My Marwari Son

Sometimes its quite funny how children display certain characteristics that they may have picked up from you, even though you never specifically taught them that.

Last weekend, I decided to buy a gift for my wife for our upcoming anniversary. She always complains that I never buy her a gift (which is not entirely true), but I anyways thought I would surprise her by behaving differently for a change.

Considering I am completely useless when it comes to buying things like jewellary, I decided to take Keshav along with me. He would be able to give me his 8-year old perspective and weigh in with his better understanding of what his mother may or may not like.

Since I wanted to reduce the variables, we went straight to the Tanishq across our house. At least I would avoid quality concerns I thought.

We both painstakingly went through a variety of items. At each stage I kept asking him his views to reassure myself. To be fair to him, he had very specific comments on each item. Something was too dull, or the shape wasnt good enough and so on.

We finally narrowed down on two similar looking items. He was categorical that both were exactly same, while I was trying to "spot the difference".

After I did a few minutes of brain damage, he realised I wasn't being able to make a decision. He quietly whispered in my ear - "Papa, both are fine. Just decide on price."

I was thinking that my wife would want something more expensive and fancy. So I asked -"Price? What do you mean price?"

With an incredulous look on his face he said - "Just take the cheaper one!"

As much as I wanted to burst out laughing, I couldn't be more proud of my Marwari son :)

Brilliant operation, casual attitude

For all the kudos to the Modi government for the brilliant counter-operation against terrorists in Myanmar, the statements made by Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Rathore have been completely irresponsible and devoid of any sense of realpolitik. The first thing the minister should know that by publicly claiming that the Indian Army went inside the sovereign territory of a neighbouring state to attack militant camps, is the spot his assertion would put the Myanmarese government in.

And surely, Zaw Htay, director of Myanmar's presidential office, said in a Facebook post: "According to the information sent by Tatmadaw (Myanmar army) battalions on the ground, we have learned that the military operation was performed on the Indian side at India-Myanmar border," he said.

If the Minister of State was trying to showcase the ability of his government to give a fitting response to militant activities in the country, he didn’t need to say as much as he did. He could have achieved the same purpose without putting our neighbor in a spot. There is every risk that Myanmar could find it more difficult to participate in active counter-terrorism operations with India within their territory, if they fear that some bloke from the Indian establishment would be on TV within hours claiming how India violated Myanmar’s sovereignty.

And he didn’t stop at this. He went ahead and supposedly said – “western disturbances will also be equally dealt with.”

What sort of a message was the Minister trying to send to Pakistan? A rather foolish one, in my humble opinion. Does he really expect that the Indian troops will march into Pakistan or their occupied territory next time there is a terrorist attack in J&K? Especially, when unlike Myanmar, this neighbor’s raison d'etre is their anti-India propaganda and they are only looking for any excuse to cry wolf. And when risking a full-blown conflict with them immediately raises the spectre of a nuclear war.

As for sending a message to Pakistan, is the art of subtlety all but dead? I am sure the Pakis have enough intelligence capability to know what exactly happened in Myanmar to know the extent to which the Indian Army went. They certainly don’t need the Minister to tell them this.

And if the Minister wasn’t bad enough, for the past two days all news channels and newspapers are carrying detailed step-by-step accounts of how the operation was carried out. And as expected, they are quoting unnamed government sources for each of their assertions.

Have the Arnab Goswamis and the Barkha Dutts forgotten their lessons from the Mumbai terrorist attack where their live coverage was one of the likely reasons which allowed the siege to continue for longer and probably resulted in more casualties than should have been.

By giving detailed accounts of how the operation was carried out, they are likely compromising future operations against these and other militant groups. Not to mention they are making matters worse for the Myanmar government.

And finally for the insider sources in the government, are they so daft so as to provide such details? If so, do they really deserve to be in possession of such information?

I wonder!!!

BJP's anti-farmer challenge

In the aftermath of the horrific Nepal earthquakes, the entire nation's attention seems to have been diverted away from the controversies that seemed to have engulfed the country only a few days ago. For the moment, the entire nation, irrespective of political affiliations, seems to be rallying behind the government as the priority is towards relief and rescue in our neighbouring country as much as at home.

Nothing sums things up better than this tweet by the Grand Old Party's vocal spokesperson - "PM Modi has been lauded in many quarters for quick relief efforts in Bihar & I agree. Credit must be given where due."

