The Chinese move (s)

Abhinandan Mishra

New Delhi

The India-China standoff, which is in its 9^th months now, could not have come at a better time for it has brought a global focus on the inevitable dangers of the expansionist mindset of China which, from thoughts, has now started to take shape on the ground.

India is fighting its battle, through diplomacy and by fortifying its position in Eastern Ladakh and by ‘dominating’ regions which were earlier not under its control. However, the more important point that needs to be debated is the danger of an ‘irresponsible’ super-power that China is turning out to be as it aims to replace the United States from the long-held position of a global superpower.

The world needs to understand that what China is doing with India- by trying to seize Indian territories- is not just an act to increase the land under its control. The real intention is to give a message to the world leaders, the global policy makers that China has ‘arrived’ and it needs to be feared if not respected.

As of now, due to the fore-sightedness of Indian policy makers, who for years have taken the Chinese factor into consideration while formulating long term security strategies, Indian armed forces are well prepared to stop China from physically taking over any Indian territory. However, the other neighboring countries simply do not have the wherewithal to stop China from taking over their territory if it decides to, as Nepal is witnessing.

It is in that context that the aggressive posture that China has adapted against India, in the last few months, becomes important.

Old people and ancient sayings will tell you that it is prudent to confront one strong opponent, defeat him which will give the required message to the other smaller opponents rather than waste time and resources on defeating every single opponent. That’s what China is doing.

It wants to give a message to the world that it considers the country- which is the third largest global economy (by purchasing power parity), has the largest ground force, fourth largest air force and the seventh largest navy- as nothing.

By engaging in a needless border stand-off with India on its Eastern border, and promoting terror in close coordination with its all weather friend Pakistan at India’s Western border, China is also ensuring that India spends a vast amount of its tangible resources on augmenting and procuring new arms and defense platforms rather than spending the same on developing critical infrastructure that will boost the local and global economy. This is the more sinister of the Chinese objective that the world needs to take note of.

It is also important to understand that all this border issue was brought into existence at a time when the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had gone out of the established protocol to nurture close ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping. This is an example of the often forgotten and ignored ‘dagger in the cloak’ state-craft which China seems to have perfected.

The United States- as the series of agreements that it signed with India in the last couple of years show, coupled with the recently declassified US-Indo pacific strategy document proves- needs a strong and well developed India to stop the rampaging China, especially when it comes to its gargantuan economic power.

And this is something which China has also realized. A strong India, that has a democratic setup, will always continue to emerge as the proverbial Himalayan wall to stop China’s expansionism. Weakening India is not the ultimate objective of China, it is its first step towards a much larger sinister plan, something the world leaders need to realize.

The much imagined ‘two-front’ war is already staring at India

Abhinandan Mishra

With the 9th round of talks between the representative of the Indian army and his Chinese counterpart too failing to resolve the India-China border stand-off on Sunday, there is nothing left but to speculate on how and when will the situation at India's Eastern border return to 'normalcy' as it was in April 2020 before the Chinese troops entered into 'disputed' territories and occupied them.

While the talks are continuing and will continue, the bigger picture that is probably being ignored is how India, in all practical purposes, is now engaged in a '2 front war' with Pakistan on the West and China on the East.

As of today, more than 50000 Indian troops, excluding multiple precious 'assets' are deployed at its Eastern border in a state of 'combat readiness'. This in simple terms means the troops and the machines are just one step away from indulging in armed combat.  The same, as is the common knowledge, is the situation on the borders that it shares with Pakistan.

What does this imply for India if this standoff with China continues for perpetuity? 

The first implication of this will be that China would officially emerge as India's ‘enemy number 1’, as the then defence minister George Fernandes had called the country in 1998.

All future Indian defence procurements, strategic policies, trade agreements, diplomatic ties will be based on this template. So far, a majority of such decisions are taken while keeping Pakistan as our main adversary. It is pertinent to mention at this point that India last year has already passed a law that calls for government permission before FDI coming from bordering countries (China) is allowed into India.

There is no match between China and Pakistan when it comes to military and economic power. While India could manage by spending a modest amount of its resources on defence procurement as its focus was Pakistan, the same will not hold true once it accepts China as its primary adversary. The bigger, larger the opponent, the more resources one has to spend to counter him. Now, India will procure the artillery, the aircrafts and the infantry equipment while keeping what China has, which are definitely better than what Pakistan has. And they will cost more.

Wars and war like situations are only beneficial to the arms manufacturers, not to the citizens for which the wars are being fought. The India-China stand off  will force Indian policy makers to take out capital and time meant for other needs like health, education and infrastructure and divert them to defence. And they cannot be blamed for it.

This will delay, if not stop, India's effort to increase the quality of life it offers to its citizens and hurt the economy as infrastructure in inland areas will suffer, temporarily, as the focus will be more on augmenting the infrastructure at the border areas.

The two front war scenario, in which one of the opponents is a country which is on the cusp of being a super-power, will force India to strive for coming more closer to and become dependent  on other super-power (U.S) and cultivate relationship with other strong regional allies like Australia, Japan and Vietnam. This is inevitable, any country in place of India, too would have to do the same.

Pakistan's (mis)-adventurism is likely to increase in the coming months as a bullish China, that will keep needling India. China knows the advantage of having Pakistan as its ally in the war against India. If Pakistan was not Pakistan, and it was a friendly neighbor like Sri-Lanka, India's only concern would have been China. So China needs Pakistan as much as Pakistan needs China to stop India from becoming 'big'.

Please understand that a 'disruptive' activity like the 9/11 attack, Mumbai attack, Pulwama bombing changes the priority, focus, concern of any country within a matter of seconds. A welfare state, a state whose primary activity should be to strive to make life better for its citizens, suddenly becomes an aggressive entity, keen on avenging and securing itself.

India's two-front challenge is truly here, and it came just like that, without any explosion.

The writer is a New Delhi based journalist with over 10 years of experience in reporting on topics related to politics, state craft and security.

Twitter- mishra_abhi

Mobile- 9650375758

 

Mussoorie -the place it was

I had last gone to Mussoorie 11 years ago, same time, mid-June. When I came back to Delhi, I uploaded the pictures on the more accomplished Orkut, since Facebook  at that time was still a teenager, trying to fit in, searching for its identity.

I remember that in one of the pictures, only my hand was visible, raised in the air, which was clicked on the Lal-Tibba track situated at nearly 7500 feets among the Landour cantt, as the cloud, full of mist, rushed in to engulf everything under their weightless, cold cover. I had to wear a light woolen jacket, such was the chill in the air.

The rows of trees, surrounding Lal Tibba trek, the legendary Char Dukaan and the small Church near the language school that lies at the entry of the ITM lab, were huge in number, and they were so dense that it was nearly impossible to see beyond a few rows as to what lies behind those tree line.

This time, when I decided to go there again, I expected something similar.

11 years later, Mussoorie has undergone a massive change, a change that has been brought by us, an undesirable change.

The temperature this time did not go below 24 degree. The place that I stayed, was 100 meters away from Mussoorie lake, and despite being at a relatively less crowded place, at the foot of small hills, we had to switch on the AC whenever we were inside the room.

The three hills across our resting place, had lost majority of their green forest cover, turned brown with small cemented houses dotted across them. What should have been green, was now brown.

Locals told me that till 7-8 years ago, they would see Guldaar (leopard) in and around the campus. Now it it has just become a part of myth, an ancient folklore.

2019, after.

2008, before.

The situation at Kanatal and Dhanaulti was no different, the place, which were truly ‘hill station’ till very recently, have been robbed off their ability to keep things cool.

The accessible roads that have surrounded each and every part of Mussoorie and the neighboring areas have led to an all year traffic, with thousands of SUVs entering these areas every month, each one of them, like us, trying to spend time in a resort , a place which is in middle of forest and surrounded by hills.

While going towards Dhanaulti, I saw a Haryana registered SUV, with opened sun-roof, in which a young couple, beer can in their hand, shouting at the forests, whizzing past us. I was imedaitely transported to Gurgaon.

Hill stations in NCERT books have been defined as a place which are on hills, stay cool even during summers and since they are largely inaccessible, inhospitable,  they are less crowded.

That is not the situation any more.

Ruskin Bond, who can be called as Mussoories’s emblem, too has changed with the changing times.

11 years ago, my uncle and I spent a lot of time at his small but cozy place in Landour.

At that time he rarely used to get unannounced visitors. He could walk in the Landour market without being pestered for selfies and autographs. He could gossip with the old kirana store guys and take a stroll at the Mall road.

He has become more reclusive now, maybe like a Himalayan brown bear.

During the day, people roam around his house to catch a glimpse of the 85 year old writer who had weaved dreams of many kids as they read his books. He rarely comes down now. The only time he does is on Saturday when he goes to Cambridge book depot at the mall road between 3.30 and 4.40 to meet his readers and sign books for them.

The house adjacent to him has been turned into an ‘inn’ which reportedly has been brought by a noted Mumbai film maker. Its red color is not something that the eyes look for in a place where you expect green to prevail.

Landour was known for its serenity, the serenity has been replaced with tourists who are ‘loud’ in every sense.

Old timers say that Landour, at 7500 feets, is the “original Mussoorie”.In 1823, Captain Frederic Young, a British army officer, came across a goat path on the hills surrounding Dehradun while on a hunting expedition. 

This road, was the first road that connected Dehradun to the hills, that later come to known as Landour. In 1826, Young built’s Landour’s first home, and named it “Mullingar”, after his place of birth in Ireland. Young was the commandant of the first Gurkha battalion that was raised by the British after the Gurkha War or the Anglo-Nepalese war that was fought between 1814-1816.

The way things are going, soon a time will come when people will only be able to read about what Mussoorie offered and what it was, as I realized on this trip.

Ram temple in Ayodhya not an election issue in Bihar

Abhinandan Mishra

Patna

The construction of Ram Temple or rather the failure to do it is not an election issue for the voters of Bihar.

Voters with whom I interacted in the last 10 days, said that they had no anger with the BJP for not building a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, something that the party has been campaigning for long now. 

In Fact it were mix of other issues like Pakistan, Pulwama, a perception that there has been an overall decrease in the level of corruption in the country , roads, electricity and employment that is being discussed to determine whom to vote for. 

"We are not concerned with Ram Temple, it is good if it is built, it doesn't matter if is not. When we discuss politics, we talk about jobs, nationalism, roads, law and order, medical facilities, things that affect our life directly. The Modi government, overall, has given good governance and the opposition doesn't have any credible face who can match him", said 29 years old Nanhe Singh of Patna. 

For Mukesh Kumar, 32,who resides in Masaurhi, a sub division of Patna, and works as a driver, better infrastructure and smoother traffic conditions in Patna was the main issue. "I do keep reading about Ram Temple but it is not a huge issue for me. We have Hanuman temple, kali temple in Patna which is enough. I would be more happy if the government focuses on improving traffic conditions, removing encroachment in Patna. These local issues affect my life, not whether a temple is built in Ayodhya or not", he said. 

In Patna Sahib, the NDA candidate and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad too is focusing on local issues and national issues like Pakistan and his claims of a corruption free government that Modi has given. While he started his campaign almost one month ago, the Grand Alliance candidate, Shatrughan Sinha, began his campaign only last week. Sinha, who recently joined the Congress, got a rude welcome at the Congress office in Sadaqat Ashram where many Congress workers sat on a protest against his nomination. Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is putting everything he has got into his campaign is trying to touch every part of the huge constituency that is spread across 6 assembly seats. Prasad who is contesting a lok sabha poll for the first time is also facing some resistance from pocket of Kayastha voters who wanted the party ticket to be given to either Rk Sinha or his son,Rituraj Sinha. 

 "No one in our circle cares about Ram temple in Ayodhya. Who has the time? I am more concerned about better connectivity between Arrah and Patna as that will help me reaching home on time. For me sanitation in and around Hanuman temple will get more appreciation for the government rather than a Ram Temple in Ayodhya ", said Sushma Devi, an attendant in a local hotel in Patna. 

Patna, which for many years lacked basic infrastructure, is slowly moving towards a state where it can match its status of a state capital. In the recent few years, mobile based applications like Swiggy, Food Panda, Ola, Uber, which did not found it conducive to function in Patna, have now become popular now. 

Observers say this has happened because of an overall increase in infrastructure, electricity and improved law and order which has given confidence to investors to invest money in the state. 

"Lalu ji got 15 years time, Nitish and Modi have got less than that but they have managed to change many things in Bihar. I do not think that the voters will want to derail this way of governance", said a Patna based senior journalist. 

Dhoni, the common man's captain

It was 2004, when I was in 3rd year, on my way to complete law, that we saw Dhoni debuting for India. Since I was from Bihar, I had heard about “Mahi” much before than some of my college friends heard about him first.

And in his first match, on his first ball, he was dismissed in the most unlucky way that is possible. He was ‘run out’, when he was sent back by, if I am not mistaken, Mohammad Kaif, who was at the non strikers end.

After the initial 'uhh and ahh' , someone from us, as we watched the match at a TV in the world famous Sakshi Dhaba in Bhopal on a not so cold afternoon, sympathetically commented that how unlucky Dhoni was.

It has been almost 13 years now, and that was the only time that I heard the word ‘unlucky’ and Dhoni in the same breath.
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The Indian cricket fan, for decades, were searching for someone apart from Sachin to look to when India was losing and to get angry on when India eventually lost. They found that person in Dhoni.

“Dhoni hai na?” very slowly and without any great commotion and noise replaced “Sachin hai ki gaya?”.

Soon his tales started becoming more common. One of my friend from Bihar told us that he got his muscular power because he drank 10 litre of milk daily. Another much discussed tale about him was that he was a ‘pagal aashiq’, a mad lover, whose heart was broken by a girl.

For 13 years Dhoni carried the aspirations,dreams and hopes of Indian cricket fans on his shoulders. He was the quintessential common man’s cricketer. When he hit the 6 in the World Cup Finals in Mumbai, he did not celebrate it wildly, he just watched the trajectory of the ball as it sailed over the boundary, unmindful of the roar of the 50000 plus people that were present there. The only expression on his face was that of a man who had finished his job.

The expression a father has when nobody's watching when his daughter’s marriage gets over successfully, the face a mother has when she finally lies down on the bed to sleep at night, after completing her innumerable household chores.
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Why will be miss Dhoni? Because in him we saw a man who was like us. Maybe a cousin brother who too tried but could not break into the state Ranji team, perhaps a friend who too had the same background as Dhoni and now is lost somewhere in the maze of time.

His success did not elicit jealousy, never did. The way he handled it, even when he became one of the the biggest money earner, even then too he was to us the boy next door who had become the Captain of the Indian cricket team.

He was no god, prince, very very special or a wall, he was one of us.

The confession of just another presstitute

Recently, the Caravan magazine brought out an article detailing how almost 300 Madhya Pradesh based journalists cutting across every newspaper, channels and what not, were allotted plots in Bhopal by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in the early years of 2000.

The plot was not ‘gifted’ directly to each and every journalist, rather a cooperative was created that was headed by some journalists, who had more accessibility in the government than their fellow brothers, and later it was distributed ‘unequally’ among all the journalists. What Caravan did not mention was that the bigger journalists got themselves allotted more than one plot while many of them, who earn less than Rs 25000 per month and are on their last curve of their career, did not get even one plot. (I did not get any plot, nor I applied for).

Caravan also did not mention that even if these poor journalists would have got the plot, they would have to again seek government’s help to build a house on these plots. It would have been an even bigger eye opener if Caravan or for that any media houses had done a story on the salaries the journalists get.

Those who swear by ‘presstitutes’ and  prefer painting every journalists with the same brush  might not know that the salary of a journalist is barely enough to cover his household expense and I am not referring to the fresh graduates who are just out of college but those who have been slogging it out for 15 -20 years. The situation is worse for those who are working in Hindi newspaper.

Let me try to bring this out by an example. A Bhopal based bureau chief of a well known Hindi newspaper who is in his late 50s and had been in journalism for more than 20 years now was getting a salary of Rs 53000 when I last met him in January this year. His junior colleague, who was around 42, was getting Rs 42000.  Now keep yourself in the place of these two people and imagine the expenses that they have to incur to run their house, finance the study of their children and eventually arrange for the expense of their marriage.

Let me bring you to English media. Someone like me, who is in the middle position, will be fortunate enough if his annual package is Rs  6-7 lakhs. I have many friends who are not getting even that. By the time I step into my 40s, after giving 12-14 years of time into journalism, my only desire would be that my annual salary at least reaches upto Rs 10 lakhs.

Do keep in mind that media in India is a highly unregulated field, except two or three organizations, the concept of basic employee welfare, like annual appraisal, good hike, yearly paid leaves, bonuses, something that people working in other fields treat as their fundamental rights, does not exist for journalists working in Media.

Today, the recommendation of the 7^th pay commission were cleared by the cabinet and the hike that the government employees will get is something that a journalist can only think  of and sometime wish for.

There is no pay commission for the journalists, only a holy albatross round the neck that they represent the esteemed ‘fourth estate’ and hence are prone to more public abuse and scrutiny.

Neither the government, this one included, nor the Maalik log are interested in increasing the salaries of journalists. When the recommendation of the Majithia pay commission for print media were to be executed, the Maalik log, showing great solidarity, pressed the best legal mind of the country into their service to make sure that the salaries of the ‘presstitutes’ remain abysmally low and despite the recommendations being finally upheld by the Supreme court in 2014, it has yet not been executed in almost 80 percent of the newspaper.

Forget the shouting and suave anchors and presenters you have been watching on the TV. Forget the stories, sometimes fictitious, mostly real that you read and hear about the personal wealth of these star reporters and editors. They represent a miniscule of the journalists fraternity because the rest of the journalists, who do not have the inclination and the guts to seek money through other means, they pass into oblivion with a small retirement send off party and if they are lucky enough, they can spend their remaining time in a small house that they might have been able to build with their modest income.

No Member of parliament, no minister and no PM has ever spoken about the abysmally low salaries the majority of journalists get. I wish the government would make it mandatory for every journalist to declare their income, for at least then there will be some sense of clarity among the readers and the viewers.

No high profile journalists does a show on why Majithia is not being implemented, Ravish and Goswami alike. Maybe they are not allowed to do so by the maalik log or maybe they do not need a pay hike. When I had asked the ever active 'Justice Katju" when he was the chairman of Press council of India that why did he not push for the implementation of Majithia and what did he do in his tenure as the PCI chairman except berating the same journalists whom he was expected to support, the man did the easiest thing, he blocked me on Twitter.

So next time you use the word bikau media and presstitutes, do say a prayer for a majority of the journalists because the only thing that they are paid their whole life is a salary that swings between modest and low.

25 journalists staying in government provided bungalows in Delhi

Twenty five media-persons are presently staying in Central government provided type-4, type-5 and type-6 government flats in the national capital.

As per the response shared by the Directorate of Estates, Ministry of Urban Development, to an RTI query filed by me, all these flats are situated in posh areas like RK Puram, Pandara road, Bapa nagar,Kaka nagar,Hudco Place Extension and Andrews Ganj Extension.

Some of these bungalows were allotted to the journalists as far back as the 1970s and 1980s.

Officials in the Urban Development ministry said that the allotment of government flats to journalists are rare and is based on the discretion of the incumbent minister. “In Delhi, there is always a shortage of government accommodations for the government officials who have the first claim over such accommodations hence it is in rare cases that a government accommodation is given to a media person. Unless and until the concerned minister really wishes for the allotment of the flats to a media persons, the government flats are very rarely allotted to them”, an official with the directorate of estate said.

Interestingly, in December 2012, the Supreme Court in an order, had asked the government to make sure some of these journalists vacate the ‘illegally occupied government bungalows’ as they had overstayed their entitlement. The Supreme Court had given the order after the National Green Tribunal, which approached the Supreme Court, presenting its problem regarding non availability of a suitable accommodation for it to function from, after which the SC asked the government to act.

However, more than 4 years later, some of the journalists, who were required to vacate the government accommodation, still continue to stay in those flats.

Very few of the journalists who are staying in these accommodations are working for a mainstream publication.

One of them brings out a Hindi daily from Ghaziabad, while another journalist is working for a local news channel. A journalist from a south Indian magazine has been staying the flat for the past 13 years, another journalist of a Chennai based magazine ‘Junior Vikatan’ was allotted the flat in 2006. A journalist with "Spot films' too was given the flat in 2003. A reporter with ‘Amrit Sandhesh’ newspaper that is published by the family of Congress treasurer Motilal Vora, was allotted the flat in 2006. Similarly a representative of SUN TV was given the flat in 2006. One such flat is in the possession of a reporter from Amar Ujala newspaper. A reporter from Andhra Prabha, a Telugu newspaper, too was given the flat in 2006. A cameraman with ‘Asian Film TV’ was allotted the flat in 2003.

The demand from Gujarat...

Former Home Minister and Congress leader P. Chidambaram, who is in the eye of storm for his role in the Ishrat Jahan case, might have admitted the role and influence of a Gujarat based Congress leader in the whole case.

Chidambaram, while quoting his interview that he gave to Hindu Business Line which appeared on 25, April,shared multiple tweets on his twitter account. 

The content of three of these tweet reads , “Although I have no recollection of seeing the first affidavit, let us presume that I did. Then came the report of Magistrate SP Tamang. This report caused an uproar & there was demand mainly from Gujarat that Government of India should clarify or dispel misinterpretation being placed on the First affidavit. This is why a Second, short affidavit was filed!”.

The reference to a ‘demand, mainly from Gujarat’ to effectively change the first affidavit, has led to strong speculations that the former Home Minister has unknowingly admitted that there was a strong demand from certain Congress circles to change the content of the first affidavit, which in essence stated that Ishrat Jahan was a Lashkar module, and that demand had come from a Gujarat based leader.

On 21 February, I did a story for The Sunday Guardian “Manmohan ministers tried to implicate Modi in Ishrat case” http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/news/3423-manmohan-ministers-tried-implicate-modi-ishrat-case, in which I had written about how a top Congress leader from a western state, had written to the Prime Minister’s Office in the first week of September 2009, expressing dismay that because of the first affidavit the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi could not be framed in Ishrat’s encounter. The Congress leader was unhappy that the MHA’s affidavit had placed on record that Ishrat was a terrorist.

“Chidambaram, who is very articulate with his words and uses his every word very carefully, has clearly stated that the ‘demand’ to change the affidavit had come from Gujarat. Obviously it did not come from Modi or the BJP. Since he has used the word ‘demand’, it implies that it had come from someone who was very influential. Now, he might say that this ‘demand’ had come from the civil society or human right activists but we all know whom he is referring to”, an official who is familiar with the entire case, said. 

All good for journos in Shivraj's raj

The Madhya Pradesh government doled out Rs 93 crores in the last 4 year in giving advertisements to 'unknown' news websites and news channel. The government has also given Rs 58 crores to 107 institutions for 'regional publicity' of the government.

This information was shared by the Madhya Pradesh public relation minister Rajendra Shukla in the state assembly in response to a question raised by Congress MLA Bala Bachchan.

Bachchan, in his query has asked the government to share the details of websites, institutions  and news channel who have got government advertisement for publicizing government work since 2012.

Out of the 235 plus websites that were given the government ad, only 25 to 30 websites are those which disseminate news regularly and see a regular ‘hits’ and traffic. Many of the websites mentioned in the reply provided by the state government, are  websites whose existence was not known to even the local Bhopal based journalists, whom I spoke to.  

“Most of these websites are run by journalists who are working in other organizations. Since it is illegal to earn income from two source, these journalists are running the websites in the name of their relatives and wives. The government with an intent to keep them in good humor and oblige them, has readily released government ads to their websites, which do not see even 10 hits in a day”, a Bhopal based bureau chief of a national English daily, pointing to the name of the website that is owned by a wife of journalist of a national news agency, said.

A careful perusal of the list revealed that the registered address of many of these websites was government flats and bungalows that are allotted to journalists if the are a part of a national daily. “ A journalist of the largest selling English daily is no longer a part of that newspaper, but he continues to enjoy the government hospitality by way of the government ad that his websites receives and the government bungalow that he continues to live in.  Similarly, a former employee of  an English news agency continues to enjoy the bungalow as he is still a journalist in the technical term because he is running a website that got Rs 15 lakh ”, an official with the Directorate of Public Relations (DPR) stated. As per previous rules, the government bungalows can only be allotted to those journalists who are working for national newspaper.

While choosing firms for ‘regional advertisement’ of government work, the DPR released Rs 21 crores to an agency that is known to be run by a BJP functionary.

Why Modi must act

The political honeymoon period of BJP got over earlier than it would have expected and the marital discords that a political party faces after coming to power have started even sooner than it might ha

ve anticipated.

The historic mandate it received in the general elections last year, as a majority of us will agree, was made possible because of Narendra Modi. Modi the individual was the reason that people voted for BJP rather than the other way around.

So if the public perception is that the ‘Ache din’ have come then one has to attribute it to Modi and if the perception is that there is no change from the days of the UPA  then the responsibility for that also squarely lies on the shoulder of Modi.

History is made every day, to be presented years in the future after it is created. Ten-fifteen  years from now, pages of  history will tell us that whatever happened to this country, the good or the bad as it will turn out, was because of Modi. No one will remember the finance minister, the defence minister, the external affairs ministers or the various BJP spokespersons.

In light of these ground rules, that one can tend to disagree with, the inaction on the part of Modi to take ‘notice’ of the act done by Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, is surprising. More so because in case of Modi, unlike his predecessor, his act of taking notice of something is very much visible and more often than not, it makes news. In this case, it his inaction that is grabbing the headlines.

The BJP can field their best spokespersons to counter the allegations but can the truth that Swawraj was dealing with a fugitive be changed? Can the fact that her daughter and her husband were dealing with him change? Can it be safely said that the external affairs minister of the country, one of the top four ministers of the country , was unaware of the legal status of Lalit Modi? That he was ‘wanted’? Are ‘humanitarian  grounds’ a sound excuse to help a fugitive , that too without keeping others in the loop? And was ‘different shades of blue’ supposed to be a funny?

Similarly, no one, even Vasundhara Raje, will not and has not denied that Lalit Modi was a close friend of hers. People make friends, who later turn into acquaintances and foes and that is perfectly okay. However how can Raje, in her position as the leader of opposition in the Rajasthan assembly, do something that she knew was illegal? In her case, it is evident that she knew that what she was doing was wrong and that is why she asked for a disclaimer that the action taken by her in support of Lalit Modi should not come out in open.

How will she defend the fact that the shares of her son’s company were bought by Lalit Modi at Rs 11 crore? She cannot.

Inevitably,  Narendra Modi in times to come, will face many more such instances of impropriety from his cabinet colleagues, his party colleagues and his friends. For him, the easy way of coming out from such situation will be to close his eye and move ahead till the story dies down and is forgotten from the memory of the people and this is what the Congress led UPA did. And that is what the BJP is hoping will happen in the case of Swaraj and Raje.

The not so easier route for Narendra Modi is to act on these acts of impropriety.

The people of this country have for long lived in an era where things were said but not executed. So much so that the political promises and commitments are no longer taken seriously, let alone give rise to any hope. When Narendra Modi, during his political campaign, stated that there will be no corruption in his government, not many believed that but when he said that he will take action, quick and strict, against anyone found to be indulging in corruption, everyone believed it.

The time to put those words of promises into action has come. And with every passing day of the promises being reneged, the hopes and expectations of those who reposed faith in him will decrease, slowly,gradually but surely.

There have been many Prime Ministers before Modi and there will numerous after him. The path to creating a legacy and securing a name in the pages of history, as each of us wants, is well defined but whether we are willing to walk on that path is something that only we have to decide.

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Why the Aam Aadmi went for the party.

Almost all the exit polls have predicted a comfortable win for the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi elections, and for those who believe them, the Modi-Shah magic is likely to fail in mini-India when the results are announced on February 10.

Assuming that the results will be on the line of the exit polls, the question is what happened? Why did the same people who had voted overwhelmingly for the BJP in the last year’s general election voted for AAP this time?

It will not be an exaggeration to say that the Delhi BJP took the elections ‘lightly’. Their campaign started a long time after AAP, its chief political enemy, had begun its. AAP had already secured a sizeable space in the minds and heart of the voters through the virtually nonstop radio jingles, white Nehru cap and smiling volunteers who had come on the street and started ‘mohalla’ campaigning as early as October, by the time BJP decided to rock and roll. The inclination to open the doors for a neighbor, who has been around for sometime rather than someone who has just arrived, is more. 

The local Delhi leaders were banking heavily on the ‘Modi magic’ to counter the AAP’s outreach that had spread on the ground through its loyal cadre. BJP leaders with whom I was speaking to, in the run up to the election, had no hesitation in agreeing that AAP was in a much stronger position but in the same breath they told me that 3 to 4 rallies of Modi would blow away everything that was remotely connected to AAP.  The rallies did happen, but by then, the AAP had strongly entrenched itself to be blown away.

The BJP forgot that in the Lok Sabha elections, the support for Modi was more or less equal to the anger the people had against the ‘corrupt-inefficient-weak’ Congress government. The voters at that time had to decide between the rookie AAP, that was not a national force, and the resurgent BJP led by the macho Modi. They took the logical decision. However in the Delhi elections, it was not about anger, it was more about the perception about the new union government. The question in mind was has the Modi government done enough in the last 8 months it has been in power? BJP leaders say that much has been done by the new government and if that is the case, then they should also agree that despite the media blitzkrieg, the BJP was not able to convey this message to the voters. Some BJP leaders will defend the result of Delhi assembly election by stating that it does not reflect upon the working of the central government. I am sorry, it does.

The BJP overplayed the alleged 'anarchist' tendency of  AAP. When did being a 'krantikari' became a taboo in this country? Acting 'rebellious', questioning the establishment, the status-quo, tilting towards anarchism has been the hallmark of Indians, since time immemorial. Kejriwal might have taken some wrong steps during his 49 days as CM but the way BJP tried to sell his 'anarchism' clearly did not work.

During the 49 days the AAP was in power, they managed to gain the trust of the lower income group. And even though a section of the middle-class grew disenchanted with AAP, these loyal supporters, from the auto-rickshaw drivers to the house-maid, remained loyal and the party was able to cash-in their goodwill in this election.

The BJP party needs to introspect on why it did not call for a fresh poll when Kejriwal, the ‘Bhagoda’ resigned suddenly. A majority of the the voters who had supported him had now become angry with him and wanted to teach him a lesson for not valuing the people’s mandate. The BJP was on ‘high’ at that time with Modi being virtually the messenger of god (no pun intended) that India was waiting for. However for some ‘god-only-knows’ reason, the party decided to wait and watch. Whoever advised the party to not to go for elections needs to be hanged by the strongest rope from the highest tree. His advice seems to have cost Delhi. The party needs to identify these Jaychands and Vibhishans.

In the last leg of the campaigning, negative connotation crept into the picture. Calling names, printing of not- so-soul-enriching advertisements targeting AAP and Kejriwal were bombarded on the same Delhi voters, who not too long ago, inspired by Modi, had voted for BJP for ‘positive campaigning’ and ‘good governance’ and in the process elected many non-existent political entity from Delhi. Party strategists should understand that contrary to the vile in social media, the general public of this country still lives by the century old adage- ‘Pyar se maango, jaan de denge”.

The paratrooping of Kiran Bedi, the woman who till the polling day, was not able to shake off her narcissism, proved to be proverbial final straw that broke the BJP’s back.  “The main- main, “mainey yeh kiya, mainey woh kiya, mai yeh karungi, mai woh karungi”, did not go down too well with the Delhi voters. Compare her with Harshvardan, the former BJP CM candidate. Harvardhan, the humble doctor, modest family man, camera shy, always smiling politician. The man who for years now has been the common Aadmi of Delhi BJP.  Bedi, the moment she joined the BJP, played the match as if it was about her and not the BJP. Antagonizing the cadre and largely ignoring them, she gave a message that she has been hand-picked by Modi himself, which might not have been the case. 

Finally, people will read too much into this electoral result and portray it as the election where the Modi halo was breached. But the point is in a democracy, elections are won and lost. That is what the will of people is, always oscillating, never staying still. Bihar, where the next electoral battle will be played out, may give a totally different picture. A BJP win or loss, whatever happens in the end, should not lie squarely on the shoulders of Modi. The blame or the accolades, as the case maybe, should be shared by everyone, from the party cadre to the union ministers and by the PM himself.