India’s Independence Day since 15TH August 1947 has not freed Indian people completely from the western clutches who are often seen as full of greed. Even today we have many Indian supporting this western block that live overseas wishing to exploit homeland with their western warmonger associates. This classified segment of NRIs/ POIs Diaspora is a dangerous threat that needs urgent monitoring before India gets into bigger conflicts, communal riots and increased terrorism attacks by western block by adopting the old trusted policy of ‘Divide & Rule’. India and State of Punjab has suffered due to bad political decisions, bad policing, broken legal systems, lack of employment, lack of business trade, increased corruption, terrorism, religious discrimination, increased uncensored western influences via many Indian MSM News, movies, music and the increasing gap between the rich and poor in India. The addition of the man-made COVID19 virus in India and the border clash with China has only increased more outside threats.
The present Indian government led by Narendra Modi and his BJP ministers have the perfect opportunity to peacefully unite strengthen India before India is attacked and further weakened by its neighbours (Pakistan, China) and warmongering western countries who wish to use India to play the “Divide and Rule India” games against China and Pakistan. The state of Punjab and Sikhs is the only unbreakable shield of India, it is high time for the Indian government to give justice to the disgruntle part of the Sikh community within the laws of equal rights listen to the groups based in India (even when the west supports them) and amicably agrees so that India remains wholly peacefully united. The present youth living in Punjab want jobs, more business opportunities; want better health facilities, better educational institutions, a corruption-free Punjab police and more farming loan waivers assistance from the Indian Government. The state of Punjab requires more government funding than the state of Gujarat and state of Maharashtra. If India’s northern land borders with Pakistan are breached by neighbouring countries (Pakistan and China), it will be the State of Punjab, Punjabis and Sikhs in Punjab that will suffer the most NOT Delhi, Gujarat or Maharashtra.
The World Homeland Security fully supports and encourages peace without bloodshed and without any discrimination first before resorting to merciless actions that top the threats posed against innocent people no matter which country, culture or religious beliefs one has. And it is for the sake of all innocent people; the self-centric politicians start becoming and behaving more humane. The nepotism and corruption has given birth to active groups who are in many ways right in rebelling fighting against the unfair systems and simultaneously many political parties have countered this by creating their own groups which they discreetly fund to let them break country laws, fight their opponents, create communal riots and who in turn get them more votes at election time. The man-made COVID19 virus which is spreading in India and across the World will escalate more terror threats and increased crimes internally. The world is fully waking up in regards to India, Indian politics and its destruction of millions of people’s peaceful lives because of religious beliefs pitted against each other in communal riots.
Denying The Truth does Not Change The Facts
The US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its annual report said that Hindu nationalist groups and their sympathisers perpetrated numerous incidents of intimidation, harassment, and violence against religious minority. “National and state laws that restrict religious conversion, cow slaughter, and the foreign funding of non-governmental organisations and a constitutional provision deeming Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains to be Hindus helped create the conditions enabling these violations,” it said.
“While Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke publicly about the importance of communal tolerance and religious freedom, members of the ruling party have ties to Hindu nationalist groups implicated in religious freedom violations, used religiously divisive language to inflame tensions, and called for additional laws that would restrict religious freedom,” it alleged. These issues, combined with longstanding problems of police and judicial bias and inadequacies, have created a “pervasive climate of impunity” in which religious minorities feel increasingly insecure and have no recourse when religiously motivated crimes occur. “Based on these concerns, in 2017 (and 2020) USCIRF again places India on its Tier 2, where it has been since 2009,” it said.
The USCIRF urged the US government to integrate concern for religious freedom into bilateral contacts with India, including the framework of future Strategic Dialogues, at both the federal and provincial levels, and encourage the strengthening of the capacity of state and central police to implement effective measures to prohibit and punish cases of religious violence and protect victims and witnesses. USCIRF report recommends the US government to urge the Indian government to publicly rebuke government officials and religious leaders who make derogatory statements about religious communities.
Khalistan Movement: historical prospective & zero roadmap
The Khalistan movement is a Sikh separatist movement seeking to create a homeland for Sikhs by establishing a sovereign state, called Khalistan (‘Land of the Khalsa’), in the Punjab region. The proposed state would consist of land that currently forms Punjab, India and Punjab, Pakistan, as well as other areas of both countries, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh in Pakistan; and Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and parts of Jammu and Kashmir, and Rajasthan in India. Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan, according to Jagjit Singh Chohan, had proposed to make Nankana Sahib (currently in Pakistan) the capital of Khalistan during his talks with Chohan following the conclusion of the Indo- Pakistani War of 1971.
The Khalistan movement was established in the wake of the fall of the British Empire. In 1940, the first explicit call for Khalistan was made in a pamphlet titled “Khalistan”. With financial and political support of the Sikh diaspora, the movement flourished in the Indian state of Punjab—which has a Sikh- majority population. There is some support within India and the Sikh diaspora, with yearly demonstrations in protest of those killed during Operation Blue Star. operation Blue Star was an Indian military operation carried out between 1and 8 June 1984, ordered by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to remove militant religious leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed militants from the buildings of the Harmandir Sahib complex in Amritsar, Punjab. Bhindranwale died and militants were removed from the temple complex. The military action in the temple complex was criticized by Sikhs worldwide who had interpreted it as an assault on Sikh religion. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated in vengeance by her two Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, who shot Indira Gandhi 33 times.
Public outcry over Gandhi’s death led to the killings of Sikhs in the ensuing riots. Even the so-called Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan shamelessly was inciting violence, revenge and death against the Sikhs. In the aftermath of the riots, the government reported that 20,000 had fled the city; the People’s Union for Civil Liberties reported “at least” 1,000 displaced persons. The most- affected regions were the Sikh neighbourhoods of Delhi. Human rights organizations and newspapers across India believed that the massacre was organised. The collusion of political officials in the violence and judicial failure to penalise the perpetrators alienated Sikhs and increased support for the Khalistan movement The Akal Takht, Sikhism’s governing body, considers the killings genocide. In 2011, Human Rights Watch reported that the Government of India had “yet to prosecute those responsible for the mass killings”. According to the 2011 WikiLeaks cable leaks, the United States was convinced of Indian National Congress’ complicity in the riots and called it “opportunism” and “hatred” by the Congress government, of Sikhs.
Although the U.S. has not identified the riots as genocide, it acknowledged that “grave human rights violations” occurred. In 2011, a new group of mass graves was discovered in Haryana and Human Rights Watch reported that “widespread anti- Sikh attacks in Haryana were part of broader revenge attacks” in India. The Central Bureau of Investigation, the main Indian investigative agency, believes that the violence was organised with support from the Delhi police and some central-government officials. In early 2018, some militant groups were arrested by police in Punjab, India. Chief Minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh claimed that the recent extremism is backed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and “Khalistani sympathisers” in Canada, USA, Italy, France, Germany and the UK. Many in the MSM Media news throughout the world have twisted and turned words to suit their narratives to brainwash messages to the public.
This was the case in regards to the Middle East and their freedom fighters who were (some still are) protecting their Country, their Communities and their cultures from/against the western invaders namely the USA, UK and The British created Illegal State of Israel (Created by stealing the land of the Peaceful Palestine People). The State of Punjab is a part of India, already it has suffered the “dividing state” land loss because of previous Indian governments and their lack of true justice decisions in the rightful favour of Punjabi Sikh people. If the Indian government of the past and present do not listen or abide by true International human rights law than the present Indian government should not be surprised by the blossoming of the Khalistan movement and groups who are galvanising support and unbiased justice from the Western World to give them the true justice they and Punjab Sikhs deserve. We at the WHS Group of Companies agree with this as long as it is peacefully resolved and solved without any more bloodshed so that the Sikh Punjabi and Punjab gets the justice they truly deserve and are entitled to. I, Joginder (Jo) Singh Birring will lead and attack without any mercy with my fearless forces and destroy anyone and anything that is Anti-Sikh, Anti-Punjab and Anti-India. We support NO Politician, NO Political Party. The best of the west with the egoless east so that more peace prevails without any more bloodshed so that innocent children grow into more sane sensible adults taking care of this World without anymore wars or racial discrimination. The selfish politicians around the World come into power for 4-5 years and destroy the fabrics of peaceful peoples and their children’s lives and unbiased justice filled societies. The blossoming of Khalistan Movement and groups is solely the responsibility of the previous Indian governments and Modi’s BJP Government has a chance to peacefully and lawfully solve this mess permanently.
A new hub: Italy - Khalistan
In Italy Intel our WHS Group C8I IND Humint teams with trusted L.T.I (Local True Intelligence) Sources have confirmed the following: ‘Khalistani’ asylum seekers are reportedly arriving in hordes in Italy, claiming ‘persecution by India’.
Naples, Italy: According to our WHS Group C8I IND Humint squad and local L.T.I (Local True Intelligence) Unit teams, since the last couple of months, a steady stream of Sikh asylum seeker has been arriving every day at the local offices. They arrive mainly by boat, in most cases already carrying a petition written by a local lawyer. And all of them declare to be ‘persecuted in India’, being members of the ‘Khalistan Movement’.
