangladeshi immigrants with population crossing 25% of West Bengal to secede from India and may be to join Bangladesh. (4) In 100-120 districts of India, naxalite movement has wrecked the local administration and economy. The Western countries they have no such threats. The reasons are purely administrative. And by making certain changes in administration, the citizens of India can fix those flaws. 

• Modi in his three years of rule has more and more alienated Kashmir people towards terrorism and stone pelting even by students and girls with Hindutva and iron handed policies.
• Today he is making speeches at BRICS summit as if 'terrorism' is the only and biggest problem of India where as several other problems which were either unattended and made worsened by Modi administration.
• Modi must realize that impassioned speeches on terrorism in international fora might get him applaud but doesn't solve either terrorism or other problems on the ground.
• Cross border terrorism funded and aided by other countries is a minuscule component of plethora of all problems we Indians face perennially.
• Worsened economy, extreme poverty, fall in real wages, rising costs of living, loss of livelihoods, unemployment, distressed agriculture, precarious banking sector, population explosion, talent migration, deficiency in services and above all corruption are some of the serious problems India is facing at the moment.
• What BRICS can do to resolve our problems? They can just sign a joint resolution. What is its use? Nothing. We Indians has to work for solving our problems. That is it.

Modi with an insatiable desire for personal glory at any cost will talk about what others have to do but will never talk about his duties and failures. Neither as Gujarat CM nor as PM of India he has done anything meaningful for the benefit of common man on street or peasant in fields. He is only interested in trophy projects and showcase them as a signs of development. With the money he spends on self-glorification each day, a small town or over 100 villages could be modernized.

Modi's New India

Rolling stone gathers no mass

Modi has initiated so many schemes so far in the last three years namely Million jobs every year, Swiss bank black money, Anti corruption, profitable MSP to agriculture, Swachch Bharat, Make in India, Demonetization, GST and so on and few of them costed nation several lakhs of crores of rupees and none of them have achieved any of its intended objectives and nation is saddled with unintended consequences. Now he comes out with another slogan 'New India coming!' and no one knows from where it will come. On other hand Kashmir situation is at its worst, border standoff with China threatening imminent war are serious issues where nothing is being done. He neither owned up responsibility of failures nor regretted causing hardships to poor people of India with his quack advised demonetization and mangled GST implemented in a hurry. India with agriculture supporting 60% population and informal sector that provides 90% of jobs needs to be carefully nurtured, preserved and promoted. Modi in the pretext of bringing them into tax net is virtually destroying agriculture and informal economy causing loss of livelihoods to millions of people. His style and BJP's functioning has solid foundation on corruption next only to Congress and his anti corruption stand cuts no ice. With his rhetoric and mesmerizing speeches how long Modi will continue to cheat people of India is a matter of time which will not go on forever. In any case India will pay the price. 

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, 

but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

Modi, the greatest liar

• Modi's claim of 56 lakh new IT payers is not necessarily the result of demonetization and more over 90% of new IT payers are in the  income range of Rs.2.50-Rs.2.70 lakhs/annum yielding revenue of just over Rs.100 crores. Where as demonetization costed the nation over Rs.150,000 crores, at the least.
• Modi announced Rs.80,000 crore Kashmir package in Nov 2015 and so far nothing has been spent in Kashmir except on army expenses. The voter response dwindling from 64% in 2014 elections to less than 7% in recent Srinagar bye poll (and 2% in re-poll in some parts) speaks volumes about Modi's failure in Kashmir so far.
• Modi must realize that Kashmir problem is not just law & order problem which can be solved by army nor an economic package will buy peace there. But the solution lies in removing the alienation of people in Kashmir through political engagement and deliberation.
• The fact that LS & RS with combined strength of 790 and 14.23% Muslim population their representation should have been 112. The present strength is just 23 (under 3%). 
• As on date, BJP Muslim MP's in LS are NIL and in RS are just 2.
• The appearance of schoolgirls on the streets joining the teenage boys throwing stones at the security forces shows that the familial and social norms have broke down.
• Even after SC ended armed forces immunity under AFSP Act in 2016, to day in Kashmir in every 8th household an able bodied youth is missing (presumed killed by security forces in fake encounters) and in every 5th household a woman is raped by security forces (mostly unreported due to social pressures) and not a single case has been filed against the security personnel and expecting people of Kashmir trust our law enforcers is height of insanity. 
• Today half of our military totaling 7.50 lakhs is enagaged in Kashmir with a population of under 10 million (96% Muslims) and reported number foreign militants are less than 150.
• Without initiating establishment of 'rule of law' and engaging people politically how Modi will resolve Kashmir issue and make it a 'paradise once again' is shallow and his speech a blatant lie. 
• If nothing is done to resolve Kashmir's burning problem except application of brute military might which will not solve the problem and in due course of time we may end up loosing Kashmir forever.

