Modi’s fierce response to Pulwama makes the grovelling Manmohan look even more pathetic than before

Pakistan acknowledges that India crossed the Line of Control.

Pakistan acknowledges that India crossed the international border.

Pakistan now acknowledges that India dropped bombs inside Pakistan.

Pakistan’s only claim is that the bombs did no damage. What a humiliation to be telling the whole world that a hostile nation bombed your territory and went back, but you were lucky enough to escape damage. That’s your face saving move, Pakistan?

LOL!

By the way, did I mention that Pakistan had announced it would take a group of foreign journalists to Balakot to prove the airstrikes did “no damage”?

That visit has been postponed, apparently due to “bad weather”.

As someone explained to me on Twitter, once the “weather” has been cleared up using bulldozers and trucks, the foreign journalists can go there and assure themselves that nothing happened.

The other face saving move from Pakistan? That Indian planes went away quickly.

You bet! What did you think was going to happen? That the Indian Air Force was there for a picnic? Yeah, they dropped their bombs and went away.

The drooping faces of Imran Khan and his other Cabinet colleagues told the whole story yesterday. Their real fear of course was that the Pakistan Army would place all the blame on their “leadership”, make them scapegoats and remove them. Remember that in Pakistan, losing power doesn’t just mean losing a chair, it can mean a death penalty or life imprisonment.

Meanwhile, the most hilarious thing on the internet right now is common Pakistanis hurling abuses at their own military. They want to know how their “brave military” could have let the Indians just bomb Pakistan and go back safely.

Well, I have news for Pakistani civilians. Their military was never great at anything except surrendering. If they had the military capabilities, they would not have spent the last 3 decades hiding behind ragtag terror groups. The same terror groups attack Pakistani military bases and destroy their aircraft on the ground. The same terror groups attack Pakistani Army schools and kill innocent children. Have you wondered why Pakistan Army tolerates and even pays tributes to terrorists who raid Pakistani military bases and kill Pakistani children?

Because the Pakistani Army has simply no other way to take on India. Common people in Pakistan need to restore their relationship with reality and realize what’s really happening.

And I have news for Indians as well. The ‘Modi derangement syndrome’ that began among a section of liberals somewhere around late 2013 has now assumed epidemic proportions.

We know that their hatred for Modi had long ago turned into hatred for India. But never before had they expressed it so publicly. There is now too much smoke coming from the garbage dump of Indian liberalism. And man, it stinks!

“Strike thirst”? Wow!

And their other front page story is how the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has condemned the strike.

Incidentally, it is a giant diplomatic victory for India that no major power, including China, objected to India’s airstrikes in Pakistan. It shows that the world has learned to respect India’s right to self defense. It shows that the world has learned that there is no moral equivalence between India and Pakistan.

Being the world’s fifth largest economy and fastest growing economy matters. It really does.

Nobody wants to take us on.

With the world’s second largest population, imagine how much earlier we would have reached this point if we had not been held back for two generations after independence by Nehruvian socialism.

Our military was always capable of doing this. So what changed? The leadership in Delhi changed.

PM Modi’s fierce response to Pulwama has made the grovelling Manmohan Singh look even more pathetic than he used to. I couldn’t help laughing at this one:

Here is a fantastic example of Indian liberals going through the well known stages of grief.

I must praise Dhume that he has rushed past Denial and Anger and is now in bargaining mode. Give credit to Modi but give some “credit” to Manmohan too.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as credit for being a coward. Cowardice is not a currency that world powers trade in.

The whole world expected India to retaliate after the horror of 26/11. I believe except for people in just two countries : India and Pakistan.

Indians knew there would be no retaliation because that is how it has been for decades. They attack, we condemn. Presumably earning “moral capital” by becoming the laughing stock of the whole world.

Pakistanis also knew that there would be no retaliation. Again, because they knew how it has been for decades.

All that has changed now. Now India goes ahead, beating its chest before the whole world and announces airstrikes inside Pakistani territory. In fact, this time India said very little officially. They left it to the Pakistanis to tell the world that India had struck.

After a night of bombing Pakistan, PM Modi went out and spoke at an event to congratulate winners of the Gandhi Peace Prize. That was a nice touch. He’s got swag 🙂

In the evening, PM Modi attended the Gita Aaradhana event at ISKCON. The symbolism couldn’t have been more powerful. For the Gita is the true embodiment of Hindu thought. We are always for peace. But there is something that is above peace and that is Dharma. The ruler owes it to his people to punish the wicked enemy and uphold Dharma.

Abki baar Lahore ke paar?

I consider myself an early riser. I wake up each day at 4:15 AM sharp.

This morning, I woke up with a start. I thought I heard loud bangs again and again. I checked the time. It was 3:45 AM.

Relax. I am not psychic. I am just a guy who is too lazy to lock the bathroom door in place before I drift off to sleep. So the wind keeps coming in and banging the door again and again. It’s really annoying.

That said, did you read what the tweet says? OH YEAH!

OH YEAH!

HELL YEAH!

The strike didn’t just happen in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. It happened in Balakot, which is in proper Pakistan, part of the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunwala.

Accepted by the official spokesperson of the Pakistan Armed Forces.

A couple of observations here from my side. First, Pakistan is so bankrupt that they are welcome to add Indian ‘payload’ to their GDP.

“Released Payload”.

LOL! You mean bombs?

Even before Indian side claimed anything at all, Pakistan was jumping up and down claiming ‘no casualties’.

Last time, after surgical strikes, Pakistan was so frustrated that they took a busload of international journalists to the exact spot where the surgical strike did not happen … to prove that they did not happen 🙂

This time the Pakistanis have jumped even before we claimed anything (In fact, I would tell our people online to wait as well and not jump before official Govt of India briefing comes … advice that I am violating myself as I type this blog post.)

I said a couple of days ago: back in the day we would saber rattle and blow steam and demand from the Govt that Pakistan be punished for its terrorist activities. After the surgical strike, the culture changed. We all knew that India was going to take revenge. The only question was when and in what form?

The Pakistanis knew as well. They were suffering mental torture since Feb 14, nervous and jumping at every loud sound, worried that the Indians were coming.

The only question left today is whether this is all… or there is more coming. More mental torture awaits Pakistan and possibly more punishment.

Pakistan needs to get it.

To avenge Uri, we crossed the LoC into Pakistan occupied Kashmir

To avenge Pulwama, we crossed the international border into Pakistan.

If Pakistan still does not learn, next time we may go into Lahore. Abki baar Lahore ke paar…

The most important thing is that our IAF pilots are all back safe and sound. While we were asleep, they were making us proud. How can we ever thank them?

One final tip: Today is the day to watch NDTV. Don’t miss it. Enjoy 🙂

 

 

Image of PM Modi washing feet of “swachchagrahis” is a hope for unity against caste

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. A powerful image like this is worth much much more.

Can this one image lift the several thousand year old curse of caste on Hindu society? Probably not. But it can surely deliver a much needed dose of unity before a great civilizational battle that is barely 2 months away.

Of course the opposition will call it ‘theater’. That couldn’t matter less. The bottomline is that they are responding to PM Modi. Every single criticism of this image only draws more attention to it, makes people think more and more about what is happening in this image.

It is a balm for deeply held caste anxieties among the largest sections of Indian society.

The symbolism of ‘washing feet’ is so deeply ingrained in our culture that this image, this video has gone viral all across India, with most impact in the Hindi belt and maximum impact in Uttar Pradesh.

In Varanasi, at the heart of Hindu civilization. The Prime Minister of India sits on a footstool, washing the feet of sanitation workers, those who he calls ‘swachchagrahis’.

You can’t miss the message here. Hindus need to move on from caste. It has gone on for too long.

You can understand the liberal anxiety. Caste has always been their answer to keeping Hindus divided and disenfranchised. Their entire idea of India is based on the belief that a Hindu will always put his caste before his religion. If this bedrock belief fails, everything collapses for them.

Caste is their answer to everything. The best example of this was seen last week itself. After the Pulwama attack, liberals saw Indians uniting spontaneously in grief and anger. At Liberal HQ, there was immediate alarm. And this came along:

The writer is one Ajaz Ashraf. I emphasize: while Ashraf wanted to reduce our CRPF bravehearts to their caste identities, kindly do not reduce Ashraf to his perceived religious identity. See him instead as a mere example of the larger liberal aim of dividing India into as many pieces as possible.

Can you believe that they actually did this and then wrote about it openly?

Indeed, “kaun jaat ho” is now more than a social media punchline born in reaction to liberal journalists who tour the countryside before every election.

There are now journalists calling the grieving family members of the departed CRPF bravehearts to ask kaun jaat ho!

Presumably, while making these ‘kaun jaat ho’ phone calls, not once did the reporter feel a tug of conscience. The desire to divide Indians is too strong. Neither did the Lutyens editor who published the article feel a tug of conscience, or at least a fear of public reaction.

They don’t worry about sowing caste hatred because they have learned from experience that caste hatred always sells. Distressing comment on the nature of our society.

Take a look at this policy document, for instance.

If I showed this extract to 100 people and asked them to identify whether this is a policy document of an Indian media channel or a policy document from the Pakistani Senate, how many do you think will be able to give the correct answer?

In fact, this is a policy document from a Pakistani Senate Committee. From this one.

What a coincidence that Indian liberals say pretty much the same things that Pakistanis do!

Who can forget Hafiz Sayeed’s video showering praise on some of India’s most well known journalists?

Why is this coincidence happening? Because everyone knows our faultlines. And how fragile our Hindu society is. Be it liberals who want to keep their Lutyens zamindari. Be it Pakistan which wants to destroy us.

They all know that all they have to do is whisper the word ‘caste’ in our ears. And Hindus will immediately start fighting.

In this environment, the Prime Minister’s gesture of washing feet comes as a balm for a fractured Hindu society.

 

So what changed about India in the five years of Modi?

The other day I was reading an article in one of these leftist propaganda rags (possibly Troll but I don’t remember for sure). It was an article ‘debunking’ the ‘propaganda’ regarding the scale of toilet construction in the country and the ‘reality’ of places that had been officially declared as ‘open defecation free.’

You had to give it to the author of that article. He/she had done a lot of research, dug deep into the data and pointed out discrepancies in the data collected from three rounds of surveys done by state governments on open defecation. To show that the decrease in open defecation was actually less than what then Central Government was claiming.

Okay, good work from Troll.in. You have earned your Pidi biskoot for the day for your hard work.

But what I really learned from that Troll article is that the government had done multiple rounds of detailed surveys on open defecation. It tells you just how seriously the government has taken up the issue. Has it happened in India before that open defecation has been such a big talking point?

Governance in India is notoriously inefficient. At every level we have lazy and greedy officials, local politicians, corrupt contractors, all looking to make excuses and make a buck. It’s not a surprise that real numbers are less than what is being claimed.

But the very fact that leftist propaganda rags have to do such deep research, sweating to find the smallest discrepancy in data to somehow make the government look bad, shows you how wildly successful the Modi government has been.

It shows you that Modi has not only improved the performance. He has raised the bar itself.

In 2014, India’s toilet coverage was around 39%. That’s a shade below the 40% ‘pass mark’ in most schools. That’s the report card of 60+ years of independence and multiple Bharat Ratna Prime Ministers.

And Modi decided, suddenly and aggressively, to raise the bar. A mission to go from 40% to 100% in just 5 years.

No wonder you have leftist propaganda rags nipping at his heels, trying desperately to prove that Modi is likely to fall a few % short of his 100% target. They have no idea how pathetic they sound when they try to tear him down like this.

Indeed, what if he stops far short of 100%? What if he has only reached 80% by May 2019? Modi will still have achieved more in 60 months than others managed in 60 years put together!!

Similar observations apply to what he has done with electricity and gas connections. We have intense reporting from the ‘ground’ by leftist propaganda rags showing that Modi has ‘fallen short.’

Modi set a target for 100% village electrification, then a target for 100% household electrification within each village and finally 24 x 7 power to every household. All of this to be done in 5 years.

He’s completed the first target and about 90% of the second target. ‘Fact checkers’ are busy trying to prove that it’s not 90%. It might be 89.9%!

You’re right. He’s fallen “short”. Of what? Of a target that would not have been achieved in the next 100 years at the Congress pace of doing things!!!

So this is what has changed in five years. The bar has been raised to 100% in everything. There is intense public interest and public scrutiny in how things are going: how many toilets built, how many gas and electricity connections given, how many villages declared open defecation free and all that!

It’s like those India vs Australia cricket matches of old where India has to score 300+ runs in 50 overs. Steep climb. You can’t breathe for even a moment without looking at the required run rate. One day goes by without a few hundred toilets being built or electricity and gas connections given. It’s like a dot ball in a high pressure cricket chase. The required run rate climbs immediately.

Tell me, when was India ever like this before?

Why are we fighting this uphill battle? This extremely high required run rate? Because we gave away too many runs in the first 50 overs while we were fielding. The world passed us by and we were sleeping. Every American got a car. More than half of Indians still didn’t have toilets.

The same applies to economic indicators. The country has become obsessed with maintaining its status as the world’s ‘fastest growing economy’. This from a country that was once mocked for its ‘Hindu rate of growth’.

And no place for excuses either, no matter how genuine. So what if Modi government had to overhaul the entire taxation system and bring in GST? This is a transition so difficult that advanced economies like Australia and Canada, with just 2-3 crore people each, almost went into recession while implementing it. No such excuses allowed in India. The country went from ‘fastest growing’ to ‘2nd fastest growing’ for about six months. People came down on the government like a ton of bricks.

As individuals, we Indians have always demanded the best from ourselves and our own. The jokes about Indian parents abound. About “Sharma ji ka betaa” and the  Indian kid who gets a scolding at home for scoring “just 90%”.

But when it came to our government, we were always the opposite. The passing grade of 40% was considered a big distinction, even a rare one. 60% was truly ‘first class’.

Modi changed all that. He brought out the ‘Indian parent’ in all of us in our attitude towards the government. As long there is a “Sharma ji ka beta” somewhere in the world, some country doing better than us, we know no peace.

Tell me, when was India like this before.

Same goes for scams. The recent round of outrage from the opposition is that CAG report shows a savings of just 2.86% in the Rafale Deal! India demands: shouldn’t the savings have been at least 10%?

From a nation that was used to scams to a nation that is demanding savings!

Tell me, when was India like this before.

There is of course the old political class that cannot believe how much India has changed. There is Akhilesh, who has to suddenly justify why he took away tiles and tap fittings when he left his official bungalow. An angry Akhilesh asked how officers who used to pick up “cup plates” for him until yesterday, could dare to ask him questions.

Yeah, they cannot believe how much India has changed.

Tejaswi had been Deputy CM of Bihar for just under 2 years. In this time, he converted his official bungalow into a 7 star royal palace. This month, he lost a battle in the Supreme Court to keep that bungalow for life.

This was the old way of doing things. Of politicians taking anything they could lay their hands upon. Do you know that when Dr. Manmohan Singh left the PMO in 2014, he took with him 101 different items that he had received as gifts from foreign governments  in his capacity as India’s Prime Minister? Among them, a ladies wrist watch and a music system.

Probably not very expensive items when you compare with the size of India’s economy. But the really cheap thing here is the underlying attitude.

As Prime Minister of India, Modi also gets lots of gifts. He auctions them off and deposits the money with government schemes.

Tell me, when was India like this before.

India must learn from Israel to solve the Kashmir problem

We are still coming to terms with the reality of the Pulwama attack. And waiting for the government to take revenge. I heard that Pakistan fired at its own helicopter yesterday after hearing a loud sound, thinking that the Indian attack had begun. This isn’t nearly enough punishment, but I have to say I am enjoying the mental torture that Pakistan is going through.

One clear change is this: back in the day, after every such attack, we would demand revenge. And Pakistan would laugh because we never did anything.

This time Indians are angry but they are also somewhat smug. After surgical strikes of 2016, they *know* that revenge is certain. The only question is where, when and how? Pakistan knows it too, which is why they can barely sleep at night. India knows it and we are relishing Pakistan’s maddening anxiety until the moment the punishment really comes.

This is the difference Modi sarkar has brought. Avenging terror attacks is now standard govt policy.

But that is not the subject of today’s post. I want to talk about how to solve the Kashmir problem. Of course, I am not saying anything new here. It has been pointed out by numerous people that the only way India can solve the Kashmir crisis is by adopting the Israeli method. I just thought this would be a good time to repeat that.

Anyone who has seen the video of the Indian soldier using a megaphone to plead with crowds not to pelt stones while the Army is fighting terrorists … anyone who has seen that knows that getting “popular goodwill” in Kashmir is an impossibility at this point.

The demography of Kashmir makes it impossible. Well, then, change that demography.

I must here mention the words of the great Baba Saheb Ambedkar, who saw, clear as daylight, the failure of the ramshackle compromise of “Indian secularism”.

“That the transfer of minorities is the only lasting remedy for communal peace is beyond doubt.”

Well, but moments such as Partition are few (thankfully). If we could not have a united and free Bharat in 1947, if we were going to go through Partition anyway, we might as well have done a Partition that brings a lasting peace. But we didn’t. We got the worst of everything. A Partition of India AND an everlasting war, both inside and outside. That opportunity is gone now.

So what do we do now? The only thing left is to adopt the Israeli model. These are the borders that the UN decided in 1948 (most maps from Vox video here).

The Jews said ok. Of course the Muslims said no and went to war against the infant state. They thought it was going to be an easy win, looking at the map.

And so they fought: Egypyt + Saudi + Syria + Iraq +Lebanon + Jordan vs that one tiny Israel. (What this map from Vox does not tell you is that idiots from Pakistan also joined the war on the Arab side).

But they forgot that war takes brains. And so, Israel won. And won much more territory than the UN had given them. It is significant when the ceasefire happened, it was Jordan that occupied the land that the UN had designated as “Palestine”. In other words, no state of “Palestine” has ever existed.

In 1967, the Arabs wanted a second go at Israel. They again came together for a fight. This time Israel was less forgiving. The war lasted just six days.

This is what happens when you mess with Israel.

But of course Israel knew that they would never learn that lesson : Don’t mess with Israel. They would keep coming.

Eventually, by the late 2000s, Israel gave the Arabs back most of the land they had lost in the war. They returned the Sinai, the Golan heights and the Gaza strip. Because they had no interest in ruling random places. Israel is a modern nation that belongs to this century. They have no interest in keeping “slaves”. Only its barbaric neighbors think in those terms.

The only thing Israel wants is what they call “Judea” and “Samaria”, the hills that have civilizational significance for the Jews. The area popularly called “West Bank”. This part:

How do you overcome the resistance of the Arabs there? The solution was simple. You don’t. You simply bypass them.

Resistance happens when you have people. Population centers make up maybe 5% of the total geographical area. Forget the parts where people are throwing stones at you. Go out into the desert and build your parallel network of population centers with your own people.

Above is the network of roads built by the Israelis connecting their settlements. Notice how they crisscross the West Bank, fragmenting the area, making any future Palestinian state impossible. They can’t have a country without a contiguous piece of territory.

By 1990s, when the Oslo Accords took place, this was the map.

They handed over some land to the “Palestinian authority” but you can see how the idea of Palestine is already doomed. Those scraps of light green can never become a real country. That’s for sure.

This is what India needs to do in Kashmir. Ignore the places like Srinagar or Anantnag where people throw stones at us. Go out into the mountains and start building.

The Israelis got people to move in to the West Bank by offering them good roads, easy connectivity, good schools, cheap land and even mortgage subsidies. As Vox reported, life is actually really good in these settlements. Even though they are called “settlements”, nobody is actually living in tents. This is what a “settlement” looks like

Cheap houses in upscale neighborhoods. Extremely high quality of life. It’s so safe that people don’t even need to lock their doors.

Don’t forget that the West Bank is a desert.

Imagine beautiful Kashmir like this. With sprawling bungalows where you can open the window and take in the heavenly scenery.

Our Kashmir.

We have come to associate “Kashmir” with bitterness, violence and terror. That’s painful. We need to remind ourselves that Kashmir is our land. Just like Bangalore.

Not only is Kashmir our land, it is also one of the most scenic places in our country. Imagine a Kashmir where middle class people can start buying “summer bungalows”. Need a break from the crowds of Delhi, Noida and Gurugram? Take a month off and go to your bungalow in Kashmir.

Remember that Kashmir is our land. Do you remember the name ‘Rajtarangini’ from your school history book? It’s a history of Kashmiri Hindu kings from the 12th century. In fact, Hindus and Buddhists have been in Kashmir even in the 7th and 8th centuries. Just because suddenly somebody declares Kashmir is “Islamic land” doesn’t mean we forget about it.

Right now, too many people in Kashmir are acting like a petulant child throwing a tantrum in a department store. No you can’t have that big candy bar. No, you can’t have Azaadi. We should just cool our tempers, stop reacting to them and go about building in the valley like it’s a normal part of our country. Don’t give their temper tantrum an audience. Ignore them. Hopefully they will come to their senses.

 

BJP has mopped up Maharashtra and Congress has got a sweet deal in Tamil Nadu

So the alliances are beginning to assume final form… finally. The BJP locked up Bihar a long time ago. And now Maharashtra.

So after four years of unnecessary bitterness, the Shiv Sena has called off its bluff and bluster, calmed down and signed on to an alliance with BJP.

There never really was any doubt that this would happen. From a rational perspective at least. The only fear was that Sena would have done something completely irrational.

Maharashtra was in a curious position. With or without alliance, BJP would have won the exact same number of seats. Around 23-25. In other words, around half of the 48 seats in the state.

This alliance in Maharashtra therefore was not about increasing BJP tally. It was about reducing the Congress tally.

Without an alliance, BJP would have got 23-25 seats and the Congress-NCP alliance maybe around 20-22, with Sena getting maybe 1-2. So let’s say Congress individual tally would have been 10-11 from Maharashtra and the same 10-11 for NCP. The way NCP does politics, it is not inconceivable for them to join hands with BJP. But the loss of prestige for BJP and the damage to their growth prospects in Maharashtra would have suffered a terrible blow.

The BJP has grabbed the driver’s seat in Maharashtra precisely because of Fadnavis clean image and his genuine efforts to improve the rural situation in the state. To ally with NCP… which represents the worst of the deep rooted corruption that ails farmers would have been a terrible betrayal.

Now that BJP has sealed its alliance with Sena, the BJP-Sena alliance will repeat 2014 in the state. Cong-NCP is now down from 20-22 to maybe 5 in all. Both Congress and NCP have gone down by around 8 Lok Sabha seats each. That matters a LOT.

The gap between BJP and Congress tallies will matter a LOT. This will make all the difference in the post poll scenario. If BJP manages 200 and Congress is somehow kept under 100, say 110… they can’t stop Modi from becoming PM.

Every seat matters. Remember that Sonia Gandhi ruled 10 years because she managed to get 6 seats more than BJP in 2004.

Also keep in mind two more things: The current BJP-Sena deal is the first time BJP has officially assumed the position of “big brother” in the alliance. BJP will contest more Lok Sabha seats than Sena, as always. At Vidhan Sabha level, both will now contest the same number of seats. Remember that the old Assembly seat distribution formula used to be 172 for Sena and  just 117 for BJP. So this is a *massive* climbdown for Sena. Also, there is no doubt that BJP will have a better strike rate than Sena at the Assembly level. This means BJP will end up with more seats than Sena and Fadnavis’ second term is virtually guaranteed if BJP-Sena wins again (which they will for sure if Modi wins 2019).

The other thing is that in politics, all deals are subject to change depending on circumstances. If Modi secures a comfortable win in 2019, BJP will probably go alone in the Assembly again (and NCP will cooperate by snapping its alliance with Congress… just like in 2014).

So what happens if Modi loses 2019? Then BJP-Sena losing Maharashtra Assembly becomes a near certainty. This is why I always felt the best course for BJP was to dissolve the Maharashtra (and Haryana) Assembly and hold elections with LS polls. BJP has clear upper hand in both states … they would have won these for sure… why take a risk and push these Assembly polls into “honeymoon period” of a possible new govt?

Maybe PM Modi is supremely confident of coming back.

Let’s talk about Tamil Nadu now. Let me say I am genuinely surprised at the kind of sweetheart deal the Congress has managed there!  Congress contesting 10 seats out of 40 (39 total seats in TN plus  1 seat in Puducherry)! For a party that would struggle to get 5% of vote if it contested alone!

This is kind of stunning especially when you remember the Assembly polls from 2016.

DMK didn’t lose in 2016 despite allying with Congress, DMK lost in 2016 because it allied with Congress.

In direct DMK vs ADMK seats, the split was 50-50. The AIADMK raced to an unprecedented majority (breaking the decades old anti-incumbent trend in TN elections) because it swept the seats that DMK gave to Congress.

Considering the ADMK collapse after the passing away of Jayalalitha, my sense is that this election would have been a cakewalk for DMK anyway.

I know right now that TN politics is deeply fractionated. There’s TTV group. There’s even Kamal Hassan’s MNM with a few votes. It’s good that ADMK and BJP have sealed an alliance.

But I am not so optimistic about the NDA in Tamil Nadu. ADMK is split down the middle. DMK has a clear lead. The presence of so many smaller parties will only splinter the vote further, increasing the seat advantage of the leading party. And looking at the history of the state, 39/39 is likely for UPA here. I had said before that in TN, it is all about how many seats Congress can negotiate with DMK. I wondered if DMK would still be so generous now that they know they can sweep the election singlehandedly. But it seems they were generous.

Time and again, I have been surprised by this kind of “sweetheart deal” Congress manages to get in Tamil Nadu. At a time when the Congress is signing the most humiliating deals with other parties nationwide, TN is a clear exception. They climbed down and offered the CM post to JDS in Karnataka despite having more than twice the seats! They agreed to fight Maharashtra on a 50:50 basis with NCP. Maharashtra is a state that Congress had ruled straight till 2014 with exception of 1995-1999. In Bengal, they have agreed to become camp followers of TMC. In Uttar Pradesh, allies offered them a humiliating 2 out of 80 seats. No idea why DMK did not make the best of the Congress desperation.

I think @iMac_too has a theory that sometimes regional parties compensate the Congress not for the votes it brings, but as a fee for being able to use its ecosystem. The Congress offers a powerful ‘plug and play’ platform of intellectuals, academics and journalists. With global connections too! And deep assets even among the overlords who cannot be named. Maybe that’s why. Your guess is as good as mine.

 

Congress govt does two U-turns on Mandsaur police firing in 24 hours

Remember Mandsaur? Yes, I am talking about this.

Five farmers killed in police firing.

Remember how the entire secular ecosystem jumped into the act? Every kind of taunt was thrown at both PM Modi and Shivraj Singh Chouhan. How it was fed into the manufactured narrative of “rural distress”?

All the usual taunts about how the Congress works for the “poor farmers” whereas BJP works for the “rich”? Yeah, the Congress works for the “poor”. It works so much for India’s poor that India had the largest number of poor people in the world when the Congress finished 55 years of rule in 2014. In the meantime, the Congress itself amassed massive fortunes working for the “poor”.

I would say Shivraj Singh Chouhan did an okayish job of blunting the Congress narrative on Mandsaur. A police firing on farmers almost always places the ruling party in a near impossible situation. The Madhya Pradesh BJP did its best to show the world that the violence had been initiated by miscreants. That the crowds that went rowdy after the police firing were not genuine farmers but opposition workers. Big name troublemakers were kept out of the area and not allowed to enter.

But there was only so much Shivraj Singh Chouhan could have done. Like I said, police firing on farmers always puts the ruling party in a near impossible situation. The matter remained a big talking point all the way till the election. And the celebrity reporters from Lutyens arrived during the election sniffing for the embers of the same story.

This was a great moment.

Rajdeep – Did You get any compensation for Mandsaur firing
Victim Father – Till date didn't received anything from Madhya Pradesh Govt

All the villagers started shouting – Jhoot bol raha hai .. 1 crore cash compensation was given to him by State Gov

Rajdeep Sardesai ran away pic.twitter.com/7OJ65BbMA0

— Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) November 21, 2018

Liberal elite reporter from Lutyens sits down at the ‘rustic desi chaupal’ to discuss some politics. The father of one of the victims of that police firing says he hasn’t received any compensation from the government. Was he tutored by somebody to say that? We have no idea.

But in a small village where everyone knows everyone else, such lies cannot pass easily. All his neighbors jumped in with “He is lying…he has got Rs 1 crore!”

It didn’t matter because the narrative of “rural distress” created by Lutyens media was never aimed at villages. It was aimed at the urban audience that has no idea what is happening in the villages. The aim of this narrative was to guilt the urban voter into going for Congress believing that rural areas are being neglected by BJP.

It worked too. In Mandsaur, the so called “epicenter” of rural distress, I believe the BJP swept all the seats in 2018. On the contrary, the BJP did poorly in its urban stronghold of Indore city, for instance. Keep in mind that BJP made Indore the cleanest city in the country. A place where there is literally a “cleanliness police” that patrols every corner of town. If you see a public toilet that’s dirty, you notify the cleanliness police through an app and they will be there to clean it up in no time. That is what is possible in India. And yet BJP did not sweep Indore city. Remember that BJP ended up just 5 seats short of Congress in Madhya Pradesh.

A repeat perhaps of the media created boondoggle from the 2004 election. BJP did quite well in rural areas. The urban voter deserted the BJP in 2004, because the media convinced them that the BJP had been unfair to the rural voter!

And now that Congress is in power, this happened.

Yes, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister admitted on the floor of the Assembly that the police firing in Mandsaur had been as per “standard procedure” and in “self-defense”.

In other words, a complete clean chit to Shivraj Singh government. The BJP government stands completely exonerated.

As simple as that. “Standard procedure” and “Self-defense”. Reply delivered by the State’s Home Minister on the Assembly floor in response to a question from a Congress MLA.

No BJP to blame here. No conspiracy angle that can be imagined.

And while they were at it, the Congress also admitted that there was no scam in plantation of saplings by the BJP government along Narmada bank.

Complete exoneration for the erstwhile BJP government. Congratulations to Shivraj Singh Chouhan. His good name remains untarnished. Even his opponents couldn’t find anything wrong with him.

But how does it matter now? The die has been cast and the electorate got played. The election is OVER.

Folks, perhaps this is the real meaning of the expression “post truth”. The truth is admitted, but only post the election!

But then, the Congress remembered something important. The Vidhan Sabha election may be over, but the Lok Sabha election is coming.

Which means the lie must be revived for another 2-3 months. And so the Congress makes another U-turn and does this:

Oh I get what the Congress government is trying to say: Don’t take the Home Minister’s written reply at face value. Who knows the Congress own Home Minister might be a BJP agent? Or working for RSS? Or Zionists or CIA or KGB?

So they are going to order another “probe”. In other words, they will admit the truth only after the Lok Sabha election.

Final thoughts: Congratulations Shivraj Singh Chouhan. They couldn’t tarnish your good name. Truth came out.

How Ravish Kumar & Vinod Dua misled people about ‘martyr status’ to CRPF jawans

Ravish Kumar is a man known for many lows. But this may well be his lowest point.

Translated it means: “You and I may call them [CRPF men] martyrs, but ask the government why they refuse to call them ‘martyrs’? On July 11, 2018, the govt gave an affidavit stating in the  Delhi High Court that the status of ‘martyr’ cannot be given to paramilitary personnel.”

On the face of it, Ravish seems to have a point. Why would the government deny them the status of ‘martyrs’?

So I went to Google to find out what exactly the government means by the word ‘martyr’ and who is given this status. I found this.

Clear as crystal. According to the government, there is no official designation of ‘martyr’. For anybody. Whether from the regular Armed Forces, the paramilitary forces or anybody else.

The word ‘martyr’ might appear in everyday communication for sure, but there is no official definition on the books anywhere.

This was again clarified by the government in 2017 in response to an RTI request.

Matter closed. Except for the fact that Ravish Kumar, one of the most well-known faces of NDTV and indeed one of the most well known ‘journalists’ in the country, used misinformation to smear the government on such a sensitive topic after a deadly terror attack.

Not that I am surprised. What more do you expect from NDTV, whose Deputy News Editors are found celebrating the same terror attack with hashtags of “#HowsTheJaish” ?

And the NDTV whose senior management responds to such an act by giving the employee two weeks of vacation suspension.

But, Ravish Kumar was also referring to some affidavit in what he wrote, something from July 11, 2018.  What about it? We’ll get to that. First let me come to Vinod Dua who did a whole Youtube show about the same “issue”.

In fact, Vinod Dua read out the entire newspaper report from July 11, 2018 about the government affidavit regarding ‘martyrs’ before he began his diatribe against the government.

So where is this report? It is from the Economic Times. This one:

At first, the headline appears to support what Vinod Dua and Ravish Kumar said. ‘No martyr status to paramilitary personnel‘, which suggests that such a status of ‘martyr’ actually exists and that paramilitary personnel might be excluded from it.

But on actually reading the Economic Times report beyond the headline, it becomes obvious that the govt affidavit is merely repeating the fact that NO such status exists. For anybody.

Vinod Dua’s case is particularly outrageous, because he actually reads out the report on his show. From 2:24 to 2:43, he states in Hindi:

“जो फ़ौज में हैं, Navy में हैं, Air Force में हैं, उनके लिए शहीद, उन लोगों के लिए शहीद शब्द का इस्तेमाल होगा, जो हमारे सैनिक हैं, जो physical casualty जिनकी हुई है, जो जिन्होंने अपनी जान दे दी है और युद्धक्षेत्र में दी है, उनको शहीद माना जायेगा |”

Which translates to: “Those in the Army, Navy or Air Force, the word ‘martyr’ shall be used for them, for those who have been physical casualties and laid their lives down in the field of battle.”

So Vinod Dua states that the word ‘martyr’ shall be used to refer to physical casualties from the Army, Navy or Air Force. And he does that while reading the ET report and translating it. Which is puzzling (and shocking), because the ET report does not say anywhere that the govt gives the status of ‘martyr’ to those from the Army, Navy or Air Force!!

So where was Vinod Dua actually reading from when he appeared to be reading the printout of the ET report that he was holding in his hand? Did he deliberately change the meaning of the ET report while translating into Hindi? Only Vinod Dua can tell us.

Even more intriguing is that right after the Hindi sentence that he ended at 2:43, Vinod Dua continues in English, reading the ET report.

“The status of ‘martyr’ is not accorded to armed forces personnel who sacrifice their lives on the line of duty and hence cannot be given to the paramilitary forces ”

Did you hear that from the ET report? The status of martyr is *not* accorded to Armed Forces Personnel who sacrifice their lives and hence cannot be given to paramilitary forces.

However the fact that Vinod Dua contradicted himself in English literally one second after he finished his sentence in Hindi does not bother him one bit. He continues as if nothing happened. As if he didn’t just say two completely opposite things in English and Hindi.

Here, you can see the text of the ET report. It couldn’t be more clear about the fact that the status of ‘martyr’ is not given to *anybody*.

Our nation is still grieving from the attack of Feb 14. The proverbial embers of the funeral pyres have not cooled down yet. Somehow Indian liberals seem to be writhing in anger, not because of the loss we have suffered as a nation, but because of the atmosphere of unity and nationalism that it has generated. On top of that, some people went online and exposed many Leftists and Islamists who were celebrating the attack. This made the liberals more angry.

Has the left wing smear factory been pushed into full gear as a reaction to this? Would they go so low as to play propaganda games with a word like ‘martyr’?

Perhaps not surprising in today’s India where prominent newspapers think nothing of publishing cropped and digitally altered versions of sensitive defense related documents.

The CRPF men who sacrificed their lives in Pulwama will live in our hearts and minds forever as ‘martyrs’.

However, in this country, we need to have a serious rethink about who we refer to as ‘journalists’.

Liberals desperate to change narrative, cooking fake news of “attacks” on Kashmiri students

Indian liberals have a big problem on their hands. Most Indians don’t hate their country.

When you realize that liberalism is an ideology that thrives on creating guilt, it becomes clear how big this problem is for them.

Guilt? Whose guilt? And for what?

I am talking about inducing guilt in anybody who succeeds at anything. Liberals want you and me to feel guilty about (still) being the large ‘majority’ in India.

How was this majority achieved? Well, it happened because M majority parts of India were torn away from us. Literally millions of Hindus were then expelled from the new “land of the pure” created for Muslims.

But liberals don’t care about that. They tell us that Hindus are the majority. And simply because of the fact that we are a majority, we are “guilty” of something.

Yeah. Hindus are the large majority in India. It is like saying that earthquake victims are the “large majority” at the earthquake relief camp.

And because we are the majority, we are constantly on notice, to be blamed for anything. Liberals don’t allow Hindus any moral capital, to have any joy or pride. Or even basic rights such as benefit of doubt.

According to liberals, Hindus have no right to victimhood. Even from an India vs Pakistan point of view, liberals see India as having no moral capital. Why? Because liberals hold India “guilty” of the mere act of survival, that too managing to have larger territory than Pakistan.

In recent years, the whole world knows that India has expanded its economic and global clout, leaving Pakistan in the dust.

For liberals, this is even more proof of India’s “guilt”. See this photo that was sent to me by a Facebook friend.

The headline in Bengali reads: “To cover up for failure in protecting jawans, Pakistan is being targeted“.

For those who don’t know…the newspaper here is “Ganashakti”, the OFFICIAL mouthpiece of the CPIM in Bengal. Speaking the *exact* same language as Pakistan. Complaining that Pakistan is being “targeted” by India.

See what I said? Whenever it comes to India vs Pakistan, liberals and communists instinctively side with Pakistan. Because for them India has no right to moral capital, no right to be treated as even human.

So a situation like Pulwama terror attack presents a big problem for them. How to deal with a situation when our victimhood is undeniable? And when there is no doubt that the terrorist wanted to destroy us for being “cow piss drinkers” (his words, not mine!) ?

For liberals, it didn’t help that social media has given everyone a mouthpiece. Before the bosses could set the narrative from the top, their Leftist and Islamist supporters posted outrageous messages on their own social media timelines and gave the game away.

On top of that, the right wing took to social media relentlessly exposing anti-national tweets and Facebook posts through clear screenshots. All of them coming from Leftists and Islamists. How were the liberals going to explain all this?

That is when they have to deflect. They had to find imaginary “victims” and make them the focus of the conversation. To induce “guilt” among ordinary Indians for mourning our fallen soldiers.

The solution was obvious… start a rumor that Kashmiri students were being attacked in various colleges and universities across India. Bonus points if you can lie about them being attacked by RSS/VHP/Bajrang Dal men.

From what I saw, the rumor was spread yesterday in a fairly coordinated manner, but the first one to get it going might have been one particularly infamous “student leader”. Perhaps this person sensed another opportunity to raise funds. This time because the supposed “victims” literally don’t exist and never did exist, there can be no questions asked if the money collected in the non-existent names of non-existent people disappears. See? Genius!

And people say leftists do not understand wealth creation…

The coordinated campaign soon picked up. Another celebrity journalist cum spin master, also known for his street fighting skills, requested any Kashmiri student needing help to Message him directly on Twitter. Except that his Twitter DM was closed …

Gives you an idea of how fake and how motivated this campaign is…

Meanwhile, the CRPF, which is still recovering from the terrible loss, had to take to twitter to beg for the lies to stop.

What a shame!

The Uttarakhand Police had to do the same thing.

It is a good thing the debunking came before liberals could begin collecting money for providing “relief” to the non-existent victims.

But see how liberals operate? A day ago, India was the victim. Now, Indian society has been put in the dock, on the defensive.

Now let me give you an example of something that really happened.

And not surprisingly, the reality was exactly opposite of the narrative that liberals were pushing.

 

 

Pulwama attack : Alarming social media posts show the reach of the enemy deep within our country

This young man is an “Institute Postdoc” at IIT Madras.

https://twitter.com/IAMNiraj_singh/status/1096952185131360256

Referring to Feb 14 Pulwama attack as “Well in time day.”

https://twitter.com/SanatanSumit___/status/1096659430429675520

This person is a respectable ex professor of geology at Mumbai University.

https://twitter.com/deepak_kabeer/status/1096793230849593344

This is a guy who studied engineering at Pune University and works for Accenture in New Delhi.

@Flipkart @flipkartsupport @WorkAtFlipkart team, do u hire terrorist supporters ?
Look at this who supporting pulwama attack shamelessly on FB.
Fire him ASAP.#PulwamaTerroristAttack#CRPF#revengeforpulwama pic.twitter.com/33Fkio69zq

— अमित (@Nastredamus1) February 16, 2019

This is a guy who works for Flipkart in Bengaluru, where I live.

Over the last two days, online right wing has flooded social media with scores of such screenshots. Before I say anything else, let me put an important disclaimer. I have not verified the above screenshots myself and you should not believe anything without verification. The above are randomly chosen from the flood on social media. Additionally, if you find somebody on social media instigating violence against any person, report them to police.

By and large, I am sure that the scores of such screenshots that have flooded social media are likely to be genuine. Which shows how alarming the situation is. And how deep the enemy has penetrated into our country.

I know about the NDTV Deputy News Editor and how she celebrated the Pulwama terror attack with “How’s the Jaish?”

That one did not surprise me. I expected nothing better from NDTV. It also does not surprise me that NDTV decided to do a face saving gesture by sending her on a two week vacation suspension.

Social media has given everyone a mouthpiece of sorts. And now we know the true extent of the anti-India hatred that has become pervasive in our society.

Guy working for Accenture. Guy who studied engineering in Pune. Guy working for Flipkart. An ex-professor. Within my middle class bubble, all of them feel like people we could know. People who could have been our classmates, friends, cousins, colleagues and neighbors.

Ordinary folks like us. They are not likely to be paid propagandists sponsored by China or Pakistan. They are ordinary Indian citizens who hate India to the extent of celebrating terror attacks by Jaish-e-Mohammad.

A word here for the horrifying slogan these people have been using : “How’s the Jaish?” Think for a moment about what kind of person would use such words. The movie “Uri : The Surgical Strike” was a blockbuster. Happy people were going to theaters watching the movie and coming out chanting “How’s the Josh?”

But the mere fact that Indians were enjoying even a moment of pride was making the liberals so angry. Our little bit of joy and pride was killing them inside. So when Jaish-e-Mohammad attacked and killed our jawans, they burst into chants of “How’s the Jaish?”

What a shame! How sick humanity can be!

The other day, in my first reaction to the incident, I wrote about how the terrorist attack was a violent expression of deep seated Hinduphobia. Since then, social media has exposed just how deep seated the Hinduphobia was. And the extent of the revelation has surprised even me.

True, there have been consequences for some of these people. Some have been suspended and/or terminated from their schools and/or jobs. Such letters of suspension and/or termination have been shared with much glee on social media. But this is hardly a victory. Those people still have all that hatred for India in their heart. The only thing we have “won” here is that we have become aware of how pervasive the hatred for India/Hindus is.

The liberal left online has been left stunned by this role reversal of sorts. The global Islamist-Leftist coalition has perfected the art of playing both perpetrator and victim at the exact same time. An Islamic terror attack happens and lots of innocent people lose their lives. Before you know it, their colleagues in the Left begin strategic whining on mainstream and social media platforms. And in a matter of days, we discover that the “real victims” of Islamic terror are not the people who lost their lives, but ‘peacefuls’ who might face an angry/suspicious look here and there.

The stark Hinduphobia that led to the deadly terror attack is soon forgotten. The Left then twists the knife and revels in its power to destroy the careers of anyone who dares to question their Orwellian line about a certain religion and peace. Remember how they celebrated when a Dubai chef was fired for certain remarks? They have been trying to pull the same trick after Pulwama attack, finding incidents of ‘discrimination’, both real and imagined, against ‘peaceful’ folks and trying to change the topic.

These folks have been whining on social media against the right wing ‘naming and shaming’ those who celebrated Pulwama attack. Of course they are. Because they don’t want people to realize just how deep the Hinduphobia runs in our society. How much hatred for India there is. And how hatred for Modi has morphed into hatred for India.

Hating Modi –> Hating Hindus –> Hating India.

The progression could not be more clear. In the last few days, I have learned a lot about how so many common Indians really feel about India. About how much they hate our country. And believe me, people have learned a lot. Especially one thing :

Everyone who is anti-Modi may not be anti-India, but everyone who is anti-India is definitely anti-Modi.