According to our same local L.T.I (Local True Intelligence) Unit team, it is a totally new phenomenon. Earlier, Sikhs would mainly come as economic migrants or to join their families already working and living in Italy. The stream of asylum seekers in the past few months is big enough to have been noticed by the people working every day at the refugee offices, and to puzzle them. There are no official data yet about the number of requests being actually accepted by the Italian authorities, but most likely, they will accept almost all requests – mainly because in Italy, the concept of ‘Sikh militancy’ is widely unknown.
Sikhs in Italy: A Traditionally Well-integrated Group
In Italy, there are about 70,000 persons of Sikh religion, mainly coming from Indian Punjab: the biggest minority community in Europe after the Sikh group in the UK. They settled in Italy mostly during the ‘80s and ‘90s, when the lack of local workers for the agricultural and food sectors had deeply affected many local companies. The communities settled mainly in the Po valley in the North, and in the Agro Pontino area near Rome, soon becoming essential for the production and development of many ‘Italian excellences’, including the production of Parmesan cheese. Many representatives of the Sikh community, for at least the past two years, have regularly been joining demonstrations organised by Pakistan in support of Kashmir, or simply against India, carrying placards with ‘Khalistan Khalsa’ written on them. And members of Sikh organisations banned in India, like ‘Sikhs for Justice’, advocating a separatist referendum, are now very active in Italy.
Referendum 2020: Myth or Substance?
A US-based group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) has planned REFERENDUM-2020 in support of a separate state of Khalistan, throwing the Indian establishment in panic. According to SFJ legal adviser Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, they will certainly build Khalistan. Reports have revealed that most gurdwaras in the US and Canada have started campaigns for the referendum. Pannu, as per the Indian media, says that the SFJ would hold an unofficial referendum in 2020 and would follow the matter after taking into account the response it gets. If required, the SFJ will seek the United Nation’s intervention to help the community conduct a referendum for a separate Sikh state. “If Scotland can have a referendum to stay with Britain or not, why can’t we have one for Punjab?” questions Pannu. Asked about the boundary of the separate state, he said it would be the present boundary of the state of Punjab in India. on the other hand, Dr Amarjit Singh, the president of the Khalistan Affairs Centre, wants the new state at all costs. He stated: “Why are we giving the option by way of a referendum? We need Khalistan because the Sikhs have been suffering since the rule of (Maharaja) Ranjit Singh (the last Sikh ruler) got over.”
“The referendum asks Sikhs living across the world to build a consensus in favour of Khalistan and sign a declaration for the formation of a sovereign and independent country in India-occupied Punjab on the basis that Sikhs are the indigenous people of Punjab and have a historical homeland, are a separate religion and have the right to self-determination.” The referendum also asks Sikhs to reject article 25(B)(2) of Constitution that says Sikhs are a part of the Hindu religion. The Indian security establishment is deeply worried as the Khalistan idea is generating deep interest in East Punjab mostly inhabited by Sikhs. It believes there is a wave of radicalization among young Sikhs, who are moving towards another independence movement since 1984. The Indian security agencies have claimed of busting six Khalistan terror modules and arresting 23 terrorists with a small arsenal of weapons. They believe that the Khalistan movement was regenerated following the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in Faridkot’s Bargari village on October 12, 2015. More than 150 such incidents of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib have occurred in East Punjab, deeply upsetting the population. The consequent protests and demonstrations have been poorly tackled by the police and agencies, increasing the chasm between the Sikhs and Indian state.
Other reasons why Sikhs support Khalistan is the Anand marriage act that is still not applied on Sikhs, who are still forced to marry under Hindu marriage act, Sikh political prisoners are not released even after they have completed their punishment and police injustice. The police are accused of killing hundreds of innocent Sikhs extrajudically, whose mass graves were also found. It is also advocated that the majority Sikh state would foster Sikhism in a better manner.
Opinion Express News has reached out to Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to request comment on how they would handle the matter if they find themselves in the prime minister’s seat come 2020. Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, SFJ’s legal adviser, said his group is indifferent to how the Canadian and Indian governments view the referendum. “We’re not asking any political party or any Member of Parliament for their support, “This referendum is not for the political leaders, this is for the Punjabi community. “The [Indian Prime Minister]Narendra Modi government or the Canadian government can agree or not, but we have a right to voice our concerns. We have a right to ask for our rights to self-determination.” The Indian government has been steadfast in its opposition to the creation of an independent Khalistan, and has been particularly vociferous in trying to curtail SFJ’s activities. In early August, the country’s minister of external affairs asked U.K. authorities to deny SFJ permission to hold a gathering in London’s Trafalgar Square. The U.K. rebuffed the request, however, and SFJ held an Aug. 12 gathering in which it issued its so- called “London Declaration” demanding a Khalistan referendum.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs described the campaign as “a separatist activity which impinges on India’s territorial integrity” and “seeks to propagate violence, secessionism and hatred.” Pannu urged Canadian political leaders to resist caving into any pressure from the Indian government to stifle the Khalistan movement. “The United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights gives all people the right to self-determination. The Canadians have given that right openly to the Quebecois, the British have given it to the Scottish,” he said. “They should not [compromise] their principles and human rights values because they’re afraid of economic sanctions if they stand with the Sikh community or go against the wishes of the Indian government that’s how India pushed Trudeau by saying that Canada will lose economically if they support the referendum campaign.” Pannun said the Khalistan campaign is justified because it seeks simply to re-establish a state that existed from 1799 to 1849, when it was annexed by the British.
The Punjabi Sikhs have always fought, died and lived for truths so for them these wise words flow in their bloodstreams for generations. The present Indian government should lawfully peacefully and truthfully solve the local Punjab issues. A more united people of India will raise the flag of India with more peaceful pride across the World. We can only express, serve and deliver our best to peaceful innocent people irrespective of one’s country culture or religious beliefs as the true universal forces bless and guide us forward. We only lose 100% when we stop breathing, however our wise words, breaths of peaceful true life and fearless fighting warrior ways still will be in the air of this World and will be understood/read and breathed by good people who believe as well as treasure Humanity which they will pass on to their innocent children, the next generation on this Earth. It is an utter shame that human beings of today have lost touch with the teachings of peaceful sages, spiritual leaders and the great true teachings of the essence of peace love life and the planet. The Sikhs have always fought, died and lived for truths so for them these wise words flow in their bloodstreams for generations. India united peacefully is the only path forward if India is to survive in 21ST century without being invaded or destroyed by the western funded enemies “Trojan horse” groups in India that we at The WHS Group of Companies know of which are supported by the NRIs/POIs individuals and their western-based companies operating in India.
The Punjabi Sikhs are Fearless Lions, Peaceful Warriors and Firm Believers in the Guru Granth Sahib. They believe in and live by the peaceful wise words of Guru Nanak Dev Ji - “Before becoming a Muslim, a Sikh, a Hindu or a Christian let’s become a Human first”. It is not hard to make a decision when you know what your “True” values are!!
The Global Chairman Group President of The World Homeland Security/Smartechno Group of Companies. www.worldhomelandsecurity.one
The reason that Urdu proliferated and got promoted was owing to its secular character and a universal base in India and abroad. Today it happens to be one of the most popular of all international languages
Badi ashrafiat hei zabaan mein. Nawabi ka maza deti hai Urdu faqiri mein (The Urdu language is so aristocratic that it makes even a pauper feel like a king).”
Urdu, an Indo-Aryan language, is renowned for its candour and timelessness. It goes without saying that since time immemorial, Urdu had been the lingua franca of Sindh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, undivided Bengal, Punjab, Doaba and so on, besides being the language of the heart and soul, as emphasised by the Hindi littérateur-cum-Education Minister of India, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, at the inauguration of a two-day webinar titled, The role and responsibility of Urdu writers in the age of electronic and social media.
Speaking during the webinar organised by the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL), Pokhriyal emphasised that Urdu is a language of not only a composite culture, syncretism and interfaith bonds but also of humaneness.
Thankfully, Urdu has kept up with the times and become a techno-savvy language with soft copies of hundreds of books being available on apps. However, as social and electronic media is the biggest platform for the dissemination of information these days, it is the responsibility of all connoisseurs and littérateurs to ensure that Urdu makes its presence felt there.
According to eminent Urdu professor Zaman Azurdah, writers, poets and authors are the eyes of the entire social, religious and political system and they have a huge responsibility towards lovers of language and literature. Hence, they have to be positive and shed all negativity. And as the most powerful source of information is the social and electronic media, like the authors, poets and journalists of other languages, Urdu writers, too, must toe the line of the internet. Fortunately, many of them are already connecting globally via smartphones and computers and taking the language to the masses.
Even before the advent of Muslims in India, the country was connected historically, culturally, politically and commercially via Arabic, Persian and Turkish influences to the Middle East and other countries, including Iran, Sudan and Turkey. After Muslims settled in India, the conglomeration of people of various cultures speaking a variety of languages like Rekhta, Hindavi and ultimately, Urdu, came into being.
This intermingling was also known as lashkar (group). The purpose of all the Indian and international languages is to achieve the fraternal spirit. Urdu is a beautiful language born out of the conglomeration of Hindu, Muslim and even English cultural backgrounds.
Dr Humra Parveen, Department of Mass Communication, AMU, says that Urdu happens to be the language of the conglomerate tradition and culture of India that, after being acquired by the Khanqahs, educational institutions and the official world, also became the language of commerce. During the times of Mohammed Shah and Quli Qutub Shah, it became the Government’s language. At that time, it was, in fact, the most popular language and owing to its poetic exuberance and ease of learning (which it is even today), Urdu replaced Persian.
