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!!!