Knowing his emotions for Modi, God knows how he must have choked as these words came out of his handle.

However, given the short attention span of the public at large, it is only a matter of time before the focus shifts back to the domestic arena and the political mudslinging starts once again.

As the first anniversary of the NDA government draws near, so do their first real set of challenges. This government has had a dream start with crude and commodity prices collapsing, the opposition (read Congress) being in a disarray, and a phenomenal performance in state polls in Maharashtra, J&K and Haryana.

The honeymoon, however, is now over and the lack of political experience is showing up as harsh realities of Indian politics are coming to the fore. Impatient businessmen and investors, unwarranted statements by party members and affiliates, and some irresponsible reporting by a left-leaning media are only some of BJP's troubles.

The biggest threat to any political party in India is when it risks being labelled anti-farmer. Despite contributing to less than 15% of GDP, agriculture provides sustenance to over half of India's population. Hence, anything to do with agriculture is a rather emotional issue.

Pushed into a corner and fighting for relevance, the opposition has managed to latch on to the emotive land reforms legislation with great gusto. It has shrewdly used the generally sorry state of the Indian farmer (further perpetuated over 68 years of apathy post Independence) and made worse by unseasonal rains, to land some strong punches on the government even though the land reforms legislation has nothing to do with the condition of the farmers.

One of the opposition parties even tried to leverage the unfortunate death of the farmer from Rajasthan during a rally in Delhi recently, though that back-fired quite badly.

Having seen the original bill and the proposed amendments, I believe that the amendments are good for the country and for the farmer as well. And to that extent I am glad that the government is betting its house on this reform as they realise that without this change, it will be impossible for our large, rural landless population to get alternate employment, those with farmlands will continue to suffer the vagaries of the monsoons, roads and electricity in the villages will remain a pipe-dream, and creating new defence installations will be nearly impossible.

However, what befuddles me is that for a party which came to power riding on its unique ability to reach out to the large population almost in a tailor-made manner, the BJP seems to have completely lost the plot on communication. Rather than being on the offensive and deploying every possible resource at their disposal to communicate the genuine need for the land reforms amendment, they have instead found themselves fumbling for words and busy fighting the fires within in the form of allies, RSS and affiliates. Maybe they need many more Jaitleys than they have, considering that the PM has decided to keep himself above the debate.

What compounds the problem for them is the political arithmetic in upcoming elections like the Bihar assembly elections. The Modi-wave in the LS elections have made the impossible, possible. Laloo and Nitish have come together as two long-lost brothers. With 36.5% of the popular vote in the 2014 LS elections between them, they already are neck to neck with the NDA's 36.4%. Add to that a potential tie-up with the Congress and the support of the Left, subtract the Modi-aura which is unlikely to be as big a factor in a state elections and compound it with a possible anti-farmer perception, the BJP could be looking at a result very different from the 2014 LS.

Given the Delhi debacle, who's to say what a strong setback in Bihar may do to the strategy of the NDA government. The worst could be that the Right too decides to turn left and protect their vote base rather than continue the task of rebuilding India and setting it up for 10-20 years of unbridled growth.

That to me would be rather unfortunate for India and a huge problem for the future of its 125 crore expectant people.

Laboratory on fire

For those who don't know, let me put the disclaimer that I have never been a supporter of AAP. Yet, I feel disappointed by the manner in which the party is imploding and how various factions are playing out a rather ugly battle in full public view. The hope that AAP could help change the narrative in Indian politics and force the other parties to change their gait on issues like corruption, transparency, probity in public life, inner-party democracy and so on, lies shattered and AAP's leaders have been shown to be no different than any other politician with any other political party in India.

AAP had quite a dream entry into politics wherein they got the chance to form the government in Delhi in their first attempt. However, instead of governance, the Delhites only got dharnas and morchas from their fire-brand, clean-image CM. After unsuccessfully protesting against all and sundry, Kejriwal for some inexplicable reason resigned as CM after a mere 49 days. So much for respecting the people's mandate.

Their arrogance was not received well by the public and AAP's Lok Sabha debut was quite a washout. Probably shocked by their dismal performance, Kejriwal and the rest of the AAP leadership went around Delhi with fake humility and sought forgiveness from the public for their decision to resign.