The cultural and artistic tone and tenor of Urdu has been depicted generously in multifarious forms, including the Mushaira (poetic gathering), Marsiahkhwani (elegy) Ghazal (poetry recitation), Qawwali (chorus), Dastangoi (storytelling), Chahar Bait (poetry competition) and so on, besides other art forms like drama.
The reason that Urdu proliferated and got promoted was owing to its secular character and a universal base in India and abroad. Today it happens to be one of the most popular of all international languages. Not only that, Urdu is the voice of the sub-continent and has become an important link language for South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
In India alone, as per Government records, Urdu is the mother tongue of more than 70 million people. However, an equal number of Urdu-knowing people are spread all over the nation. In the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, Urdu is the first language while in other States like Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, it has been recognised as the second language.
Nevertheless, there are some other areas where people have recorded Urdu to be their mother tongue, like Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. So far as the linguistic link of Urdu is concerned, its family includes Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and Dravidian languages like Telugu and Kannada.
Owing to its historicity, linguistic appeal, cultural multiplicity and literary taste, it doesn’t have any religion or region. Connoisseurs of Urdu are found around the world. Besides, another salient feature of Urdu has been its linkage to the dialects. Writers, especially from Punjab, Kashmir, Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka, have also glorified the language globally.
All languages are beautiful and have their own charm and distinct persona, but Urdu, in particular, is sweet and poetic and at the same time, very adaptable. If a language can be developed through a combination of seven languages, what can be more flexible and welcoming? Many foreigners ask to hear Urdu, and when they do, their first reaction is: It is so soft and easy on the ears.
Phonologically, Urdu sounds are the same as those of Hindi except for slight variations in short vowel allophones. Urdu also retains a complete set of aspirated stops (sounds pronounced with a sudden release with an audible breath), a characteristic of Indo-Aryan, as well as retroflex stops.
It does not retain the complete range of Perso-Arabic consonants, despite its heavy borrowing from that tradition. From the grammatical point of view, there is not much difference between Hindi and Urdu. One distinction is that Urdu uses more Perso-Arabic prefixes and suffixes than Hindi.
Another interesting aspect of Urdu is that it has incorporated in itself the idioms and clichés of other Indian languages like Punjabi, Hindi, Marathi, Sindhi, Hindi, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Pushto, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Kashmiri, Telugu and Kannada. In fact, the inner spirit of Urdu is Sanskrit and it has been connected to it. Same is the case with many foreign languages, like Arabic, Persian, Turkish, English, Uzbek and Nepali that have gelled quite well with Urdu. It is assured that if a language has viable connects with the other tongues, the result is a very pleasant one, basically indicating an intermingling of and respect for cultures. In this regard, it is pertinent to mention that Urdu is a window to the cultural heritage of India. It makes us introspect as it is a language of a composite culture and joins broken hearts.
The NCPUL has been promoting Urdu on a pan-India basis by conducting seminars, workshops on calligraphy, graphic designing, e-books, Urdu media and other topics, besides teaching of Urdu, Persian and Arabic to people from all cross-sections of society and bringing out of Urdu magazines. Till such organisations are there and the language uses technology to propagate itself on social and electronic media, Urdu will live on in the hearts and minds of people.
(The writer is the Chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University and grandnephew of Bharat Ratna Maulana Azad)
If people perceive that violence in society has a state sanction, only strong antidote, not mere words of denial, can remove the fear.
A new mother in the family is particular about sending her three-year-old daughter to pre-school, stuffing her up with layered clothing. The frocks are not safe at school. Or innocent enough for predators. Infant rapes in the school premises have been reported with all too much frequency to fuel her anxieties. Then there’s the shadow of child-lifters prowling around everywhere.
Until sometime ago, we would look forward to Eid to demand home-cooked, love-laden and very motherly kebabs of our colleagues coming back from their towns by Shatabdis. The killing of Junaid, who was stabbed to death on a train by cow vigilantes claiming he was carrying beef in his tiffin carrier and not normal meat which he insisted, changed everything. They do not want to draw attention to themselves with their casseroles while travelling and risk their lives as distrustful vigilantes could be lurking anywhere. But they do not want to upset us either. So the tradition continues with just a box of home-made sweets, very neutral and yes, very sweet.
It’s 9.30 pm and a woman executive is toggling with the idea of dialling a taxi aggregator or trading waiting hours for the safety of an office drop. There was a time when she wouldn’t have stopped to think about swiping that app but what if she were waylaid on that deserted approach road that had to be negotiated before she entered the safety of her gated community?
A youth in Bihar’s Muzaffarnagar district is lynched for stealing a cellphone, a crime for which he had been booked earlier by cops. This time locals decided to teach him a lesson without waiting for the police or handing the thief over to them.
Our society is living in a fear psychosis, becoming fragile, frazzled and confused. And it is kicking out with the only “off with your head” pandemic of a solution in protecting itself. Violence is then seen as an affirmative action, one that is a legitimate solution to an imagined problem that a societal architecture is not designed for. It is ironic that this negative emotion happens to have us in its grip at a time when we believe that we are more empowered, knowledgeable and connected to each other. Technological evolution, we have reckoned, has already made us supra human beings. Or is it that the bubble of our acquired abilities is feeding our egoism over enlightenment and breeding a new class system? It would be easy to narrow down this induced fear to the political dynamics of the time, no matter what the colour of ideology, but there is a far deeper systemic malaise at play here. One that goes beyond just political protectionism and posturing. Remember, politics grows on the bedrock of societal maladies.
So who are fear mongers that have spawned angry lynch mobs and muscular vigilantes? You cannot pinpoint anyone in the crowd. Rumour is a faceless monster that strikes almost gutturally and insidiously to establish its standout value. Perhaps, we weren’t aware of the impact that digital classlessness would have in the real world. With a platform large enough to accommodate every shade of opinion, intelligent and stupid, no doubt there has been an attempted equilibrium of individual expressions. But like in society, power play came with the numbers of likes, shares, forwards, endorsements and followers. It was not just enough to be an individual with an identity, hunting for your space and gathering opinions to yourself. You had to be a chieftain of a digital tribe with a sameness of subscribed ideas. The heftier the beehive mentality, the easier it was to declare a perceived mass mindset and opinion that sadly marketers and brand players relied upon to create value and capital — social, economical, political and importantly, credible.
That has been our undoing and cost us logic, reason, understanding and compassion. Memes, that we so love to begin our day with, are far more dangerous than cruise missiles. For, according to evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, a meme is an idea, behaviour or reaction to a stimulus that spreads from person to person within a culture of mimicry, much like a self-replicating gene that can mutate horrendously. In all this newness of a world driven by imposed intelligence, we forget that human civilisation is older than the digital one and it is perhaps the latter that needs to ride out its own stages of evolution. We ought to make that distinction, fast and furiously. And we do not need to subject ourselves to its medievalism and let it play out with renewed vigour in civil society structures. Yet sadly, that replication is exactly what has happened.
Fear of the “otherness” has been a unifying tool like no other. The more you believe it, the more likely you are to feel insecure singly and inclined to be drawn to a mindset that manifests itself through a united and aggressive counter response and safety of numbers. As part of a venting mob, a human’s bestial instincts are primed and inflamed, the psychological equivalent to a pack of wolves. Research has proved this insane predatory instinct. And the best part is that there is not one single person or cause that you can attribute the agency to. A judicial inquiry cannot pinpoint a perpetrator, simply because everyone can pass the buck to the next man standing, much like the forwards rolling on social media, and absolve himself or herself of social responsibility. This anonymity sadly guarantees their infallibility. If the victim is in the clear, then it is the failure of the law and order machinery. If the victim is dead, then it is easily the politicians who have fomented polarities with their gangs, never mind that they cannot galvanise a mob of hundreds at an instant unless the hit-back conditions are latent in a community. Anybody can be a scapegoat.
Political establishments across the world have, therefore, used baser emotions to foist a mob that will dispense and justify violence as an elaborate and pointed system of a corrective, which in turn will create a series of crises to divert eyeballs from existing ones. So, if it is racism in the West, in the Indian context these base emotions are being used to consolidate majoritarian mindsets whether relating to gender, class or faith; the “other” being defined as a threat to be kept under check and reminded of its subservience. For the minority, coping with fear has its own pocket riots or simple transmission of ideas that coalesce into vicious, radical “revenge” hits. Societally, violence of the gruesome kind is the expression of a refusal to accommodate assertive and empowered groups be it women or so-called lower castes. They are easily consigned to being collateral damage in the tussle for supremacy of the established order.
The problem with our modern lynch mob phenomenon is that it is not just seen as popular exasperation or rebellion against a failed state but as an extra-judicial adjunct of the establishment. One needs to only look back at the administrative responses that have been delayed at best, reactive on a medium scale and silence at worse. Despite attempts to give teeth to several laws and bringing in new ones, crimes against women, children and lower castes are going up undeterred. Societal violence cannot at any scale be seen as having state sanction and if such a perception is gaining ground, mere denials and words won’t do. Only strong counter-measures can calm fears. For the lies are dangerously on the precipice of becoming truths.
Writer: Rinku Ghosh
Courtesy: The Pioneer
Misogynistic violence in India is a fact which is undoubtedly wide-spreading. Any context-free comparisons for this are unsupportive and unhelpful.
There is absolutely no doubt that misogynistic violence against women in India is unfortunately quite widespread. But global comparisons on women’s safety are odious when context-free and unhelpful in presenting the correct picture. The poll published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Tuesday which has found prominent coverage in Indian news media outlets clearly falls in that latter category. Naming India as the ‘most dangerous country in the world for women’, which newspapers were quick to point out made it more dangerous than even Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia and Saudi Arabia to name the next four countries on the list, certainly caught eye-balls. Before we dissect the ‘findings’ of the survey, a word on the methodology. A total of 548 ‘global experts’ on women’s issues, 43 of whom are based in India, were asked questions relating to the risks faced by women in six areas: Healthcare, access to economic resources and discrimination, customary practices, sexual violence and human trafficking. India fared worst of all countries included in the survey on the issues of human trafficking, sexual violence and customary (religious/cultural/tribal) practices. In effect, we have the opinion of 43 people, experts though they may well be, to paint India a country as more dangerous for women than:
Of course, the levels of violence against women in India are unacceptable and ingrained misogyny results in discrimination and atrocities at various levels. As a non-theocratic, democratic, inclusive state with some of the strongest laws specifically protecting women’s rights apart from ensuring individual freedoms which, however, are routinely undermined by the inability of the state apparatus to effectively implement them as well as our inequitable social structures and the regressive aspects of our ancient civilizational tradition, we have a long way to go. But spare us this load of comparative rubbish.
Writer: Pioneer
Courtesy: The Pioneer
When it comes to making decisions related to the environment, babus are given preference over tribal communities, even though the latter are better at looking at the environment t than the former.
According to Niti Aayog’s report, ‘Composite Water Management Index, 2018’, 60 crore people in the country are facing “high to higher” levels of water shortage. Due to the lack of clean drinking water, two lakh people die every year. Further, the report stated that 54 per cent of India’s groundwater sources and wells are drying up and groundwater is expected to perish in 21 major cities by 2020. All across the country, around 11 States are already reeling under water disputes. Take, for example, the Cauvery water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and the Narmada water dispute.
Topping it all, Delhi’s air is not at safe to breathe. Besides, 26 States believe that desertification is growing at a fast pace. Approximately 30 percent of the country has come under the scope of desertification where dust storms are rising at an alarming rate. Forests are being wiped out in the name of development and industrialisation. Not to forget, our rivers, forests and mountains are constantly being wiped out for economic development, even as Government policies are not up to the mark and will surely take us towards death.
It’s almost since ancient times that the tribal community have played a major role in forest conservation. It is a pity that they have been left out of the mix. Of course, laws are being formulated but we are certainly churning out our responsibilities. The question that then arises are many: Is it possible to preserve our environment/biodiversity by boycotting the tribal society? What is the purpose of the Indian Forest Law of 1927? Why was the Wildlife Protection Act enacted in 1972? And what was the motive behind creating the Environment Protection Act, 1976?
Further, who destroyed the forests and why? Who killed the cheetahs? Who is responsible for tigers reaching the brink of extinction? Hunting was a form of entertainment for the Rajas (kings), Diwans (Kings Ministers) and Zamindars (landlords). On the walls of their palaces hung trophies of tigers, cheetahs, leopards and antelopes. The communities living in the tribal belts or jungles are not the only ones to hunt for animals as a hobby. In view of protecting the social, economic and cultural rights of the tribals and other forest dwellers across the country, the Parliament formulated the Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
This statute says that individual and community rights of tribals and other traditional forest dwellers who cultivate by acquiring first forest land before December 2005 will be recognised. The law says that during the colonial era and while integrating State forests in independent India, forest rights and their habitat were not adequately recognised on their ancestral land, resulting in those tribes and other residents living in the forest. Historically, injustice has been done to forest dwellers, who are integral to saving and maintaining forest ecosystems.
But the experience of 12 years of implementation of this law suggests that the State system has not felt the sentiments of this confession made in the law; rather it has wandered from the goal. This statute gives the right to use and conserve community forest resources to the Gram Sabha, ie the direct role of the community. At the same time, there is a provision in this also that the Gram Sabha has the right to set up a committee for conservation of wildlife, forests and biodiversity and take its responsibility.
On September 22, 2015, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs had written to the chief secretaries of all States and had stressed that there is a need to run a campaign to recognise community forest rights. Although, the process of recognising individual rights has succeeded to some extent, but this process on community forest resource rights is weak. These rights are very important because these resources play an important role in securing the lives and livelihoods of 20 million forest based communities.
Forest Rights Law explains the Residential Rights (Habitat Rights, which means, not only the right to housing, but also the right to a holistic environment). On April 23, 2015, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (Government of India) told all the State Governments that they should be used for residential rights of the most vulnerable tribal communities (traditional housing, livelihoods, social, economic, spiritual, sacred, religious and other works), and to make extensive efforts to recognise it. It is important to mention that the traditional tribal communities have been creating their own system in their respective realm. It is the responsibility of the state to preserve its surroundings.
The forest department established by the British Government in India believed that tribal communities only suffer the loss of forests, biodiversity and wildlife. They were not ready to accept the fact that the Vanvasi community had been living on the principle of ‘coexistence’ with the forest, within the forests for thousands of years. It is a good feeling for the community that destruction of natural resources means destruction of their own. They have been monitoring the forest like it is their God. Why would such a society destroy the environment? We all know that the list of the richest ten thousand people in the world will probably not be the name of one of the tribal families!
(Courtesy: Charkha Features)
Writer: Sachin Kumar Jain
Courtesy: The Pioneer
British Historians created the narrative that the civilization of the Indian subcontinent was backward, knowledge of culture, language, mathematics, medicine were only given to the ethnic population by the Aryan hordes ,who came from Europe and the steppes of Central Asia and conquered and settled here 1,500 BCE onwards. They also claimed that it was the British who “lifted us partially out of our miserable existence”! However, in the last decade,a very bright bunch of engineers, mathematicians, oceanographers, geneticists, geologists, bureaucrats and economists have stepped up to support the complex and often unrecognized work of our Archaeologists. I wish to acknowledge this very talented groups work (Nilesh Oak, Raj Vedam, Sanjeev Sanyal, Dr. Meenakshi Jain, Dr. Upinder Singh, Dr. Niraj Rai, C.R.Rao, S.M. Rao, Vasant Shinde, Sanjay Dixit , A.R. Chavda,SrikantTalegiri and many others). They have put forth very compelling evidence from multiple disciplines of science and mathematics to force a change in how our history needs to be rewritten, thereby restoring our faith in our cultural lineage and heritage.
To gain clarity we need to understand if there was any proof of the following:
Let’s put this to the test of evidence that has emerged since 2,000CE.
Scientific Findings related to History of the Indian Subcontinent since 2,000 CE
Now let us demolish the myth of the “Aryans'' who overran the ethnic population forcing them to migrate to South India. The Aryans “supposedly” wrote the Vedas after 1,500 BCE, introduced an advanced language called Sanskrit, and implemented the caste system. “The Aryans introduced agriculture, culture and trade to a primitive society”. This was the theory propounded by British employed historians like Mills and Max Mueller.
Thismanipulation of Indian history was prompted by the time-line of the Anglican Church which had 3,000 BCE as the timeline for Noah’s Ark, the destruction of the world and recreation thereafter. So how could they record a civilization in existence in continuity before and after3,000 BCE invalidating their own stated beliefs based on the Revelations which stated that God destroyed all living creatures other than on Noah’s Ark? This would have eliminated their positioning as a Superior race!
They propounded the postulate that the Aryans wrote the Vedas and the followers of Vedic practices evolved as Hindus and were essentially raiders and plunderers. This justified their act that Islamic raiders had subdued the Aryan raiders, and that they (the British) had come to civilize both. Unfortunately,no explanations were ever provided as to how these fierce bands of Aryan warriors and their chariots crossed the Hindukush and Himalayan mountains, when centuries later Hannibal failed to successfully cross the much lower Alps!
Reverting to scientific evidence and conclusions:
Archeological evidence proves the following:
The deathblow to the “Aryan theory” comes from the genetics studies done under Dr. Niraj Rai. The conclusions are:
In a further study covering 10,000 samples across India, the team concluded that the R1a gene, the main Haplos in Europe is present all over India. Yet the diversity present in India in this group is 4 times that of Europe.They have timed that this R1a gene has existed in India since 15,500 BCE whilst the oldest samples in Europe date back to 9,000 BCE. Until the Europeans find a sample that predates 15,500 BCE, we have to conclude that they have Indian ancestors and that there was an outward migration from the Indian subcontinent. It also demolishes the concept of Dravidians (Aravindan), as all Indians have a common gene pool and can be classified the same as Aryan, Dravidian or simply Indian.
Premendra Priyadarshi has established that the 12,000-year-old genome of mice originated from India, and mice are found all over the world. Now mice follow grain. It implies that trade with multiple global cities and empires existed, and grain was exported from the Indian subcontinent.
