How Freedom House duped millions of Indians into signing up for an anti-India agenda

Let us think about this. Why do you suppose Khalistanis are taking so much interest in the debate over farm laws in Punjab? Whether the laws stay or go, how does it help their cause of breaking up India? So why would Khalistanis like Jagmeet Singh or Mo Dhaliwal living in faraway Canada be so worked up over the fate of agricultural mandis in India?

The answer is simple. Because they understand the importance of proximity. The Khalistanis are hoping to make friends among people in Punjab who have negative sentiments about these farm laws. They hope that eventually they will be able to mutate these friendships into support for their real cause.

You must have seen the headlines yesterday. India has been ‘downgraded.’ By whom? Some apparently international organization called Freedom House. They have downgraded our status from ‘free country’ to ‘partly free.’ In other words, more bad press for Modi on the international circuit. An adrenaline rush for those who used to be in power but no longer are.

All the reactions were on expected lines. Those who support PM Modi expressed their usual irritation over being unfairly targeted by global media, their high handed tone and eagerness to intervene in our domestic affairs. Those who are against the PM were utterly grateful for yet another foreign NGO telling us how to run our country. In other words, everyone held on firmly to their political beliefs. Not even one vote moved from one side to the other. So, why worry about this?

Because we need to read the fine print of what really happened yesterday.

You have probably already noticed at least one thing shocking about this graphic. Jammu gone, Kashmir gone, Ladakh gone! They didn’t even take a middle path and include those parts which are still actively administered by India. They didn’t just snatch the occupied parts, they cut it all off.

Millions of Indians are currently circulating this graphic with a great sense of joy and vindication. They think they are striking a note of dissent against Modi. In reality they are cheering a graphic that shows a future India minus Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. Imagine how pleased Pakistan and China must be.

But that’s not all. Look more closely and you will see that it says: “Over the last 15 years, India experienced a precipitous score decline…“

Hold on! Fifteen years? That works out to roughly six years of Narendra Modi and nine years of Dr. Manmohan Singh. But the headlines were just about the snub to Modi, remember?

Freedom House knew exactly what they were doing. It is not enough for them if you hate Modi. They need you to hate both Congress and BJP. They need you to accept that the Indian state is hopelessly fascist no matter who runs it. Because they want to recruit you to break India.

Now you see what really happened. Perhaps you dislike Modi very much. Perhaps you really believe he is a fascist. But by cheering this graphic, they made you sign up with the assertion that not just Modi but Dr. Singh was a fascist too! In other words, the entire Indian polity is fascist. India as a whole is fascist.

Let’s see. In the 2019 general elections, the NDA polled around 45% of the total votes. These are Modi’s supporters. The remaining people would have a whole spectrum of opinions about him. Some would like him but not a whole lot. Some would dislike him but not that much. But because of the very nature of democracy, you can be certain that there would be a hardcore segment, say 25% of the population who dislike him intensely.

This 25% was the real target of Freedom House. They wanted to use the anti-Modi convictions of this 25% and convert it into an anti-India faction.

Ordinarily, this 25% would not support cutting off Jammu, Kashmir or Ladakh from India. Beyond a few thousand hardcore traitors or even less, no Indian would support this. But yesterday, Freedom House was able to build a bridge. They were able to reach out to maybe a quarter of the population.

How many of these 25% would cheer the Indian Army withdrawing from Ladakh? How many of them would enjoy seeing Jammu and Srinagar handed over to Pakistan? Very few. How many of these 25% would say that India is inherently evil, with both Congress and BJP being fascist parties? Again, hardly any.

But you cannot deny that yesterday Freedom House has opened a channel of communication with this segment of population. Which would work out to crores of people. Whether we like it or not, Freedom House has snagged a tiny place in their heart. Till yesterday, the influence of Freedom House was limited to a few thousand hardcore traitors. Today their sphere of influence has grown to several crores.

They will now work on this bridge. They will make it stronger. Tomorrow, another international NGO will come with another report and another map, perhaps this time with Arunachal cut off as well. The media headlines will scream about how Modi made India worse. In the fine print, you will find that not just Modi and Dr. Singh, but also Vajpayee was fascist. Those who hate Modi will still forward it joyfully, thinking it’s all just “dissent.”

You can dislike Modi all you want. You have a right to do that. But, watch out because there are well-funded folks looking to use your anger to turn you against India itself. So do yourself and all of us a favor by always reading the fine print!