Clearly, Kejriwal was a much better stage performer than he has been an administrator so far. The Delhi junta, tired of the age-old dirty politics of the traditional parties and helped in no less measure by some bizarre negative campaigning by the BJP, forgave Kejriwal and how. AAP won 67 of the 70 seats in the Delhi assembly. No party has ever won such a convincing mandate in any state elections in India.

Often you see organisations breaking apart in defeat, but this astounding victory laid the foundations of the downfall of AAP. Whether it was Kejriwal's refusal to share the spoils of victory or whether it was Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan's inability to come to terms with the fact that AAP and Kejriwal had become synonymous with each other, the battle for control and supremacy spilled out on the streets.

At least at first, there was an attempt to put up the pretense of inner-party democracy when the rebel duo was voted out of the PAC after a 6 hour meeting and a 11-8 vote. Kejriwal had won Round 1 after clearly messaging that it was him or them. While Yadav and Bhushan tried hard to hold on to their positions, at least they were not in a position to complain about the manner in which Kejriwal outsmarted them.

Then the public spectacle began. The attempt to placate the rebels and show to the public that all was not lost, was a rather short-lived one. Allegations and counter-allegations started playing out through national and social media, letters and smses being leaked out. The same sting strategy which AAP had successfully deployed to come to power, now proved to be their nemesis, especially when it caught their holier-than-thou leader talking about the rebels in language which at best can be called a rather poor choice of words from a leader in whom the Delhi public reposed such absolute faith. To me, the nadir of the conversation was when Kejriwal allegedly said that he would take his 67 MLAs and separate. Suddenly, the AAP and its MLAs have become the personal property of Kejriwal.

And no matter what the real version of events which happened today, AAP's image has hit rock-bottom and the party with a difference has exposed itself to be no different from all that they stood against. The claims of inner-party democracy and transparency in public life lie in tatters. The party which captured public imagination with its agitation for the Lokpal Bill today refused to allow its own Lokpal to attend its National Council meeting. Cult politics, absence of inner party democracy, intolerance of an alternate point of view, and use of all possible means to cleanse the party of the naysayers. Today, thanks to how the Only Kejriwal script has played out, the AAP has rechristened itself as the Arvind's Anarchist Party.

This is not about whether Kejriwal was right or whether Yadav and Bhushan were wrong. This is about betraying the blind faith (54.3% vote share in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections) which the public had put in AAP. It is about betraying the hopes of lakhs across the country, who welcomed AAP for changing the discourse of Indian politics on issues like corruption and money in public life. It is about back-stabbing those who thought AAP to be a truly democratic party which would take the broader public opinion with themselves.

The only good to me, out of all this, is that the mask is off the face and now the only metric with which the people of Delhi and India will judge the AAP will be their performance as the government in Delhi. If they deliver, they will remain relevant but if they dont, they will be consigned to the cupboard as another failed experiment.

I am no fan of Sanjay Jha of the Congress. However, his words seemed to most aptly describe the AAP fracas that is playing out in Delhi right now. Jha tweeted - "I understand that AAP is an experiment. But right now it so happens that the laboratory is on fire. That's all."

Losing the narrative

Personally, I think the NDA government has taken significant decisions in the past 10 months, most of which have the potential to bring back India on the growth path and make fundamental changes to how this country grows and develops in the future.

However, the NDA government seems to have lost the plot on one critical aspect which was instrumental in getting them to power - the narrative!!

Whether it was the imbroglio about Smriti Irani's qualifications or the utterances of Mohan Bhagwat, Ghar Wapsi, or the logic behind the Land Acquisition Amendment Act - the government has failed to manage how each of these stories have been played out in the media. And considering the secularists have told us the BJP will reduce all non-Hindus to a manner of irrelevance and that NaMo is anti-farmer and dictatorial and so on, many have been looking for signs of the same so that we could say "gotcha."

When Mohan Bhagwat says that all those who live in Hindustan are Hindus, it is not the first time he has said things like this. He has made statements like this his entire life and they have barely made it into the national dailies. Yet, now his words are put out of context and blown up for the sake of sensational journalism and stoke fear in the minds of people.

His full statement, for the sake of completion: “All those who live here in Hindusthan are Hindus. Our style of worshipping may differ, some may not even worship at all, we may speak different languages, we may belong to various parts of this land, our eating habits may differ, yet we all are ONE.”