Power is domination, control, and therefore any selective form of truth is a lie.
పామరజనొచితమగు ఫ్రల్లదనములు పలుకుటకు ప్రాఘ్నులంగీకరింపరు.

Modi with his oratory skills, rhetoric, hammering out selective truths and publicizing failures as successes is virtually destroying India economically & politically. First two years he spent time touring the world delivering mesmerizing speeches. In third year he unleashed war on people by quack advised demonetization which hurt the poor most and resulted in destruction of agriculture, construction and informal sector while stated objectives eluded. Then he found GST which would project him as bold financial reformer and rolling it out hurriedly in mangled form without sufficient preparation had impacted small businesses greatly. GST, a novel reform, is expected to impact economy for about two years and there after benefits starts accruing. Both these must have costed nation about Rs.300,000 crores, the exact figures will never be known. All his independence day speech contents are selective truths and blatant lies. Among all politicians, at least Prime Minister should be truthful to nation. All his Red Fort speeches are either selective truths or blatant lies. India belongs to all Indians not just majority Indians.

Hindustan or Lynchistan?

• They were no soldiers executed in war, civilians butchered by deadly terror groups, or rebels crushed by state power. They were the people of the world's largest democracy, who were hunted, beaten and tortured to death by vengeful, bloodthirsty crowds. Bodies desecrated, they died in extreme fear and pain, pleading innocence and begging for mercy. All for a word the Indian Penal Code (IPC) does not even recognise: 'lynching'.
• Heart-wrenching horror have gripped the nation, as Indians kill Indians in some of the most grotesque mob violence, in total disregard for the law. Horrific reports of people being tortured or dying terrible deaths are surfacing every week. Yet our leaders remain silent. Will Prime Minister Narendra Modi do anything to stop this madness?
• At Aligarh, railway police stopped a woman in burqa and were surprised to see Nazmul Hasan, a man emerging from under the veil. Hasan confessed to using the garb as a ruse "I thought no one would target a woman." The lynching of a Muslim boy on a train had put the fear of lynching in his heart. 
• Lynching, as a legal term, does not exist in India, but it's seen as the extrajudicial punishment and murder of someone by a mob.
• The slaughter of cows is banned, consumption of beef restricted, in most Indian states, though millions of Muslims and Dalits depend on the meat and leather industries. Vigilante groups seizes cows from people they accuse of illegally transporting them, or sending for slaughter, have become active across the country. Most of the lynchings are being committed by them in the name of the cow. 
• Lynchings is a "new phenomenon" and what makes these incidents different is its extreme violence and brutality.
• Thirty-two people have been killed in 20 cases in the past three years. Almost all victims were Muslim or Dalit; 70% were suspected of killing or smuggling cows. The accused in almost every case of killing were linked to 'gau rakshak' or cow vigilante groups. Even in cases triggered by rumours of rape or child-lifting, the victims were Muslims or Dalits.
• Law enforcers witnessed the lynchings but did not do anything (at times they collaborated); No politician visited the families of the victims or made immediate public statements; in most cases, the charges against the accused were flimsy charges and given bail. The victims (even if dead) were charged of cattle smuggling and trading.
• On June 29, 2017, PM Modi made an appeal at Ahmedabad. It came after thousands of citizens protested decrying the government's inability to protect citizens from lynchings in social media. Within hours of PM Modi's condemnation, mob India reacted by unleashing a new spate of lynchings in Jharkhand. In the week that followed, at least three more people were lynched.
• With the new issue of beef and cattle trade, lynching is becoming ubiquitous. It can happen anywhere, anytime.
• It's strange how normal people turn beasts when part of a crowd. A raging crowd can affect an individual's behaviour. It's is contagious now. A mob also provides cover for the release of deep-seated emotions: anger, fear, suspicion, resentment, frustration, prejudice, malice. Lynchings and riots do not necessarily rely on criminals.
• The ordinary citizen seems to be in the throes of an epidemic of anger: with their incomes, their quality of life, their relationships, their political leaders, the lack of jobs, healthcare, decent education and opportunities. With all the grave uncertainties of life, rage spills over into collective violence. People take the law into their own hands when 'fear' takes huge proportions, making it an issue that they feel must be dealt with instantly.
• Cow vigilante groups are a huge network of young people, who are enrolled as members, given ID cards, responsibilities, mentors to take instructions from and even work in shifts. They also get informed by ex-cow smugglers. If caught, vigilante justice usually involves some hard slaps, punches and kicks, nothing more. For the unlucky it can cost a life.
• Social media have made mobbing and lynching easier. A WhatsApp message, with pictures of dead children, had been circulating for a month.
• Two people died in the first lynching at Jadugora. Mohd Naeem, blood-soaked and pleading to villagers with folded hands to spare his life. He was a good son to his ageing parents and a good father to his children, said his family members, refusing to accept the compensation of Rs. 2 lakh offered by the district administration.
• There have been almost no convictions or punishments, even in high-profile cases, and perpetrators seem unconcerned about the consequences of their actions. Our laws are quite adequate to deal with lynchings. Murder in any form falls under Section 302 of the IPC. But there are loopholes that needs to be plugged.
• What makes this moment unique is the silence of the political leadership. PM Modi has spoken against lynchings only after about 20 mob lynchings this year. That silence has become the hallmark of almost all top NDA leaders and chief ministers of BJP states. That silence has also generated a growing belief that our leaders have no answers for the problems that face us.
• The silence from the top is juxtaposed by inflammatory speeches from below. The frenzy of hate speeches was leashed somewhat with finance minister and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley saying "their statements (were) not appreciated by the party at all".
• The Union government issued a circular, banning sale of cattle for slaughter in cattle markets. The circular was first stayed by the Madras High Court and later by the Supreme Court. 
• Violence has always been an undercurrent in our society. There is a great degree of social connivance, otherwise lynchings won't happen. People are always violence-prone, selfish, looking out for their own interests. What keeps them in check is the fear of the law. The lynchings happening today are in many ways a continuation of our inability to impress the rule of law upon people. So what leaders say, and how, is very critical. The silence of leaders over lynchings gives encouragement. The more you find impartiality in law enforcement, the better are the chances of curbing violence. 

