IS JASWANT LOOKING ANY BETTER THAN THE COTERIE NOW?

Let us imagine that an Archbishop has written a scholarly book, after a detailed study of Christian and Islamic religious texts, and come to the conclusion that Prophet Mohammad was possibly right: Jesus too was just a prophet like him, no more. How do you think the Catholic Church will react? What do you think the Pope will do? Jaswant Singh's reinterpretation of Jinnah in a similar vein is something that cannot be accepted by both the Congress and the BJP. It is only coincidental that he was in the BJP. Had he been in the Congress, he would have been hounded out from that party. Let there be no doubt that.

But where the BJP has displayed the almost total bankruptcy of its top leadership and the post-poll panic that has gripped it, is in the manner in which it summarily expelled him telephonically, within hours of the 600 plus page book being published, without giving him a show cause notice or any other opportunity to explain. Look at the irony: Jaswant Singh has criticised Nehru - whose descendants rule India - and Sardar Patel, also a Congressman. The rebuttals and criticisms should have been coming from the Congress - any criticism of Nehru being simply unacceptable - but it is the BJP that lost its balance.

The attacks began too, with Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi laying blame for the book on the BJP by calling it the Bharatiya "Jinnah" Party. A lot more, and worse, would have been heard from the Congress camp. TV studio debates would have centred around a stout defence of Nehru's actions and a trenchant criticism of Jinnah by the Congress. Jaswant Singh would have been in the firing line of the Congress, and the BJP would have been merrily watching Nehru being dissected and exposed like never before, from the sidelines. But for that, the BJP had to take time to act against Jaswant Singh. And let the Congress make the allegation that it was not doing anything only because he had criticised Nehru!

But, in one disastrous stroke, BJP's leadership committed brainless hara kiri. It took the heat off the Congress, turned it, magnified, upon itself, and pushed a humiliated Jaswant Singh into the enemy camp, armed with sordid secrets that had the potential of devastating its top leader and badly singeing his coterie.

Perhaps the great hurry to get rid of him was necessitated by the fact the the BJP's "Pope" had himself done something similar in 2005, and did not have the courage to personally confront him. In any case, it was indicative of the low level to which some other party leaders, who have been working hard to hijack the party for some time, had sunk in their efforts to marginalise all potential threats. The book was a heaven-sent opportunity which they grabbed with the disturbing greed and speed, to make sure that there was no slip between the stolen cup and their lips.

After his expulsion, Jaswant Singh has gone ballistic in his criticism, particularly of Advani. Kandahar and the cash-for-vote scam have been near mortal blows from which Advani will not recover. The party that was Jaswant Singh's home for over three decades has also begun to look to him like the Ku Klux Klan. It is not Advani alone who has been hit hard by these outbursts. Jaswant Singh himself is beginning to look uglier with each passing day, with his carefully constructed sophistication failing to conceal his own petty vindictiveness. He can no longer claim that he is being "conservative with truth". Perhaps even that was a lie.

During the course of writing the book, when he came to the conclusion that Jinnah was a great man, Jaswant Singh should have remembered that he was a senior leader in the political landscape of India, and not a free lancer or an outsider writing just another book criticising the fundamental beliefs of the BJP as well as the Congress. At that point of time itself, he should have either gone into political retirement or should have waited till he had retired before publishing the book. But he did not display the required rectitude even then.

Jaswant Singh's pretence of injured innocence and his utterances based on it are, therefore, nearly as inexcusable as his summary expulsion by leaders who are taking the BJP down. They will all do well to join him in political retirement. The sooner that happens, the better it will be for the BJP. If they still want to bat on, they will get an invitation from Amar Singh, like Jaswant Singh has got. That is the right the place for them all.

Picture Source: Reuters
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DOES INDIA NEED "FEDERALISM" LIKE JINNAH WANTED?

After being in the BJP for more than three decades, Jaswant Singh has begun to talk of the virtues of the "federalism" that Jinnah espoused and that Nehru was opposed to. He now says that India needs federalism and not the centralising that the RSS believes in and that led Nehru and the Congress to reject the Cabinet Mission Plan and agree to the Partition of India.

To briefly recapitulate, the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946 envisaged the grouping of India into three main parts: Group "A" - Hindustan, Group "B" - Kashmir, Punjab, Sarhad, Sindh, Baluchistan, and Group "C" - Bengal, Orissa, Assam. Each of these groups were to have 11 members in the Centre in a kind of a senate. You may notice that Muslims were in overall majority in areas included in Groups B and C. So, effectively, the senate would have had 22 out of 33 members from here even though non-Muslim majority Group "A" had a much bigger area and population.

As is evident from this Plan and the maps of the Pakistan that was proposed by the Muslim League, one of which is shown above, the party led by Jinnah saw India in only two dimensions: majority and minority, Hindu and Muslim. There was no space in it for ethnicity. So, the "federalism" that Jinnah spoke about and that has so impressed Jaswant Singh, was, to my uncluttered mind, something that applied only along religious lines.

There is little evidence to show, notwithstanding Jinnah's famous secular speech to Pakistan's Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1946, that the Muslim League had any intention of granting the same federal freedom to religious and ethnic groups belonging to and living in Muslim majority areas that is sought for those areas as one entity. It never saw the federal government of Pakistan limiting its role to defence, finance and foreign affairs.

The happenings in Pakistan after Partition bear this out. First, almost all non-Muslims were systematically driven out from there, even long after Partition. Then, although Bengalis of East Pakistan constituted the single largest ethnic group in that country, real power remained in the hands of the Punjabis and the Mohajirs who had left India. The federalism that Jinnah wanted for Muslims in a united India was not put in place in Pakistan because it was viewed as a unitary whole solely on a communal basis. That is why East Pakistan eventually broke the chains of religion by which it had been bound to the artificially created new country.

It would be fair to say that the concept of Pakistan could easily have been buried at the time of Partition itself. Ethnic Punjabis and Sindhis would have undoubtedly revolted and rejected Pakistan had they found themselves getting outnumbered in their land by Muslims from other parts of India who chose not to go to Pakistan. That is the real trick that Indian leaders missed at that time.

It also needs to be mentioned here that Pakistan is the only multi-language, multi-ethnic state in the world created from nowhere on the basis of Islam. Even the Arabs, the race to which the Prophet belonged, have not ever been able to form one nation state with the glue of the religion that they have taken almost all over the world. One race, one language, one religion, 22 countries. The glue of Islam has worked only in West Pakistan so far, and that too primarily because the military, that has a huge stake in its continuance as one country, has ruthlessly put down movements for separation based on ethnicity.

Coming back to the concept of federalism, India was divided on the basis of the communal argument put forth by Jinnah and the Muslim League. That having happened, does federalism necessarily have to be viewed still only in terms of devolution of greater power to the states created after Independence on a linguistic basis?

Is not federalism at work at the Centre itself?

China is a country that is dominated and run almost exclusively by the Hans. Minorities have little stake and are often suppressed ruthlessly. Han Chinese are also being consciously settled in non-Han areas to change the demographic profile for good. The USSR called itself a federation alright but power rested primarily in the hands of the Russians, before that super power broke up along ethnic fault lines. In Pakistan too, it is Punjabis, comprising half the population, who enjoy a disproportionately large share of power.

In India, however, no ethnic group enjoys a dominant position. If we look at the present Central government, for example, we see real federalism. The most powerful national leader is a Catholic lady who was born in Italy, the Prime Minister is a Punjabi Sikh and the Defence Minister is a Christian from Kerala. The Home Minister hails from Tamil Nadu, the Foreign Minister from Karnataka and the Finance Minister from West Bengal.

In India, thus, the Centre does not represent the domination of any ethnic group. In fact, in the democratic model that we are following presently, it is possible for a small regional or ideological party to exert disproportionate influence in decision making. The holding up of economic reforms by the communists in the previous government and the stalling of the disinvestment of Neyvelli Lignite by the DMK are two visible examples that readily come to mind. Of course, there continue to be some ethnic groups who still do not feel empowered and connected to the nation like most others are. This sore point needs to be addressed. India belongs to all equally.

Looking at this picture from the point of view of religion does not show an accurate image at all. That is why, attempts being made by some leaders to perpetuate the Jinnah concept of looking at all Indians following Islam as one block, irrespective of their ethnicity, must be discouraged in every manner possible. Unfortunately, despite the examples of Bangladesh and the Arab world in front of us, we are fanning this communal practice in the name of secularism. Those demonising Jinnah are, ironically, keeping his flawed legacy alive. The outcome cannot be good.

Had Jinnah foreseen that after Independence, the Congress would cease to be the force that it was then, and that after half a century, regional political parties with barely a dozen MPs would be in a position to veto decisions of the Central government, he would have been able to look beyond the very limited and communal Hindu-Muslim dimension that he allowed himself to get stuck in, in his quest for an immediate and disproportionate share of the power pie.

As subsequent developments have shown, "Hindus" would not have been in any position whatsoever to deprive "Muslims" of their rightful share of power, had India remained united. And, India would have actually become a truly federal country, not by taking power away from the Centre, but because of the fact that power would have been shared there by leaders representing Indians from all communities and from all parts of the country. Arun Shourie, however, feels that a united India would have been bullied, thrashed and swamped by Islamic fundamentalists.

Jinnah-struck Jaswant Singh is now re-discovering the virtues of federalism. Unless he is saying it only to spite the parivar that he was with for a long time, it seems that like the man he now admires, he is also not able to see federalism in full flow at the Centre. His view has also been coloured by that single hue of religion beyond which Jinnah could never look in his later years. That is why he is unable to see that in a diverse nation like India, as long as there is democracy, centralisation and federalism cannot not mutually exclusive, and that the latter can actually thrive in the former.
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Readers may also read: Jinnah claims Jaswant: Hanuman becomes Ravan
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SPOT THE BJP IN THE PICTURE!

What do you see in this picture? There is tree, a bike and a few plants in the background. Which one of these do you think represents the BJP of today?

If you ask the troika of Advani, Rajnath and Jaitley, they will, no prizes for guessing, tell you that the tree is the BJP. And the bike? Oh! that is the once mighty Congress that the BJP has got hold of, notwithstanding the recent defeat which is nothing more than an aberration. And the plants? They are the Laloos, Mulayams and Karats of the world watching the two big boys as they grapple it out.

What will Jaswant and Shourie say? Of course the bike is the BJP! And the troika is the tree that has strangulated the party and left it helpless and without any hope, even though it is in great shape. No matter how hard dedicated workers and other leaders work to keep it gleaming, tanked up and raring to go, all that it can do is make a lot of noise standing where it is, and wear its tyres out without moving forward an inch. The troika's grip is unrelenting and will eventually prove to be fatal.

No wonder Arun Shourie is recalling what Mao said decades ago: bombard the headquarters. That is the only way to get rid of the top leadership. The bike can't move till the tree is cut. From the roots. When he says that the BJP is a Kati Patang, I believe it indeed is. But without a Rajesh Khanna and with plenty of Prem Chopras. Look at the picture again.

Can you see how they have pinned her? Or do you see a different picture?

Watch Arun Shourie's "Walk the Talk" NDTV video with Shekhar Gupta where he says all this and more.

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Readers may also read:
1. Jinnah claims Jaswant; Hanuman becomes Ravan
2. Will BJP's drooping Lotus bloom again?
3. Sacking of Khanduri: caucus destroying BJP
4. BJP: this time it is different
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NEW 'TWEET' BLOG

Twitter is a micro-blogging service that enables its users to send tweets, text based posts of 140 characters or less, to their followers. These can be accessed only in Twitter.

The character limitation of Twitter makes it almost impossible for a blogger to create a complete post that will attract readers other than followers. In 140 words, however, one can tell a story. That may be a challenge, but it can be fun too.

"India Tweets" is the new blog born out of this thought. Some readers of India Retold have told me that my satirical posts are fun to read. Therefore, in this blog, I intend to put up interesting and fun socio-political posts related to India.

All are invited to contribute, as long as their “tweets” are upto 140 words.

This “tweet” is within that limit.

REMEMBERING RAJIV: CONGRESS IS WORSE THAN MAYAWATI

Mayawati has been in the cross hairs of the media's sights for constructing dalit memorials at state expense. Much has been written and spoken about how she is mindlessly squandering public money on building her own statues. In a recent program on NDTV, a very agitated Prannoy Roy called for a complete ban on such activities because they utilise the tax payers' money for furthering the cause of a political party. With a straight face, Salman Khursheed of the Congress party agreed with him completely.

Are Indians fools? Don’t they know that the biggest culprit by far in this game is the Congress party? Don't Prannoy Roy and others like him also know this? Then why has there never been a similar uproar till now?

Today is Rajiv Gandhi's birthday. Without a worry about what the much flogged "aam aadmi" might say or feel, the Congress party is brazenly using the occasion to make maximum possible political capital of it at state expense. Newspapers have been saturated with advertisements by various departments of the central government to sell Rajiv Gandhi to India. Examples of two newspapers published from New Delhi should give you an idea of how the minds of Indians have been carpet bombed by the Congress today with Rajiv ads:

Hindustan Times

Full Page

1. Rural Electrification Corporation, Ministry of Power
2. Ministry of Food Processing Industries
3. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

Half Page

1. Delhi Government
2. HRD Ministry
3. Delhi SC, ST, OBC, Minority and Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation
4. Women and Child Development Ministry
5. National Literacy Mission Authority
6. Commerce and Industry Ministry
7. National Commission for women
8. Department of IT, Communication Ministry

Quarter Page

1. Government of Maharashtra

The Times of India

Full Page

1. Rural Electrification Corporation, Ministry of Power
2. Ministry of Food Processing Industries
3. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

Half Page

1. Delhi Government
2. HRD Ministry
3. Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty alleviation
4. Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj
5. Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment
6. Women and child development ministry
7. National Literacy Mission authority
8. Commerce and Industry Ministry
9. National Commission for women
10. Department of IT, Communication Ministry

This is not the first time that this has been done. Nor is Rajiv Gandhi the only one who is so remembered. Jawahar Lal Nehru and Indira Gandhi are also so remembered on their birthdays and death anniversaries at government expense, and this has been going on for decades. Has the media ever complained? Is it complaining even now, in the light of its own moral outrage at what Mayawati is doing? How can it? It is raking in the moolah by publishing these advertisements. You don't criticise the "hand" that feeds you, do you? If someone carries out a detailed analysis of how much money has been spent by the government - and paid to the media - over the years, the mind boggling figures will expose one reason why large sections of the media find it almost impossible to be objective and unbiased in their political reporting and analysis.

This is not all. The Congress has also gone berserk naming almost every government funded program that can get it some votes after these three members of the dynasty. In a petition to the Election Commission, journalist A. Surya Prakash has listed 450 Central and State government activities named after Nehru, Indira and Rajiv. He questions the morality of attaching of a politician's name to government programs aimed at improving the lives of citizens, because they give the impression that the politician needs to be thanked for what the citizens have got in his name. Not surprisingly, he says, Mahatma Gandhi's name adorns only the Backward Region Development Fund.

It also needs to be remembered that it was the Congress party that started this ugly culture of creating memorials for political leaders and the naming of roads, bridges, airports, buildings and what have you, after them. Mayawati was not wrong when she tauntingly said that the real estate value of the three sprawling samadhis built in Delhi for Nehru, Indira and Rajiv far exceeds the amount that is being spent by her for building dalit memorials. In addition, Teen Murti House and 1, Safdarjang Road, where Nehru and Indira respectively stayed as PMs, have been converted into national memorials. In fact, these three leaders has been similarly honoured at state expense across the country, locking real estate worth thousands of crores. It needs no imagination to grasp that hundreds of crores of rupees are being spent on their maintenance and upkeep annually.

It goes without saying that these too are political advertisements designed to benefit the Congress party and, even more importantly, the Nehru-Gandhi family in its political quest. Have you ever heard any media star say anything against this misuse of power and tax payers' money?

It is time to seriously start putting an end to this tradition that the Congress and the media have colluded to perpetuate. To start with, there should be a blanket ban on advertisements in the media at state expense. If any party wants to highlight the good work that it has done or an achievement of its leader, the bill must be footed by the party and not by the government. This will hurt the media because no party can afford to cough up such huge amounts. The call is on the integrity of the media.

Similarly, naming of government funded schemes etc after politicians should also be banned, as should the practice of naming of every important bridge and building after them. At best, a limit of three or so for naming landmarks across the country/state after a PM/CM should be laid down. Similarly, all memorials - and not just those being built by Mayawati - should also de-politicised and put to better use for the good of India's citizens . If some political party wants, it should build and maintain a memorial or two out of party funds. Citizens should not be made to pay for any memorial except that of Mahatma Gandhi. At best, the government should maintain an additional combined memorial for all Prime Ministers.

If, however, the media and the Congress want to remain happy with what has been happening over the decades to their mutual benefit, then this fake and dishonest talk generated by Mayawati's move to remind the country about its dalit leaders at state expense should be cut out completely. As everyone with integrity knows, no party or individual is in any position to replicate what the Congress party has done and is continuing to do without even the pretence of any moral or ethical pangs, thanks primarily to a similarly disposed media.

JINNAH CLAIMS JASWANT; HANUMAN BECOMES RAVAN

A couple of days back, Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress had referred to the BJP as the Bharatiya Jinnah Party. Today, the BJP attempted to exorcise the ghost of MA Jinnah that LK Advani had brought along with him from Karachi in 2005, by expelling veteran leader Jaswant Singh from the party. The swift move, that has surprised everyone, is a stark reminder that the many wounds created by the violent Partition of India still hurt, and hurt deep.

I don't know how many have already read Jaswant Singh's 600 page biography of Jinnah, Jinnah India-Partition Independence, released on August 17, 2009 and whether anyone has written a book review. In any case, in the coming days and months, what he has written after a great deal of research spread over five years, will undoubtedly be dissected from every possible angle, and there will be extreme reactions too. For the last six decades, Indians have accepted as the whole truth the view that Jinnah was an extremely unreasonable man who used violence and the threat of it to force the division of India on a communal basis.

This demonised image of Jinnah has stood out even more jarringly in India because of the almost saintly persona of Mahatma Gandhi who practiced and took the concept of non-violence to a new level altogether. Gandhi wanted Hindus and Muslims to live together in harmony and mutual respect. But it was Jinnah, the villain, who did not allow that to happen. That is what Indians believe. In Pakistan, the part of India that Jinnah took with him literally by force, on the other hand, he is eulogised as the saviour of India's Muslims from Hindu domination. The way Pakistan has shaped since 1947 into a Hindu-hating entity - as can be seen from the history that is being taught to its children in schools - has only helped to make extremely difficult any objective assessment of Jinnah's personality and role before Partition, on both sides of the border.

Above all, the fact that India has been ruled by the Congress for most of the 62 years that have passed since Independence, has ensured that India continues to see Jinnah as no more than a hyper ambitious individual who unleashed the ugly communal demon that burnt and divided India. This has happened primarily because India has been systematically made to see Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru as the great secular visionary who had the interests of Muslims uppermost in his mind, and who laid the foundations of modern India.

Thus, while in Pakistan Jinnah's image is distorted by the thick lens of religion that Pakistan has chosen to increasingly see itself through, in India Nehru's image has been carefully cropped by scissors guided by his descendants who have ruled India for long. As a result, over time, in their respective countries, Jinnah and Nehru have become the faultless leaders that they never were. Their ugly warts have been hidden and lie forgotten.

Jaswant Singh has apparently uncovered some Indian warts. From what one has gathered till now, he has dispassionately tried to look at the role of Jinnah in India's freedom struggle. In 1916, Gopal Krishna Gokhale had praised Jinnah and called him an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity. Thirty years later, the same man became the Qaid-e-Azam of Pakistan. No one will disagree that this transformation was remarkable. No one will also suspend elementary commonsense to say that such a total turnaround in outlook could have taken place without there being very strong environmental factors that would have, at least in Jinnah's perception, left him with no choice.

The questions that have manifestly been addressed in detail by Jaswant Singh are: what were the developments and who were the personalities that forced Jinnah to give physical shape to an idea that he wanted to use only as a bargaining tool to get a greater share of power for Muslims in India?

Jaswant Singh says that he has come to the conclusion that it was partly Nehru's intransigence and his vision of a centralised India that forced Jinnah to take the Partition route. The Congress party, not surprisingly, cannot accept a reading of history that shows Nehru as being responsible for Partition in any manner. It is goes without saying that any favourable hue that Jinnah gets has to be largely at Nehru's expense. For the BJP and the RSS, on the other hand, Jinnah, the man who divided India, cannot be the subject of any re-examination that even remotely justifies what he did to this country, even if some blame falls on Nehru. For them, the issue is foundational and ideological. Praise in any manner is, therefore, unthinkable, as Advani had earlier found out.

Where does that leave Jaswant Singh? The Congress has, not surprisingly, welcomed the BJP's swift decision to expel him from the party. In Pakistan, there is some joy and relief at the unexpected manner in which their founder has been portrayed by an Indian, and that too a politician belonging to a right wing Hindu party. That icing on the cake will ensure that Jaswant Singh's political career is terminated abruptly.

Jinnah has claimed Jaswant, as he had to. BJP's Hanuman has become Ravan.

But this debate is not going to die here. And should not. Whether Jaswant is right or not is not important. What is more important is that as a nation we must have the courage to accept and face history honestly, warts included. Non-acceptance of any praise for Jinnah and criticism of Nehru is as bad as the ignoring and/or denying of earlier developments and incidents in our history books on specious grounds. A society cannot claim to be liberal and free if it tries to distort and cleanse its history in any manner, for any political, social or ideological reasons. Unfortunately, after Independence, India has done that.

On hopes that Jaswant Singh's courageous, even if flawed, effort spurs India to take a holistic re-look at not just its modern history, but its medieval and ancient history too. India deserves it.
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Readers may also read: Does India need "federalism" like Jinnah wanted?

SHAHRUKH TWEETS

SRK is never far away from headlines, is he? But this time, he is there not for what he has done but for what has been done to him. Oh! not by Karan Johar, you people with sick minds, but by the arrogant Yanks. They held him up at Newark airport for all of two long hours to make sure that he was not on a "mission". It was only with great difficulty, aided immensely by the loud screams raised by many Indians through every possible means of communication, that Shahrukh Khan was able to convince them that though he was a Khan and on a mission, it had nothing to do with terrorism at all. He was in the US simply to lead India's Independence Day Parade in Chicago.

Every one who is someone and every one who is not, has an opinion about this national disaster that appears to be graver than the drought that is claiming the lives of many poor farmers across India. It is difficult to make any sense of all the noise that one is being bombarded with from all directions. So, some smart guy requested Twitter to get a few concerned Indians, including the poor aam aadmi, to punch their 140 characters or less take on this big development that has shaken India like nothing else has in recent times.

Here are some of those great tweets that followed, some fictional, some real, some suitably tweaked!

Pir Sanghvi: What is the point of electing a President called Hussein if your officers think Khan is a terrorist name?

Ambika Koini: We must do to Bill Clinton what the Americans have done to Shahrukh

Nagarika Ghose: Why is Ambika so hysterical? Politicians need perspective and film stars need smaller egos.

Aam Aadmi: @nagarikaghose That will leave only media stars with big egos!

Barkha Futt: Shahrukh's was revolting religious profiling. Muslim name equals Suspicion

Balman Khan: I am so glad the Americans have done what they did. So what if SRK is a Muslim?

Na-amir Khan: @balmankhan There are better ways to compete with SRK. But for that you need to be intelligent.

Balman Khan: @naamirkhan I don’t have a complex like you. Because of strict checks only there has been no attack after 9/11

Aam Aadmi: Al Gore was also similarly held for questioning. So what's the big deal?

Pir Sanghvi: @aamaadmi That is because his name sounds Muslim, like Al Jazeera, Al Qaida. Al Pacino will soon be held too.

Aam Aadmi: @pirsanghvi Now don't tell me that they thought Bob Dylan was some Dhillon from India!

Mahesh Ghatt: I have one Hindu eye and one Muslim. The latter tells me that all Muslims are being treated like terrorists.

Kisser Khan: Do I look like a terrorist?

Nagarika Ghose: "Sharif" Muslims like Kisser Khan are being denied housing in India. Why the outrage about SRK?

Pir Sanghvi: Abdul Kalam was also frisked only because he had a Muslim name

Aam Aadmi: @pirsanghvi Why has Robert Vadra never been frisked? He has a weird surname, doesn't he?

Ambika Koini: @aamaadmi He is an SPG protectee

Aam Aadmi: @ambikakoini But why? What makes him more important than the Chiefs in whose hands India's security lies?

Barkha Futt: Obama should invite SRK for a "beer summit" and apologise

Ambika Koini: When Obama comes to India, in protest we will not name a platter after him in Bukhara. Can't do more, can we?

Aam Aadmi: @barkhafutt When Modi was denied visa, why did you all rejoice and call the US "world saviour"?

Pir Sanghvi: @aamaadmi Modi is a Hindu terrorist who butchers Muslims; SRK is a Muslim hero who butters Hindus.

Barkha Futt: @aamaadmi He is also my good friend.

Aam Aadmi: I think India needs to learn from America's security culture

Ambika Koini:@aamaadmi The US badly needs a dose of VIP culture, lal battis, commandos, loud sirens, and all that

Aam Aadmi: @ambikakoini Send Laloo Yadav there with his huge extended family and even bigger protection party

Ambika Koini: @aamaadmi Not him. He is not needed by the UPA any longer

Barkha Futt: If India's FM could escort terrorists to Kandahar, why can't Hillary escort SRK to India?

Pir Sanghvi: Hillary takes lot of money from Indians like Chhatwal. She must apologise to SRK and those who don't pay Bill or her

Aamaadmi: @pirsanghvi She takes legit money or bribes? Is she like Indian politicians whom you know well?

Pir Sanghvi: @aamaadmi Does it make a difference? Some Indians have paid her so she must apologise to Shahrukh

Aam Aadmi: @pirsanghvi Some Indians have given her money, so she should apologise to those who haven't? I don't get it

Pir Sanghvi: @aamaadmi You won't. If you could, you wouldn't be blogging about what I, Pir Sanghvi, am tweeting!

Ambika Koini: @aamaadmi Know why you are still aam aadmi? You give us "aam" and are happy to get back "guthli"!

WILL BJP'S DROOPING LOTUS BLOOM AGAIN?

Is the BJP being driven by a strong sense of history to repeat its past performance in the next general elections? That it is, is not in doubt. What is in serious doubt is which previous result it wants to beat. Does it want to better the 183 seats that it won in 1999 or is it desperate to get less than the two that it did in 1984? All indications are that the members of caucus that has taken control of the party have decided that they would rather take the party down than accept responsibility and take themselves out.

Despite the electoral disaster, the three men who should have gracefully stepped aside straightaway have actually dug their heels in hard, to prevent anyone from uprooting them from their positions of power and authority. LK Advani continues as the supreme leader of the party, after a perfunctory offer to step down. Rajnath Singh continues to be party President after completing the formality of saying that he accepts responsibility for the defeat. Above all, Arun Jaitley, the master strategist who had never failed to claim credit whenever the party had done well in any previous election that he was responsible for, has simply refused to shoulder the blame this time. Conveniently citing the principal of "collective responsibility", he has actually got himself a promotion instead!

Although these leaders are telling everyone that there are no full stops in politics, and Advani wants to go on another rath yatra to tell party workers that in this defeat is an opportunity , and that he is just the guy who can see and exploit it, they are making other heads roll.

The first fall guy that the caucus found a couple of months back was Uttarakhand Chief Minister BC Khanduri, an honest man of outstanding credentials, who was forced to resign from his job, despite having done well as CM, ostensibly because the BJP did badly in that state. To make matters worse, he was replaced by Ramesh Pokhriyal who does not carry as good an image among the people, to say the least.

The axe has now fallen again. And this time the victim is Vasundhara Raje, former Chief Minister of Rajasthan. Rajnath Singh wants her out, her supporters want her to stay and LK Advani does not know what to do. 57 MLAs who owe allegiance to her have returned to Jaipur without being able to meet the BJP supremo. But the battle is not over yet. The BJP lost the Assembly elections not due to the performance of her government but because powerful leaders of the BJP itself worked over time to ensure her and thereby the party's defeat. That momentum, quite naturally, showed in the results of the Lok Sabha elections too. Now, the caucus is demanding her head.

Vasundhara Raje is one of the few modern faces of the BJP. Plus she is a woman who has shown that she has it in her to deliver as CM. How many BJP leaders can make such a claim? Sushma Swaraj, the other woman leader who has been promoted after the electoral debacle, has serious limitations, some of which will not endear her to the vast and growing Indian middle class. Besides, she is neither a Mayawati nor a Sonia Gandhi who can deliver votes for the BJP across India, or become PM at some stage. On the other hand, Vasundhara Raje, whichever way you look at it, is the one face that the BJP must project as a tall leader, if it is serious about having any chance in the next general elections. She is perhaps the only woman leader in the BJP who can blunt the edge of the two ladies mentioned above, if she is utilised properly over the next few years.

Is that why she is under attack? Are the few leaders who have hijacked the BJP out to make sure that there is no threat to their continuance as the only faces, the only leaders of the party? Is that not why BC Khanduri has been sidelined? Is not Narendra Modi also in their sights, to be taken out at the right time, just as it seems Jaswant Singh was before the elections? Remember how Advani conveniently washed his hands off the decision of Jaswant Singh to go to Kandahar to bring the hostages back, and let the Congress and the media tear into him without any justification whatsoever? Have not Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie been brushed aside for similar reasons?

You would have hardly ever seen Lal Krishna Advani smile freely in front of the cameras, no matter what the good news. But, a couple of days back, he just could not stop himself from baring his sparkling and perfect teeth. And what was the great news that was responsible for it? It was Sushma Swaraj telling India that Advani would remain Leader of the Opposition for five years! That picture of the 81 year old "mazboot neta" of the "nirnayak sarkar" that the people of India had rejected in May this year, told the sad story of what has fundamentally gone wrong with the BJP.

Are Advani and the party out of their minds to even think of going in for the next elections under an 85 year old man?

Whatever may be the inner story to which, like most Indians, I am not privy, the harsh fact is that the BJP is now appearing to the ordinary Indian to be a party without an idea, what to talk of ideology and idealism. In essence, the party looks no more more than a badly smudged copy of the very Congress that it used to proudly claim it was "different" from. As a direct result of this debilitating metamorphosis, the greatest weakness of the Congress - dynastic succession - has become the USP that is making it look better than the BJP. The voter at least knows where the power lies now and will in future, for better or worse. He knows whom he is to vote for or against. There are no pretenders to confuse him or put him off.

In sharp contrast, the BJP, which could once boast of being a truly democratic party with many tall leaders of impeccable integrity, vision and competence, is now hostage to a few small leaders who have become bigger than the party. Since they have been found out for what they really are, a war for control of the party has begun. Copying the strategy that was adopted by Indira Gandhi to become the unquestioned leader of the Congress, the few who have seized control of the party have begun to systematically sideline real leaders who can pose a threat to them in future.

Unfortunately, the BJP does not have a centripetal force towards which other leaders as well the nation can be successfully drawn. That is the fatal flaw that will lead to uglier and uglier scenes being played out over the next few years, if the caucus is not uprooted completely. The longer it remains in control, the more the damage there will be to the party. As a result, the Congress, without doing anything at all, will gain and the supremacy of the Nehru-Gandhi family will start looking more and more like a blessing rather than the black spot that it is on India's democracy.

How many self-goals can one of the two leading national parties keep scoring without getting mauled? As things stand now, paradoxically the only way things can get any better for the BJP is if the party performs poorly in the Assembly elections that are due to be held in the next three years or so. How many fall guys can the caucus keep finding while remaining Teflon-coated itself? It is not the equivalent of the Nehru-Gandhi family without which the BJP will lose its identity.

Removal of the coterie that controls the BJP is vital if the party wants to have any realistic hope of seeing its Lotus bloom in New Delhi in 2014 and/or later. The sooner the party and the RSS face up to this harsh truth, and make way for leaders like Raje, Khanduri, Modi, Yediurappa etc to take centre stage, the better it is for the party and perhaps even for India. Will that happen anytime soon?

I don't know why, but images of a very reluctant Bhutto being forcibly dragged to the gallows are appearing in my mind. No one is going to give up power easily. He will have to be evicted by force. Unless that is done, the once magnificient warship called BJP may well find itself in Alang.

CHINA GETS DANGEROUS, BUT NOTHING CAN MOVE INDIA

The posture is getting increasingly aggressive and the objectives more and more dangerous.

China, as India should have understood decades back, but has manifestly not till now, is not mindlessly keeping alive its border dispute with India, particularly over Arunachal Pradesh or Southern Tibet as China calls it. It is the perfect and ready excuse that China needs to switch from dialogue to military attack whenever it chooses to. All it has to do is to suddenly claim that the Indians are being unacceptably difficult on the negotiating table, and have left China with no choice but to liberate Southern Tibet through use of force.

This is such a straightforward deduction that it is unbelievable that India's politicians and babus have colluded to keep India as vulnerable as it is today, that too in the light of the stinging lesson of 1962. This failure is inexcusable. But it seems that the buck does not stop anywhere in India. India's security apparatus has been systematically hijacked fraudulently by generalist, department hopping babus, even though they do not have even a remote understanding of what they are dealing with. Add to this the fact that they are not in any manner accountable to anyone for the colossal price that India will undoubtedly have to pay for their blunders, and you have a perfect recipe for a national disaster of frightening proportions. Tragically, that is not what concerns them. The nation can go to hell for all they care, as long as they can hold on to every single lever of power and decision making in the MOD, MEA and NSA.

In March last year, Chinese President Hu Jintao asked the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) to enhance its capabilities to win hi-tech regional wars, respond to security threats and accomplish a diverse array of military tasks. Almost in tandem, Chinese military journals started, without any provocation, to talk tough against India and accused it of going on the "same old path of confrontation with China as it had in 1962", and warned that China "will not pull back 30 km" as it had in 1962.

That belligerence and hostility should have, but did not shock officials in the NSA and MOD, who simply don’t seem to care, or in the Foreign Office, who have made it a national policy to crawl when China says "walk". That is the one and only way they have found for India to ensure that the Chinese are kept looking good and the illusion of "friendship" is maintained. Why? One, because they have no expertise in matters related to strategy and security and, two, because they do not want to spoil their cozy status quo party; their "West" fixation and cadre supremacy depend entirely on it.

But, did anyone else sit up and take notice? Did anyone else join the dots and tell the political leadership that the military gap between India and China had become uncomfortably large and that India needed to do something about it on a war footing, if it did not want to face a debacle worse than 1962? You know the answer. Everyone in the know knows the answer.

So, while the Chinese kept officials in the MEA happy and the babus in the NSA and MOD in comfortable slumber by cooperating with India on insignificant issues in various international forums, where it mattered they kept getting and talking tougher, and did not blink before responding in a hostile manner, when needed. At the NSG meeting in Vienna last year, for example, they tried their best to sabotage the clean waiver without which the Indo-US Nuclear Deal would have been useless. But for Bush, they would have succeeded too. Subsequently, they also officially blocked a $ 2.9 billion assistance program from the ADB only because some of that money was to be used in Arunachal Pradesh. All this was accompanied by tirades against India's economic progress, its relations with Pakistan, its response after 26/11 etc. Did it cause even a drop of sweat to appear on the brows of those in charge of India's national security apparatus?

Emboldened by its military might and India's expected zero response, China has now dropped the bombshell that even the totally blind cannot ignore. A recent article in a quasi-official Chinese web site has, for the first time, echoed the objective that Pakistan has been pursuing almost since its inception. It says that India must be broken into 20-30 pieces and that it is in China's interest to do so. To make this a reality, it goes on to say, China should " bring into its fold countries like Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan, support Ulfa in attaining its goal for Assam’s independence, back aspirations of Indian nationalities like Tamils and Nagas, encourage Bangladesh to give a push to the independence of West Bengal and lastly recover the 90,000 sq km territory in southern Tibet".

China has also just launched its biggest ever military exercise to improve its capacity for "long range projection" . It involves 50,000 troops, some of whom will use trains moving at 350 kmph and civilian passenger and cargo aircraft, to move thousands of miles.

So, now we have not one but two strong neighbours who want to break India up in their national interests. They both see an emerging but pacifist India that has no territorial ambitions whatsoever, and that looks only inward, as a threat to their countries, for different reasons. And to counter what Indians know is an imaginary threat, they are speaking of dismembering this country.

India, on the other hand, refuses to see any country as as a threat at all, no matter what the provocation, no matter what the historical background. Its army of ignorant and disinterested politicians and babus wants to keep pretending that all will be well eventually if India walks more than half the distance, even if it is to effectively surrender, and if it engages in "proactive diplomacy". This inexplicable foolishness despite the nasty experiences of 1947, 1962, 1965 and the ongoing proxy war that Pakistan launched in 1989, is something that cannot be grasped by anyone save the few Indian "analysts" who are on the government's page either due to sheer ignorance or some sort of political convenience.

That is perhaps why Naval Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta has been forced to publicly warn the nation a few days before his retirement that "In military terms, both conventionally and unconventionally, we neither have the capability nor the intention to match China force for force…”. No capability, no intention. There is no capability presently because there never was an intention in the past; there will be no capability in future too because there is no intention even now. That is precisely why the gap has become "too wide to bridge and is getting wider by the day".

No matter how dangerous China gets for India, India's response will not change. Nothing can move its leaders. They will keep helplessly parroting that India's ties with China are fundamentally healthy. And do nothing at all to even narrow the gap that they have mindlessly allowed that country to create in just a few decades.

For years, China quietly but furiously developed its conventional and nuclear military capability and did not make any threatening noises, to lull a very willing India into complacency. Even during that period, it did not stop regular and increasingly deeper incursions into Indian territory, without drawing a befitting and respect-generating response from an India that has remained scared to death thanks to the 1962 debacle.

Having successfully created the minimum military gap that it had deliberately set out to, the tiger has cast away the sheep skin that it was wearing. Having done that, it is now threatening to attack the petrified lamb called India by blaming it for drinking and soiling the water that is actually flowing downstream from him to the poor creature.

The lamb in the original story had no hope and was eaten by the tiger, even though it was not at fault, because it really was no more than a weak, defenceless lamb. India is no born lamb. It has been turned into one by its security blind politico-bureaucratic machinery that has obdurately refused to learn any lesson from history, ancient or contemporary, and has put in place a structure that has reduced this huge nation to such a pitiable state that not just China but Pakistan - even Bangladesh and Nepal - treat it without fear and with a contempt that would shame any self respecting nation.

An insecure, ignorant, arrogant and paralytic mindset is not capable of listening to professional advice or acting on it. Worse, it is not even confident of allowing professionals to take the lead in doing whatever is needed to prevent other nations, big and small, from taking it for granted and humiliating it repeatedly. That is why a slightly bigger China has become much bigger and stronger, and a much smaller Pakistan has become bigger than it should ever have and strong enough to force India to unilaterally give concessions in the brainless hope that it will put an end to its proxy war.

If things continue to drift as they are, India is going to face an outcome worse than it did in 1962, whenever the Chinese exercise the military option they are talking louder and louder about. Should both Pakistan and China decide to join hands to break India up, as China has begun to say, it will simply be a no-contest and the dismemberment of India will be accomplished quickly and with minimum force. China, as should be evident to all now, has not been cultivating Pakistan for all these years just to keep India tied down: whenever they get a real chance, they will do much worse.

Did India's freedom fighters fight for Independence so that in just over a generation our leaders would make us so relatively weak that our very existence as a nation would be under threat? Can India afford to let its leaders keep hurtling it towards a disaster of such proportions? What will it take to make the blind men who are leading India to open their eyes and act as they must to safeguard the freedom of a billion people who have placed their trust in them? Or are they just not capable of keeping soon-to-be superpower India secure and Indians safe?

Picture source: Xinuha

UPDATE: The Beijing based Chinese website that published the " Break up India" article has, predictably, claimed that it does not reflect the views of any government think tank. It also wants India to believe that the article was a web posting by an anonymous internet user whose identity and credentials have not been verified. Such a denial was expected. Had it been acknowledged that it represented the views of the state, it would have been tantamount to an declaration of war.
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1. Facing the challenge of China's military modernisation
2. China and India:winning wars vs defending the country
3. India's 'Power': weakness=virtue, strength=immorality
4. China and India: bully and forever bullied
5. Democracy, morality and national interest
6. Myanmar lost to China: India's encirclement complete
7. Diplomacy cannot counter China's challenge

THANKS TO YOU, INDIA RETOLD IS TWO

What a journey it has been, from a small beginning, almost like that of a spring that gushes out of the ground but knows not where to go, where its journey is going to take it. But as it begins to flow, even if in a trickle, other waters join it along its path to turn the tiny stream into a rivulet and then a river. Without being joined by others, no stream can last or complete the journey that it began when it sprung forth.

On August 11, 2007, India Retold appeared in the vast world of the web as "Vinod Sharma's World". The first post was an essay that I had written a month or so earlier. "Jinnah's Pakistan at 60" perhaps subconsciously set the direction that the electrons here were destined to flow towards. No wonder then, that a little over two months later, it became "India Retold". This title literally asked to be taken and was, spontaneously, the moment it was suggested. That interesting story can be found here.

For someone who had no real idea as to what blogging was till about a fortnight before this blog came into existence, this journey that was never even thought of, has been fascinating and rewarding. To start with, for many months during which I wrote some of my best posts, there were very few readers. That was discouraging, to say the least. As per Google Analytics, during the first year, there were only 16,752 page views. In the second year, however, the figure has jumped to 84,757. As per Google, there have been a total of 101, 509 page views till now. The counter visible on the blog, however, shows only 91,196 hits. That is because StatCounter fails to capture all hits, for reasons not known to me. I shall, therefore, correct this figure presently.

As these figures show, India Retold is living because of all of you. I am aware that I do not write Bollywood blockbuster type of stuff and that the subjects that energise me will excite a certain type of discerning reader only. Had that not happened and had you not found something worthwhile to engage your attention here, what has been "retold" by me would have remained "untold". In fact, I must mention that the high quality comments - the occasional jarring intrusions notwithstanding - that many of you have spared time and effort to make, have enriched me personally, and given soul to what I have written. Of course, the silent support of those who come here but do not comment cannot be undervalued.

During this journey, I have also made some good friends, whose advice, suggestions and encouragement have helped me to keep keying in my views about subjects and happenings that I feel passionately about, with as much of honesty as I can muster, a task made easier by the absence of any external constraints or pressure. I deeply value these relationships and hope they grow stronger.

At this point, it is appropriate that I mention a thought that has been hovering in my mind for some time. Till now, all the 356 posts that you will find in India Retold have been written by me. I am sure there are many others out there who want to express their honest and frank views on the subjects that I write about. Perhaps, I should open this space for guests who want a platform to share their views on these subjects with fellow netizens. What do you think? This can be a sensitive matter, particularly when a post sent in by someone is not published here for whatever reason.

Should I take this step as India Retold steps into its third year? Will fresh waters help what is now a rivulet along on its journey?

WITHOUT SUPERIOR VALUES, INDIA WILL NOT BECOME GREAT

On August 05, 2009, Indians were surprised to see President Bill Clinton live on Indian TV channels when he landed in the US along with two freed Asian-American journalists who had had been sentenced to 12 years of hard labour in a North Korean prison on unspecified charges. He had earlier flown to Pyongyang to meet North Korea's all-powerful leader Kim Jong II on a humanitarian mission to get the two journalists back.

When the two young ladies, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, alighted from the special plane to an emotional reunion with their families, followed by Bill Clinton who was received and hugged by former Vice President Al Gore, there was an air of disbelief among Indians. So much of personal effort by America's most powerful leaders to get back just two Americans, that too of Asian origin?

Watching those moving scenes and the brief statement by President Barack Obama in which he thanked Clinton and Al Gore for the effort that they had put in to secure the release of the two Americans, one could not but appreciate the contribution of some fine human values without which America would not have become the greatest nation in the world, values that India too needs if it wants to become a truly great nation.

Like in any open society, there was some criticism too of the move to engage with the North Koreans at the highest level, even if it was on purely humanitarian grounds. John Bolton, former US ambassador to the United Nations, said that the Obama administration was rewarding North Korea for its bad behaviour and that Clinton's mission "comes close to negotiating with terrorists". Some other Right Wingers were also critical of this engagement with a terrorist regime. But, on the whole, Americans were deeply appreciative of the effort put in by their top leaders to get the two Americans home, thanks in no small measure to the manner in which it was covered by the media. Above all, there was no gutter-type of partisan condemnation that we have got so used to seeing and hearing here in India from third-rate politicians.

While watching those emotional moments at California, images of Maulana Azhar Masood being driven to Delhi airport, to be taken to Kandahar in exchange for the release of 154 passengers of IC-814 that had been hijacked by terrorists, kept appearing before my eyes.

Just a few months back, when election fever was as at its peak, this visual was played repeatedly by almost all Indian TV channels to attack the BJP for surrendering to terrorists. There was hardly any TV anchor, analyst and media star who did not join the ugly political chorus to blame the BJP, which was in power then, for freeing three terrorists in exchange for 154 Indians. Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh was particularly lambasted for "escorting" them, only because they flew in the one plane that he took to Kandahar to get the hostages back.

The media had full visuals of the massive protests that were launched by relatives of the passengers of IC-814 at Delhi airport and in front of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's residence. Visuals of various political leaders talking to the agitated relatives and calling upon the government to ensure the safe return of the passengers were also available, as were those of the relieved and thankful passengers on their return home after their harrowing experience. But none of these were aired. In fact, those who were gunning for the then government did not even make a mention of them. On the contrary, there were plenty of cheap statements like "your Foreign Minister escorted terrorists to Kandahar", backed by that one visual of Masood, that Indians were bombarded with 24/7, just to make a sick and completely dishonest political point. The tu-tu main-main that went on for days was, in fact, so petty and shallow that if the tapes are played out again with the then un-aired visuals, along with what we saw in California a couple of days back, our politicians, starting from the top, and our media, will find themselves hanging their heads in shame.

What Bill Clinton has done now is not very different from what Jaswant Singh did in 1999, but he has emerged as a hero. If anything, the latter showed real personal courage to fly into what was then one of the most dangerous places in the world. The two Americans would not have been released had President Clinton not gone to rogue state North Korea. Similarly, the release of 154 Indians held in Kandahar would most certainly have got jeopardised due to more demands that would have been made by the Taliban and others, after the three released terrorists had touched down safely, had Jaswant Singh not been physically present there. That is what leadership is all about. But not only has Jaswant Singh not been lauded, he has been pilloried by petty political opponents and even a few of his party men who have amply demonstrated more than once that they do not have it in them.

A nation does not become great by accident. It becomes great because, among other things, it encourages and honours certain superior values that makes all its citizens feel wanted and proud. The inculcation of such values, often by example, is what is expected from its leaders who have to learn to rise above petty and often repulsive political partisanship. The media too has to take the lead in celebrating such values and in condemning acts and elements that attempt to erode them, in a completely honest and bipartisan manner. Sadly, as the recent coverage of the Kandahar drama has disturbingly shown, we have a long way to go and it will take some real doing to start constructing a value system that befits a nation like ours. Till that happens, India is not going to become the great nation that all of us want it to be.
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Picture source: Gothamist
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A nation forgets? A must read for every Indian. The most powerful words ever written about the forgotten sons of India whose blood has given us our tomorrow.

IT'S THE "INDEPENDENT KASHMIR" GUN TO INDIA'S HEAD NOW

"Give up Kashmir or face increasing terror". This is the sum of the blunt message that Pakistan has now delivered to Indian leaders who have been trying to cover up the Sharm-el- Sheikh surrender by telling Indians that they had scored a victory because there was no mention of Kashmir in the joint statement that was put out by Dr Manmohan Singh and Pakistan PM Yousaf Raza Gilani.

This time, however, there is a significant twist to what Pakistan has been saying till now. Musharraf's sophisticated and dangerous three-point Deal that visualised the LoC becoming irrelvant, maximum autonomy being given to the whole state, and a joint mechanism consisting of Kashmiris, Indians and Pakistanis being set up to oversee all aspects of the agreement, has been overtly jettisoned by the present leadership. It is a foregone conclusion that this could not have been done without being approved by Army Chief Pervez Kiyani.

The successful ambush at Sharm-el-Sheikh has clearly emboldened Pakistan to take a few additional steps in quick time to start calling for an "independent" Kashmir already.

It is widely known that the Pakistani side of Kashmir does not have the equivalent of Article 370 of India's constitution. As a result, over the last 62 years, the demography of that part of Kashmir has been completely altered by settlers from Pakistan. So, in effect, the independence that Pakistan is calling for is of the Kashmir, including Jammu and Ladakh, that is with India.

If you see this in conjunction with the loads of Pakistani statements over the years that Kashmir runs in the blood of Pakistanis, Kashmir is the unfinished agenda of India's partition on a communal basis, terrorist outfits like the LeT have sprung up to force India to give Kashmir to Pakistan etc, there cannot be even an iota of doubt that what this independence mantra is about. It is certainly not to make the whole of Kashmir, including the Northern Regions that Pakistan unilaterally severed from Kashmir and amalgamated into Pakistan in 1970 as a separate administrative unit, independent of Pakistan at all.

General Musharraf nearly trapped India into ceding some control of its Kashmir to Pakistan, in the back channel discussions that he had with the Vajpayee and Manmohan governments. He was intelligent enough to understand that India would never hand over Kashmir on a platter to Pakistan unless it was militarily defeated. Having realised after his costly misadventure in Kargil that it was Pakistan that would face defeat again, he completely overhauled his strategy. But, when a nation has brainwashed its citizens for six decades into believing that Pakistan is incomplete without Kashmir and that India has to be thrown out of there completely, it is not easy to suddenly sell to them a sophisticated way of getting the job done gradually in a manner that will eventually leave India with no choice but to walk away. For that, suitable preparation and time are required, which Musharraf did not have.

That is probably why after the victory at Sharm-el-Sheikh, Pakistan is now upping the ante on Kashmir by calling for its independence, a call that is designed to resonate with Kashmiri Muslims in the Valley. It will, therefore, not be surprising if there is a fresh round of agitation for "azadi" by the marginalised Hurriyat Conference and other separatist elements, coupled with stepped up violence through terror attacks, to draw the attention of the world and, at the same time, create more pressure on a what appears to be a weak and confused Indian government that is so desperate for "peace" that it is blind to the cost that India is paying and will have to pay to get only an illusion of it.

Real peace, let us be honest enough to admit, will only reign when Pakistan knows without a doubt that the violence that it has used as a coercive tool till now for free, is going to cost it heavily in future. Let us not be under any illusion that peace and calm will prevail if a trusting India hands over Kashmir to Pakistan in a manner that satisfies the latter completely. There will then be peace in Kashmir, no doubt, helped by massive migration of Punjabis and others to the Valley. But the barrels of the AK47s that the terrorists are being trained to hold and use with intense hatred against a secular India will not get embellished with flowers; they will get pointed with even greater intensity towards the rest of India. And there will be many more Mumbai 26/11s, with more and more demands for and on behalf of Indian Muslims.

Talk India must, though, but without any expectation of a fruitful result. If a much smaller and weaker Pakistan can bully Indian leaders by saying that peace is not possible till Kashmir is given to Pakistan, what prevents India from saying that no meaningful talks are possible till Pakistan destroys its terror infrastructure totally and peace prevails? What prevents India from treating armed infiltration into Kashmir as a violation of the LoC and from reacting suitably across it so that Pakistan is compelled to put a stop to it? Who should be scared about an Indian reaction across the LoC turning into a full fledged war? Why should India be really worried about a nuke attack if, in the event of a war, it decides to limit its objective to the destruction of Pakistan's military machine rather than the capture of such vital territory or cities as will make Pakistan press the nuke button?

I am not suggesting that India should go to war. I am only trying to drive home the point that Pakistan must not be allowed to continue to hold the gun to India's head and fool India's leaders by faking friendship and/or sincerity indefinitely. A durable peace in the region is possible only when Pakistan puts away that gun. India's leaders should first work towards achieving that objective. Once the gun is removed and the bullets in it taken out, a lot will quickly fall into place on its own.

Till that happens, peace will remain a mirage and more Indian blood will flow needlessly.
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Readers may also like to read:
1. India to Pak: you keep shooting, we'll keep talking
2. Musharraf's shockers on terror, Kashmir and Indian Muslims
3. India, learn how to get Pakistan to walk

GAS WARS!

Krishna Godavari Basin has become the unlikely battleground for a war that had initially started between two guys who were once upon a time brothers, just as Indians and Pakistanis were, but are now sworn enemies who are not willing to give even an inch to each other, just as India and Pakistan are not. It is well known that when brothers fight, others enjoy! In this case, they are getting richer too; the lawyers legally and others, well. Of late, a few more "stakeholders", who have perhaps realised that they too can get a tiny share of the enormous pie that is at stake, have also started making the right noises.

So, to amicably settle things once and for all and put an end to this mother of all gas wars, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora invited some of those involved for cocktails. With so much to gas about and so much of gas to talk about, it was not surprising that the evening turned out to be so gaseous. At the end of it, the two warring brothers almost patched up, and Deora had to step in quickly to prevent that national catastrophe from becoming a reality!

Here are some excerpts of what transpired during that imaginary evening:

Anil Ambani: Deora ji, I am shocked that you have joined Mukesh's camp. What he has given to you is no BIG deal. Had you spoken to me, you would understood what a BIG deal really means!

Deora: Anil, you don't have any gas at all. Why are you gassing about a BIG deal? We have seen what has happened to all your BIG plans. You talk BIG and deliver small!

Anil: Mukesh has tried every trick in the book and a few out of the book too, to deny me gas. He is going to make Rs 50,000 crores and the government just Rs 500 crores. Can't you see that he's is cheating the government!

Deora: Who is not?

Laloo Yadav: Arrey Anil Bhai, we are the government. So if we cheat the government, we are cheating ourselves only na! How can that be objectionable?

Deora: Why do you think Laloo ji says that Indian Railways is a "soney ki chidiya"?

Anil: And how much "gas" has Mukesh given to the "government" that you are talking about?

Mukesh Ambani: Anil, move back a couple of feet. Did you not hear the minister say in Parliament that the so-called agreement that you are talking about to steal my gas at a dirt cheap price is not an "arm's length" agreement?

Mulayam Yadav: Mukesh, you cannot sell gas to your own brother Anil at an exorbitant price. Do you know how much of prime land I made available to him to run the Dadri power plant on that gas, when I was CM? I know what BIG means when Anil utters the word!

Mukesh: You've already got your BIG whatever. So what's your problem now?

Sitaram Yechuri: Gas is a national asset. We cannot allow two brothers to divide it privately between them.

Deora: You guys must know a lot about gas. The Lok Sabha elections proved that the communists are just that and nothing more!

Yechuri: You better not gas too much about your "victory". In the last 10 years, your vote share has not gone up at all. Soon that balloon will also be pricked and you too will run out of gas!

Deora: That is why we are hoarding for that rainy day...for seven generations actually! The gas war between these two brothers has come as a massive blessing from heaven!

Yechuri: I wish we had joined the government last time and got a few ATM ministries like yours. That Karat fellow simply refused to see the juicy carrot; he thought he was the real thing - Karat!

Mulayam Yadav: Mukesh has no choice legally but to give gas for the Dadri power plant.

Deora: As of now the plant is just gas. When your friend builds it, I will give him gas to power it.

Anil: That is not acceptable. The gas is mine. I have BIG plans to sell it at a huge profit to others till the power plant comes up.

Deora: Ah, so you want to cheat the government too!

Laloo Yadav: Arre bhai, why don't you just sell those 7000 acres of prime land and forget about the gas? You will make more money than you will by building that plant. And you will not have to pay Ram Jethmalani and Deora and others through your nose too!

Mulayam Yadav: Mayawati is CM now. Anil may be BIG but Mayawati is by far the BIGGEST. Have you seen her many statues? Even they have her carrying a handbag. He will be left with only the gas that he produces.

Laloo Yadav: I didn't know that you produce gas?

Mulayam Yadav: He does. The same type that you do!

Mukesh: You guys can keep gassing. I am the only one who has the real gas, not the stinking variety that you all are releasing!

Yechuri: This is failed capitalism at its worst. That gas is not yours, Mukesh. It is a national asset. Which means that all of us are entitled to a share of the pie.

Laloo Yadav: Me too.

Deora: KG basin gas is indeed a national asset. But so is Reliance Industries and, therefore, Mukesh himself. So he is entitled to keep all that gas and sell it to whoever he wants to at a reasonable profit.

Anil: And who determines what is a reasonable profit, and how?

Deora: We do. After a reasonable consideration of many factors including whether the "consideration" is reasonable or not!

Anil: This is not fair. I will not allow it, come what may. I am also a BIG national asset.

Mukesh: Anil, who asked you to break away? Now you are only gassing that you are BIG. Had you stayed on, you would have been BIGGER and would have had no gas problems too!

Anil: Really?

Mukesh: Of course. You can still come back.

Anil: Are you sure Bade Bhai?

Deora: No, no. Both of you cannot get back together again. That will be disastrous.

Mukesh: Why?

Deora: Have India and Pakistan gotten back?

Anil: No. Why?

Deora: Like you, Pakistan has also become BIG by breaking away...it can at least make that boast, even though it is empty like yours.

Mukesh: But by coming back, it will become BIGGER!

Deora: Indeed. But Anil, the problem is that while that may happen, it is India that will become BIGGEST, not Pakistan!

Anil: How can I allow Mukesh to beat me, no matter how much BIGGER I may become by coming back? He's trying to trap me into a subordinate position again.

Deora: Absolutely. Don't give up Anil. Keep up the pressure. Keep doing corporate Kargils. One day you will be able to do a Sharm-el-Sheikh too!

Anil: Will you also put enough pressure on Mukesh, like the Americans are on the Indians?

Deora: You bet Anil. We will. That is our job. We are behind you. You just keep fighting the gas war! (Aside) If he doesn't do that, we will be left sniffing the useless gas that we produce.
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