“Even if life was taken away illegally, courts are helpless” : the Congress toolkit for protecting institutions

Recently, Rahul Gandhi made headlines in the media when he admitted that imposing the Emergency in 1975 was the wrong thing to do. But he added a caveat to his statement. He insisted that “Congress at no point tried to capture India’s institutional framework.” Accordingly, I have put together a brief 3 point toolkit to preserving India’s institutional framework, taking inspiration from the formidable Indira Gandhi and her illustrious grandson Rahul.

(1) Step one: Cancel Elections.

In the 1971 general elections, Indira Gandhi’s Congress won a massive mandate of 352 seats in the Lok Sabha, which used to have 518 seats at the time. Indira Gandhi had the people’s mandate to rule. There was only one problem though. The mandate was supposed to expire in five years and fresh elections would be needed. Because people can be ungrateful at times, this could have been a risky proposition.

That’s why the Congress government decided to cancel the elections of 1976. No elections means no dissent and no capture of institutions.

(2) Step two: Cancel Habeas Corpus

What can you do if the government picks you up tomorrow and throws you in jail? You have a right to know the charges against you. You have to be produced before a court. This is called Habeas Corpus. So the Congress government canceled Habeas Corpus. Possibly because Latin is a dead language anyway.

At a Supreme Court hearing in 1976, the Congress government explained why the fundamental rights under Article 21 had been canceled. At this, one of the Justices happened to ask if the right to life, which is included in Article 21 had also been canceled.

The Attorney General replied: “Even if life was taken away illegally, courts are helpless.“

How reassuring.

(3) Step three: Pick the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court correctly

Remember the pesky old judge who tried to trip up the Attorney General by asking him if the Congress government has given itself the power to take lives without a trial? Sounds like a troublemaker. His name was Justice Hans Raj Khanna. He would have become the next Chief Justice of India, if traditions of seniority were anything to go by.

And that’s why his junior, Justice Mirza Hameedullah Beg, ascended to the post of CJI in January 1977. In one of his rulings on the Emergency, Justice M H Beg had observed: “We understand that the care and concern bestowed by the state authorities upon the welfare of detenues who are well housed, well fed and well treated, is almost maternal.”

The Emergency is maternal? Canceling elections is maternal? Canceling the right to life is maternal? This guy gets it. This guy truly understands the meaning of the expression “India is Indira.”

With the right tools, any country can become a functioning democracy with strong institutions like India used to be during the Emergency. That’s why I have put together this toolkit. Now we just need approval from Mia Khalifa and Mo Dhaliwal.

Why Hindus should embrace wokeness and cancel culture

Have you ever noticed? In any country in the world where Communists hold power, there is never any democracy. However, in any democratic country, it is usually the Communists who scream the loudest about civil liberties. So, do the Communists believe in free speech or not?

Calling them hypocrites is too simple minded. The real answer is that the Communists don’t care. The Communists understand the importance of tools. In North Korea, censorship helps them keep power. And hence in North Korea, the Communists use censorship. In democratic countries, they can use free speech to spread their propaganda. So in democratic India, the Communists love free speech. For that matter, over there in China, private enterprise and economic growth helps the Communists stay in power. That’s why the Communists in China love capitalism.

This is why I always flinch when I see Hindu right wing in moral panic over woke culture coming in from the west. Why are we getting bogged down over principles when we should be learning how to use tools? Why don’t we give these tools a try and see if we can use them to our benefit? You never know, we might be better at using them than even they are! A bit like cricket, you know…

We don’t have to become like Communists, but you have to learn from the other side. Unless you learn to think like the other side, how are you going to defend?

Especially, in our case, we have little choice. The ones with privilege get to set the terms of the game. Right now, it’s the liberals who have all the privilege. We are the underclass. We are forced to play by their rules. It’s unfair, but tell me what choice do we have? Suppose we refuse to play their game completely. They would love that. In fact, they are waiting for exactly this. They will promptly declare us all Nazis and say we should have no place in modern society. And they have more than enough power to do this.

Just think. They have controlled our nation for 1000 years. Our current education system has been in their control for over 200 years now. How many educated Hindus can recite two shlokas from the Gita? How many educated Hindus can write a 300 word essay in an Indian language? Have you ever seen the Hindi section of a bookstore? Some 80% of its content is translations of books written in English. I imagine the condition of other Indian languages would be even worse. Answer me in 10 seconds or less : what is the word for GDP in Hindi or any other Indian language?

(Answer in Hindi is sakal gharelu utpaad, btw)

It is exciting to dream about changing all of this. To dismantle everything brick by brick and rebuild. But, you must know at some level that it’s not really possible. The incentive structures assembled over 1000 years are just too powerful.

And when you consider the other side, they can flip a couple of switches and destroy us. How far is America from bombing our country? They are making a case for this in right earnest by declaring us Nazis and fascists. And you don’t need bombs. The other day a faculty member at Oxford University openly attacked a Hindu student because she hails from coastal Karnataka, a BJP bastion. The faculty member in question is not afraid of any consequences. In fact, he knows this is going to be great for his career. How is such behavior possible? They know they have total power over us. They can operate with absolute impunity.

Her story got almost no play in media. A handful of people here and there might be outraged. But the vast majority of people will react with fear and comply. The next kid who applies to Oxford will go the extra mile to prove that s/he hates Hindus. You can’t hold this against them. If universities like Oxford are putting a ban on Hindu students, there is a lot of advantage in playing along. A degree from Oxford opens a lot of doors. Tell me honestly, what would you choose : life as a common Hindu in coastal Karnataka or an elite with an Oxford degree? One person out of 1000 may insist on principles and salute to that person but the other 999 will not. That’s the reality.

We don’t have the cards. If we don’t play their game, we are declining whatever little they are offering us.

When we don’t have a choice anyway, let’s give their tools a try. Let us learn their language. And let me tell you, once we do this, there is no stopping us. Because we have perhaps the world’s largest reserves of victimhood. We just need to start mining it.

Is there any other nation where the majority has been subjugated for 1000 years? No! So let’s pull that card first. We are the largest pagan culture still standing after constant invasion from the religion of peace, the religion of love and the religion of equality. Let’s pull that card.

The Catholic Church wants us wiped out. The Church is headed by a white male who lives in Western Europe. The Church has divided up our country into what they call dioceses, each headed by a bishop appointed by this white male Pope. Our colonizers were white Christians. How are we letting the obvious similarities go by? The Church has demanded a harvest of souls from India. Why aren’t we publicizing these remarks on every forum? Why don’t we ask the Church to explain how they are any different from Churchill?

Let us frame our issues in the same way as the global left frames its own. Let us ask what is so different about the demolition of Babri Masjid from the those taking down statues all across the US. Let us learn their language of wokeness. We want justice too. What Columbus was to them, Babar is to us. One was from 1492; the other from 1526. What is the big difference?

I will mention here the popular Twitter handle Gems of Bollywood. Lately, they have caused so much irritation in liberal circles that even the Economist magazine has been roped in to attack them. But what are the GoB folks really asking for? For instance, why are popular Bollywood songs peppered with insulting references to the word “Kaf*r”? How is it okay to use non-believer as a slur? Millions of people have faced extreme violence due to that label. The global left is very sensitive to the use of labels. Why don’t we demand that “Kaf*r” be added to the list? This is an example of Hindus doing cancel culture right! And that’s why a mere Twitter handle is causing so much irritation to the global left.

I recently saw a rather creative handle that has been putting out parodies of liberalism. One of them talks about an imaginary Indian Institute of Protests where the trainee liberals are made to meditate upon the mantra : “We are all victims.” It’s funny because we know how powerful it is these days to proclaim oneself the victim.

Why don’t we learn to frame our issues in this language? Indeed how is the imposition of the idea of Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb any different from how colonizers whitewash history everywhere? No, there was no Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb. The community with historical privilege must acknowledge it. They must become our “allies” as we Hindus speak out against the historical pain that we have suffered.

At the heart of my message is that there is no room for emotion, just cold calculation. Right now, we don’t have the cards. Doesn’t mean we should quit the game. We have more to lose from quitting the game than staying anyhow.

Once upon a time, the Chinese had no cards. They played anyway. They did whatever they could and bargained hard. They saw a world dominated by the west. They wanted to rise as a superpower. But they knew the west would not like that. So they came up with a term called “peaceful rise.” They swallowed their pride and waited for their turn, bargaining each day for a little bit more. In 1997, the British lease on Hong Kong expired and the city was supposed to return to China. Even though China had a clear and simple claim over the city, they still decided to compromise with the British. Why? Because, at that time, Hong Kong would have accounted for 1/3rd of China’s GDP.

Twenty years later, Hong Kong is only a tiny fraction of China’s GDP. Across the street from Hong Kong, the Chinese have built the much more gleaming city of Shenzen. They don’t care now. They don’t talk of peaceful rise. Last year, China threatened to “pluck the eyes out” of any international alliance that tries to intervene in Hong Kong. Exact words.

Remember what the legendary US general George Patton said on the eve of the Allied invasion of France. Nobody ever won a war by dying for his country. You win a war by making the other fellow sacrifice for his country (his exact words were even more colorful). I want no heroes. We need committed people who will make the best of what we have. And survive.

Do you know who would love most for Hindus to produce “Indic heroes?” It’s the liberals, actually. Because of their overwhelming dominance, they can easily destroy a few hundred or a few thousand heroes and subjugate the rest of us. What the liberals cannot deal with is one billion Hindus each bargaining for a little bit, pestering them, determined to survive. In fact, survival is the first round of the revolt against global leftism.

We must play with whatever cards we have and play hard. We can outwoke them. We can outcancel them. We just have to try.

Gujarat 2002: The iconic photo(s) that were never taken and the question of ‘victimhood’

Almost everyone who has heard about the Gujarat riots of 2002 has seen the ‘iconic’ photo of the man with his hands folded. His face shrunken with fear, his eyes half watery and half looking away, as if reflecting on the brutality that fellow human beings can be capable of. The photo was taken on this day, nineteen years ago, at a locality in Amdavad.

The emotions here are primal. This is a powerful image of a human being quivering with fear. The photo raises all sorts of questions. About our humanity, about our society and the role of media in making it. And above all, questions about how we perceive victimhood. Now, there are some questions about this photograph itself; how it was taken and how the photographer managed such a perfect shot apparently in the middle of raging violence. But we will not go into the relatively small minded questions. We will focus on the big ones.

Let’s face it. In modern societies, there is a lot of power in which group gets to be the victim. We abhor the use of violence by one group to subjugate another. As such, the only way for one group of people to gain an upper hand on another is by presenting themselves as victims. Even China goes around telling the world that they are victims of India trying to grab their land! How absurd is that?

But what does this tell you? As perverse as it may sound, it proves that in the modern world, victimhood is a very precious commodity. Everyone wants to claim it for themselves. Once you can claim victimhood, you automatically receive a number of privileges. It becomes a moral license to have your way in almost any argument.

This is what makes the media so powerful. With its reports, images and videos, the media decides which group can claim how much victimhood. This is why we need to ask about the photos from Gujarat 2002 that were never taken. Why were they never taken? Untold stories lead to forgotten victimhood. And when one group is unable to reclaim its victimhood, other groups who have proof of their victimhood are able to impose their will on them.

No, this does not mean any particular individual wants to be a victim. Who would want to have their house attacked or get burned alive by a mob? I am talking about what happens in practice. The suffering of individuals is appropriated by a larger group which then uses it to push narratives favorable to them. At one level, this is immoral, almost like one person snatching what belongs to another. At another level, it is important too. Unless groups maintain the memory of collective victimhood, how do they ensure something like that never happens again?

There is one particular controversy about Gujarat 2002 that I never understood. There is an allegation that the Gujarat government brought the charred bodies from the Godhra carnage to Amdavad and displayed them. Indian liberals accuse then CM Modi of doing this to inflame communal passions. The state government denies that such a ‘display’ even happened.

My question is this. Why is this even treated as an “allegation”? Why is it so important to liberals that nobody should even see the charred bodies from Godhra? Each of them used to be a living breathing human being before they were turned into a charred body. Why don’t they get to tell the world, at least in death, about how they suffered? Why should we be denied one last image of what happened to them?

The answer is obvious. The media wanted to bury the victimhood of one side by turning their suffering into statistics. Fifty nine people were burned alive inside that S-6 compartment. As long as there were no faces, no names and no dead bodies, it was easy for the media to wipe them out.

Not just to wipe them out, but to actually demonize them. Somebody said that the kar sevaks had harassed a woman. Somebody said that they had refused to pay for tea. How much does a cup of tea cost, by the way? Two rupees? Five rupees? Now imagine what kind of person would make excuses for burning 59 people alive by saying that somebody did not pay for tea. Could a cup of tea be worth 59 human lives?

And yet. those who made such arguments faced no public censure of any sort. Most of them lead socially respectable lives today and almost all are still in the business of ‘secularism.’

How did this become possible? Because we never got to see the names and faces of the victims. We only ever got a fleeting glimpse of their dead bodies. Their lives were never captured, whether in photographs or in news reports, for us to remember. Do you know the name of a single person who perished in that S-6 compartment? I am guessing you do not. Meanwhile, Indian liberals still complain about the urban legend that someone, somewhere might have seen their dead bodies before these unfortunate people were lost forever.

They insist that Hindus can never be victims. They insist on hating kar sevaks as a class. And in order to achieve this, they insist that no record of their victimhood should remain anywhere. Even if someone saw their dead bodies, that was a crime too. Because if anyone heard that Hindus could be victims, then Hindus would have the moral authority to push their own narratives. They cannot tolerate that.

Each one of us here will be gone some day. As individuals, very few of us will make a lasting impact. For most, our group identity will be our only footprint that stays with the world long after we are gone. So when we lose the memory of collective suffering, our group is left powerless. When our stories fade, we cease to exist. And that is what they have always wanted.