It is recorded in the Rig Veda that the Anu and Druhu tribes migrated from the Punjab area towards Gandhara and onwards around 9,000 BCE. It has been analyzed that the Kushans and Scythians had the R1a gene, implying their ancestors migrated from the Indian region, and then came back to conquer parts of India. They carried their language with them and perhaps came back with a more mature language (Dr. Meenakshi Jain). Similar genetics are found in the Mittani and the Kassites in what is Syria today. They had Vedic names, used Vedic Gods like Indra, Varun and Marut. Incidentally Neferitti, one of the most famous Egyptian queens, was the daughter of a Mittani king.
As Indian citizens we can now understand that British and Islamic writers in times gone by would write the perspective of the conqueror. We can also understand that Chinese travelers would write the perspective of the empire that was hosting their trip. Should our understanding of our own past continue to be based on what we now know as distorted representations? Our present day government must update our history based on facts that are emerging. Lessons from history can only be learnt if
recorded history is factually accurate. We owe that to ourselves.
“Better three hours too soon, than one minute too late.” – William Shakespeare
This quote is brought to life by two young students of DPS RK Puram, AADYA GOSAIN and SAISHA ARORA, who have managed to make the best out of their time during this lock down. While other kids wile away their hours by playing games and binge-watching shows, Aadya and Saisha deserve a round of applause for what they have managed to do. Aspiring to be role models for their peers, they decided to use their time, when they do not have to attend online classes, in a more productive manner.
One fine day, they were contacted by a Designer Charu Arora, who had created a new night-wear collection and wished for the girls to model for the upcoming photoshoot. The girls made sure that this new venture, as exciting as it is, did not interfere with their studies by organising the shoot on a Saturday. This was their first professional shoot and considering how successful it went, there is no stopping these two fierce young girls from achieving what they wish to. At this period, wherein we are confined to our houses with not much to do, most of us have decided to just kick back and relax, but these two young-lings have proven that just because everyone around you is having a good time chilling, does not mean that you are entitled to that as well. The grind does not stop for those who wish to succeed.
It goes on to show that if you have the passion and the drive to make your vision come true, the world is yours, as long as you are willing to invest your blood, sweat and tears into it.
Led by Priyanka, the UP Congress put the SP and BSP to shame when it questioned Adityanath about the crumbling law and order situation in the State and the plight of migrant labourers
Priyanka has stolen the thunder from Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati,” a Samajwadi Party (SP) lawmaker said on telephone. “Everyone is now talking about the Congress Party and Priyanka. Today, the Muslims are more inclined towards the Congress than the Samajwadi Party,” he said.
The lawmaker, who was a Minister during the Akhilesh Yadav regime, was reacting to the political developments in Uttar Pradesh (UP), including the proactive stand taken by Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in politics. There were unofficial reports doing the rounds that Priyanka might shift her base to Lucknow from Delhi and people were raving about how she had picked up the gauntlet thrown by Chief Minister (CM) Yogi Adityanath on the law and order issue in the State.
Recent developments have changed the political spectrum of UP. Particularly after a highly politically-connected ganglord killed eight policemen in a village in Kanpur. The incident raised a big question mark on Adityanath’s much-publicised encounters to eliminate local mafia and ganglords. He had even claimed that criminals would be sent to jail or to the house of Yamraj (the Hindu deity of death and justice) if they raise their heads. Despite such major claims by the CM, Vikas Dubey not only survived but also flourished.
Congress leaders were the first to question the UP Government on the issue of law and order. Numerically, the Congress is as small a party as the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party in the UP State Assembly, with just five lawmakers. But, led by Priyanka, the Congress put big parties like the SP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to shame when it questioned Yogi Adityanath time and again about the crumbling law and order situation in the State and the plight of migrant labourers, who are being denied work under different Government schemes.
The three parties — the Congress, SP and BSP — enjoy a strange relationship. In the past, they had entered into alliances with one another on many occasions. During the last Assembly election in 2017 the Congress and the SP contested together with the tagline “Do ladke (two boys)” while the SP forged an alliance with the BSP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Despite having a working relationship with each other, the three parties have failed to come together post-Covid-19. Last month when Congress national president Sonia Gandhi called an all-party meeting to chalk out a strategy against the Narendra Modi Government, both Akhilesh and Mayawati preferred to give it a skip.
No explanation was given about missing the meeting and it raised many eyebrows. The question asked was whether it was a political compulsion or a backdoor manoeuvre by the BJP which kept the SP and the BSP away from the meeting? One SP legislator was quoted as saying,“The SP would not go with Sonia because the Congress put up missing Member of Parliament (MP) posters in Azamgarh”, Akhilesh Yadav’s parliamentary constituency.
The developments show that there’s more to this than meets the eye. Sample this: BSP supremo Mayawati was caustic against the Congress when Priyanka offered 1,000 buses to the UP Government to ferry migrant workers to their native places. Her statements reflected the words of BJP leaders. She attacked the Congress for not taking care of migrant workers in its own States — a replication of statements by BJP spokespersons. Priyanka retorted that some political parties were acting as spokespersons of the BJP — an obvious reference to Mayawati. With the rise in Priyanka’s stature, Mayawati feels insecure. She had been the only major woman leader in UP for a quarter of a century. But now she is being challenged by Priyanka. Second, the BSP and the Congress’ vote banks overlap. Dalits and Muslims helped the BSP score 10 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, up from zero in 2014. The Congress hopes to dent these votebanks, which earlier supported it.
Ditto is the case with Akhilesh Yadav. There is a fear in his mind that the Congress’ rise and the popularity of Priyanka among the masses may lead to the downfall of the SP. Of late, he has started virtual meetings with party workers in an attempt to set his house in order. The SP also hit the streets last week on the issue of rise in prices of petrol and diesel, just to keep his party workers involved.
There is a belief in political circles that the BJP wants the emergence of the Congress in the State so that there is trifurcation in the Opposition. This will come in handy during the elections because the BJP is comfortable when it is pitted against a divided house.
An advocate in the Supreme Court Vishwanath Chaturvedi says the Modi Government is using the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to put a leash on the SP and Mayawati. “Do not forget, both Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family are facing CBI enquiries. The CBI is sitting tight on the probes and one signal from Amit Shah could prove detrimental for both these leaders,” he says. SP patriarch Mulayam and his family are facing a Disproportionate Assets (DA) case. The Supreme Court (SC) had ordered a CBI inquiry on March 1, 2007 into the alleged accumulation of DAs by the Yadav family, on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Vishwanath Chaturvedi. The agency filed a status report in 2007 alleging that the Yadavs had Rs 2.63 crore worth of assets which were disproportionate to their declared sources of income, between 1993 and 2005. Of this nearly Rs 1.4 crore is in the name of Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple.
Chaturvedi claims that the CBI had filed a false report in the SC, that it had submitted a final report to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). But when a Right to Information (RTI) application was filed, the CVC said that no final report was submitted to it. As per Chaturvedi, the case against Mulayam and his family is still alive and the CBI is delaying the legal process for obvious reasons.
Same is the case with Mayawati. The CBI had launched a probe into alleged irregularities in the sale of 21 State-owned sugar mills under the Mayawati-led BSP Government in 2010-11. According to a report released by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the exercise caused a loss of Rs 1,179 crore to the State. On April 27, 2019, the CBI filed a case against Mayawati. Yogi Adityanath had on April 12 recommended a CBI probe following the CAG’s disclosure.
Political observers say that it seems like the SP and the BSP are dancing to the tune of the BJP. Till now, the CBI has not moved an inch in Mayawati’s case while in Mulayam’s case, too, the federal Intelligence agency is yet to submit an application in the apex court. If both Mulayam and Mayawati refuse to dance to the BJP’s tune, the Prime Minister will unleash the CBI against them. In the last one year, Priyanka has tried to make the fight one-on-one in UP, which has made Yogi Adityanath nervous.
In July 2019, she staged a protest at Chunar Fort when she went to meet the victims of the July 17 massacre in which 10 tribals were shot dead by the Gram Pradhan (village head) and his cohorts in a village in Sonbhadra over a land deal. Priyanka stayed put in Chunar Fort, forcing the administration to bring the family members of the victims there and let them meet her.
The attack on the BJP was so fierce that the Yogi Government pulled out all records to show that the land deal was carried out during the Congress’ rule. However, the BJP could not shirk responsibility for the murders of the 10 tribals. Extensive damage was done to the image of the UP Government by this incident.
Priyanka again visited UP — this time in February when the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) agitation was at its peak. She met the anti-CAA protesters in Bijnor and Azamgarh — the parliamentary constituency of Akhilesh — and also visited the residence of former IPS officer SR Darapuri, who was arrested during an anti-CAA protest in Lucknow.
In Bijnor she thundered, “Kisi ko Bhartiyata ka pramaan maangne ki ijazat nahi hai (no one has the right to ask for proof of Indianness).” While in Azamgarh, she held a roadshow, driving home the point that people living in India are Indians and they do not need to prove that by showing documents.
Bijnor is considered the citadel of the BSP. Mayawati had won the Lok Sabha election for the first time in 1989 from Bijnor, while in seven Assembly seats the BSP had always maintained an upper hand. In 2019, the BSP won the Lok Sabha seat in Bijnor, too. So, it was a masterstroke by Priyanka to hold rallies and meetings in Bijnor and Azamgarh, both, challenging the SP and BSP leaders on their turf. Thus, the rise of Priyanka has pushed both the SP and the BSP towards the BJP. They would prefer to dance to Modi’s tune rather than strengthening Opposition unity.
(Writer: Biswajeet Banerjee; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Dreaming and Doing:
How does a young kid, one of six siblings, born in a lower income family in Vadnagar, Gujarat, schooled in a government school, working in his free time to supplement parental income, find the motivation to develop, upgrade his knowledge, learn multiple languages, to emerge as one India’s greatest orators and a two term Prime Minister. Let’s look at his unique journey.
Young Narendra after completing his schooling, left home on a path of self discovery, traversing the Himalayas and other parts of India, spending time at various missions imbibing the teachings of Swami Vivekanand and understanding different cultures. He returned to Ahmedabad and at the ripe age of 17 joined the RSS. Married at an early age he explained to his spouse that his life was dedicated to the nation, and they lived separately thereafter. His sheer hard work, executing assignments without ever complaining, endeared him to his mentors leading him to be made the youngest ever Pracharak for the city of Ahmedabad at the age of 24. He learnt to lead, and work with elders. In 1987, the RSS felt that he had the ability to contribute to the political space, and assigned him to the BJP as General Secretary for Gujarat.
The emergence of a Challenger:
He was a key organiser in the long marches and rath yatras of party doyens Dr. Joshi and Mr. Advani. In the 1995 state elections in Gujarat, as the chief strategist he brought the party victory. In 1996 he was moved by the party as the State head for Haryana, and then in time was given charge of Himachal and J&K also. In 1998 he became the General Secretary Organisation of the BJP and held the post till October 2001, when he was sent to Gujarat as Chief Minister. Gujarat had been struck by a disastrous earthquake in Jan 2001, leaving over 2 lacs dead and Bhuj totally devastated, and relief work was languishing.
Becoming Chief Minister at the age of 52, and having barely settled into the role, catastrophe struck. On 27/2/2002 a train carrying returning Kar Sevaks from Ayodhya had a bogy torched at Godhra leading to 59 charred bodies. This triggered a violent state wide carnage and the state administration and police was overwhelmed for 3 long days and nights with over 2000 dead, and multiple properties gutted. This event was subject to multiple state and centre led enquiry commissions, a Supreme Court monitored Special Investigation, and subsequent prosecution and convictions over the next fifteen years, but Narendra Modi was absolved by the courts of any negligence or wrongdoing.
This singular event changed CM Modi’s attitude and narrative. He transformed the state bureaucracy by empowering officials and plunging into the reconstruction of Bhuj in record time as his redemption. He pushed Gujarat towards rapid industrialization, agricultural growth and rural infrastructural development. Gujarat’s PSU’s were revived and made profitable. New ports, power projects-thermal, solar and wind were set up. A sleepy state became food surplus, and challenged Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu in industrialization. A new breed of politician had emerged, one who was administratively competent, had people connect, empathized with the poor, and wanted development of the state as his new identity. He demonstrated the trait of finding the best quality resource, absorbing and learning rapidly across a spectrum of subjects, putting in 16 hour days, and creating a breed of bureaucrats and politicians who could keep pace with him.
The mandarins within the congress identified the long term challenger very early, and used legal, administrative and extra-constitutional means to hound him. They used their loyal media cohorts to keep raising the Godhra riots , globally identify him as a right wing pariah, got his travel visa blocked in a few major countries, and set the NGO armies to tie him down in litigation. Little did they know the resolve of the man. Whilst they understood power, he was a master of oratory and people connect. He converted Sonia Gandhi’s vicious personal attacks like “maut ka saudagar” into attacks on Gujarati Asmita, uniting a global Gujarati diaspora in supporting him. It was truly a David mocking Goliath with an arrogant “bring it on” attitude. He was re-elected CM for three successive terms, setting a precedent in the BJP that administratively competent people should lead states.
This rise to becoming the Prime Ministerial face not an easy one. He had to take on his mentor Lal Krishan Advani, the man responsible for having resurrected the party along with Mr. Vajpayee when it faced political oblivion in 1984 winning only two seats in parliament. Mr. Advani had stood with him in 2002, in the process politically emasculating his friend of five decades. However Mr. Advani had lost the 2009 election to Dr. Manmohan Singh, and was now in his mid eighties. In the Goa conclave in 2013, younger leaders like Manohar Parrikar and Arun Jaitley who had been his strategist for the three Gujarat elections and the Godhra litigations endorsed him, and with cadres sensing potential victory pushed his candidature through.
The Congress led UPA had won 2009 on the back of Dr. Manmohan Singh’s tough stand on the nuclear deal with the USA. Thereafter Sonia Gandhi led National Advisory Council took over the reigns of the country, and we witnessed a wave of nepotism, crony capitalism, loot of national resources, defence needs being ignored, surge in terrorism, and ceding of territory to China. CM Modi led consistent verbal attacks on PM Manmohan Singh for abdicating his duty, who by his silence conceded defeat in the eyes of the public. The shadow PM Modi in 2013 put together a war room with talent sourced globally. Many retired and serving bureaucrats now came out of the closet sensing a major change. A nation buffeted by scams, frauds, incompetence and indifference gave the BJP the numbers to cross the line on its own. The hopes of Modi challengers were over, and a new era in Indian politics began.
Victory in 2014 had been credited to the pull effect of Narendra Modi, but victory at the polls comes from a powerful organizational machinery that delivers consistently in getting committed voters to polling stations. The man who delivered on the ground was his “strike force” from Gujarat, the “chanakya” Amit Shah, tasked with taking on a formidable challenge of Samajwadi and BSP stronghold in Uttar Pradesh and its 80 seats in the Lok sabha. The rout of every other party was so unprecedented that the BJP swept 73 seats and even won in muslim dominated areas. With such a performance the anointment of Amit Shah as party President was a formality. Mr. Modi now had control of the government and the party.
PM Modi 1.0:
PM Modi once again had a baptism by fire. He realized that the coffers were empty, the bureaucracy was used to being a power centre, many had benefited from the previous regime, and were major roadblocks to his plans. New Delhi was dominated by power brokers with deep roots and deeper pockets. He needed something to give him momentum and needed it fast. Dr.Manmohan Singh had conceived the underlying concept of what has become the “JanDhan AAdhar Mobile aka” JAM trinity, brought Nandan Nilekani from Infosys to deliver the creation of a national IT backbone on which multiple applications could reside. Unfortunately he did not display the spine to overrule the likes of Mr. Chidambaram who ostensibly stymied and delayed the project even though the project would save Rs.40000 crores annually. PM Modi took less than 24 hours to issue the administrative orders to get the process moving.
The rest is history. Within 6 months the largest global “financial inclusion” program was implemented by making the Nationalised Banks open 33 crores new bank accounts for the poor who had never entered the portals of a bank earlier. A nationwide exercise to issue Aadhar a de-facto national identity card to every citizen was completed. Citizens already had mobile phones. By linking all three, we had the perfect delivery platform for any Direct Benefit Transfer System. Emboldened by the early success, he implemented the Ujjwala Yojna by providing a free first cylinder and subsidized subsequent ones to 6 crore village homes-50% of them were SC/ST. He created a national furore by addressing the issue of open defecation and had over 9 crores new toilets constructed. Infrastructure sector logjams had a crisis with banks facing nearly Rs.4 lac crores of NPA’s from incomplete projects. He gave Mr. Nitin Gadkari a free hand to resolve and build. Within six months the former party president had all projects moving, and his ministry delivered the construction of roads at 27 Km per day compared to 12 Km in the UPA period. Mr. Modi’s most ambitious project was Aayushman Bharat, a health insurance scheme which covers 50 crores people and provides free hospitalization. Never before was this scale of social security been contemplated or seen even in China the world’s poster boy.
Faced with the unique challenge of the Nationalised Banking sector collapsing with over Rs.11 lac crores of NPA’s thanks to fiscal profligacy of 10 years of UPA. The government had to find 2 lac crores to fund capital requirements of banks. It also needed a legal framework which would enforce accountability and change of management. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy code implemented in 2016 is path breaking in this regard.
Mr. Modi’s government was fiscally responsible, the deficits reduced consistently and yet massive social welfare and social security projects were executed. Where did the money come from? An absolute no brainer-the brave also need their share of luck. Global oil prices collapsed. Duties collected by the UPA varied between Rs. 3-5 a litre, but the NDA did not pass on the price reduction to the consumer. Duties today are nearly Rs.30 per litre. This oil revenue
largesse and plugging the leakages has been the mainstay of government finances. Very early in his term the PM realized that India’s global image had taken a severe beating, and needed work. The PM travelled relentlessly, rallying the Indian community, having their travel pinpricks resolved, created a feeling of confidence and positivity. He engaged world leaders and built relationships. India’s stature with the polity of nations rose as he used Trade & Market Access in a highly transactional world. FDI flows to India started rising, and the government focused on improving our ranking from 140+ in ease of doing business to reaching 60+ by the end of the first term.
There were two actions taken by the PM in the country’s long term interest which could be termed controversial in timing and implementation. The first was the “demonetization” of currency. In an attempt to curb black money or the parallel economy, the government overnight abolished Rs.500 and 1000 currency notes, ostensibly 99 % of notes in circulation by value. Overnight the SME sector collapsed as working capital cycles of these businesses broke.
Real estate transactions stopped.The RBI/Bank’s slow execution increased the misery of citizens. Yet 70% of India who had never seen or held such notes exulted. They had found a champion who could stick it to the rich. The political dividend was huge and the BJP won a landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh India’s largest state.
The second was the implementation of GST. The need for “one nation one tax” has been a no brainer, but no one had the political will to finally implement it. The discussions and resolution of issues with states amicably and unanimously was perhaps Arun Jaitley’s swan song. However the hurry to implement without fully testing the system, resolving all Information Technology issues for once showed gaps in project management. This is probably where the PM erred in trusting his friend and lost oversight on a flagship project. Coming immediately on the back of
demonetization, it set back India’s SME sector totally and led to consolidation in favour of large industry. A decade from today, history will credit Mr. Modi for having the stature and political will to implement a path breaking legislation which is good for India, and was one more of Dr. Manmohan Singh’s conceived but incomplete agendas.
Every Indian PM has the romanticised notion of resolving issues with our rogue neighbor, and PM Modi was no exception. Yet one rebuff was enough for him to recalibrate and change strategy. When Pakistani terrorists killed 17 sleeping unarmed soldiers in an army camp in Uri, the army was given a free hand to cross into Pakistan and in a daring surgical strike the army killed 65+ to send a clear message that rules of engagement had changed. When Pakistan erred by using a suicide bomber to kill 40 CRPF men in Pulwama, another first was initiated and the Indian Airforce hit a terrorist camp in Balakote which media claimed killed nearly 300. These two raised PM Modi’s stature as the second Iron Man of India with the masses.
PM Rajiv Gandhi had under pressure from Muslim men in his close circles which included MJ Akbar had reversed the Supreme Court decision on Triple Talaq in parliament in 1986, a cross the Congress carries to this date. PM Modi instructed the law ministry to throw its weight behind a fresh case in the Supreme Court on the same subject, and in a landmark judgement the court has held Triple Talaq illegal, and corrected the wrong done in Parliament in 1986.This was delivering justice to all muslim women in India.
Delivering safety to citizens of India was a key poll plank, and The NSA Mr. Doval was tasked with this, a task he has performed admirably. Working closely with the Defence Chiefs, the critical backlog in our defense arsenal is being filled very quickly. Terrorist activity is now localized in the Kashmir valley, being specifically targeted with many leaders eliminated. There has been a perceptible improvement in India’s relations with Middle East nations to the chagrin of Pakistan, that they get negligible backing in Islamic nations now. The PM also gets the credit for successfully resolving the 43 year injustice to Armed Forces on “one rank one pay”. This sent a very strong signal that the government is sensitive to men in uniform and would overrule the civil services in such matters.
The economy remained a challenge during Mr. Modi’s entire first term. Capital formation was at an all time low due to huge capacity expansions in the preceding decade. The services sector was growing with productivity improvements and incremental job creation was dropping. The economy could be dubbed to be moving in a phase of jobless growth. The government knew that something out of the box was needed. They conceived the Mudra scheme which would give uncollateralized loans to self-employed entrepreneurs upto Rs. 1 lac, so that they could have adequate working capital and grow, perhaps employ one/two helpers each. Over the 5 year term nearly 3.7 crores people were funded. This provided a critical mass of economic activity generation at the bottom of the pyramid. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, a program to complete 1.5 crore dwelling units by providing assistance to weaker sections was a resounding success with great last mile delivery.
In 2018 the global economy started slowing down, foreign trade started contracting, the BJP lost three state elections in a row in MP, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh where they had incumbent governments. The entire opposition tried coming together as one force to take on the BJP directly or tactically. The BJP faced the scenario of going into elections in 2019 with declining growth rates, high fuel prices, and a globally orchestrated attack on being anti-secular. They structured a strategy which would focus on demonstrated delivery of welfare schemes, India’s security and defence, and the government’s integrity. The opposition fell in the trap of attacking Mr. Modi personally, and the more vicious the attack, the stronger the backlash from the poorer sections across the country. They could identify with the theme of a poor man’s son being attacked by vested classes, because he stood up to their plunder. The landslide victory was now credited to one person only-Narendra Modi. Like it or not, such is his personal
charisma and credibility.
PM Modi 2.0
The second term started with the government focusing on correcting pending historical errors. The first act was to abolish Article 370 which gave special status to J&K, and make it “one country, one law, one constitution”. It signaled to Pakistan and the world that we intend to take POK back sooner than later. Excluding China and Pakistan the world accepted it as an internal reorganization in India. The government then brought in the Citizenship Amendment Act to provide all non muslims of Indian origin who emigrated to India under duress post independence till 2014 with citizenship rights. Kapil Sibal admitted in parliament that the Act takes away no one’s citizenship.
The government moved to appoint a Chief of Defense Staff in General Bipin Rawat to improve co-ordination between all wings of the armed forces and development of combined sectoral strategies. This was a much needed structure and had been delayed by decades. Modi watchers were expecting the next step to be the introduction of the Uniform Civil Code to correct another Nehruvian blunder in the mid 1950’s when he had unanimous parliamentary support but recanted. But then early this year Covid 19 struck and Chinese belligerence to divert world attention from their culpability has changed priorities.
Covid 19 has resulted in a global economic meltdown with over one crore people infected worldwide. All countries responded with their own versions of lockdowns to prevent/slowdown community spread. India’s shutdown with 70 percent of the population having staying power of less than one week, has been really challenging. The PM has addressed the nation frequently keeping the morale of people up. By extending the free food security for over 800 million poor till the end of November 2020; the PM has recognized that COVID battles are not going away in a hurry and empty stomachs must be taken care of. This social welfare program entails providing free food-grains to 2.5 times the USA’s population for 8 months.
In his latest address to the nation, the PM delivered a firm reprimand to sections of society who have let their guard down on social distancing, wearing masks, and hygiene thereby triggering a fresh wave of infections. Implied was that penalties for non-compliance would come from administrative actions. Recognizing that there is no fiscal headroom to alleviate the honest tax-paying middle class, the PM publicly acknowledged his gratitude to them and the farmers for being the backbone to survive this challenge. He also announced the proposed implementation of a one nation ration card, which would be portable across members of a family unit in multiple locations. This is a clear preparatory signal for bringing migrant workers back to work areas and mitigating the hardship they faced in April/May. It is also a signal to Industry to get its game plan in place before November so that the economy could get back on the rails fast.
In the interim, there is clear engagement by the PM in launching short term employment generation programs in rural areas to ensure that buying power is created, and people are not sitting idle. Unemployment numbers as per CEI fell from 26% to 8.5% in May. So while the PM is personally the face for employment and welfare of the poor, he has let the Finance Minister front end SME and large industry issues.
The face-off with the Chinese in Galwan valley which resulted in 20 Indians and over forty Chinese soldiers dead has crossed another red line. These are the first casualties in fifty years. By taking on the Chinese head-on and helped by the bravery of the Indian Army, the PM has grabbed the opportunity of occupying the global leadership vacuum caused by China’s belligerence. India now is positioned as a key member of the Quad (USA, Japan, Australia, China) and last month become a member of the G10. In his address to the nation honouring our fallen braves in Galwan, the PM was actually addressing the world audiences telling them that the invincibility myth of the People’s Liberation Army had been busted. The contrast in behavior of PM Modi and his Chinese counterpart is truly contrasting. The PM courageously flew to Laddakh with the CDS to honour the fallen army-men and bolster morale of troops who are doing duty in that terrain. His counterpart has not even acknowledged the deaths of his soldiers, and is not visible at a time when his country is being ravaged by floods.
This week India banned 59 Chinese owned telecom Apps on grounds of national security risks and sent global shock waves. Overnight Chinese companies lost 1 Billion Indian subscribers, approximately 30% of their global users. The knock to their business models and valuations is significant. It will also embolden all COVID affected countries to make China hurt if they follow India’s lead. India’s State governments are contributing their bit to add to the pressure by cancelling all infrastructure contracts awarded to Chinese companies. The center has joined the USA led move to eliminate Chinese equipment from the future Telecom and Power sector.
Despite the country facing a health, economic, and defense challenges simultaneously, the Central Government has brilliantly positioned itself as a mature, unflappable leadership, which responds to its critics with equanimity. When Delhi CM Kejriwal raised the red flag on COVID going out of control in his domain, the Home Minister quietly stepped in to provide infrastructure and operational support with no politicisation. The AAP who have drubbed the BJP at the hustings twice in a row, and has been their virulent critic, is quietly sharing and ceding the stage to them. Similarly, on the Chinese face-off, all attacks by the Congress have been totally ignored, pushing the grand old party to desperation, and now often making a mockery of themselves. It reached a stage when Congress allies like Sharad Pawar and Mayawati have snubbed them. In Bihar, a besieged Lalu Yadav trying to provide a challenge to the Nitish/ Modi juggernaut is distraught that the glory earned by the Bihar regiment has been insulted by his alliance partner, and till now the PM has not fired a salvo, which comes election season could be an erupting volcano.
In the midst of all the action The “make in India” and “localization” themes, attracting relocating supply chains to India need attention. We need inter-ministerial task forces with specific, measurable, time-bound objectives of getting at least 300 companies moving out of China to India. Every major leader gets into a comfort zone out of his/her language, exposure and experience, but the PM is in this new term broad-basing his key talent resources beyond his home state, a very welcome development. The untimely demise of both Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj have left a serious vacuum in the BJP, and the PM will need to nurture youngsters to step up.
The PM is nearing seventy, and 65% of our population is below the age of 35 and communicating with them needs a prominent presence on Social Media platforms with a stated public position on multiple issues. It is also a medium which is unforgiving in terms of error or attacks by trolls. Coming from a generation that did not have computers or internet in their adaptive years, he has proved he is a constant learner. The fact that youngsters turn out andvote for him massively signifies that he has mastered their psyche and connects successfully. It would not be out of place to accept that the PM has a presence that would make any global statesman envious.
With great power and popularity come very heightened expectations. Mr. Modi communicates an image of impeccable personal integrity, demonstrated consistent hard work, a man who is action oriented, a fantastic negotiator, and one who has a mailed fist in a velvet glove. He loves the big stage, loves to win, give him a platform and an audience and you see the Pied Piper at work. What this image masks successfully is also a master strategist who is incredibly detailed both in planning and execution, and the next few months will tell how PM Modi and India’s second “tryst with destiny” moment plays out. Disclaimer: I am not a member of any political party. The views expressed are personal. I am a stakeholder in my country, and I exercise my constitutional right to vote.
Sanjit Paul Singh
Managing Partner, S&S Associates
The writing on the wall is clear. The paradigms of not only growth and welfare but of survival and safety have to be rewritten
The last 13 weeks or so have been exceptional and unprecedented in experience, reflection and all that goes with it. The dominant theme has been of worry, anxiety and the strange feeling of helplessness, should one be unfortunate enough to be infected with the Coronavirus. The fear of the unknown, coupled with the pressure of several confusing containment operations, cushioned marginally by some precautions, can be a very difficult process to go through. That may be another story for a different day.
The coping experience is yet to be clearly comprehended to be articulated here. A reflection on the time frame mentioned above triggers some thoughts which are a potpourri of notions and emotions, sometimes verging on exasperation. There have been a spate of webinars and obviously this has lubricated the business of communication platforms. They have seldom had it so good. The disinfectant and the medical palliatives industry is booming, the latter particularly on the promises of increasing immunity and giving reserves to combat the dreaded disease. Both the narratives are inductive and in the absence of anything better, rule the roost.
The pharmaceutical industry is much in demand and reportedly the top bosses of the Ministry concerned were working 24×7 to keep the supply chain moving, specially for the export of some formulations. News channels and various media reports have it that the US had mopped up the entire batch of the current global production of Remdesivir. There was a concurrent protest on such matters, because the fear was that other formulations, when perfected for use, may have a similar fate. During this pandemic, one is truly trying to find a response for the unknown and the unpredictable lay of the land. One can only hope for luck.
It is no secret that the global economy has taken one of its worst beatings on all the conventional parameters of economic worth: Output, income and employment. However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its sister institutions are not yet out of a job. The World Bank still has its pretensions. This is one area where the Chinese are still to catch up. The parallel institutions they tried to set up as alternatives don’t seem to be firing even on two cylinders. Perhaps the Chinese obsession with creating its 21st century version of the Silk Route, with the Chinese economy being the hub of world economic operations, seems to be the undermining of their efforts.
The Indian economy still seems to be faithful to the traditional platform of sticking to bailouts, doles and largesse. For the economic strategic thinkers, who control this country’s State-oriented growth processes, 2020 could just as well be 2008. The comfort of such thoughts is almost incredibly unreal and yet it can create the happy feeling of “something is being done.”
For those who can see, the writing on the wall is clear. The paradigms of not only growth and welfare but of survival and safety have to be rewritten. Doing a cadence count with rising tariffs and surcharges alternately (and sometimes together) on petrol and diesel does seem to have exhausted its potential.
Yet the conventional economist knows that to be in business he must always tell a story of growth. The present one is that the recovery for 2021 will be 5.8 per cent. The repetitive accuracy of decimal precision these calculations always achieve is amazing. The unhappy sequence that some economists talk of, namely the cycle of contraction, recession and depression, is taken up only by the fringe elements. It’s not even fashionable to debate it anymore. Confidence is rarely sighted. And not enough thought is being given to structural shifts the firms need to be considering.
For that matter, even household behaviour does not seem to have change enough with the times. Many in the household set-up are practicing decontamination and hope to protect themselves from the virus. It is not quite registering that this may need to become the new algorithm. There is a good case for doing so.
The kind of vegetable shopping which takes place, even in normal times, in the filthy cradles near drains in parts of some cities like Mumbai, needs to be stopped once and for all. Hygiene cannot be only a contagion-specific behaviour. A more hygienic and enduring supply chain of daily goods needs to be put in
place for households and this cannot be a Covid-19-based effort alone.
With the disruption of aggregate demands and weaknesses in conventional sources of supply, there was never a better time to recast the survival safety net of human efforts in many parts of India. Deliberately, no claims are being made to an all-India model. That’s because the Indian economy is far too variegated for a one-size-fits-all model. If the current health emergency leavened by economic disruption can impact the structure of demand, reform of capital flow would follow. Commodity prices could be redesigned and an overall more stable platform of everyday operations — both corporate and domestic — could follow.
(Writer: Vinayshil Gautam; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Just Modi-bashing is not enough to get votes. Rahul should be able to convince the people that he will be the better alternative
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi turned 50 last week and celebrated his birthday quietly in view of the Coronavirus outbreak. His father Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister of the country at the age of 40.
Rahul, too, could have become the Prime Minister in 2009 when the Congress Party returned to power or at least a Cabinet Minister during the ten years of the UPA’s rule from 2004 -2014.
However, Rahul had his own ideas of leadership. At the swearing-in ceremony in 2009, I asked him why he did not become a Minister and his reply was, “I don’t want to do ten things at a time. I want to do only one thing at a time.” Now, Rahul’s loyalists are getting impatient to bring him back as the party chief. Nobody knows why he resigned last year after the Lok Sabha poll results or why he is coming back as the Congress president. It is pertinent to note that though not holding any office, it is Rahul who is fighting from the front on behalf of the Congress Party, though Sonia Gandhi too, is writing letters and participating in meetings with the political leaders and the Prime Minister.
The indications of Rahul’s return as the party chief were clear at last week’s meeting of the party’s top policy-making body, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, where there was a clash between the old guard and Rahul. The power struggle was visible when Rahul was critical of the old guard for not supporting him in his campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi either now or earlier during the 2019 poll campaign.
The old guard is wary of personal attacks against Modi as they feel that the negative campaign against the Prime Minister will not work. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, a known Sonia loyalist, was the one who raised the issue in the CWC meeting and the “Rahul lao” chorus began soon after. One of them even suggested that a virtual meeting should be organised to bring Rahul back as the chief of the party.
Rahul 2.0 will see a new brand of the Gandhi scion. From the “angry young man” of the earlier days, Rahul 2.0 will be seen as a mature and effective leader, who alone can take on Prime Minister Modi.
Rahul is being projected as an intellectual who can hold his own with global experts and economists. His conversations with experts like former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee and former US diplomat Nicholas Burns were meant to convey that. Rahul has also been engaging the media as was evident by the three free-wheeling press conferences he held in recent weeks.
Rahul also launched his own Telegram channel this week. The main purpose of this exercise was to connect with the voters directly. It is available on the messaging app and has so far about 3,500 subscribers. This is a novel experiment as it gives the public access to his views directly. Though he came late to the social media game as compared to the BJP, he has been catching up fast in the last two years. He has 14.9 million followers on twitter and over a million on instagram. His YouTube channel has 3.1 lakh subscribers.
His strategists must have thought it is time for a new brand of Rahul. He can no longer be called a young man as he is 50 now. Hence, the time has come to project him as a mature leader, who has a worldview. Even the BJP no longer calls Rahul the demeaning names given to him earlier and is engaging with him politically, though it is still ridiculing him often.
However, undaunted by the jibes, the new avatar of Rahul has been raising pertinent issues like Modi’s handling of the Chinese incursions, the failing economy and the hiccups in the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic on behalf of the Congress and tweets about these issues almost daily.
Rahul strategists would like him to shed the image of a dynast and a privileged man. Instead they want him to be seen as the alternative to Modi. But before that happens, Rahul must first revive the party from the grassroots level.
He should promote the second rung leaders in the Congress and appoint the right man for the right job. He must listen to the voices of experience within the party. Second, he should also try to emerge as a successful Opposition leader and unite the till-now scattered Opposition. Right now it is Sonia Gandhi who is doing that job, but she has not been very successful at it as the regional satraps are all going their own way. Third, and most importantly, the Congress party needs to find a new narrative. Sonia Gandhi was successful because she thought of the “aam aadmi (common man)” slogan in 2004, which clicked well with the electorate. Just Modi-bashing is not enough to get votes. Rahul should be able to convince the people that he will be the better alternative to Modi.
He got everything in politics on a silver plate. He had the family name. He was young and presentable and had good opportunities in politics. He reached the top position in the party.
Now he should not miss a second chance if he comes back as the party chief. A wise leader would grab the opportunities given to him and Rahul missed many of them in the past. Hopefully Rahul 2.0 will not miss any of them.
(Writer: Kalyani Shankar; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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