The insurgencies that impacted the Indian landscape till early this decade were generally in isolation. Though, they like all insurgencies had external links, the internal linkages between them were at best tenuous. The Khalistan insurgency could be extinguished because of its unidimensional nature. It was confined to a specific geographic area and was supported by a specific group of people, easy to identify. Their cadre base was low.

The Kashmir militancy had not fully reared its head. The ISI patronage and support was well known. The pioneering ideologues of the movement were based abroad and did not belong to the segment of the community, which provided the foot soldiers. The objective of the insurgency was to carve out another theocratic state. The same can be said about insurgencies in the Northeast (NE). They too were supported by China, but in a manner that the deniability factor could be maintained. A separate country was their objective and not the destruction of the Indian state. The acts of terrorism in these insurgencies were to intimidate the local populace and preempt any support to the security forces.

Over the years, there is fusion of insurgency and terrorism. It first took the shape of proxy war with territorial objectives. Therefore, when the Indian Security establishment was faced with the Kargil misadventure, it initially appeared bewildered because it could not appreciate that a low intensity conflict could assume the shape of a conflict, which was constricted in limit and scope due to internal and external considerations and pressures. The overall military superiority that India enjoyed vis-a-vis Pakistan could not deter the latter.

Convergence of Terror

The proxy war waged by Pakistan and China are now converging on Delhi. This proxy war has various terrorist groups as its main tool. The main instruments of this war are none other but some Indians who are allured by ideology or money or both. They have been convinced that India in its present form is a demonic state and needs to be destroyed.

The Maoists, Pakistan based terrorist groups, and terrorist groups in Northeast, Punjab and J&K are now in collaboration. They have forged a nexus for training, procurement of arms, establishing external linkages and providing safe havens to each other. They are leveraging on one another’s strength and to reach their common objective is to destroy the Indian State.

When the Army Chief talks about a two front situation, he must realize that India is already facing a multi front situation in terms of proxy war being waged by China, Pakistan and other inimical powers. This multi front proxy war is rendering the country hollow from within. The inimical elements within the country are debilitating both our military resolve and our conventional capability.

The security of a country is the harmony between internal security and external security. Pakistan is collapsing because it always viewed internal security from the prism of external security. India on the other hand has been notorious in ignoring the external dimensions of internal security problems and treating them as that of law and order. If the Maoists, who are tramplingthe heart of India, and the Pak sponsored jihadis of Kashmir as well as terrorists groups in Punjab, and the China backed insurgent groups of Northeast, who have been trying to severe the head and limbs respectively, are now acting in concert, the internal security situation is grim.

A Super Power like the Soviet Union with its massive military capability, collapsed because it could not harmonize internal security with external security. India must not repeat the mistake. The Indian Army must revisit its threat perception and the very definition of ‘enemy’.

Joint terrorist training camps

The arrest of two Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) leaders of Manipur Arun Kumar Singh and Dalip Singh in October 2011 exposed the emerging links between the militant organizations in the NE, Kashmir, Let, and the Maoists. They revealed the ongoing effort on part of these groups to form a ‘Strategic United Front’ since they had the common objective to overthrow the Indian government. They reckon that it is only collectively that they would be able to take on the might of the Indian State. They also revealed the plans of setting up a ‘Joint Training Camp’ in Myanmar. The Times of India on 08 October 2011 quoted official sources “ISI and PLA are in touch and supply Maoists with arms. They are supposedly using China as the alternative route.”

The official sources also claim to have photographic evidence of Maoist cadres from six Indian states being trained by the PLA of Manipur, in Orissa and Jharkhand.This author has learnt through top intelligence sources that the Chinese have supplied a weapon manufacturing facility to the Kachin Insurgents in Myanmar. This facility is manufacturing replicas of AK-47, which is being supplied to all terrorist groups in India including the Maoists.

The latest recovery of explosives from a car on 12 October 2011 has also exposed the links between ISI, Lashkar- e-Toiba and Babbar Khalsa. Their objective was to target Delhi.

Taking into consideration, the seizures made by the security forces in the last few years, two important facts emerge – first, that Babbar Khalsa, the militant outfit, which carried out the killing of the Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh has been under the revival mode, under the patronage of ISI, and second, that the organization has no dearth of sophisticated arms and explosives supplied by the ISI.

The revival of Babbar Khalsa and Khalistan insurgency received impetus after the creation of the Pakistan Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee under the Chairmanship of Lt Gen Javed Nassir, former ISI chief. He is instrumental in forging the link between LeT and the Babbar Khalsa.

In October 2010, the Indian government had alleged that the Maoists of Nepal (PLA) had been imparting training to Indian Maoists on Nepal’s soil. Further, the Maoists were receiving training from LeT instructors in these camps. There was information of 234 Maoists training in Nepal under the supervision of Naxalite leaders like Vinod Gurung, Prakash Mehto and LeT members like Razak Khan and Latif Khan, who hail from Karachi.

In August 2010, Karnataka and Andhra Police, following four arrests in Hyderabad and two in Bangalore that the ISI through the ‘D-company’ had managed to establish links with the Maoists terrorists in the country. There were plans to invite Maoist leaders to Dubai to coordinate terrorist activities in India.

The spearheads of the modern terror network are people, who enjoy or have been conferred respectability by way of international awards or member- ship of NGOs ostensibly engaged in public cause. Some of these ideologues are active in forging links between various military groups. A noted Human Right activist, based on telephonic intercepts, has come under the scanner of intelligence agencies for trying to bring together various terrorist groups at the behest of Pakistan.

Even in the national capital the ideologues of the Maoists, Kashmiri and NE separatists have come together on a common platform on many occasions. Their agenda is common, i.e. to weaken the resolve of the Indian State to fight terrorism. It is in this backdrop that their diatribes against the state, the security forces, and the Armed Forces Special Power Act should be viewed. This Act, they feel is the most robust tool in preserving the unity of India.

The Maoist agenda

It is pertinent to note that when Anna’s agitation was at its peak, the eternal fast of Sharmila Irom of Manipur, was consistently highlighted. The focus was not she, but the removal of Armed Forces Special Power Act from Manipur. One of the active members during the agitation is known for his ULFA links. During the same period, the so called Lawyer civil activist and core member of the Team Anna, in one of the television channels, had categorically stated that the days of elected representatives are over, thereby implying that the India must jettison multiparty democracy.

He was only articulating the Maoist agenda. He also had then spoken that it is the Kashmiris who should decide whether they want to be part of India or not. Such was the hysteria during that period that these statements were lost in the din and did not receive adequate attention. The same gentleman has now advocated plebiscite in Kashmir and repealing of the Armed Forces Special Power Act.

One of the members of the Team of interlocutors on Kashmir has enjoyed the hospitality of Fai Foundation, headed by Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai the face of the Kashmir separatist cause in the United States. The Fai Foundation is funded by the ISI. It was a foregone conclusion that the team of interlocutors would recommend more autonomy for Kashmir. The timing of the submission of the report and utterances of the lawyer is not a mere coincidence.

The most formidable spearheads for convergence of terror in India are there in the media and amongst people who fancy to be called as intellectuals. The ‘terrorism economy’ is also formidable and has the ability to sustain some big media houses and other public platforms. They decry the Indian State, but ‘Misuse the Freedom of Speech’.

The entire region in the surround of India is in unprecedented geopolitical flux. The US-Pakistan strategic partnership, which ensured the survivability of the latter since its inception is now under tremendous strain, arguably on the verge of collapse. The internal problems of Pakistan seem to be intractable. The specter of the country’s split is haunting. Pakistan’s strategic maneuvre space is getting increasingly constricted. The conventional tools available in the hands of Pakistan in leadership to alter the dangerous geopolitical discourse are in disarray or blunted.

It is not India, but Pakistan’s machinations in Kashmir and Afghanistan,which has brought the country to this juncture. The emerging strategic partnership between India and the US, and India and Afghanistan has unnerved a tottering Pakistan. The only recourse available to Pakistan is to destabilize India by leveraging on all terrorist groups, i.e. the Maoists, who are active in one-third of India, and the terrorist groups in Kashmir, Punjab, Northeast, and Pak based terrorist groups and crime syndicate of the Dawood Ibrahim.

In this there is a congruency of interests between Pakistan and China. China too is not comfortable with the Indo-US strategic partnership and consequently the direction of the geopolitical discourse in the region. It has very high strategic stakes in Pakistan as well as in the Indian Ocean, particularly in the Bay of Bengal, where it is seeking presence by way of ports on Myanmar’s western coast for convenient supply of oil from Gulf for its energy needs. It is for this reason that China is engaged in thwarting India’s ‘Look East’ outreach by increasingly brazen sup- port to Northeast terrorist groups and the Maoists.

Economic consequences

The convergence of Pakistan and China backed terror and spearheaded by the ideologues has dangerous portends for India. While the aim of this terror is to paralyze India, its main focus is shifting to its heart, i.e. the National Capital. In all probability terrorist attacks in India are likely to become more vicious, more deadly, more wide- spread and more frequent. This proxy war has disastrous economic consequences. There is a thriving parallel terrorist economy. The Maoists are disrupting train services at will. Bandhs orchestrated by Maoists are having crippling effect on the economy and the livelihood of the people.

Corporate houses are paying ransom to the Maoists because the State cannot enforce its writ in large chunks of the hinterland. The Maoists menace is making thermal power plants starve for coal. India is becoming a dangerous place on this earth. Investors are being deterred. The Indian state machinery has become inured to the insecurity of the people. It probably feels that time itself will resolve the problem. The internal war against terror is being fought in a disjointed and half-hearted manner. The resolve mechanism and instruments to fight this convergence of terror is in disarray.

If this war is not won, India despite its conventional war making capability, will collapse. We are fighting the war with wrong tools, wrong mindset, and misplaced ideas of war, oscillating between law and order approach and internal security approach. While there is convergence of various terrorist groups, the Indian authorities have a compartmentalized approach on the specious argument of federalism. It’s a war and given its import and spread, the internal enemies can only be defeated, if the Indian Army is in the forefront.

  – RSN Singh (The writer is a former military intelligence officer who later served in the Research and Analysis Wing, or R&AW. The author of two books: Asian Strategic and Military Perspective and Military Factor in Pakistan, he is also Associate Editor, Indian Defence Review.)

Coalgate investigations, FDI in retail, coordination within UPA with allies, internal security and several key policy matters has seen UPA trebling without any leadership. The highest indicator of the multi layer power centre was exposed in the passing and sudden withdrawal of ordinance related to keeping criminals out of active politics.

The cabinet headed by Dr Manmohan unanimously passed ordinance extending certain concessions to tainted politicians. It was forwarded to President of approval though he refused to sign. This is the start of a new story wherein Congress VP Rahul Gandhi steps in and tore apart the credibility of the government by publicly stating that this ordinance is useless, to be thrown in dustbin, The nation has witnessed tremendous turbulence due to multi layer power system in the government that lacks accountability with one person. Surely, the PM is the man responsible to the public at large but the world’s largest democracy has seen a rare multi level amalgamation of power to run a complex country.

UPA’s multiple dysfunctions created the perfect FDI storm, the government’s decision to suspend opening up of India’s retail sector to foreign investors, 12 days after it was announced with much fanfare, marks a new nadir in the fortunes of the second UPA government. Optimists, and there a few, think retail FDI could play out like the nuclear deal, where it was initially put on hold after the Left objected, and later revived.

But the second avatar of the UPA appears to be difficult from the previous one, a number of ministers in the current government said, with key play- ers often working at cross purposes. The ministers, as well as several politicians, both belonging to the Congress and the government’s allies, largely spoke on condition of anonymity. The fiasco has highlighted what was till recently only whispered about infighting in the cabinet and a rapid diminution in the authority of the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. Barely 24 hours after the cabinet meeting, for instance, senior ministers from the ruling and allied parties were expressing their reservation about the move, some openly. It soon became well known, for instance, that defense minister AK Antony and rural development minister Jairam Ramesh were opposed, though neither have spoken in public.

But the discord, according to the ministers and a number of political leaders, is not restricted to the cabinet. According to a number of people familiar with the matter, equations between Sonia Gandhi, the Congress President, and the man she appointed as Prime Minister more than nine years ago, is no longer what it used to be. “The Congress is like a three-legged animal, with each being pulled in different directions. So, if there is one section that is toeing Mrs Gandhi’s line, there is another that appears to have Rahul Gandhi’s mandate. And a handful of people supporting the PM,” a cabinet minister said.

Sonia Gandhi’s illness has been a complicating factor. “Who is in charge here? Sonia Gandhi is distracted with her illness and she is no longer as hands on as she was during UPA 1. Rahul Gandhiis a landlord in absentia

his interventions are few and far between and he keeps himself away from the government mostly. That leaves the Prime Minister whom his own party members don’t take too seriously. His authority is constantly challenged ironically not as much by the allies but by Congress cabinet ministers. And it doesn’t help when the PMO is perceived to be playing games with various ministers,” another senior UPA minister says.

“This term of the UPA has killed the spirit of doing business in India,” a top industrialist. “It’s not just an activist judiciary, out-of-control law enforcement agencies wherein India’s premium business houses were targeted. Recent CBI FIR against Birla group and roll back reflects a poor state of governance in the country. The issues such as inflation, internal law & order situation etc have dampen the spirits of business world. Who can do business with interest rates at 16%? This government has some outstanding, bright individuals but nobody is willing to do anything,” the industrialist says.

The division in the cabinet has not helped. “The FDI in retail is a classic example of how the PM was let down by his own cabinet. Which of the powerful ministers came out in strong support? Not because in principal they didn’t support it but because they are upset and disillusioned by the PM,” says a minister belonging to a party allied with the Congress.

According to this person, Chidambaram feels let down by the PM as he feels the Prime Minister’s Office has not been particularly helpful at a time when he is under relentless attack from Subramaniam Swamy, the maverick politician who has petitioned the courts seeking resignation of home minister, who was finance minister in 2008 when a set of controversial telecom licences were issued by A Raja, the former telecom minister. A controversial note from the finance ministry, which appeared to partly blame Chidambaram for failing to prevent the scam, has not helped matters.

One cabinet minister also points out that Kapil Sibal, the telecom and HRD minister, who till a few months ago did a fair amount of fire fighting for the government, kept mostly silent during the FDI debate as he feels he went out on a limb opposing the popular anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare with little backing from the party.

Government officials say an attempt was made by the Congress high command to bring in order by appointing Pulok Chatterji as the PM’s principal sec- retary. Chatterji comes with the formidable reputation of being a professional, low profile and no- nonsense bureaucrat. He has an onerous task at hand, say people in the know, with the relation- ships between some of the most powerful cabinet ministers at an all-time low.

Landmark legislation and reforms initiated by the UPA have had one characteristic. With the important exception of the nuclear deal legislation such as NREGA which provides 100 days of guaranteed employment – and the Food Security Bill have been personally been driven by Sonia Gandhi. The government’s role has been to implement the party’s wishes.

In case of multi-brand retail it was different, with the Prime Minister driving the initiative. The government had to sell this idea to the party once the core committee took a view. Many blame industry minister Anand Sharma for the fiasco. A Congress party member says Sharma was the wrong choice to hard sell the proposal. “First, he didn’t even bother to sell the idea to his party men, forget about allies. “This government is being run by Rajya Sabha people some who haven’t even been municipal com- missioners,” says a Congress leader sarcastically. The criticism would apply to the Prime Minister, who is a Rajya Shabha member.

Several Congress ministers say it was a classic case of bad presentation. “The policy should have been pitched as a special power that states were going to be given to avail foreign investment in infrastructure and retail if it so desired. As India gradually inches for the General Elections 2014 with massive rallies and election fever has already set in the country, the stakes are higher than ever. It is do or die battle of Narender Modi led BJP minus NDA to secure 200+ Lok Sabha seats in order to attract allies to form the government. It is true that Narender Modi is the most popular leader of the country today but the limitation of BJP is that it will con- test national elections in 2/3 of India wherein it is having absolutely no presence in 1/3 of India hence success ration required to translate 2/3 seats is extremely high, it makes Narender Modi task very difficult. On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi must have to demonstrate extreme control over the party to settle himself as undisputed leader. He must deliver goods by words and actions. Indian loves authoritative leadership so Rahul Gandhi has limited options. He will be fighting against history of ten years of anti incumbency of UPA government. There is a generation shift within Congress leadership so the experience leaders may feel ignored by the young brigade; the balancing may require huge skills for Rahul Gandhi. Finally, he must take control of the party and government decisively to disseminate message to the country that he is in complete control of entire governance and he is the BOSS. It will give Congress cadre a clear line of control and it will offer the country a clear option to vote or not to vote to Rahul Gandhi led Congress party for UPA III.

– OE News Bureau

Is Varun BJP’s New Hindutva hero?

Bharatiya Janata Partyon Monday rejected the Election Commission’s advice to it not to nominate Varun Gandhi as candidate in the Lok Sabha elections and declared that he would be the party candidate in Pilibhit. “He (Varun) is our candidate. We have turned down the advice (by the EC) be- cause it is does not not have the right to give such an advise,” party spokesman Balbir Punj told media persons after meeting Varun. He said he was speaking as the authorized spokesman of the party and this was the view of the party leaders after consultations among them.

In an unprecedented action, the Election Commission on Sunday night asked the BJP not to nominate Varun as its candidate in the Lok Sabha elections after holding him guilty of making communal speeches. Varun Gandhi does not deserve to be a candidate at the present general elections?’ the three-member Commission advised the BJP. Punj said in a democracy, it was the right of political parties to decide on who their candidates will be and it was not for the Commission to say that.

The BJP would not accept the Election Commission’s advice, he said adding it was the collective decision of the party leaders. Punj also questioned the Election Commission’s authority to advice against nominating Varun. “The entire episode smacks of prejudice and bias,” he said. “If the Election Commission is so con cerned, then it should be forthright in giving the same suggestion in the case of Sanjay Dutt, M K Subba, Shibu Soren, Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler,” he said.

The BJP spokesperson also sought to question the competency of the Commission in deciding the veracity of the compact disc containing anti-Muslim speeches allegedly made by Varun. “Where is the original CD? The Election Commission has no right to give such ad- vice. It should refer the matter to an independent investigation agency,” Punj said.

Whether or not Varun will be able to fight the elections will depend on the judiciary. The hate speech that has given rise to this controversy in the India’s electoral battle, was allegedly delivered during rallies in Pilibhit constituency of Uttar Pradesh. While cousins Priyanka and Rahul have joined the issue, criticizing the youngest Gandhi for his speech, Varun says that the CD was doctored.

“If you ask me, I would say yes, it was a rousing speech, a strong speech. May be I should not have been so aggressive; may be, I should not have used the words which I did. However, certain expressions attributed to me have been distorted from what I spoke and one of the two CDs containing my speech has been doctored,” he said

“What people should realize is that I was speaking at a village where four girls had been raped. When I spoke, I wanted to instill confidence among victims, I wanted to offer hope to the hopeless. I don’t care about a warrant (for arrest) but what bothers me is that I should not be hurting anyone and, believe me, my intent was not to hurt anybody,” Varun said.  “You must appreciate the fact that in my area, there has been persecution of Hindus in a particular belt. There have been 11 cases of rape in the last one year. People have been thrashed and threatened. There has been communal tension in this belt for one year. While I don’t want to cement it (tension), I cannot wish it away either.”

“My mother (Menaka Gandhi) has been elected to Lok Sabha from Pilibhit in seven consecutive elections, but the constituency has never witnessed a communal riot, not even in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement phase. But during the last one year, things have been different. Many of our people, including former minister Ram Saran Verma, have been arrested under the National Security Act,” he said.

– OE News Bureau

During the days of struggle for independence, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru was set in the hear t of ever y Indian. However after he took over the administration, it was found that he was more of a dreamer than a realist. His concept of a socialistic pattern of society was utopian, and the realm of control and regulations that he introduced stifled the economic growth of the country. The situation got worse when Indira Gandhi and her stooges star ted using the controls for personal ends. The corruption that she gave vent to has been continually growing like cancer. It has crossed all bound sand we are now witnessing the politicians unashamedly accumulating property by indulging in large scale corruption.

But corruption is not the only ailment of the country. The policy initiated by Nehru and perpetuated by the followers has given rise to various other ills that have been deeply affecting the social fabric. While pondering over the conditions prevailing at present I feel that India has been rushing towards catastrophe in economic, political and social spheres. Unless the engine is put in reverse gear, we are going to face the devastation. I am therefore putting below some suggestions that can help in preventing it.

Idea of india how to make it click

1. Introduce Presidential system of governance

Our Parliamentary system of government was adopted because of our association with the British rule. It was, however,overlooked that the system needs vigilant public opinion and the presence of two strong parties that can take over the administration. These conditions did not exist in India.

The problems arising from the absence of two capable parties did not come to the notice so long as there was one party strong enough to continue at the helm. The weakness of the system became evident after the fall of congress party from the hegemony. Not only did that lead to unstable administrations, it also led to mismanagement and gave rise to large scale corruption. Maintaining majority at any cost has turned out to be the main job of the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers. Whenever they find that the majority is at stake, they have to go in for purchasing the required number of heads. Everyone knows the level of corruption indulged during the vote of confidence session of parliament last year.

Corruption is a cancer that cannot be rooted out so long as there are chances for getting corrupted. The only way to control it is to reduce the chances. Our Parliamentary system has been conducive to its growth. In order to avoid it we need to adopt the Presidential system under which the administration can be carried on by the President at the Center and Governors at the State levels elected to govern for five years irrespective of the majority. That would avert this constant struggle to maintain and pay for a majority headcount. Moreover, the scramble that we witness for getting elected as legislators prevails, because every legislator aspires to get a ministerial berth and use it for personal gain. Under the Presidential system legislators would be ineligible to hold administrative positions. That will put an end to the undue craze for becoming a legislator. Only those who are really interested in working as legislators would then contest the election. The temptation for becoming a legislator would thus go down and that will curtail the chances for indulging in corruption.

2. Scrap controls and regulations

Another aspect that gives rise to corruption is the regime of controls and regulations. Influenced by the Soviet model, Nehru was enthused to lead the country towards economic development by wielding State authority. He ignored the fact that Soviet Union had failed to achieve any measurable degree of economic growth even while exercising total authority over the life of people. In a bid to metamorphose the country Nehru created a maze of controls regulating every aspect of life. He failed to see that Government machinery is ill suited to exercise the controls in public interest. The result is the large-scale corruption prevailing in implementing the controls.

 With the inauguration of liberalization some controls have been removed and the rigors of some have been modified. What is, however, required is to do away with the controls to the extent possible. For instance, with the comfortable foreign exchange reserve, no control is necessary on foreign exchange and the rupee should be made fully convertible. Similarly there is no need for measures like the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act and they should be repealed. Not only do such controls lead to corruption, they also tend to inhibit entrepreneurship. Their removal will reduce the chances for corruption. Moreover, it will give rise to healthy competition and will lead to sound economic growth.

3. End deficit financing

The concept of preparing the annual budget was evolved with the intention to adjust expenditure to the level of revenue. If it was necessary to spend more than the estimated revenue, the budget would propose the measures for raising more revenue. If, however, the shortfall is negligible, it could be left as uncovered deficit. But that concept has been set aside and we are witnessing deficits to the extent of trillions of rupees. Such deficits are bound to lead to inflation. Expansion of currency without adequate backing results in effective devaluation of rupee, which becomes evident in the form of rise in prices.

Though other factors like high prices of crude oil may play their part from time to time, deficit financing has been the main cause for continuing rise in prices. The biggest culprit for our budget deficit happens to be the Planning Commission. Nehru had introduced planning with a good intention, and that worked well during the first two Plans. Thereafter the emphasis of planning has been shifted to spending. If the amount planned for a head is spent even without achieving tangible result, the plan is considered as having fulfilled the target; while effecting economy on a plan head is treated as the shortfall of the plan. In short, it has been a spending spree and the money gets divert- ed to the coffers of politicians and other unscrupulous people. The Planning Commission has lost the plot and has been virtually planning for inflation without growth. Since it has ceased to serve its purpose, it is time to scrap it and put deficit financing to the end.

4. Make English our official language

English language now occupies the international status. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated, when millions of our countrymen have been living abroad. Its importance for scientific studies also is indisputable. No wonder that many families have been sending their children to English medium schools. The time for treating English as a foreign element has long been past.

Adoption of regional languages as the medium of State administration has given rise to all sorts of fissiparous tendencies. That needs to be put to an end to in the interest of unity in the country. It should also be noted that the people in South have been clamoring for retaining English at the administrative level. Adopting English as the official language at the Center and State level would not only placate the South, but will also provide an efficient medium for administration. Moreover, it will help in forging the sense of unity that was witnessed during the British rule.

 5. Implement common civil code across India

Though our constitution forbids discrimination on the ground of race, religion etc. we happen to have a Hindu Civil Code. Nehru had come out with the Hindu Code Bill because he was not willing to hurt the sentiments of conventional Muslims.

Hindus have long been feeling unhappy on account of the Civil Code being restricted to them and have been clamoring for a Civil Code applicable to all .Whatever be Nehru’s motive, there is no justification for restricting the provisions of Civil Code to a particular sector of the society. The Supreme Court also has directed the Government to approach it with a Common Civil Code. The administration has, however, ignored it in order to avert displeasing the Muslim voters.

In case, the leadership is too sensitive to Muslim sentiments, it can come out with a Common Civil Code together with the provision for an Islamic Code to be adopted by Muslims as an option. That Code should cover every provision in the Islamic canons inclusive of crude punishment for offenders, disavowal of interest on investment, etc. Muslims will think twice before opting for such a code. Since Islamic tradition heavily discriminates against women, the Code should provide for exercising the option jointly by husband and wife.

6. Quota on caste, not community

The reservations based on backwardness have created a rift within the society There was justification for reservation in favor of scheduled castes, because they were kept backward by the society. No other community was so debarred; they have remained backward on their own. They can surely be encouraged to come forward by providing in he belongs to a particular community. centives in the form of scholarships etc. but reservations for them in administration or educational institutions can in no way be justified. The Government is not an employment exchange.Its machinery is expected to function in the interest of people.Integrity and efficiency are the essential requisites for it. Its employment policy should be based on those criteria. Providing reservation there in leads to inefficiency and loss of integrity. No one would have the incentive to function efficiently, if his colleague or a subordinate is going to be his boss simply because he belongs to a particular community.

The reservations in educational institutions are leading to sub-standard outcomes. How could it be safe to have doctors with lower caliber to treat the patients?

It is hazardous. Similarly an engineer with sub-standard caliber cannot be expected to undertake reliable work. Indira Gandhi had favored the policy of reservation in order to pursue her parochial ends. It is now the time to reconsider it in the over all interest of the country.

But the policy adopted so far has created well entrenched privileged classes and the backward communities would oppose curtailment of the favors granted to them. They, however, need to understand that the reservations are meant to enable the backward people to come forward;continuing the same indefinitely amounts to perpetuating the backwardness. That fact can take some wind out of the sail of proponents of reservations.The consensus should therefore be arrived at for reservations to lapse after a reasonable period. Thereby it would be possible to put an end to discrimination’s, which have created rift within the society. The importance of forging unity would be particularly palatable at the present juncture. The enlightened people would wholeheartedly endorse such a move. It is hard to make out how the system has been perpetrated by the judiciary.

7. High time to check population explosion

We have been facing a population explosion. The population has grown almost fourfold since the independence. The measures taken so far have failed to restrict growth,because majority of the people refrain from adopting birth control measures. The growth in population sets at naught the progress in every other field. We should therefore be willing to adopt an effective policy for containing the population.

Such a policy should be deterrent enough to restrain the people from generating more children. Our people are very sensitive to payment of taxes and would like to avoid them whenever possible. In order to take advantage of that sensitivity it is necessary to introduce a tax on people who have more than two children. Every couple producing a third child should be subject to pay tax at the rate of Rs.1000/- (subject to revision from time to time) per month for 10 years starting from the birth of the third child. The liability to pay the tax for that period should continue irrespective of the child’s lifetime. Otherwise there would be a tendency to put it to death.Moreover, during the said period of 10 years if the couple produces another child, not only would it have to pay the tax on both the children, it should also be subjected to a surcharge at the rate of 25 percent of the tax payable otherwise.

These provisions would induce people to adopt birth control in their own interest. It is obvious that most people will fail to pay the tax, and it would not be possible to put all such offenders in jail. It should therefore be provided within the Act that those failing to pay the child tax will be subject to mandatory sterilization.I strongly believe that if we start initiating the seven points mentioned above, India will be well on its way to assume its place at the world top table.

(MANSUKHLAL (MANU) DOSHI was born in Mahuva (Saurastra), in December 1919, and moved to the US after re- tiring as the Assistant Commissioner of Industries, Gujarat. He is living in USA now)

The Maoist insurgency is a blatantly illegal and the no holds barred war against the Indian State, against the idea and existence of Indian democracy and it must be dealt with an iron hand, believes Harsh V Pant

A few days back the Maoists abducted Atindranath Dutta, the officer in charge of the Sankrail police station in West Bengal and killed two of his colleagues. After 55 hours in captivity, Dutta was released in the presence of the national media by Maoist leader Kishenji who underlined that this was the ‘first case of release of Prisoner of War’ by the Maoists.

Dutta’s release came hours after the state government let 22 alleged Naxals walk free by not opposing their bail plea. The West Bengal government later admit- ted that it gave in to the demands of the Maoists to secure the release of the police officer and cited the release of militants in the 1989 Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping case and the 1999 IC-814 hijack as precedents.

The state home secretary went to the extent of calling India a ‘soft State’ while the chief minister’s principal secretary admitted that the government “had to bend over backwards’.This prisoner swap happened even as the security forces had surrounded the Maoist abductors with their leader Kishenji also part of the squad. They were instructed to call off their operations. This incident once again underscored the growing might of the Maoists and the abject passivity of the Indian State even when its own institutions are assaulted with impunity.

Emboldened by their ‘victory’ armed tribals led by Maoists seized the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express near Jhargram in West Midnapore, took the driver and his assistant hostage, and demanded Chhatradhar Mahato’s release. Meanwhile, the politicians are busy blaming each other for being supporters of the Maoists even as it is clear that no political party is above board when it comes to flirting with extremists for short term political gains.

For some time now we have been hearing the Indian government talking of Naxalism and Maoism in grave terms, labeling them as the greatest internal security threat facing the nation. Yet the policy response has not been up to the mark. It has been full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

The United Progressive Alliance government in its first term failed to see the Naxalite threat for what it was one of the most significant challenges to the very existence of India. As a result its response was a mixture of denial, accommodation, and neglect.With the Left parties as coalition partners and an ineffective Shivraj Patil as the home minister, the government ended up worsening an already serious situation, giving ample opportunities to the Naxalites to demonstrate their might across an ever expanding swathe of territory called the ‘Red Corridor’.

For years Naxals have been killing security personnel and civilians continuously and consistently with a ruthlessness that is unprecedented but the Indian State has tended to look the other way while celebrity activists have tended to justify these acts on all sorts of moral grounds. In the absence of leadership from New Delhi, the states decided to chart their own courses and their approaches ranged from offering amnesties to the raising of armed militias like the Salwa Judum. Realizing that the situation has got out of control, the UPA government in its second term had no option but to take the threat head on and its started with the new Home Minister P Chidambaram admitting in Parliament that the national security threat posed by the Maoists has been underestimated for the last few years.

Conventional wisdom on tackling Naxalism much prevalent amidst the Indian liberal intelligentsia suggests that this is a mere socioeconomic problem. And only if we can provide jobs to the dis affected youth and win their hearts and minds, we can prevent Maoism from spreading.

This assumption is the basis for the developmental package that the government has announced for Naxal infested areas where significant development aid is now being channeled in the hope this will help in alleviating the perception of alienation from the national mainstream.

It is true that good governance and economic has simply passed over certain parts of India, and Naxalites thrive in this developmental and governance vacuum, often supplanting the State’s legitimacy. And as the state’s authority has eroded, Maoists have moved in to fill this vacuum by erecting parallel structures of governance. Development, however, is never the goal of such movements. It is all about power.

A multi-pronged strategy is needed to tackle Naxalism and one of the planks will have to be to ensure that the develop- mental aid trickles down to those at the very bottom of the nation’s socioeconomic ladder. But this should not mean that the military defeat of Maoists should be put on the back-burner. For far too long there has been a complacent attitude regarding fighting these forces.

There has been an absurd sentimentality about the Maoists’ leftist pretensions.

The argument went that these are idealistic, well-intentioned people who have gone awry but soon they will recognize the benefits of participatory democracy and start engaging with the nation’s electoral process.

The Congress party remained ambivalent about defeating Maoism and we kept hearing cliches suggesting that development was the only way to tackle the men- ace of Naxalism and the Maoists were merely disaffected youth.

It is surprising because India has been rather ruthless in fighting other challenges to its internal security, be it in Jammu and Kashmir or in the northeast where all kinds of insurgencies have challenged the might of the state and the state has never been diffident in responding in kind.

As the home minister has pointed out, left-wing extremism affects 20 states, and over 2,000 police station areas in 223 districts in those states. While 231 security personnel were killed in Naxalite violence in 2008, 250 had already died this year till August. Despite this the Naxalites have continued to be seen as misguided or harmless or even basically right in what they wish to achieve though perhaps a bit too harsh in their choice of means.

The Maoists have made it clear time and again that they seek the dismemberment of the Indian State and have cynically exploited the genuine grievances of the local population in their areas of operation toward their larger ideological ends.

The Indian intelligentsia and the Indian government should disabuse themselves of any possible reconciliation with the Maoists at this juncture. The Maoists have asserted that they will only come to the negotiating table if security forces are withdrawn from their areas of operation,all arrested Maoists are released and there won’t be any precondition of laying down arms.

There should be no question of accepting any of these demands. The extremism of their goals and the excesses of their method make them the most dreaded enemies of the Indian State.The main task of great urgency before the Indian government today, therefore, is a military defeat of the anti-democratic Naxal forces. The Indian government needs to re-establish its authority, creating conditions for pursuing and inclusive political process and developmental agenda.

As recent events make amply clear,India has been failing its paramilitary and police consistently. In the absence of ad- equate personnel, training and equipment, the Indian police have been reluctant to take on the Maoists head on making it even more difficult for the local population to challenge the Naxal’s writ.

In the absence of adequate security, a ‘hearts and minds’ strategy is unlikely to work and the local populace will continue to get targeted by both the Naxals and the security forces.

In this context while the recently launched Operation Green Hunt against the Naxal movement is a step in the right direction, the government will have to think about building institutions of governance rather rapidly after clearing the areas of the Maoist cadre if wants a permanent solution to this problem.

The Maoist insurgency is a blatantly illegal and no holds barred war against the Indian State, against the idea and existence of the Indian democracy — and that includes the poor tribals and farmers in whose cause Maoists claim to fight. It is not only ignorant but also extremely dangerous to romanticise the Naxal cause.

While recognizing the limits of Indian democracy and developmental model, there is no need to be apologetic about the ability of the Indian democracy in bringing ever greater number of people, especially the marginalized, into the main stream.

Today it is the Maoists who because of their destructive tactics and senseless violence are actually the greatest impediment to the development of the areas for whom they are ostensibly fighting.

It is time for the Indian State to assert itself as well as expose the intellectual vacuity of their ideology. Anything less would allow such forces to keep working towards the weakening of the Indian State.

(Harsh Pant teaches at King’s College London and is presently a visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Management- Bangalore)

Sitaram Kesri bless his troubled soul, from his vantage point in..errr…heaven (?) is surely laughing at Sonia Gandhi’s predicament. If party stalwarts of the Indira Rajivera Pranab Mukherjee, Sharad Pawar and Jitendra Prasad,frightened by the prospect of political wilderness under Sitaram Kesri’s inept leadership, or worse, having to see one of them ascend to the throne, made common cause with Sonia Gandhi’s domestic minion Vincent George to plot and execute poor Sitaram Kesri’s humiliating eviction in 1996, the new breed of empire loyalists  Anand Sharma, Ajay Maken, Digvijay Singh and Abhishek Manu Singhvi have been let loose by Sonia Gandhi on Jayanthi Natarajan. In 1996, Sonia Gandhi’s path was speedily cleared of all thorns and threats; we can be sure she will do the same for her son now. Rajesh Pilot and Madhav Rao Scindia’s untimely deaths were fortuitous for the new regime;

Pranab Mukherjee persisted with the empire loyalist mask until he was elevated to the Rashtrapati Bhavan; Jitendra Prasada died unexpectedly in the midst of his hectic anti Sonia Gandhi campaign while wily Sharad Pawar distanced himself far enough from Sonia Gandhi to do his own thing but not too far away that he could not carve out a political niche for himself within the erstwhile Indian Nouveau Roman Empire. G Karuppaiah Moopanar alone, also of the old guard resigned from the Congress when Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister in protest against the Congress’ decision to ally with the AIADMK; he refused ministerial posts in the Indira Rajiv governments, refused to become Prime Minister after the Deve Gowda government fell; instead, being a proud man, GK Moopanar moved to Chennai to start Tamil Manila Congress or the TMC.

Jayanthi Natarajan was confronting a determined usurper and even if this is simply a case of thieves falling out, we must hand it to Jayanthi Natarajan for refusing to turn over meekly like Sitaram Kesri and play dead. Jayanthi Natarajan, until yesterday an empire loyalist, hit back at the Roman Empire by going public with a letter she wrote to Sonia Gandhi on 5 November 2014 with the clear message, “if I go down for corruption, I take your son (and you by implication) down with me”.

If Sonia Gandhi in her manic ambition to rule a country and a people not her own had no qualms about letting her thugs lock up the elderly Sitaram Kesri in the bathroom to usurp the Congress president chair, she has even less qualms now about throwing Jayanthi Natarajan to the lions in the Colosseum. How Sonia Gandhi deals with this threat remains to be seen; but given her past success in removing all thorns from her path, Jayanthi Natarajan may still be neutralized. It is just as likely that woman to woman, Jayanthi Natarajan may yet prove to be Sonia’s Nemesis. “If pushed to a corner”, declared a grim-faced Jayanthi Natarajan on Times Now, “I will not hesitate to make public all communications between me and Rahul Gandhi’s office. I can assure you, I can take care of myself”.

Regional satraps should not break the Delhi glass ceiling Sitaram Kesri from his vantage seat up above has another reason to laugh too. The Gandhi glue is melting and the Congress is coming unstuck now in the exact same manner it came unstuck after Rajiv Gandhi’s death. First to cry ‘nay’ was Jaganmohan Reddy, son of Sonia Gandhi loyalist and now deceased “Samuel” Rajasekhara Reddy, Seventh Day Adventist Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

When “Samuel” Rajasekhara Reddy died an untimely and wholly unexpected death (another one in the Congress) in a helicopter crash in September 2009, his son Jaganmohan Reddy, to keep his father’s little fiefdom intact for himself and his family, announced his plan to undertake “odarpu yatra” or a condolence yatra, across Andhra Pradesh to cash in on his father’s death and strengthen his own position within the party and the state leadership.

Sensing new danger, Sonia Gandhi refused permission to Jaganmohan Reddy to undertake the condolence yatra. Needless to say Jaganmohan Reddy was sitting on mountains of ill gotten wealth which he was not prepared to share with New Delhi and therefore did not need Sonia Gandhi to become a power centre in his own right in Andhra Pradesh. Refusing to play second fiddle to the Delhi dynasty and cock secure of his late father’s money- powered clout in Andhra Pradesh, Jaganmohan Reddy quit the Congress to do his own thing.

He and his mother took charge of YSR Congress, a political outfit founded by one Siva Kumar, a Samuel Reddy loy- alist. Jaganmohan Reddy’s resignation from Sonia Gandhi’s Congress and his rapid rise in Andhra Pradesh politics inflicted a deadly blow to the state Congress which was kept afloat only by the continuing pre-eminence of Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi. Just so Jagan Reddy and all other “sons” posing a threat to her own son’s right to be heir, got the message that power and all benefits of power must be disclosed and shared with New Delhi, Sonia Gandhi unleashed the CBI against Jagan Reddy. Jagan Reddy, his father’s slavish loyalty to Sonia Gandhi counting for nothing was arrested for disproportionate assets under the Prevention of Corruption Act and lodged in jail. Sonia Gandhi and her CBI kept Jagan Reddy in jail from May 2012 to September 2013 like they kept Kanimozhi, the daughter of another ambitious regional satrap who was also arrested by the CBI in the 2G Spectrum case and spent six months in jail from May 2011 till 29 November, 2011.

The next to cry foul and quit the Congress was GK Vasan. Few remember that in total contradiction to his late father’s reason to resign from the Congress, GK Vasan, after GK Moopanar’s death in August 2001, swallowed his father’s pride, buried his father’s proud legacy and merged TMC with Sonia’s Congress in 2002. After Sonia Congress’ comprehensive drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when she and Rahul Gandhi refused to step down as President and Vice President of the party, and when Sonia Gandhi and her son continued with dynasty political-business-as- usual, sending the strong signal that regional satraps should remain con- fined to their regions and should not attempt to knock down the Delhi glass ceiling, GK Vasan too quit Sonia’s Congress in November 2014.

The similarities between how Sonia Gandhi dealt with Jaganmohan Reddy and GK Vasan are too obvious to be missed. Jaganmohan Reddy wanted to strengthen the state Congress (and himself in the process) using his father’s name. GK Vasan too wanted to strengthen the TN Congress (and himself in the process) after the Congress lost the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, by launching a membership drive with the pictures of GK Moopanar and K Kamraj on the membership card instead of pictures of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Sensing the same danger, Sonia Gandhi expelled GK Vasan from the Congress.

In all the noise over Jayanthi Natarajan’s resignation and the cacophony from the hounds of war let loose by Sonia Gandhi to mount a no holds barred attack against Jayanthi Natarajan, P Chidambaram has become conspicuous by his silence on the issue considering he and Jayanthi Natarajan are old friends and colleagues from the same state and practicing the same profession. However, as if to make up for his father’s silence, Karti Chidambaram, incidentally Kanimozhi’s good friend, has begun to voice murmurs of discontent. On the 22 January, Karti Chidambaram convened a meeting of all his father’s loyalists over lunch where he and his supporters were supposed to have expressed serious discontent with the party high command.

Karti Chidambaram was served with a show cause notice by the Pradesh Congress President. That situation is developing yet. It is now clear that sons of regional satraps are not willing to stand waiting at the kitchen doors while Sonia Gandhi and her son continue to sit at the Congress high table. L’affaire Jayanthi Natarajan: Going beyond the cacophony

What Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are doing to Jayanthi Natarajan must be placed against this background. It speaks volumes for Sonia Gandhi’s unmatched talent for bribing, buying and silencing dissent that while her ministers were accused of corruption and went to jail or were expelled from the party, she and her family, including her son and son-in-law were never found guilty, were not held to account and have not spent a single day or night in jail. Not even in Modi Sarkar’s times.

The case against Jayanthi Natarajan is two fold. She sat on files and she moved files to Chennai. As a good friend put it caustically, Jayanthi Natarajan’s corruption falls under two broad categories – positive corruption and negative corruption. Positive corruption is you pay me money, I will clear your files. Negative corruption is  you don’t pay me money, I won’t clear your files. The high points of the case:

1. Jayanthi Natarajan sat on several files, the most prominent among them being Lavasa, Vedanta, Nirma Cement, Adani projects and GVK power project.
2. Jayanthi Natarajan was summoned by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to his office on 20 December 2013 and asked to put in her resignation papers.
3. Manmohan Singh tells her, he is not demanding her resignation but Sonia Gandhi wants her to step down to focus on party work in preparation for the coming general elections.
4. Jayanthi Natarajan, a self proclaimed Gandhi family loyalist,steps down promptly.
5. The next day, on 21 December, Rahul Gandhi addresses CEOs and industrialists at a FICCI event where he says that now all bottlenecks with regard to environmental clearances have been removed (meaning with Jayanthi Natarjan’s resignation) and that all stalled projects will now be given speedy clearances so that they may begin work.
6. Jayanthi Natarajan says all the stalled projects were stalled and environmental clearances not given at the express instructions and directives from Rahul Gandhi.
7. Jayanthi is also stripped of her position as Congress spokesperson and she is left alone in political wilderness.
8. Within days of GK Vasan quitting the Congress party expelled from the Congress party (depends on who is saying it) Jayanthi Natarajan writes a tearful and plaintive letter to Sonia Gandhi- the contents of said letter already in the public domain.
9. The question now is – why did Jayanthi Natarajan wait for two months before she went public with all the sordid details? And why did she go public just on the eve of Delhi state elections?

Not Jayanti Tax but Sonia Tax

What we should not forget is that Narendra Modi considered Jayanthi Natarajan to be corrupt when he referred to “Jayanthi Tax” in one of his election speeches. Be it as that maybe. But Jayanthi Natarajan has now quit the Congress not because she had a con- science but she, like Jaganmohan Reddy refused to pay Sonia Tax.

Sonia Gandhi gave all her men and women the freedom to practice corruption with two riders that they do not rock her throne and not question her choice of heir apparent, and that they pay Sonia Tax from the bounty they scalp from the rich and the poor alike. When Rahul Gandhi issued directives to Jayanthi Natarajan not to clear some projects, he was guilty of negative corruption; when at the FICCI meeting of industrialists he told India Inc. that their projects would now be cleared, he was guilty of positive corruption because the new Minister of State was prepared to pay Sonia Tax.

Jayanti Natarajan didn’t and suffered for it. And now she’s having her payback time.

-BY RADHA RAJAN

Nandini Voice For The Deprived, a Chennai based NGO , organized a debate for school and college students on 24th January,2015 at Chennai on “How to make the clean India campaign successful?”

The objective of organizing the debate was to give an opportunity to the students to provide their views and recommendations that would benefit the country and the government.

A number of school and college students in Chennai participated in the debate. The students spoke with considerable enthusiasm and suggested number of feasible ideas. The highlights of the recommendations of the students have been sent to Prime Minister for his consideration and implementation.

The following students were awarded prize

1. M. Hemalatha – SBOA Matriculation School, Chennai
2. A. Advaith- St. Michael’s Academy, Chennai
3. G. Manesha- SBOA
4. Matriculation School, Chennai4. M. Amitha – Tamil Nadu Ambedkar Law University, Chennai
5. B. Shweta – Panimalar Engineering College, Chennai
6. R. Raghav- AMET University, Chennai
7. G.Thamizharasi – Tamil Nadu Ambedkar Law University, Chennai

We desire to submit the recommendations of the students for your study Need to start the Clean India campaign at school level. The clean habits and clean consciousness can be built among-st students in the formative age group successfully, that will bring a new generation who value cleanliness as the centre of all activities. Subject of waste avoidance, handling and treatment should be introduced in the curriculum at the school level all over India as compulsory subject. Every school should be asked to form Swachch Bharat Club, where the students can constantly discuss the subject and coordinate their activities to take up the campaign both in the premises of educational institutions and outside.

MOU between rural and urban educational institutions :

Each school and college located in urban area should sign a Memorandum of Understanding with a school or college in rural area. This would help in taking the new ideas to rural areas and those in urban areas will have a lesson or two to learn from rural areas. Such move would contribute enormously in providing a vigour in clean India campaign amongst the students in the formative age group, which will have great positive impact on the society .

Reform oriented punishment needed

The consensus view was that fine and punishment at individual level should be imposed on those , who cause unclean conditions on the public places like urinating etc. However, the punishment should not be punitive but must be reformist. It can be in the form of asking the violators to do cleaning work for a few hours in a place of their choice. Those who apologies for such behavior should be warned and compelled to attend some special classes conducted by NGOs on clean India campaign. However, the students cautioned that with the widespread corruption in official machinery at various levels, violators may get away after bribing the police men or supervisors.

Need for waste bins in many places

Number of waste bins suitably designed should be kept in all public places like bus stands, railway stations etc. in accessible place, with prominent pointers to them. All transport buses and railway compartments should have waste bins. The very presence of waste bins and constantly seeing them by the passers by will promote consciousness about the need for cleanliness to some extent.

Involving celebrities in clean campaign amount to ridicule

Cinema stars, sports persons, business men etc. are being roped in by Prime minister in the clean India campaign. People wonder as to whether these people would any day clean in their own homes and whether they would do so in public places without camera aimed at them. There are many common men and women all over India who are genuinely concerned and take active part in clean India campaign. Their efforts should be highlighted and appreciated in all villages, towns and cities by exhibiting their photographs in public places , which can be reviewed every three months.

This would make clean India campaign people centric ,instead of the present glamour oriented celebrity centric, which really amount to ridiculing the movement. Media focus on these so called celebrities but people are not impressed. Like Arjuna award given to the sports persons, national award should be instituted to recognize and award those who contribute to the promotion of clean India campaign in various ways including technology development.

Need for stress on avoiding waste and reuse of material

The used packaging medical wastes , electronic wastes etc. are big source of waste generation. The reuse of material like waste paper, used plastics are very important. Lot of technology inputs are required in achieving this objective.

Recognize rag pickers as self employed professionals :

The rag pickers are silent and great contributors to the clean India campaign now. The government must introduce special schemes to recognize the contribution of rag pickers and look after their welfare in the short and long run. The rag pickers should be encouraged as self employed professionals and the society should have the maturity and wisdom not to look at them in a demeaning way.

Need for neighborhood citizens’ initiatives:

Citizens should be encouraged to form associations in neighborhood to promote the clean India campaign in the local areas ,by monitoring regularly the cleaning activity and preventing those who cause unclean conditions. Official notification from the government recognizing such neighborhood associations will go a long way in sustaining the campaign and the government departments should be instruct- ed firmly by the government to meet the members of the association to take suggestions and coordinate the activity regularly.

Need to use traditional art forms :

Government should encourage NGOs to carry out clean India campaign at local levels by designing stage and road shows, using the traditional art forms , which will have a great impact in motivating the people and sustaining the clean India campaign. There is no need for the government to provide financial assistance to such schemes but the neighborhood associations can fund such projects in their areas by contribution from the citizens. People will donate money , if they are assured of earnestness of the campaign.

Many unclean conditions are due to the failings of government machinery

In thousands of villages in India and in many places and even in towns ,the toilet facilities are lacking in house- holds, particularly in the case of citizens living below poverty line. The government machinery has failed to provide such facilities for them.

Even in public places, toilets are not adequate in number and many of them are very poorly maintained. In many cinema theaters and even in some schools, such facilities are lacking or very poorly constructed and main- trained. Perhaps, it is high time that the government confess to the people that it is also responsible for the unclean conditions in India and the government should admit that unclean conditions are not due to the people alone.

While around 30 % of the country men are below poverty line, at least 30 % of the country men are living in comfortable conditions with surplus income and super rich in India are competing with the world rich people. These people have great responsibility to make monetary contribution voluntarily for the clean India campaign. If they would not do, they must be considered as irresponsible and unconcerned. If they would not actively participate in the clean India campaign , they may soon become an eyesore for the poor people.

Long drawn out battle:

The campaign for clean India must be waged in the minds and hearts of citizens. Prime Minister has given a tar- get of five years for achieving clean India, which is unlikely to be implemented adequately within this time frame. There is really no need to fix such targets, as the campaign for clean India has to be continuous and sustained for all time to come. The campaign has to be a permanent one and not time bound.

  -BY N.S.Venkataraman, Trustee Nandini Voice For The Deprived twitter : @nsvchennai

Telangana will be the 29th state of India comprising 10 districts with plenty of water and some other natural resources in a backward region lacking development that was at the heart of the separate state demand.As and when the state is formed, the jewel in the crown will always be the city of Hyderabad, which may for some time, at least 10 years to start with, be the joint capital for the rest of Andhra.

With a population of over 3.5 crore, the new state comprising mostly the areas of the princely Nizam state will have 17 Lok Sabha seats and 119 assembly seats.When it joins the Indian Union, people of the region would hope that the new identity would help them over- come the challenges of poverty and backwardness which were at the roots of the separate state movement.

The demand for a separate identity for Telangana is virtually as old as the state of Andhra Pradesh, which came into existence in November 1956 through the States Reorganization Act. The Andhra Pradesh government website says: “Telangana agitation was started by the people of the region when they felt that Andhra leaders had flouted the Gentlemen’s Agreement which facilitated the formation of Andhra Pradesh.

“In the beginning, the movement demanded the implementation of the safeguards agreed upon earlier, but later it wanted the separation of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh.” That the seat of government in Hyderabad has persistently ignored the needs of Telangana at the expense of the other regions of the state has been a constant grouse of the advocates of separate statehood. The new Telangana state would comprise the 10 districts of Hyderabad, Medak, Adilabad, Khammam, Karimnagar, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy and Warangal. Now, according to the Backward Regions Grant Fund 2009-10, 13 districts in Andhra Pradesh have been identified as being backward, of which nine are in Telangana.

Classified as a semi-arid region with a predominantly hot and dry climate, Telangana is not amongst the most fertile regions of the country.But it does have its share of natural resources and notably contains 20% of the country’s coal deposits. Among other natural resources are mica and bauxite along with some limestone reserves.But given the lack of development, Telangana has served as a fertile ground for the Maoist insurgency to take root.A clutch of leaders of the Naxalite movement hail from the region. Slain Maoist Kishanji, who was No.3 in the rebels’ hierarchy, hailed from Karimnagar district.

Doer Nitish Kumar scores over political rhetoric of Lalu and Ram Vilas

On the morning of counting day, driving through rain and the blossoms of Laburnum and Gulmohar in Patna, I was surprised to find that the road outside Nitish’s residence deserted. For a moment I assumed the other news channels had decided to skip the early morning slightly pointless pre results dispatches, till I walked a few steps away to the next lane. Sure enough, the entire media cavalcade of cameras and broadcast vans was parked right there – outside the home of Rabri devi, Lalu’s wife and the proxy Leader of Opposition.

Why would the media ignore the bigger story – Nitish Kumar, the man being wooed by all political formations, praised by Rahul Gandhi, hand-grabbed by Narendra Modi, and generally seen as Bihar’s great hope – to chase the by now predictable story – the decline of Lalu Prasad, the Railway minister who looked all set to go off track this election??This could a matter of habit – after all, Lalu has been the centre of gravity in Bihar for two decades. Or it could a more calculated journalistic gambit, linked to the well known contrast between the two men – Impetuous Lalu might supply some drama even as a loser, while Punctilious Nitish would not allow the media in except at the designated hour dutifully phoned and faxed to media offices. Nitish, as the consensus goes, does not believe in springing surprises.

And the initial leads came as no surprise. Both reporters and exit polls had picked up the astonishingly high level of Nitish’s personal popularity on which the NDA hoped to sweep Bihar. The only subject of speculation then – what would be the final tally? Lalu’s elder son, a Krishna Bhakt and mildly notorious in Patna, drove in from a morning visit to the temple, flashing the victory sign, holding up both his hands. He is giving four seats to his party – quipped one journalist. Uncannily, that’s what the RJD ended the day with.

Ram Vilas Paswan, the LJP leader who completes the Bihar triumvirate, had all morning been ensconced in a five star hotel suite – the one that he occupies when he is in Patna, which is not too of- ten, usually around election time. He has a reason, or excuse, to stay away – as par t of every single government since 1996, his duties as Union Minister have kept him busy in Delhi. Except this election took that excuse away. Paswan lost from Hajipur – a seat he won seven times since 1977, losing just once in the Congress wave of 1984. This time, an 88 year old man, Ram Sunder Das de feated him. Das could be this Lok Sabha’s oldest candidate.

As far as age goes, many have claimed this election has upturned an old truth about the way Bihar polls. That it is no longer about Jaat or caste, the vote is for Vikaas or development. Hardly one to dispute the remarkable transformation underway in Bihar, led by Nitish, I would slightly modify that claim. The reality is more nuanced.

Nitish has revived Bihar’s comatose administration, kickstar ted schools and hospitals, used the centre’s money well to build roads and infrastructure – public goods meant for all, they have indeed created a groundswell of support for him across the state and across communities. But what Nitish has also done is target benefits to specific communities, based on caste: the EBC’s or extremely backward castes, numerically larger among the backward castes but edged out by the more powerful Yadavs and Kurmis, have finally been given political space through reservations in panchayats; Mahadalits, dalits minus chamars and Paswans, for whom state largesse now ranges from subsidised homes to monthly supply of bathing soap; even among Muslims, Nitish has singled out the Pasmanda or backward and dalit muslims for special schemes like Talimi Markaj, a scheme aimed to bring Muslim children to school.

This is social engineering, Nitish style. And it pays. It has created new vote banks. Numerically, the most significant is the EBC bloc, 100 odd castes that add up to around 30 % of Bihar’s vote. In 2004, not a single EBC candidate was voted to Parliament. In 2009, three will be sworn in as MPs, all three are from Nitish’s party.

Further proof of how caste realigned this election – Lalu’s outburst post defeat. Two months ago, on poll eve, he dismissed my questions on the impact of the potential consolidation of the EBC and Mahadalit vote. But as his own electoral defeat from Pataliputra flashed on TV screens, he turned to the group of journalists and ranted : ‘Everyone has united against Yadavs, there is hatred against Yadavs’. His other villains: the administration for rigging the polls, an upper caste media for biased reporting. Familiar targets from the nineties.

Not surprising. But what was mildly stunning was Lalu’s dismissal of development as a factor. He said if Vikaas could win votes, he would have won hands down for the turnaround of the Railways. He was emphatic : development does not win votes. It was scary to see a man stuck in the nineties.

Nitish, as expected, called for a press conference and walking into 1, Anne Marg had a surprise in store : a mandatory security check, at sharp contrast from the mad chaotic unchecked stampede into Lalu’s home. The security guards, including women constables, were trained to frisk, but did not have the detectors. Another insight into how Bihar is changing – step by step.

The press conference took place under the mango tree, the sole unchanging landmark in a vastly different Chief Ministerial Residence. The briefing lasted twenty minutes and a beaming Nitish Kumar repeated several times, the word ‘Nakaraatmak’, translated best as ‘Negative’, but far more potent in its original meaning. Nitish said voters had rejected the ‘Nakaraatmak’ approach of his opponents. Nitish reiterated that this was a vote against ‘Nakaraatmak’ politics. At final count, Nitish had used the word 10 times. Nitish may have chosen the negative adjective, but his work has been an affirmative one, both as the chief minister trying to bring governance back to Bihar, and as a politician schooled in the politics of social justice.

The stream combines the socialist ideals of Jayaprakash Narayan, and the modified socialism of Karpoori Thakur – Bihar’s second backward caste chief minister and the first to introduce reservations for OBCs in Nor th India, way back in 1978. Both Lalu and Nitish were claimants to this legacy. But while Lalu squandered it, Nitish is building on it – by deepening the reach of reservations and social targeting. It is Mandal Part Two. And like Mandal Part One, you could have a problem with it, if you oppose affirmative action based on caste. Except, by further refining reservations, Nitish has actually taken on what has been one of the prinicipal criticisms of Mandal – that it helped dominant caste groups like Yadavs and Kurmis become even more powerful, at the cost of the more backward and less powerful groups.

Lalu may have privately wished that Nitish’s agenda would lead to a backlash from the upper castes, Yadavs and Kurmis – but it didn’t. Possibly one explanation : even if the others are slightly resentful of reservations, the resentment is offset by the larger benefits of a functioning state that has finally begun to deliver.

No wonder, at his press conference, Nitish didnt look partic- ularly crushed at the national picture of a UPA win, and an NDA defeat. Instead, he asked the new government at the centre to live up to the promise of special status for Bihar – just a day ago, ever y political party had shown a willingness to consider the demand when a hung verdict seemed likely and the support of Nitish seemed crucial. Still beaming, Nitish wrapped up : Good that the elections are over, now lets all get back to work.

Post Script: Observations overheard that day: RJD has be- come Rajput Janta Dal. Apart from Laloo, the other three RJD candidates who won are Rajputs. The election has ended the Raj of Gundas – Gundis. Gundas are dons turned politicians. Gundis are their wives, propped up as proxy candidates. All 10 of them lost. Including Munna Shukla on a JD U ticket. A jubilant Nitish had one reason to be upset. Digvijay Singh, his former party colleague turned rebel, won from Banka defeating Nitish’s candidate. This setback could be crucial – in keeping Nitish grounded. Bihar cannot afford another arrogant leader.

 – OE News Bureau

Vote for him in the December’s Gujarat Assembly elections and pave the way for him to be the Prime Minister of India. That will save the Hindus and the India, appeals the Indian American Intellectuals Forum. December is a very crucial month for the Chief Minister Narendra Modi, for the State of Gujarat, for the Hindus in India, and for India as the country. The State Assembly elections in Gujarat are scheduled for December 13 and 17 – and the results will be announced on December 20.

In India, Shri Narendra Modi is an embodiment of courage and valor. He is a powerful orator, a consummate communicator and a forthright thinker. He is a fearless fighter, a legend who under- stands how to capture the collective imagination of the people he wants to lead. In spite of the mean and mendacious media blitzkrieg launched against him by anti-Hindu Congress Party in collusion with the dangerous combination of anti-national radical Islamists, Leftists and foreign-funded NGOs, Narendra Modi has not only stood strong, but has also made them eat the humble pie.

Gujarat under Narendra Modi, the “Lion of Gujarat”, has blossomed in the last eleven years and has become the growth engine of India. Modi has completely transformed the state’s economic and political landscape. He is punctilious in his thoughts, deeds and actions and runs the state like an efficient CEO.

Narendra Modi is endowed with a syncretistic vision which enables him to lead Gujarat in a harmonious manner. Under his dynamic leadership, Gujarat is practically leading the country in every segment of economy. the power, petroleum, petrochemicals, ports, steel, minerals, gems, jewellery and auto industry.

When he first took over as the Chief Minister, Gujarat had a power shortage of 2000 MW, but now it is a power surplus state. Gujarat actually contributes 16% to the country’s overall industrial production. Agricultural growth of Gujarat is at 11%; the rest of India it is barely 4%.

In a quantum leap, in April 2012, Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation 600 MW of installed solar power projects, including the Asia’s largest solar park with 214 MW generation capacity. With achievements like these, Narendra Modi has established himself as the man with vision, mission and conviction.

His zero tolerance policy towards the terrorism has won him big laurels. Gujarat, which was the home of some of the worst communal riots in independent India has seen no communal disturbances in the last ten years. Politically, Narendra bhai got a big boost to his image and stature when in April 2012 the Supreme Court-appoint- ed Special Investigation Team (SIT) cleared him of the charges related to Gujarat riots of 2002. In its report SIT has exposed the nexus between the top State Congress officials, the so-called ‘secular’ journalists, NGOs and the police. For such legendary courage and conviction, Narendra Modi actually deserves the nation’s ovation and admiration, rather than the dishonor and defamation.

Recently, the prestigious “Time magazine” featured Modi on its cover page. Financial Times, another world-class publication, applauded Gujarat’s growth under Modi in glowing terms. A September 2011 report drawn up by the US Congressional Research Service (CRS) describes Modi as the “King of Governance.” The world-renowned Brookings Institution’s Managing Director writes about Modi in March 2012 that India could elect him as its Prime Minister.

Over eighty three percent of India’s population or Nine Hundred Ninety million people in the country are Hindu. Yet, shamefully, the country is being ruled by the minorities, who are barely 18% of the population count. India is the only country in the world where its minorities principally the Muslims and the Christians — have ganged up together to enact laws that decide how the Hindu majority should behave in their own country! It is truly a matter of great regret and shame that Hindus are taking this injustice and tyranny lying down!

Sinister efforts are underway to selectively appoint the Christians and Muslims in sensitive and powerful posi- tions within the administration. Here are a few glaring examples of it: Chairperson of the country’s ruling political alliance UPA is Sonia Gandhi, a practicing Catholic Christian. Her son Rahul Gandhi, another Catholic Christian, is being groomed to be the next Prime Minister of India. Country’s Defense Minister A.K. Antony, the Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai, and Head of the Air Wing of military Anil Kumar Browne, P.J. Kurien Dy. Chairman Rajya Sabha, P.C. Chacko, newly appointed Congress Spokesperson, P.J. Thomas, 14th Chief Vigilance Commissioner (appointment subsequently quashed) are all Christians.

The country’s Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid, Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed, the Chief Justice Altmas Kabir, the nation’s Vice President and Chairman of Rajya Sabha Hamid Ansari, Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Qureshi, Attorney General of India, Goolam Essaji Vahanvati, K. Rahman Khan, Minister for Minorities Affairs ad Rashid Alvi, Congress Spokesperson are all Muslims.

To add an insult to the injury Syed Asif Ibrahim, a Muslim IPS officer has been appointed as Chief of Intelligence Bureau (IB). Many Hindu leaders believe that his appointment could endanger India’s internal security. In this connection, readers should note that in order to pave the way for Asif Ibrahim to be the Chief of IB, at least four of his senior Hindu officers (R.N. Gupta, V. Rajagopal, S. Jayaraman and Yashovardhan Azad) were transferred to insignificant posts.

Closest political advisors of Sonia Gandhi are Margaret Alva, a Christian, Ahmad Patel, a Muslim and Osar Fernandez, a senior Indian National Congress leader, a Christian. The country’s Minister of Health and Family Welfare Gulam Nabi Azad is a Muslim. For all practical purposes, the over-all Hindu people and India as the country are presently under a state of siege. Unknown to the common public, that siege has been laid with the help of radical Islamists, jihadists, and Marxists. The chief aim of this insidious conspiracy is to demoralize and denigrate the Hindus and their organizations… and encourage the centrifugal forces to balkanize India into several mini-Pakistan .Almost all Hindus have already been driven out of Kashmir. Over 30 million Bangladeshi Muslims have infiltrated into Assam, West Bengal and other neighboring states. The states like Assam, Bengal, and Kerala are witnessing a big demographic change. No matter how strongly we deny it, the unfortunate fact still remains intact that the “demographic con- quest of any land is the most permanent form of a conquest.”

Discrimination against Hindus in India is rampant. Top Hindu temples like Tirupati and Sabrimala are taken away from Hindu hands – through the legislation – and given to ‘secular’ civil servants for managing them. From the religious offerings of Hindu devotees meant strictly for the Hindu issues, the bureaucrats unfairly dole away Rs. 690 crores a year as the Haj subsidy alone.

There is a complete economic mess and utter chaos in India created by various mega-scams: Coal-gate scam worth Rs. 186,000 crores, 2G scam worth Rs. 176,000 crores, and Commonwealth Games scam worth Rs. 70,000 crores. Massive payoffs from these scams have made it possible for a half-literate Italian-Indian woman like Sonia Gandhi to become the fourth richest politician in the world.

Amidst all this gigantic plunder and loot, there is little hope for our country. The only way out is if the honest and courageous leaders like Narendra Modi man- age to get into the driver’s seat… and, maneuver the country away from the sure doom and disaster waiting ahead. If you want to restore the dignity to India, if you wish to put Bharat Mata on the pedestal of glory, if you want the country to be a super-power in real terms… it is incumbent upon all such residents of Gujarat to come out in big numbers on the polling day and vote for Narendra Modi… the only honest, hardworking and charismatic leader of Gujarat.

 – OE News Bureau

London: It appears that the attempt to manipulate Lashkar-e-Toiba operative Ishrat Jehan’s death to persuade Narendra Modi to withdraw from India’s prime ministerial race has more sinister roots than immediately apprehended. An insider with intimate knowledge of Anglo American policy towards India suggested that a virtual resolution of the historic Kashmir issue has already been negotiated discreetly through the intercession of Washington. It seems an understanding has been reached with Manmohan Singh’s government that major Indian concessions would be on the table.Apparently, this entire package would be in jeopardy if Narendra Modi were to become prime minister of India.

Pakistan, whose rapid acquisition of nuclear weapons’ capability is considered an urgent problem, including its known proliferation activities, is prepared to reciprocate with suitable steps acceptable to Washington. It is hoped that the lowering of India-Pakistan tensions would also reduce the dangers of a nuclear exchange that would have devastating wider global consequences. Pakistan will also restrain the Taliban and accept a half way house in its expedition to control Afghanistan’s destiny though Hamid Karzai will apparently have to depart.

The grim inference is that the incumbent Indian government is not entirely in dissonance with Pakistani agencies, including the Inter Services Intelligence and its arms-length proxy, the Lashkar-e-Toiba, to corner Narendra Modi. The evident bonhomie between the two parties is a product of Washington’s mediation, which is keen to retrieve something from the mess of its Afghan misadventure. Certainly, the elimination of Narendra Modi, physically if need be, as some observers, including myself, have warned of, would suit some quarters because otherwise he is guaranteed to propel the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead at the 2014 general elections.

Private polling has been showing that in the best case scenario, the Sonia Gandhi Congress would simply not have the numbers to consider forming a government, even if the BJP itself failed to approach the magic number of 220 seats. An interesting question is the extent of involvement of some senior BJP leaders and their advisers in this colossal conspiracy. Some have enjoyed close ties with United States’ agencies since the Cold War period when Nehruvian nonalignment was considered nothing short of support for the Soviet Union. Even closer ties have evolved between some leaders through the intervention of a prominent Indian business family in London who have always been US surrogates.

The so-called solution to the Kashmir dispute would almost certainly be based on the four-point formula suggested by the former Pakistan military president, Parvez Musharraf. It entails softening of Line of Control (LoC), self governance, phased withdrawal of troops from entire Jammu and Kashmir and joint supervision by India and Pakistan. Pakistan is confident that such a plan would enable it to absorb the entire Kashmir Valley eventually making Indian resistance to such an outcome both politically costly and militarily expensive. Publicly aired Pakistani misgivings about Musharraf’s four-point formula when it was first out- lined were officially sponsored to create the impression that Pakistan would only acquiesce reluctantly. The idea was to make the Indian public believe that it was the gainer from the agreement. However, in private, there was widespread official consensus that the agreement would be a prelude to Pakistan gaining full sovereignty over the Kashmir Valley and possibly even more. The survival of other areas under Indian control would be rendered untenable if Pakistan were to achieve political suzerainty over the Valley and some adjacent areas.

The interim policy, in the aftermath of the agreement being fully implemented, would be to embark on a policy of demographic assault that has already succeeded in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The extensive marital links between PoK Kashmiris and Punjabis, for example, has ensured huge support for the Lashkar-e-Toiba’s activities against India. It is reasoned that encouraging marriage between residents of India’s Kashmir Valley and those on the Pakistani side with the help of local religious authorities would create a growing constituency within the Kashmir Valley that would be Pakistani in essence.

It is concluded that it would be impossible for the Indian authorities to curb this development because there would be an international human rights’ outcry. It is also perfectly well-known in Pakistan that India has failed to stop the massive migration of Bangladeshis into India which has grown to startling proportions in many cities far removed from the Indo Bangladesh border. The result of such demographic changes would also guarantee the election of governments in Kashmir that would favor Anschluss with Pakistan.

Once such an elected government agitated, in the first instance, for closer ties with their Pakistani coreligionists, prior to elevating the demand to formal accession, the Indian government would be left in an unenviable position. It would have to consider intervening militarily from a position of huge political and military weakness. The Indian authorities would have to arrest very large numbers of Kashmiri politicians, stop all electoral processes and embark on a military crackdown that would result in massive casualties. The inter- national and domestic Indian reaction to such a response to adverse developments can easily be anticipated. It appears Pakistan has leveraged its nuclear weapons with extraordinary success. By contrast, India’s aspiration to great power status would be in tatters, reduced to a weak, minor player.

In addition, it can be safely predicted that Pakistan will find ways to prevent India reaping any sort of peace dividend, by reducing military commitments on the India-Pakistan border once an agreement with Pakistan on Kashmir has been implemented. Such a peace dividend for India would be opposed implacably by Pakistan’s all- weather friend, China, itself examining every option for cutting India down to size. Any reductions in military commitments in relation to Pakistan would immediately mitigate India’s two-front war threat that alarms its defense planners. China will make sure that Pakistani re deployments in the after- math of any peace deal with India will nevertheless remain a sufficient threat to prevent any significant Indian reduction in commitments against Pakistan. Indeed it may well be hazarded that the loss of Kashmir to Pakistan will create a strategic nightmare for India owing to altered military options on the ground and require even greater attention to the India-Pakistan border. The final denouement will be in the shape of an emboldened Pakistan facing an India militarily and politically weakened by the loss of Kashmir. Nothing that has transpired in the past sixty years suggests that Pakistan will abandon its determined quest to rival India, having emerged victorious over Kashmir.

As the conspiracy unfolds to derail Narendra Modi’s pursuit for national power, though he enjoys massive support along the length and breadth of the country, many outwardly innocuous events acquire more significance. The successful campaign that stopped Narendra Modi from even addressing a mere student gathering in the United States is likely to have been officially instigated. The same officials responsible for intervening against Narendra Modi also hold compromising files on the alternative to him, pertaining to his corrupt financial dealings and personal peccadilloes.

Former US spy, Edward Snowden, has highlighted the extraordinary reach and assiduity with which information is collected by Anglo American intelligence agencies on even their closest allies. He has also confirmed that India enjoys a special place on their intrusive radar. It is they who have been collecting evidence on the murky social life and financial dealings abroad of their preferred candidate for prime minister of India.

Editor’s note: Intelligence Bureau officials have sounded the warning that they are under enormous pressure from the ruling Congress party to implicate Narendra Modi in the Ishrat Jehan case. A particularly vocal Congress party general secretary has been meeting and harassing Central Bureau of Investigation and Intelligence Bureau officials to manufacture evidence against the Gujarat chief minister. There is desperation in ruling party circles as Modi nears his goal of becoming prime minister. The Intelligence Bureau is resisting the pressure and there is growing resentment within the institution about this. Worse is expect- ed in the coming days unless Manmohan Singh steps in and ceases the witch hunt against Narendra Modi.

 – Dr. Gautam Sen, A report from overseas press. The writer has taught Political Economy at the London School of Economics. (Expressed views are personal opinion of the writer )