Religious reconversions in India are probably as old as religions conversions have been. It is common knowledge that the Christian missionaries and the Hindu groups have been engaged in this for decades in the tribal areas. The regular skirmish between Hindu boys marrying Muslim girls or vice-versa has been happening forever. Yet, now you see full page stories in leading dailies about how VHP and their associates run shelter houses and actively encourage Hindu boys to marry Muslim girls and get them to convert. Disagree you may with this practice, but to say that this is a new occurrence due to a friendly government at the center, betrays complete ignorance about the realities in India.

Yet, the fear today is that these things are happening only due to the presence of a friendly government at the Centre who is turning a blind eye to such organisations and their activities. The NDA government has been completely ineffective in addressing these fears. The least they could do is highlight that law and order is a state subject and consequently, such events should not at all happen in non-BJP ruled states.

The inability to manage the narrative has not been restricted only to the Sangh Parivar activities. The distortion by the media and the failure of the NDA government is most glaring in the proposed Amendments to the land acquisition bill of 2013. Nearly all the amendments are in public / farmer interest (national security, rural infrastructure, affordable housing), the advantages of which should be relatively easy to explain. At the same time, concerns with others like infrastructure projects where land ownership rests with government or industrial corridors can be easily explained and concerns resolved (e.g. providing employment to at least one person of an affected family). Yet, social luminaries like Anna Hazare, not to mention social activities turned politicians and full-time politicians have made it sound as if the amendments will be the death knell for the farmers!!

It is a fact that many CMs of opposition ruled states have expressed concerns about the 2013 bill. Yet, the NDA government has not done enough to put these people on the mat in a public forum on the basis of their letters and representations? I would be curious to see if Nitish Kumar will ensure that Bihar instructs the government machinery to continue following the provisions of the 2013 bill or will quietly start taking benefits under the amendments (as and when they are passed).

I think it is time the NDA government re-energized its public communications program and starts communicating with the broader population to help separate fact from fiction. If not, they may be up for larger political debacles in the face of a united opposition and an impatient population.

Disclaimer: This is not intended to be in support of any right or left wing activities!!

Hinduism under threat

Many recent speeches by various self-professed saviours of Hindu faith, would have us believe that Hinduism is under threat today. And I for one, believe that Hinduism is under threat today.

Hinduism or sanatan dharma is one of the oldest religions in this world. It has survived in the face of significant challenges to its existence. When the persuasiveness of Buddhism overcame the shortcomings in Hinduism, kings (Ashoka) and peasants alike flocked to this simpler middle path, devoid of rituals and discrimination.

At this opportune time, Adi Shankracharya came forth to rescue Hinduism.

Adi Shankracharya found Hinduism to be under threat, not only from outside, but more importantly from within. Yet, he did not raise a sword against Buddhism. Instead, he raised a sword against the sectarianism within Hindus.

His greatest contributions include the fact that he united the different voices of Hinduism. He espoused a much purer form of vedic thought which addressed several of the shortcomings of the religion. He was able to revive Hinduism, not by fear-mongering but by bringing out unique aspects of Hinduism. He was able to restore Hinduism to its glory and hence had people flock back to embrace the religion of their forefathers. He did so not by threat of force but by cleansing Hinduism is many of its ills.

Today, once again, Hinduism faces grave threats. However, the threat, unlike what the self-professed guardians would have us believe, is from within. The threat is more from such guardians and their blind, ignorant followers than from anyone or anywhere else.

In their zeal to 'protect' Hinduism, they have forgotten the fundamental teachings of Hinduism, which were gifted not so long ago to the world by none other than Swami Vivekananda.

In his speech to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, Swami Vivekananda said: "As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee."

This is the core of Hinduism - universal acceptance and tolerance. Hinduism accepts that there is no one way to God and acknowledges different paths to the same goal. By violating this core of Hinduism, these guardians are creating a far bigger threat to Hinduism than the ones they claim to defend it against. These self-professed guardians forget that they are no Adi Shankracharya or Swami Vivekananda.

Hindus, as of course all Indians and people of the world, would be much better served by remembering the closing lines from Swami Vivekananda's Chicago speech, which are so relevant as if he were speaking them today:

"Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilisation and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honour of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal."