Sajjan Kumar jailed, Communist govt charges 1400 Hindus in Kerala and Bishop Franco Mulakkal still a free man

As the sun sets for the last and final time in 2018, I am hit by a volley of scattered thoughts. It is hard to focus on a single one.

First, let’s toast to something wonderful. Sajjan Kumar, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in 1984 genocide, is finally headed to jail.

Some justice finally. Although one must remember that for the families of the victims of the 1984 horror, this joy is only bittersweet, with justice coming nearly 35 years late. Not to mention that the bittersweet taste of justice comes with the stinging slap of Kamal 1984 Nath being inaugurated as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

Another very important fact that we must note is that Sajjan Kumar was NOT expelled from Congress. Not even after he was sentenced to life imprisonment. No, he was gracefully allowed to resign.

Did the Congress Party also give him a nice farewell, with gifts, garlands, sweets and speeches in his honor? I have no idea.

He stayed safe for 35 years! This is the way the Congress ecosystem takes care of people for “services rendered”. No wonder the Congress inspires the kind of slavish loyalty that we see in Pidis. Loyalty to Congress *always* pays off.

Now, let us come to the kind of news that we can only meet with a mix of contempt, derision and anger:

Really? 1400 people? And for what? Just standing with a lighted lamp on the side of the road for half an hour?

Hey look Kerala Govt!! In this photo there could be some of the “criminals” you are looking for!

Will you be locking up these “criminals” along with murderers and rapists in your jails?

Actually, I am sure that would never happen. Because Communists would never put murderers and rapists in jail.

Just thought I would say this here : In 1970, a group of Communists forcibly entered the house of a certain Sain family (Sainbari) in Bengal’s Bardhaman. Killed the two Sain brothers and then forced their mother to cook rice and then eat that rice after soaking it in the blood of her sons.

I won’t name the man who led the mob. He rose through the CPIM ranks and held many important offices. Last week, the man died of old age. Newspapers throughout Bengal and many national newspapers as well paid homage to him as a “veteran Communist leader”.

In my list of scattered thoughts, another name comes next : that of Bishop Franco Mulakkal. He is still a free man, remember?

Remember Father Kuriakose? He had given a statement to the police against Bishop Franco.  Father Kuriakose was found dead briefly after Bishop Franco was released on bail. No comments.

Meanwhile, I suppose Kerala Police will shortly begin the process of identifying and arresting the people who stood by the roadside for half an hour protesting the events at Sabarimala Temple.

It’s going to be a New Year, a time for foolish optimism. So, let’s just wish the Communists get well soon.

But if there is one thing that always makes me optimistic, it is the thoughts, wishes and blessings of my readers. Can’t thank you folks enough. Let me share here the stats for 2018, which shows the growth of this blog over the years.

I checked today how many posts I have written in total for this blog. It’s 1087 in all. What a journey it has been since that night of May 31, 2015!

We all know that 2019 is going to be a HUGE year! Stay with me here folks… and thank you all!

Happy New Year!

Abhishek

My novel is finally coming out!

Loyal readers of this blog will know that my novel “Operation Johar – A Love Story” has been in the works for a while.

Would you believe this?

Yes, it’s online and on Amazon now!

And Flipkart as well:

https://www.flipkart.com/operation-johar-love-story/p/itmfc773jmsnm4ja

And here is the cover:

Before I say anything more, let me thank all the readers of this blog who have followed, encouraged and supported my writing over the years. Without you folks, I would never have come to this point.

I began this blog on May 31, 2015. At that time, it was just a place to vent. In fact, those old posts almost embarrass me today. But it was so nice of you folks to feel there was something decent about my writing at some level.

Which led me to start writing my novel one mad day in Dec 2015. It took two whole years to finish.

They say write about what you know. I did just that. I wrote a story of my hometown Ranchi because there is no other place where I would feel safer and more comfortable. I wrote about a romance that every young boy growing up in a small town would have hoped for at some point in his life.

You can see Somu and Sangeeta in the cover, with Sangeeta taking the wheel. On the back cover, you can see a wonderful ancient stone Ganesha, whose appearance in my novel is inspired by the story of the Dholkal Ganesha.

Do you remember the great and ancient Dholkal Ganesha in Chhattisgarh? The magnificent figure which was destroyed by cheap and jealous Naxal terrorists who hate anything of beauty?

And you must know that my home state of Jharkhand suffers from the scourge of left wing terrorism, which is in constant conflict with our hopes and aspirations of making it big in life. My job was to weave all this together into a political love story that would have hope, love and fear in equal measure.

There, I have said enough. To know more, you have three basic options 🙂

(1) Zoom in and read the back cover

(2) Wait for me to post more excerpts

(3) Buy the book on Amazon

I understand that this announcement might come as a surprise to those who follow me on Twitter @AbhishBanerj because I have barely tweeted about the book yet, or made any effort to create a buzz. That’s because we are waiting one more week to get the buzz going!

Right now, we just want your best wishes and blessings. And some congratulations if you can spare them 🙂

Wait! Did I say WE?

So, who is “WE”?

Well, that would be myself and the wonderful folks at the Indic Academy:

So what is the Indic Academy? In their own words, “Indic Academy is a non- profit, ’non-traditional’ educational institution for ‘traditional’ knowledge. We are seeking to build an Intellectual, Cultural & Spiritual Renaissance based on Indic Civilisational thought.”

The Indic Academy has been my ‘guru’ throughout the difficult publishing process, always providing me counsel whenever I needed. Like this:

Now liberals might be confused, because the only form of Hanuman they know is the docile servant of Shri Ram with hands folded that they have seen in calendar pictures in homes of Hindu neighbors (this is also why they were also surprised to see a Rudra form of Hanuman on T-shirts).

But you folks know better. That Hanuman is great and wise, learned and knowledgeable as well as a fierce warrior. “Gyaan guna sagar” and “Mahaveer“.

In this respect, I must first thank Ms. Dimple Kaul of the Center for Indic Writers (CIW) for helping me every step of the way. If you are curious about CIW, let me quote them:

“Indic Academy’s Center for Indic Writers (CIW) seeks to identify, encourage, mentor, support, publish and promote new and upcoming authors and ensure that there are abundant Indic writers, writing about India and the world – for India and the world. Center for Indic Writers is for writers rooted in Indic ethos, with an understanding and appreciation of being the inheritors of the world’s oldest extant civilisation. We are invested in the journey of our writers and work on an end-to-end basis, which includes scripting, publication, distribution, promotion and beyond (translations, content rights and adaptation). It is our endeavour to ensure that work by our writers is widely read and recognised.”

Also big thanks to Vivek Agnihotri and Rahul Roushan for their kind words about my book, which I am proud to put on the cover 🙂

In the next few months, I will be doing a “book tour” of sorts, all thanks to Indic Academy as well, and trying to meet as many of my readers in person as possible. Chaiwallah is coming to your city!

As you can imagine, this is completely new territory for me and I am looking forward to covering all this new ground. Wish me luck. I will need it.

Cheers!

Chaiwallah

Meghalaya miners : North East was not suffering tyranny of distance, but tyranny of low expectations

On Dec 25, the birth anniversary of Swargiya Atal Behari Vajpayee, PM Narendra Modi dedicated the Bogibeel bridge in Assam to the nation. As the Prime Minister basked in the glory of fulfilling a need expressed by the Assamese people since the 1970s, a much bitter Rahul Gandhi tweeted asking why the PM isn’t showing more concern for the trapped miners in Meghalaya.

Indeed, 15 miners trapped hundreds of feet below the ground in a coal mine in the East Jaintia hills. It has been 16 days now. That’s far too terrifying to imagine. And heartbreaking to think about.

As rescue teams make their best efforts under difficult conditions and we hope and pray for the trapped miners, we must also note the remarkable rise in the “national standing” of Meghalaya and in fact the entire North East. Who can deny that our people in the North East have been victims of neglect for most of the last 70 years? That the North East was treated as little more than a strategic possession of the Republic. In fact, Delhi’s concerns about the Chinese Army being able to make rapid advances through the region during a possible war were long used as the (lame) excuse to keep the North East deprived of basic road, rail and bridge infrastructure.

What a heartening change to see the “national media” proactively tugging at our conscience, with hard hitting reports and editorial cartoons, pushing people to share in the grief of the North East and pushing the government into action.

Only a few years ago, celebrity editors in Delhi would laugh off calls from common people to cover even the worst tragedies in the North East. Those who are active on social media will remember how one celebrity editor in particular had haughtily dismissed demands for coverage of the deadly riots. His infamous argument was based on the tyranny of distance. That the logistics of covering the North East were too difficult for the media.

What changed so quickly?

The answer is not hard to guess. The North East, which Delhi media tends to lump together as a single entity, is now seen as a BJP stronghold. And wherever there is BJP, the great “institutions” of our democracy have work to do!

It is not like Meghalaya has a BJP government. Far from it. In fact, the Meghalaya Assembly has just 2 BJP MLAs who support the government. Talking of a “BJP government in Meghalaya” would be like saying that there is a BSP government in Madhya Pradesh, because Kamal Nath has the support of 2 BSP MLAs in the Assembly.

But the mere fact that Meghalaya has 2 BJP MLAs who are on the side of the ruling party, coupled with the fact that Delhi intellectuals do not distinguish between North Eastern states, means that there is enough reason for Indian media to make Meghalaya a priority. Which is fundamentally a good thing. We all deserve a government that is kept accountable and on its toes by hawk eyed observers and critics.

And this also means that the mere presence of BJP inevitably leads to accountable governance.

Tell me, has anyone heard about the drug problem in Punjab since the day the Congress was elected to power there? Of course not! In neighboring Haryana, remember how a big traffic jam near Gurugram became national news in 2016?

The difference : BJP is ruling Haryana. Congress is ruling Punjab.

Just think about how the story of 52 Dalits and tribals kept in ‘slavery’ for three years in Karnataka vanished from our screens within a minute or so. Or how the Kerala Government didn’t have to move a limb for three long months even as helpless nuns protested charges of rape by a powerful Bishop.

There is a reason that the media is called the fourth pillar of democracy. Because the media is supposed to focus the attention of the people on matters of public interest. Democracy works better with an informed public than not. Who can disagree with that?

Most of us are not members of political parties who stand to personally win or lose power with every election cycle. We are common people. We want better roads, electricity, water, lesser crime, secure schools, a healthy environment and so on. That’s our real interest. I guess the question is : do you trust politicians to selflessly do their best for you when nobody is watching?

Do you trust politicians do their best for you with your eyes closed. I’ll admit: I won’t even trust the typical politician to do their best for me with my eyes open!

And what does it tell you when we see that the Indian media just pack up and leave the moment Congress or one of its allies comes to power in a state?

Now we know : the North East was never suffering from tyranny of distance. They were suffering from the tyranny of low expectations, the magic armor that liberal media throws around Congress governments to protect them from being accountable to the people.

Is liberal media undermining National security threats due to inferiority complex about UPA’s disastrous record?

So, the other day, Indian agencies busted an ISIS module operating here in India, by conducting raids at 17 places and arresting 10 people. Among the material recovered were several kilos of explosives, multiple weapons, one rocket launcher as well as hundreds of alarm clocks and SIM cards.

Anyone with any sense would have taken the threat seriously. However, soon after the raids, the liberal media began a campaign of mockery and ridicule to minimize what had happened. Some journalists posted photos of a few “sutli bombs” that were among the stuff recovered from the suspects … after carefully cropping out the rocket launcher that was lying a few inches away.

Do these ‘journalists’ know that 9/11 terror attacks were carried out with humble box cutters and/or utility knives that you can purchase at any convenience store? Do they remember how an Islamic terrorist murdered nearly a hundred people in France in 2016 by simply mowing them down with his truck? Do they know that firecrackers (and fertilizers) are easily available sources for chemicals that can be used to make explosives? Not to mention that firecrackers themselves can be used to cause a stampede in a crowded places that could kill hundreds of people.

Yes, terrorists can use everyday objects to kill hundreds, even thousands of people.

But pathological hatred for Narendra Modi has made sections of our liberal media close their eyes to the threat of ISIS.

This kind of coordinated effort to minimize a national security threat during PM Modi’s tenure is not new. Anyone remember the ‘terror boat’ incident from early 2015? Remember the boat full of explosives coming from Pakistan that was intercepted and blown up by the Indian Coast Guard near the Gujarat coast?

You would think that at least memories of the 26/11 terror attacks would keep the Indian media from minimizing threats coming from Pakistan by boat. But no. The media jumped in to ridicule and mock the incident, they began to spread rumors all around that it was a mere smuggling boat or something like that.

The same happened after the surgical strikes of September 2016. The media began to fan and amplify crazy conspiracy theories planted by Congress and AAP leaders about how the strikes had been faked and so on. When that didn’t cut ice, a second theory was spread about how Manmohan Singh had carried out secret surgical strikes during his tenure. This was of course false and the theory was busted by the official DGMO response to an RTI. But fake news and conspiracy theories are generally immune to the truth.

Another recent example is the arrest of certain urban naxals in August this year. At least two of them had spent long periods in jail after getting arrested in connection to Maoist terror plots during UPA years. One had even been convicted and had come out of jail recently after serving his term. The kind of people whose arrests should be taken very seriously. But the media went to town, trying to portray those arrested, including one convicted history sheeter, as “free speech activists”.

This systematic effort to minimize Islamic and Maoist terror threats during the Modi years coincides with an equally systematic effort to exaggerate random incidents to fit into a manufactured narrative of ‘intolerance’.

A stone thrown at a church by a drunken gambler somewhere near Mumbai. A couple of thieves stealing Rs 8000 from a missionary school. These petty crimes were fitted uncritically by the media into the narrative of ‘church attacks’ and India’s Prime Minister was asked to answer for them in place of the local beat constable.

The rape of a nun in Bengal was instantly connected to Hindutva. The story vanished later when when it was found that the culprits were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Muslims. Anxious liberals report to their Western colleagues about the threat from Hanuman T-shirts and the New York Times sees a Hindutva hand behind the government promoting the Banarasi saree.

The media has been so uncritical and so gullible about the intolerance narrative that opportunist elements have taken notice and seized the moment. A small media worker managed to hit national headlines by making up a cock and bull story about how he was threatened by “gau rakshaks” in Mumbai over a leather bag. Another lawyer who claimed to be working for “Justice for Asifa” walked away with national and international acclaim and numerous awards and honors before it was realized that she had attended just 2 out of 110 hearings in the case. The reason these tricks worked is because the media was willing to believe almost anything as long as they could fit it into the intolerance narrative.

The same kind of uncritical swallowing by media was seen in UPA years except at the time they swallowed government propaganda instead of debunking it. So casual was the UPA government in its pronouncements and so confident in the loyalty of its media mouthpieces that Home Minister Sushil Shinde took the stage in Jaipur in 2013 and declared that BJP was running terrorist camps. No media ever pressed him to provide details about the exact location of these camps.

The question is why is the liberal media doing this. One reason of course is pathological hatred for Narendra Modi. But there is a second, deeper reason : the liberal media has a deep seated inferiority complex about the disastrous national security record of the UPA government. 

Remember the days when blasts in Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune, etc would play out on TV screens like endless ticker tape?

Those days are long gone. And the media realizes this. The media doesn’t want the public to discuss the matter of national security. Because Dr. Manmohan Singh would come out looking very pathetic indeed if people start comparing.

Remember the time after 26/11 when Congress CM came to visit the Taj Hotel on a sightseeing trip with his actor son and Bollywood director Ram Gopal Verma? The terror attacks of 26/11 were a joke to them.

The Modi government has faced more criticism for its handling of the mythical ‘church attacks’ than the Manmohan Singh government faced for its handling of 26/11 attacks. Let that sink in.

 

Namaz in Parks: How can Muslims be entitled to public property if Hindu Temples are not allowed even private property?

Right now, in two different parts of India, members of two different communities, Hindus in Kerala and Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, are protesting against their respective state governments.

Both groups feel that they have been wronged by their state governments. That their freedom to practice their religion has been infringed upon. But if you look at the two groups, their respective demands and the way the issues are being portrayed in the media, you will discover the fundamental injustice done to Hindus under Indian secularism.

Indian secularism gives Muslim community the rights to public property but does not allow Hindu community to even have private property!

Let’s examine the Muslim demand first. The Uttar Pradesh government has passed an order that prohibits Muslims from carrying out Friday prayers in certain public areas of Noida.

This has immediately been fed into the narrative of “Muslims under attack”. Questions have been raised: why can’t Muslims use public space to pray? Doesn’t the Indian Constitution give every person the right to practice their religion? Let them pray. They are not bothering anybody.

Well, except for the inconvenience when thousands of people take over a public space such as a road or a park and nobody else can use it. Anyway, let’s not worry about those minor inconveniences and focus on the main issue at hand. It’s not like somebody was wearing a Hanuman T-shirt or anything…

Some articles even appeared in print and digital media explaining the importance of Namaz in Islam and why we all need to make space for it.

The main argument comes down to this: Muslims have a right to practice their faith. And this means Muslims are entitled to go outside and use public property any way they want.

Now, let us come to the demand of lakhs of Hindus of Kerala. The Sabarimala Temple is of great significance to them and they want to worship Ayyappa inside the temple as per the customs and rituals they hold dear.

But the State says NO! What happens inside the temple is subject to dictates of the State. In fact, the State essentially owns the temple through the government appointed Devaswom Board and can micromanage anything that happens inside it. The State will decide who gets to worship and how inside the temple. Hindus must obey.

In fact, the State can give orders at any moment to seize any temple and bring it under government control. Here you see the police force surrounding and seizing the Parthasarathy Temple in Kerala’s Guruvayur in November 2017.

What applies to Hindu temples also applies to Hindu run educational institutions. Anything owned by Hindu communities is automatically treated as public property under the law.

Apparently, the so called religious freedom in India does not give Hindus the slightest right to control what happens inside their private spaces!

But Muslims of course, control not only what happens inside their private spaces, but are also entitled to go outside and control what happens to public spaces!

This is the contradiction that Indian secularism is built upon. It is almost heartbreaking to see Hindus of Kerala hold marches and vigils pleading to be left alone with their form of worship in their temples. Meanwhile, the idea of India brigade throws its full intellectual might behind a triumphant takeover of public space by Muslims for the practice of their religion.

With $92 billion in corporate deals, Modi’s India topped China in 2018

So The Wall Street Journal has found that Modi’s India, with $92 billion in corporate deals, has moved ahead of China as a favored target.

This is even more impressive when you think in terms of fraction of GDP. Remember that China’s GDP is almost five times that of India’s. Despite such a huge gap, if India is able to beat the Chinese in terms of absolute numbers, it tells a story of the strength of the Indian economy under Modi.

The Wall Street Journal goes on to mention that:

Don’t miss the part about the “better bankruptcy system”, a reference to Modi’s Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), that has made defaulters address Rs 3 lakh crore of stressed assets out of fear of losing control over their companies.

Also do not miss the part about how India was once seen as “bureaucratically sclerotic”. Wonder who pioneered the system that made India seem that way? Hint: some of our “visionary” Prime Ministers who awarded themselves Bharat Ratnas might be to blame.

The numbers in the Wall Street Journal also tell a story that is quite opposite to the narrative that some people with an agenda have been feeding the public for a while now. This applies in particular to JNU type economists, some “public intellectuals” who were expecting favors from the Modi government but didn’t get any and of course one very handsome ex-RBI governor.

The distinction of India being the “fastest growing (major) economy in the world” is Modi’s crown jewel which India has held for four straight years under Modi.

In comparison, India achieved the “fastest growing economy” status just twice in the 10 years of Dr. Manmohan Singh. The first was in 2007-08, right before the crash. The second time was in 2009-10, just after the crash, when Dr. Singh gave a massive stimulus package that boosted the economy for exactly one year before sending it spiraling downwards. Let’s just hope this is not the kind of “economics” they teach at Cambridge.

In contrast, Modi’s India has been unshakable at the top of the global GDP growth table. This achievement is even more remarkable when you consider the fact that this was achieved despite implementing a complete overhaul of the tax system with GST.

A lot of noise has been made over “faulty GST implementation”. Of course there are going to be glitches when a $2.8 trillion economy of 125 crore people switches to a new tax system. But “faulty” compared to what? Which country has ever done a better job of GST implementation?

A quick comparison with GST implementation around the world shows just how spectacularly well GST was pulled off. Here is the chart that shows the effect of GST implementation in Australia.

See that giant drop of 2% in GDP growth rate as Australia adjusted to GST? Now think of a developed country like Australia implementing GST with a population of just 2 crore people and a fully formalized economy. Imagine the challenges before India with its 125 crore people and massive informal sector.

And here is how Canada fared when they implemented GST:

Watch! Canada went hurtling into an actual recession… with the economy shrinking by 2.1%!!!

And yet, India remained the world’s fastest growing economy as it implemented GST. Modi’s India did a better job of implementing GST with 125 crore people than developed Western countries like Australia or Canada could do with their 2-3 crore people!

The world over it is understood that GST is a near term growth depressant that is an investment in the country’s future. Modi made this investment and he kept India secure from the worst that could have happened.

At the time when GST was implemented, anyone with sense would have given Modi a break as the whole of India adjusted to a radically new tax system, slowing down growth. But not those with an agenda. They wanted to make the most of the interim, blaming Modi for the near term slowing of growth.

But the world didn’t fail to notice that India remained the fastest growing economy. That it implemented GST and reined in defaulters with a new Bankruptcy Code. We have all heard how India jumped to No. 77 in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings, up from Rank 142 of the Manmohan Singh years.

Now take a look at this

Look at the depressing picture of global markets for the year 2018:

 

Sigh!

Wishing there were some bright spots somewhere in the world? Modi’s India is one and really the only one!

The Indian market has gained 4.1% since the beginning of the year, making it #1 in the Asia Pacific Region. In fact, the last column shows that India is one of just 2 countries to give a positive return for the year 2018, the other being New Zealand, whose economy is tiny compared to ours.

Just look at Europe! Everything down in the deep red for the year 2018:

The “best” performer seems to be a small Hungarian market that is up by a mild 0.5%. Everything else in Europe seems to be down by almost double digits!

This is the story that they will not tell you. In a year when markets have sunk across the world, Modi’s India shines.

Why? Because we are the fastest growing economy in the world. Let’s not forget that. Don’t let “mahaul” win over “data”.

BJP has mopped up Bihar for 2019

The seat sharing deal is final : 17 for BJP, 17 for JDU and 6 for LJP.

These were the most obvious numbers anyway. Even in my attempted Lok Sabha count for 2019 a few days ago, I had assumed that BJP was going to fight 17 seats.

Now, the number 17 is slightly less than BJP would have liked to contest. Especially given that the party already has 21 sitting MPs from Bihar. But this was probably a sacrifice for the best, given the pressure of the Mahagathbandhan in neighboring Uttar Pradesh.

For BJP the good news is that it can legitimately hope to win all 17 of these seats. I had counted 15/17 a few days ago, because I wanted to be careful. But honestly, the BJP should aim for a clear 17/17 and a full 40/40 sweep for NDA in Bihar. One of the features of Bihar (and Jharkhand) is that there is no such thing as a ‘safe seat’. So called ‘big leaders’ routinely lose their seats. Rabri Devi lost in 2014. Shahnawaz Hussain lost Bhagalpur despite the Modi wave.

You will see this phenomenon in Jharkhand as well. In fact, the unique feature of the 2014 Jharkhand Assembly election was that *every* single ex-CM lost his seat. The Bihar-Jharkhand phenomenon extends into Eastern Uttar Pradesh … just see Gorakhpur. Get the arithmetic wrong and even the CM can lose the Lok Sabha seat he held for 5 terms.

So, the BJP should aim for nothing less than 40/40 in Bihar, which includes 17/17 on its own seats. Observe that BJP will likely insist on retaining as many sitting seats as possible, which means that it will fight all the seats where BJP is strongest. This makes it difficult for Nitish to play mischief with the actual seat allocations.

As soon as rumors of the final deal started circulating, some “neutral” patrakars and some even more “neutral” political pundits tried to mock the BJP.

 

In the mockery of these pathetic dynastic loyalists, you can feel both the anguish and the desperation. The same nervousness with which BJP supporters scorn the Mahagathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh. Because they have the underlying realization about the fearsome power of the alliance.

BJP+LJP+JDU …. LOL! That’s a recipe for 40/40.  RJD+Cong would be lucky to win 1 seat in the whole of Bihar!

Of course their reasoning is wrong even when they count the number of seats that BJP is contesting.

Who remembers the old seat sharing deal between BJP and JDU? The JDU used to contest 25 seats and BJP just 15. Five years after breaking the alliance with BJP, Nitish Kumar has come back. He has agreed to reduce his seat share from 25 to just 17 while the BJP gets to increase its share from 15 to 17! NDA is adding an ally in LJP and still BJP’s share is going up!!!

This is also the first time ever that JDU has formally relinquished its claim to “big brother” status in Bihar.

Who is gaining here, dear pathetic dynasty loyalists?

This is what I have been saying all along. Don’t worry so much about a cyclical downswing in 2019. Observe that the BJP has a long term uptrend in every single state.

Compare to the kind of deals that Congress is getting. The BSP won 0 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and the Congress will offer them 40 seats to contest in Uttar Pradesh, while Congress begs to contest just 2!

Now tell me, dynasty loyalists… what is the condition of your beloved Congress?

Go to Karnataka and see. Congress playing junior partner to JDS!! Ha!

Go to Maharashtra and see. Congress has agreed to contest equal number of seats as NCP for the first time. In fact, Congress will give 3 seats from its quota of 24 to BSP, CPI and Prakash Ambedkar respectively. Means Cong down to contesting just 21/48 in Maharashtra.

Let’s hope Sanjay Kumar has an explanation for why Congress is on its knees in stronghold states like Maharashtra and Karnataka despite Rahul Gandhi “maturing” so much.

If BJP’s partners like JDU and LJP are untrustworthy, are the Congress Mahagathbandhan partners any more trustworthy? Can Congress really guarantee the loyalty of JDS in Karnataka or JMM in Jharkhand? Some would say the same about NCP too. And does Congress even know whether SP and BSP will let them come along for the ride in UP?

Now let us come to the question of Nitish Kumar. Long time readers of this blog will know that I absolutely despise this man. The way I see it is this: if BJP hadn’t allied with JDU, Cong and RJD would have a decent chance in Bihar. The RJD would have given Congress 5-6 seats to contest and it might have won 2-3. This alliance has ensured a big ZERO for Congress in 2019 from Bihar.

Because what really matters from this point onwards is keeping Congress under 100 seats.

Few expect the BJP to get 272 on its own in this election. This election is a “cyclical downswing” …. incumbency and mahagathbandhans will inhibit BJP tallies in “core states” while Bengal and Odisha are not yet as ripe as BJP needs.

And everybody knows that even if BJP gets 271 seats, just 1 short of majority, there will always be the possibility of BJP being pushed into the opposition.

So the important thing for BJP is to keep Congress below 100 seats so that they either give up on government formation or have to offer PM chair to some regional leader….. to preside over an unstable (and highly unpopular) government that will fall in 2 years. Just enough time for the mahagathbandhans to collapse, the incumbency cycle to reverse in the Hindi heartland and for the fruits to start ripening in Bengal and Odisha.

Series of narrow losses for BJP has revealed gradual loss of self belief

For BJP the real year to remember would be 2017, perhaps even more than 2014. Obviously, it was the 2014 win that set the stage, but it was only in 2017 that the party harvested some of the most coveted fruits of power.

The party stormed back to power in Uttar Pradesh with a spectacular 3/4 th majority. Then somewhere in the middle of 2017, the BJP replaced the Congress as the largest party in the Rajya Sabha. In fact, this is the first time since independence that the Congress is no longer the largest party in the upper house.

And of course, the biggest moment of all was when Ramnath Kovind, a man brought up in the Sangh Parivar, became the President of the Republic of India.

And BJP ended the year by picking up Himachal Pradesh and winning Gujarat for the 6th time in a row.

At the time, I had repeatedly urged BJP supporters to remember the moment and treasure the year. For something like this might be a long time coming.

But if 2017 was the BJP’s peak, the year 2018 has been one of near misses (and all costly ones as well).

In March 2018, the sheer force of the BJP’s will carried it to a stunning victory in Tripura. Make no mistake, Tripura was small but extremely significant. All those mediapersons and intellectuals that we love to hate were born and brought up in the Communist Party. They only work for the Congress, their heart lies with CPIM. And when that blow struck the statue of Lenin and brought it crashing to the ground, their hearts cried like never before. By crushing the party of Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot in Tripura, the BJP has struck a blow for all of humanity.

But it is precisely after this moment that the BJP began to lose its magical touch. In 3 big states since then, it has become a story of “so near yet so far”.

Take Karnataka. Despite all sorts of silly media talk about a “Siddaramaiah wave” and how the CM was capitalizing on Kannadiga pride by calling the PM a “North Indian import”, the BJP humiliated Siddaramaiah in the election.

But did BJP win? No! They fell tantalizingly short of the majority mark by just 6 seats, which gave Congress and JDS a chance to form the government.

And then Rajasthan. If you ask me, Rajasthan has been the biggest political surprise this year. Few expected even a credible performance from BJP in the state. In January, the party was bruised so badly in the Lok Sabha bypolls that few gave it a chance.

But when the EVMs were opened on Dec 11, it was discovered that BJP was trailing the Congress by a mere 0.5% of the vote. The massive goodwill of Modi, the intense campaigning by Raje and the strong RSS network had delivered. Unlike the Congress network that just wilts in the face of anti-incumbency, the BJP clearly held its own.

But it could not make it past the finish line.

Would a few more rallies of PM Modi have bridged that minor 0.5% gap in Rajasthan? Would the result have been different if PM had skipped the G20 meeting in Argentina?

We will never know.

The same could be said for Karnataka. The Prime Minister entered the field about 11 days before polling day. Had it been 15 days, would the BJP have got those 6 extra seats?

Again, we will never know.

Then, there is of course Madhya Pradesh. Who would have imagined a 114—109 result!! Just 3 more Assembly seats and the BJP would have formed its government in Madhya Pradesh!

What led to the loss of these 3 seats?

These near misses show that the BJP/RSS ecosystem is performing. In a tough state like Karnataka (remember that BJP has no presence in 60/224 seats in Old Mysore), the BJP is able to hit the right notes and capitalize on anti-incumbency. Where it is in saddle for a long 15 years, the organization is able to neutralize 99% of the anti-incumbency. Even when there is supposedly massive public anger as in Rajasthan, the party machine is able to make it to the brink of victory.

But not across the finish line. And ultimately, that is all that matters.

Powerful organization. But floundering on the last mile.

The magic of 2014 win lay in the fact that BJP was able to convert every favorable situation into a landslide win. Everyone knew that BJP would win most seats in Rajasthan back then… but BJP made it 25/25. With Modi as PM candidate, the party was always going to sweep Gujarat, but few expected 26/26. The same happened in Madhya Pradesh (27/29 barring the 2 traditional seats of Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia) and in the giant state of UP (where the Yadav family got 5 seats and the Gandhi family got 2).

2014 happened because BJP was able to “max” things out. They didn’t go for 99% or even 99.9%, they went for 100%.

That spirit is faltering. Big time.

After defeats in 3 states, it is easy for BJP supporters and cadres to become pessimistic. But pessimism never led to victory. It only leads to becoming Congress… a party that spends 15 years losing to BJP and then can’t even cross the majority mark when the incumbency tide finally turns in its favor.

Especially when there is no real cause for such pessimism. The organization, the machinery and most importantly the public goodwill is all there. It has just become a bit weatherbeaten due to five years of incumbency. The party just needs to restore the mirror polish.

For 2019, the BJP needs to bring back the hunger and burning desire for 100%. “Shat pratishat” they used to say back then.

From secularism to social justice, every liberal principle in India is sacrificed at the feet of the Congress Party

Two days ago, it came to light that 52 unfortunate people, members of Dalit and tribal communities, had been held in slave-like conditions in Karnataka, some for as many as three years. Some were made to work as laborers for 19 hours a day, hardly ever paid any wages and the women were exploited sexually as well.

As we come to terms with the realities of this shocking tale of barbarism, the most deafening of all is the silence of the social justice warriors and sections of the political, media and NGO complex that claim to speak for the marginalized and oppressed in our society.

The reason is not far to seek. Karnataka, after all, has been a Congress/JDS ruled state for about six years now. There is no BJP to blame. One can easily compare with the tenor and intensity of the media coverage and political outrage that followed a shocking caste atrocity against Dalits in Gujarat’s Una in 2016.

This is only the latest reason to conclude that every purported liberal principle in India lies stretched out at the feet of the Congress Party.

What are the so called liberal principles that our elites claim as their own?

Is social justice one of these liberal principles? Then, how come the social justice crowd has nothing to say about this barbaric act that has come to light in Karnataka? Why have all the ‘caravans’ of social justice that are active on Twitter and outside done a U-turn and driven away? Why is the radical anti-caste rhetoric limited to headline catching placards and photo ops with global CEOs? And to anti-Hindu sloganeering by Communist student activists who have probably never had a non-upper caste leader in seven decades?

Someone said on Twitter that this incident in Karnataka would have made it to the pages of New York Times, Washington Post and Guardian if only it had happened in UP or Gujarat. Can anybody deny this?

How about feminism then? Anybody remember Bishop Franco Mulakkal? Took the Kerala Police three months to initiate some action against him. Meanwhile, the aggrieved nuns ran from pillar to post begging to be heard even as powerful church officials and politicians spread the worst possible smears about their character. And then, in three short weeks, Bishop Franco Mulakkal got bail and walked out to a hero’s welcome by the Church in Jalandhar. India’s liberals could not care less. Because Bishop Franco was wearing three levels of magic armor: he worked for the Catholic Church, the crime allegedly happened in CPI(M) ruled Kerala and Franco now resides in Congress ruled Punjab! Soon after Bishop Franco walked out on bail, a key witness in the case died under mysterious circumstances. That was news … for about half a day.

What else can we expect in a country where the Editor’s Guild waited five years to suspend Tarun Tejpal despite the nature of the allegations against him. Tejpal was suspended along with M J Akbar, who has found out the hard way what happens when you leave the mothership and try to defect. The ghosts of your past lie asleep only as long as you toe the line of the secular liberal establishment.

And don’t you dare speak of Triple Talaq and the absence of rights of Muslim women in divorce. Indian liberals are quite happy to throw both secularism and feminism under the bus.

In India the fashionable way to show your support for gender equality and dignity of women is to oppose Hindu festivals like Rakshabandhan and Bhaidooj. Bishop Franco Mulakkal can do whatever he wants.

Let’s take gay rights, another much celebrated liberal cause. All three organizations who opposed the legalization of homosexual relationships in the Supreme Court were from a Christian background, but for some reason, liberals were seen taking out their anger against Hindutva! It is worthwhile to point out that contrary to popular perception, gay relationships have NOT been legalized all across the nation. Homosexuality continues to be criminal in Jammu and Kashmir, owing to the special status of this state as per Article 370. If you haven’t heard many liberals highlighting the issue of gay rights in Jammu and Kashmir, the only Muslim majority state in India, you know exactly why.

How about the environment? In India, liberals are happy to be champions of beef consumption, even though it is an accepted scientific fact that beef is one of the biggest drivers of global warming. Rather, the liberal concern for the “environment” in India manifests itself in a desire for curbs on Hindu festivals and usually peaks around Diwali.

And don’t get me started on ‘secularism’, the most highly regarded of all liberal principles in India. The so called secularism is thrown into cold storage when Kamal 1984 Nath becomes Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

The secularism exists only as a stick to beat the BJP if some drunk guy breaks a window pane of a church somewhere in Maharashtra.

The issue of privacy and data has been in the news again, recently. Just imagine how big the Cambridge Analytica data theft story would have been in India if the Congress symbol had not been found in the office of their CEO.

Did I forget to talk about liberals and ‘free speech’? There is perhaps no bigger joke in India than this. Right now the TMC government in Bengal has placed outright curbs on the BJP from holding a yatra but no liberal sees this as a free speech issue. Can somebody give an example of a single law passed by Modi sarkar that is anti-free speech? In all the celebrated cases where anti-nationals have been booked for sedition, the government has used laws that were conceived and passed and repeatedly abused over the years by the self appointed Bharat Ratna Prime Ministers of the Congress Party.

The great Nehru was so stung by criticism from the RSS that he tried to order restrictions on the RSS mouthpiece Organizer. The RSS went to court … and won. That didn’t stop Nehru, who decided to amend the constitution immediately to get his way. But objective fact matters little and baseless allegations about ‘undeclared emergency’ rule the narrative. Because at the end of the day, every purported principle of Indian liberals is exists purely to serve the political ends of the Congress Party.

All the setbacks to the Gandhis in the National Herald Case and why it could prove historic

Another day, another big setback to the Gandhis in the National Herald Case.

There is an increasing amount of evidence that things haven’t exactly gone the way the Dynasty would have liked in cases relating to National Herald.

Back when the allegations of corruption were first made by Dr. Swamy during the UPA years, few believed they were credible. Or perhaps, few had the courage to believe that they were credible. Rajdeep Sardesai famously stood in front of a giant screen with the words “Where is the fraud?” almost as if defending the Dynasty in the “people’s court”.

At the time, many people suggested that the ‘fraud’ here was standing towards the right of the screen, wearing a suit and a pink colored tie.

But anyway, let’s not get into that.

The matter did keep dragging on and bit by bit, things have consistently gone south for the Gandhis. In 2015, Swamy got his moment in court face to face with the Gandhis and the Gandhis had to seek bail. Shortly before that, sycophants put out “news stories” like this.

LOL!

Then, the day in court came and the Gandhis did like a short walk on the ground or something. The usual sycophants saw this as a great show of defiance and above all a case of the divine Gandhis making a show of being like ordinary human beings … which would lead to a wave of sympathy that would sweep Modi right out of his chair.

That didn’t happen, but the case kept going on. And so did the setbacks to the Gandhis. The Income Tax Department began proceedings against the company Young Indian and  various appeals were filed to halt the process. However, the courts have so far given very little relief to the accused.

In May 2017, Delhi High Court refused to stop proceedings against Young Indian by the Income Tax Department.

Accordingly, the Income Tax Department reassessed and issued a tax demand of Rs 249 crore for the Financial Year 2011-12. Not only did the Courts refuse to halt these proceedings, but ordered Young Indian to deposit Rs 10 crore.

Not surprisingly, these events from March 2018 received the minimum possible news coverage. If anyone was expecting the Indian media to follow up and find out if Young Indian actually deposited 10 crores, they would have been sorely disappointed.

But things kept trending downwards for the Gandhis. In August of this year, the Delhi High Court issued another scathing judgement.

Funnily enough, it turned out that the Gandhis, who have been built up by the liberal ecosystem as heroes of free speech, had wished for the court to issue a gag order on media reports about this case. And the Delhi High Court would have none of that either.

In my humble opinion, the Gandhis need not have bothered to ask the court to issue a gag order on the media. Our “neutral patrakars” have done a good job of gagging themselves in the case already.

Only two weeks ago, the Supreme Court did much the same, refusing to stop tax reassessment proceedings against Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.

This leads up to today’s judgement, with National Herald asked to vacate its premises within 2 weeks. Apparently, the desperate last ditch attempt to suddenly revive the long dead newspaper could not convince the High Court.

Despite the sparse and overly cautious media reporting, there is no doubt that a clear pattern is emerging. In the last five years, there has hardly been any good news for the Gandhis from the courts in the National Herald matter.

Could we be witnessing history in the making?

In India, we the people are given to a kind of cynicism, a sense that our legal system can never catch up with the high and mighty. But in this case, the wheels have been turning. Ever so slowly, but there is no doubt that the wheels are turning in one direction only.

Decades ago, a case filed by one nearly unknown politician by the name Raj Narain changed the course of Indian political history. Indira Gandhi had to impose the Emergency, India nearly lost its democracy and then the Congress was ousted from power for the first time ever in the General Elections of 1977.

At the moment, there is a (literal?) ‘gold rush’ among members of India’s liberal ecosystem to discover the electoral genius of Rahul Gandhi, after the Congress swept one state and crawled close to a majority in two others. The going assumption in Lutyens Delhi is that ‘Achche Din’ are coming. I hope they are also keeping an eye on the National Herald case, where the wheel seems to be turning in quite the opposite direction. And above all, I hope that India’s democracy will not come to the brink as it did in 1975 when the Gandhis lost a court case.