It is not mere intolerance. It is the emergence and establishment of an oppressive regime that wants to do way with the minorities of India and proclaim Hindu Rashtra as conceived by the founders of RSS.

Secular and democratic forces should unite under a banner to counter this cultural intimidation. If a state fails to have power over such fundamental forces that asphyxiate the rights of the disadvantaged, it is very much a failing state.

In UP, as against 41 rapes last year, there were 179 this year. Murders went up from 101 to 240 and cases of dacoity rose from three to 20. All these are not communal crimes or ones engineered by Hindutva outfits. But it is the unleashing of Hindutva outfits that has contributed to building up this climate of fear.

My View:

As RSS pracharak, Modi propagated its cosmic theory wherein every Muslim is a traitor and a potential terrorist. Modi in his unreleased book, describes scavengers assigned role in the caste order as a job bestowed upon them by Gods. Modi, a hardcore RSS pracharak has no respect for constitution, institutions, judiciary or legislatures and possesses fascist tendencies. He has no great qualities or accomplishments of any kind but yet he was able to mesmerize people with his speeches and relentless publicity. The manner in which he collaborated 2002 Gujarat riots resulting in 2,000 Muslim deaths, large scale destruction of Muslim properties & livelihoods and displacement of lakhs of Muslims is a telling example of his hatred of Muslims. By unleashing order, that was stayed by Madras HC and SC later, banning cow slaughter, cattle trade and beef consumption, he has overnight destroyed livelihoods of millions of Muslims and Dalits throughout the country. With the senseless demonetization, Modi has destroyed livelihoods of millions of people in informal sector and agriculture. Yet he shows the whole world and make them believe that he is savior of India. During his three year rule of nation there is no area which has shown improvement and there is no accomplishment worth advertising. The deteriorating Kashmir situation and tensions with neighboring Pakistan and China are the pinnacle of his failures and maladministration. Job-less growth and growth-less jobs are the highlights of our economy today. The results of his hurried roll out of mangled GST, will surface after few months. Needless to mention that he (as Gujarat CM) was singularly responsible for stalling GST six years ago during UPA regime.

Rs.10 lakh compensation to human shield in Kashmir

 Farooq Ahmad Dar, the 26-year-old shawl artisan from Kashmir, tied to a jeep as a human shield

• The use of human shields is considered a war crime by nations that are parties to the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
•  "The court of inquiry regarding the April 9 incident is under finalisation. While awarding the officer, all factors, including notable performance of the officer and overall emerging indicators of the court of inquiry, have been well-considered" when the army chief honoured Major Nitin Leetul Gogoi. Gen. Bipin Rawat, the army chief, handed the commendation card to the major in Jammu and Kashmir.
• The announcement of the commendation suggests the government and the military are viewing the officer's treatment of the alleged stone-thrower as an exemplary gesture that helped defuse an explosive situation.
• Dar, an embroidery artisan, had this question for the person who rewarded the major: "If his son faces a similar treatment at the hands of the officer, I would see whether he will still reward him."
• Dar has challenged those who had claimed he was a stone-thrower to prove that he ever picked a stone and he iterates that he was among the few people who voted that day in the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election.
• H.S. Panag, a retired lieutenant general, said: "Whatever be the circumstances, the incident was contrary to army rules and regulations. The circumstances under which the award has been given to Major Gogoi is not clear. It is a wrong message being sent."

My View:

People in public positions must realize that country is not their fiefdom, to behave or act as they like to please their political masters. Their actions will be scrutinized by higher authorities, adjudicating authorities and courts. Human shields were used by Israeli's in Gaza and West bank and they were accused of huge violations of human rights. There are laws that prohibit this kind of treatment even for convicts. There was no just reason for parading the human shield for four hours but is aimed at terrorising stone pelters who are unfortunately our own citizens. Defence Minister Arun Jaitley backed the decision of the army men saying that the army was interested in saving lives and Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh writing in a column that Major Nitin Leetul Gogoi should be given a distinguished services’ medal, is a matter of shame. The greatness of great nations lies in holding their institutions to the highest possible standards of law, humanity and constitutional propriety. In fighting armed militancy or any form of internal conflict, the state cannot abdicate its responsibility to uphold the fundamental rights of its citizens by holding its army accountable. I don't think this is the only option for army to protect its soldiers. Rather it is their feeling they are in war with Kashmiri Muslims and they are its enemies. The compensation should have been at least Rs.50 lakhs and also subjecting erring Major for court marshaling for exceeding his brief.

Israel is only a 'strategic partner'

• Modi must be aware, that in becoming the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel he was merely correcting a historical wrong. Israel is not our 'natural ally'. At best it could be our 'strategic partner'. See below the difference.

Natural allies are normally 'birds of the same feather', while strategic partners are often ‘strange bedfellows’. Natural allies share common political and cultural values—they may share common historical and cultural traditions; their societal values may be more or less similar; they may practice the same religion; and so on. Strategic partners may share none of these similarities. What makes two countries either natural allies or strategic partners is the common security challenge that they both face at a particular juncture in history and more importantly their decision to come together and pool their resources to deal with this challenge.

• David Ben Gurion, the founder of Israel, held a deep, resilient respect for India. He was fascinated by the India's ancient civilization, its inclusive culture, sought its friendship and recognition. He convinced Einstein to write the letter to Nehru, to carry the burden of the unrequited relationship. 
• Nehru rejected Israel's hand of friendship and cooperation, since he felt he couldn't afford to antagonize the Arabs given India's large Muslim population who had chosen to remain instead of migrating to Pakistan. And yet for all of India's efforts the Arab nations did not come to India's aid even once during its wars and conflicts. Israel did. 
• India recognized Israel in 1950 but without diplomatic relations.
• In 1968, when India established Research & Analysis Wing, then prime minister Indira Gandhi reached out to Israel's Mossad – to help train the fledgling service.
• Leave alone support, India has been betrayed by the Arab nations on Pakistan and Kashmir repeatedly. Be it the 1962 conflict with China, wars against Pakistan in 1965, 1971 and 1999 as well as during sanctions against India after nuclear tests, Israel has been the only nation to stand by us.
• Not withstanding our ties with Arab world, they had always supported Pakistan in backing Kashmir's "movement for self-determination".
• Modi’s “closeness” to Israel has blinded him to the report’s finding that 2,251 Palestinians were killed, over 1,600 wounded and some 5,00,000 displaced by the ruthless Israeli bombing of Gaza. The report says while Hamas did not use Palestinians as “human shields”, the Israelis did so using Palestinian children. 
• Today, Israel has so much to offer us apart from countering terrorist menace, in fields of water conservation, irrigation, innovations in agriculture, space technology, cyber-security, research and development in the fields of science, informational technology, startups, trade, commerce and defense collaboration.
• India's Israel policy has so far been unfair, myopic, perverted and hypocritical. This was a much-needed course-correction. However, a small country of 8.2 million can't be a model for a country with 1.3 billion with ethic and cultural diversity.
• Human right violations of Israel in Gaza and west Bank might become a head ache for India, which is so far a principled supporter of Palestine cause.
• It took one phone call from the Israeli prime minister for India to abandon seven decades of carefully cultivated relations with the Arabs in general, and the Palestinians in particular. This is a region which is host to nearly seven million Indian expatriate workers, whose remittances constitute the largest contribution to our foreign exchange earnings. It is also the region on which we depend for energy. In one fell blow, Modi has degraded us from being the best friend of the Arab world to its most doubtful supporter.
• If not handled deftly, our burgeoning relationship with Israel may be construed negatively by the Islamic nations.
• Finally 'strategic partnership' should be aimed at deriving mutual benefits without compromising the existing multilateral deep rooted relationships.
• Modi had earlier visited Israel in 2006 when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. 

Palestine belongs to the Arabs as England belongs to the English 
and France to the French .. Mahatma Gandhi
If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first ... Shimon Peres

My View:

Making Israel as strategic partner and deriving benefits in upgrading defense and strike capabilities apart from improving know how which benefits the areas of agriculture, irrigation, security, trade and commerce etc is OK but it is all the more important to maintain equally good relationships with Islamic Nations in view of our long association despite hiccups, dependency on Arab nations for oil, millions of Indians employed in Gulf and billions of dollars they repatriate which helps us manage our trade deficits. Otherwise Modi will end up India deriving small benefits and bring our country face to face with gigantic issues. Foreign policy requires consistent principled behavior and farsightedness, which Modi lacks.

What army is doing in Kashmir?

Army's role is primarily to secure frontiers from external threats and police to maintain internal law & order.

• Kashmir valley's population is over 9 million of which 96% are Muslims. 60% of the Valley’s population is below the age of 30 with shrinking job avenues. 
• Notwithstanding other achievements of Narendra Modi, Kashmir will be the scene of his biggest failure unless a dramatic breakthrough in the near future. Such a feat will justify J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's belief that only Modi can solve the state's problems.
• The low polling percentage of 7% in last month's Srinagar parliamentary by-poll was a sign of the erosion of popular faith in the electoral process since 2014, when the assembly polls registered 66% voting, a 10% per cent jump from 2008.
• Everyone is feeling choked because the political system has failed to deliver. After PDP tied up with the ultra-nationalist BJP, the space has shrunk even more for the youngsters who have gravitated towards militancy.
• Today, the Army is a part of daily life in Kashmir. New generations of Kashmiris have grown up living next door to military camps while the army too has learnt more about dealing with the Valley. The army lives in the self-belief that it has won the hearts of people in insurgency-hit areas. 
• Kashmir remains the most militarized zone in the world.
• Anywhere between 6.5 lakh to 7.5 lakh [security personnel] are there in Jammu and Kashmir. If you take the Army’s total strength, half of it is there. 
• The ground reality in Kashmir is that in 2013, 31 local youths joined militancy, the number for 2015 (till Sept) jumped to 66, according to police records.
• In Kashmir, security forces are regularly targeted by militants to intimidate people and discourage local youngsters from joining the government forces that have been fighting insurgency that broke out in 1989 and has since killed more than 40,000 people.
• The ratio of police to people is the highest in Kashmir, than any state. 
• It is like a prison-like reality in Kashmir and expect its people to be silent.
• There were only 150 militants in the state last year. Do we need 7 lakh soldiers to fight 150 militants?
• The total number of militants killed in Kashmir since 1990 is 21,000. Of them, only 3,000 were foreign militants.
• If people were told the truth that Kashmiris don’t want to be with India, and the struggle here is sustained by them primarily, and there is very limited external support – the public opinion in India too would change. 
• Not to allow the public opinion to change, campaign about Pakistan-sponsored proxy war are told. Indian electronic media is a part of India’s military strategy in Kashmir.
• The State Human Rights Commission said in an ongoing case that 570 people buried in the three districts in North Kashmir as foreign militants were later identified as local Kashmiris.
• There are at least 8,000 families which claim their members disappeared over the last 25 years. 
• Many Indian soldiers have raped Kashmiris. In the last 25 years, there have been hundreds of women who came forward to file cases of rape. It is very difficult to persuade them to file cases for fear reprisals from the Army. There are also issues of social stigma and non-deliverance of justice. 
• Sexualised and gendered violence cases are about 7,000. This include boys being sodomized, male rapes as well. It would be very difficult to prove a rape. You can hardly call it sex with consent by sex workers, when someone has a gun in his hand and asks a woman to have sex, and she agrees.
• So far there have been no conviction for encounter, rape, custodial killings, disappearances or torture in Kashmir.
• Army using a ‘human shield’ tying a militant in front of Jeep, similar to that of LTTE using children as human shields, and later army justifying and commemorating this action further widens the alienation. This is in gross violation of human rights.
• The utterances of senior BJP leaders are having a direct impact on the ground situation here. Beef was never an issue here and is hardly consumed but after the Haryana CM told Muslims they could live in India provided they stopped eating it, anger is growing and people are fearing the rise of the BJP. Muslims don’t fear death, rather prefer dying with honour rather than living a life of shame under oppression.
• Despite Modi's earlier admonition, the saffron lobby's continuing opposition to inter-faith affairs and the description of Mughal emperors like Babur and Akbar as "invaders", as by UP CM Yogi Adityanath recently recalling the castigation of Muslims as unpatriotic "Babur ki aulad" (children of Babur) during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement further alienates Kashmiris.
• The problem is essentially political. Financial packages announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi are not the balm people need. You cannot throw money at the problem. If you think Modi will come here and announce a package and people will forget, that’s not going to happen.
• The appearance of schoolgirls on the streets to join the teenage boys to throwing stones at the security forces shows that the familial and social norms are breaking down.
• Hemmed in by bunkers, curfews and frequent internet bans, people are searching for dignity and justice. The tragedy is that like in the past over two decades, neither Srinagar nor New Delhi is wising up to the new reality and looking beyond security perspectives.
• The ground beneath Kashmir’s feet is indeed slipping.

My View:
Army can be used to conduct a specific operation in civilian areas similar to that of "Operation Steeplechase" to weed out Naxalites and "Operation Bluestar" to flush out militants from Golden Temple but it is the duty of politicians and police to establish normalcy and maintain law & order. Prolonged presence of Army in large numbers in Kashmir, while weeding out militants inflicts atrocities on civilians, and will only complicate the issue and alienation would be total and irreversible. The only solution is to make Kashmiris feel that they are equal citizens of the nation and engage them politically and economically, otherwise we may very well end up losing Kashmir and for Kashmiris it would be from frying pan to fire. 

3 years of Modi: Where we stand?

Modi will be celebrating completion of 3 years as PM soon. Celebrations why?

• His Gujarat riots legacy is still intact.
• He seeks to overturn the past associated with the era of the Congress, which had an overlay of liberal and Left thought.
• His larger than the life personality cult in BJP is so dangerous that without him BJP would be reduced to a ragtag outfit.
• Winning the elections with rightist anti Muslim narratives leads us to nowhere. 
• It could be very well destructive, with Kashmir [with 96% Muslims of 9 million population] totally alienated and their desire to remain with India is close to zero. Thinking that brute force will be enough to hold back Kashmir and integrate it with India will be futile. No effort was made to win their hearts or engage people of Kashmir politically and economically. Our mighty Army can at best can kill few thousands of people but nine million Kashmiri's can't be liquidated.
• Ironically, BJS/BJP founder Syam Prasad Mookerjee was Nehru's minister in 1949, when Article 370 was finalized granting special autonomous status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir which was never implemented in letter and spirit.
• The BJP’s landslide victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections has only fortified Kashmiri's fears and its alienation. Modi will not change into appeasing Muslims or minorities and it is a matter of time we end up losing Kashmir. 
• Much hyped Swachh Bharat has become more a advertising tool and reality on the ground remained same with near total planning & implementation failure. So is 'Make in India' campaign which achieved nothing except visual publicity for Modi.
• India's per capita income is under $1700 per annum. To become a developed nation this has to grow to at least $12,000 per annum which will take several decades, if all goes well. 
• Even to reach China's present level of $4,000 per annum, it will take more than a decade.
• At this nascent stage embarking on a political campaign with festival like celebrations and campaign of Modi's achievements is nothing but mocking the poor.
• The realities to day are:
  - unemployment is at its highest.
  - banks remain on the edge of collapsing.
  - farmer's suicides continue unabated.
  - the less talked about education & healthcare it is better.
  - whole sale inflation is low or negative but retail inflation is pinching poor.
  - the reasonable price situation is attributable to low crude oil prices only.
  - foreign relations are at its worst.
  - the demonetization 2016 got simply busted and its objectives grounded.
  - so far government has failed to release any official details of its impact.
  - to accept and adopt to 'cashless transactions' and pay its charges.
  - live with harsh and ruthlessness of bank-men and tax-men.
  - our ratings remained at 'baa' [near junk status] with excessive national debt.
• Stock markets, fueled by sentiments during the past three years, its indices have reached phenomenal levels enriching investors to the tune of Rs.50 lakh crores. Only rich became further richer.
• After demonetization, tax base is gradually expanding and govt is becoming richer. That is fine. The informal sector which creates most jobs especially for unskilled & unqualified and operates on wafer thin margins are seriously impacted and causality is its jobs. 
• The intended or unintended consequence of the GST will be that informal businesses will be punished and compelled to wind up.
• While GST and 'one nation - one tax' slogan appears impressive, it seriously undermines the autonomy of the states and its freedom and violates the federal spirit enshrined in constitution. The intended or unintended consequence of the GST will be that informal businesses will be punished and and pushed out of businesses. States will have to beg central government for every financial need and relief amounts needed due to calamities. Centre gives guarantee for a period of five years to make good any losses but its past performance in this type of matters is not encouraging. While consumers might not get any immediate benefit and the imagination that benefits will follow from 2nd year on wards might very well be a myth. Our business houses are notorious for their propensity to retain advantages and pass on the disadvantages to consumers. Even our governments does the same to its citizens. The low crude oil price benefits were retained by central government to the extent of 80% and consumers got only 20% during the past 3 years.
• Young people haven’t found jobs or economic opportunities. The middle class is listless with the economy in doldrums, more due to the sluggish world economy. 
• The business class is unhappy as Team Modi hasn’t done anything substantive to further the ease of doing business in India.
• More than comfortable pile of foreign reserves of $370 billion is not a cause of exultation any longer.
• The BJP’s victories are its own, and opposition can mourn their hopelessness, but the country has a life of its own. The question is whether the Modi government has managed to change the nation’s affairs for the better in the past three years. The answer is big 'No'.
• Gujarat’s transformation under then chief minister Modi for over a decade between 2001 and 2014, is based on perception rather than facts. The development is based on economic statistics rather than the parameters that reflect well being of lower classes. There was no critical scrutiny of the claim by the independent economists. The harsh truth is that his claims of success as Gujarat CM were overly exaggerated.
• In his maiden speech in the Lok Sabha in June 2014, Modi said that the Gujarat model could not be universalized, and that India being a vast country, there was a need for many different models. 
• The hyped interactions by Modi with foreigners and his meetings were just photo-opportunities and didn’t translate into any worthwhile business deals.

Modi government completes three years in power with the realization that India and the world are complex places, and there is no way to change things with a wave of the Modi's magic wand. The Modi government has to got down rhetorical claims to stand on the ground and face the reality of the economy and India’s position in the world. The motive of these three year completion celebrations appears to be to create media hype for the next round of state elections, going into the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its 

weakest members -- the last, the least, the littlest .... Cardinal Roger Mahony

Read Illusions of Recovery

My View:
Modi's electoral victories are more due to opposition failing to provide themselves as viable alternative and traditional Congress tainted with scams & corruption. Other than Hindu fundamentalists, no sane person subscribes to Modi's philosophy of alienating minorities especially Muslims. His insatiable desire for publicity portraying failed schemes as successful schemes reflects his mythomaniacness.  While so far Modi & BJP appear to be scam & corruption free, their lavish styles doesn't qualify them to be sincere and honest people of India. The way BJP spent money in 2014 elections and in UP and Delhi elections etc, the estimates are mind boggling. Modi's 'populism' tendencies relegating rationalism to back and practicing authoritarianism is perilous to the principles of democracy. He has waylaid institutions like Parliament, Supreme Court, RBI etc that are bulldozed, media manipulations and CBI & ED raids limited to their political opponents is pushing democracy in India into peril. Job addition during 2016 was a meager 2.30 lakhs against one million aspirants added to job market every month. However India has time again proved its resilience and survived external & internal aggression's on its democracy and this too will pass away. No dictator ever lived forever.

Kashmir: Total Alienation

• Kashmir's youth come out on street in support of militants and challenge Indian security forces with stone pelting etc, indicates their feeling that state is insensitive to their concerns.
• Ministers and senior politicians had themselves abandoned the area.
• Militancy is not the challenge but break down of law and order is, in which people get involved and put up resistance that will result in civilian causalities.
• The recent Srinagar lok sabha by-poll witnessed less than 7% voter turnout, lowest ever recorded. During 2014 elections voters turnout was 65%. Low turnout and violence on polling day indicates people's disaffection with state and disconnect with politicians.
• Militants are more connected with people and attracts  crowds to defend them.
• In 2016 security forces trying to quell the protests resulted in killing of over 100 people and use of pellet guns injured over 1000 leaving many blind.
• Use of brutal force by security personnel, with Delhi's sanction, is only complicating the matter. This only led to increased support of people to militants especially youth.
• Situation had worsened so much that even girls are coming out and throwing stones at police and security personnel.
• Young people pelt stones at police & security forces know that it will not bring a solution but it is only to express frustration and hitting back.
• One of the narratives in Media and by BJP is that stone pelters are Pakistan paid agents.
• Kashmiri youth, 70% of population under 30 years, in the absence of political leadership which way they will be going is matter of deep concern. The anger of youth, unless harnessed to higher goals, can take unpredictable turns if society fails to apply the needed salve, if political leaders cannot summon wisdom.
• The violence and its impact on the minds of the youths over last two decades have contributed to a belief that nothing is going to change.
• 90% of families are angry that over 63% of families are affected directly by violence.
• Massive militarization and with impunity, armed forces indulge in killing civilians and human right abuses unabated. 
• Centre declaring that stone throwers will be dealt with sternly only forces Kashmir youth to rebel and revolt.
• Doctors say that suicides have grown 400% and 58.69% of youth have experienced trauma of facing gun fire and violence. The influence of religion increased significantly in past 20 years.
• A feeling of living under siege in their homeland, economic deprivation and denial of participation in democratic process has led to dejection.
• A fake encounter by Army personnel killing three youth allegedly to get rewards and promotions in 2010 triggered prolonged unrest that resulted in killing of 120 civilians.
• The alarming thing is that youth are not listening to parents any more.
• Who ever pelts the police with stones is a warrior and who ever gets killed by police is an martyr, in Kashmir today. This type of social sanction makes it amply clear how the situation has unfolded.
• Blocking of social media has only proved counter productive.
• Stone pelting during Nov 2016 was stopped not due to demonetization but due to acute winter. The connection between terrorism and fake currency was overly exaggerated.
• The surgical strikes of Sept 2016 and subsequent media hype have resulted in escalation of border tensions and increase in civilian casualties.
• What ever is happening in Kashmir is not law & order problem any more. It is result of continuous denial be New Delhi of political engagement. Mehbooba Mufti's continuous pleadings to reach out to Kashmir has no avail. The iron handed methods used there with no concern for people is getting stronger and at the end the human cost would be enormous.
• Syama Prasad Mookerjee was vociferous in the cause of the integration of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of India terming the arrangement under Article 370 as Balkanisation of India. On Feb 4, 1953 Sheikh Abdullah reminded Syama Prasad Mookerjee "This arrangement (Article 370) has not been arrived at now but as early as 1949 when you happened to be part of Government". SP Mookerjee was minister in Nehru's cabinet between 1947-50 and later founded Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951. In a way, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, BJS/BJP are equally responsible as Congress for Article 370. Having made constitutional provision it must be honored in letter and spirit until revoked or amended.
• Nearly 96% of population in Kashmir are Muslims. With Hindutva nationalism rising, Kashmir Muslims are frightened and their desire to remain with India is weakening. It is difficult to face growing fear in the minds of Kashmir people. One can't deal with imponderable sentiments. It is clear that we can't hold Kashmir valley with force of arms alone. If the people there don't want us to remain, we have no case left and we can't continue for long. This is RSS contribution to Kashmir issue.
• Weak law and order situation in Kashmir in all likelihood will lead to war between India and Pakistan. That would be catastrophe for both the nations and in particular to people of Kashmir. 
• Kashmir situation was never so bad in the past mainly due to squandering of opportunities to find solutions by Modi government. The resentment and anger against centre among the Kashmir youth is so rampant that even Kashmir girls are coming out in open and engaged in stone pelting. Driven by hopelessness youth are coming into streets and are prepared to die. Yet our Modi government doesn't realize that this is political problem and iron handed action is the only solution that will only worsen the situation.
• At the time of independence, the autonomous kingdom Kashmir was neither interested in joining Pakistan nor India, despite persuasion by Lord Mountbatten to join India. Only invasion by Pakistan's tribal army compelled Kashmir's Raja Hari Singh to sign 'letter of accession' joining India and Indian Army saved remaining Kashmir. But people of Kashmir had apprehensions with India and Pakistan, both.
• There is one way to move forward in Kashmir: Talk, talk and keep talking. But Modi & BJP committed to senseless nationalism are adamant not to initiate talks with Kashmir and militants playing into hands of Pakistan is now total.
• Alienating 20% minorities completely, BJP will never get legitimacy to rule the nation, even if they win elections.

The earth belongs in usufruct to the living. 

The dead have neither powers nor rights over it ... Thomas Jefferson

My View:
Not withstanding past and history, today Kashmir is very much integral part of India without any questions. But whether people of Kashmir were treated fairly and their pari passu rights respected or not in India, is a million dollar question? Article 370 is largely in statutes but in reality it is doing no good to Kashmir people. It is neither honored and nor implemented in letter & spirit. The reality today is that due to suppression by authorities, people of Kashmir see militants as liberators from oppression and are ready to sacrifice their lives to save them. People are also fed up with status quo in which they are trapped for 70 years in general and last 30 years in particular. With no political activity Kashmir people are deprived of their rights & fruits of democracy and this situation can not last indefinitely. Kashmir valley with population of nearly 9 million of which 96% are Muslims, who are alienated totally, sees no future with only stern orders and reinforcements from Delhi are set up for protracted struggle. The mighty army at best can kill revolutionaries and insurgents but the causality will be Kashmir. In case of war with Pakistan, which seems likely, the Kashmir population might have no option except to support and shelter Pakistan and it will be 'from frying pan to fire' for Kashmir people. Unless Central Government rapidly restores process of democracy in letter and spirit quickly and engages people of Kashmir politically, we may very well end up losing Kashmir. With stubborn Modi at Delhi, people of Kashmir are destined for prolonged struggle, uncertainty and suffering.

Plebiscite in Kashmir?

Hard hitting reply by Ms. Christine Fair, American professor 

to a Pakistani scholar in USA over UN resolution on Kashmir

UN Resolution 47(1948) April 21, 1948 on Demilitarization of Kashmir & Plebiscite

The UN Resolution conditions are:

1. Pakistan to withdraw military, tribesman & its nationals in Kashmir who have entered Kashmir for the purpose of Kashmir to the satisfaction of UN.
2. India to demilitarize to the extent of defending any aggression and provide security too Kashmir to the satisfaction of UN.
3. Govt of J &K shall appoint Plebiscite Administrator for conduct of free and impartial plebiscite.

Pakistan never withdrew its army/tribesmen/nationals from POK and hence question of plebiscite in Kashmir doesn't arise.