Make 2024 Modi vs Priyanka and get me the popcorn

This Sunday something extraordinary happened. The entire counting day, I did not have a single drop of whiskey. You will be wondering if I had vodka or gin, but let me assure you I did not touch alcohol. And it helped me see the elections for what they are. So here are my takeaways, not coloured by any shades of the bottle.

Modi magic

For the first time since 2014, Narendra Modi was not the biggest factor in an election. Unlike earlier elections, we didn’t see planted reports in the media that claimed how Modi turned things around in the last one week with his magnificent oratory and spectacular roadshows. One big sign that even the BJP was cagey about putting the PM in the front. But seeing how things turned out, Modi won the elections for the BJP in two states - in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, where ED too probably did its bit with its election-eve raids and arrests. Madhya Pradesh was won by a cornered Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

The 3-0 sweep of Hindi heartland however has added further to the Modi aura. It will inspire BJP voters and workers and demotivate Congress workers. Invincible Modi is the branding that is getting traction.


Cong clueless in Madhya Pradesh

If Chhindwara was a state, then Kamal Nath would be its CM. The trouble is Chhindwara is not a state, and outside of Chhindwara, Kamal Nath doesn’t have much appeal. Kamal Nath has been around since 1975 when emergency was imposed. If he had to become a CM, he would have become one in the 50 years or so he has been in politics. The other leader Digvijaya Singh, became a CM in his 40s. He is keeping the seat warm for his son, possibly to make a serious bid for power in the next elections. In 2018, the Congress had all the regions covered with the Scindia-Digvijaya-Kamal Nath trio. But after the elections, the old guard smoked out Scindia or Scindia walked out for a bungalow and power in Delhi, whichever version you want to believe. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was their best bet, and the punt failed.

Hindutva

2014 was a vote for Vikas, 2019 was a vote for Hindutva-plus, but 2024 will be a vote on governance. Many analysts will say the Congress lost the three states in the Hindi heartland because of Hindutva, because of Udhayanidhi Stalin’s comment on Sanatan Dharma. That is the easiest excuse to make. The Congress vote share in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh has remained roughly the same. No Hindus switched their votes from the Congress to punish the party and save the religion. In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the vote share of other parties came down and the BJP was the beneficiary. Leaders like Kamal Nath, Bhupesh Baghel feared Hindutva so much, they got busy making schemes for gauraksha and gobar and lost the larger plot.

We should remember that Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao – all of them pandered to Hindu sentiments. Sonia Gandhi brought a kind of liberalism into politics which helped the BJP play the “Hindu khatre me” card. She also brought in the concept of rights-based governance in a society where people are used to mai-baap culture. Ten years later, the BJP has occupied the national party space, reducing the Congress to a few states.

Today the non-core Hindu voters of the BJP feel their religion is safe under Modi, they are voting for Modi because they think he is doing a great job. Now, what you think are failures of the Modi govt in matters of governance are being seen as good policy by these voters. Remember even deaths during second Covid wave and demonetization did not change the view of these voters despite suffering so much pain and loss.

Hindutva has run its course. It has saturated in many parts but will find some growth areas too. But if the BJP wins 2024 it will be because the voter likes Modi’s governance.

North-South divide

The North-South divide is real and has been there forever. Make no mistake, Hindutva has takers in South India too. At some point the BJP will open its account in Kerala and it could become the principal opposition in Telangana or Andhra Pradesh. Hindutva can help the BJP attain a critical mass, like in Karnataka, but the party will have to look beyond Hindutva to rule the southern states.

One reason is that people of these states have strong feelings about their culture. Any attempt to impose one shade of Hinduism will meet with stiff resistance from them.

The Congress, however, can’t give the North-South divide as a reason for their failings. Instead they should export the energy and enthusiasm shown by its cadres and leaders in Karnataka and Telangana to north India.

After all what is the use of contesting elections if you have already given up the fight? If that is the case Congress might as well shut shop and go home.

Caste census

The caste card remains the biggest antidote to Hindutva. Analysts will say it didn’t work in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. These states though were not affected by the caste politics in the Nineties though, why should they be now? Caste census is an issue for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the original Mandal vs Mandir battleground. More than the Congress, it is an issue tailormade for parties like the SP and RJD.

Priyanka factor

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra remains the best communicator the Congress has. Rahul Gandhi can walk all that he wants, but he is unable to send his message across effectively. His image among many Congress sympathizers is that of a ‘nice boy not meant for politics’.

Unlike Rahul, whose every statement is distorted, his sister has a knack of effectively countering her rivals’ political attacks. Her punchy dialogues at election rallies in Karnataka have defanged the victim card played by Modi very often during elections. She merely asked, “How can a man who has been in power for so many years, flies superjets, come to you complaining about insults instead of listening to your troubles?”

Brand Priyanka is no match for Brand Modi, but it is the best Cong has today.

Modi is India, India is Modi

When Narendra Modi speaks in Parliament, which is rare, everyone listens. His fans, his critics, his trolls, pretty much everyone. And he never lets us down.

This week, the PM spoke his mind, wearing a jacket of recycled plastic according to his PR machinery, but evidently the man himself thought it was Teflon. The speech exuded such confidence.

There are two ways I listen to his speech. One, I read between the lines. Two, I do not read between the lines. Then, by now you all know, I employ the good old Sherlock Holmes principle - When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. 

So when Modi said, “If Nehru is such a great man, why are his grandkids and great grand kids not using the Nehru surname”, many took it as another attempt to belittle the country’s first prime minister, an intellectual giant, the kind of who we rarely see. But not me. 

I thought and over-thought the remark in my head many times over. I dissected it with scalpel blade 15. And finally came to a conclusion.

Suppose Indira Priyadarshini had retained her father’s surname instead of adding her husband’s after marriage. Suppose Indira’s sons took their mother’s surname instead of their father’s. Too many suppositions, I know, but you must not lose track. Suppose their kids took their surname from their mothers instead of their father. It would have been a tremendous strike at the root of patriarchy coming straight from the First Family of India. Now the Leader’s statement starts making sense. Immense sense.

Not everything Modi said came coded in Greek. Most of it was plainspeak.

He said the UPA converted every opportunity into a scam. Isn’t that true? Even when there was no scam, Manmohan Singh’s partymen told us there is one, to polish the heir apparent’s resume, to present him as the hero who will set all things that are wrong with the UPA right. For some strange reason the heir refused to join the govt and clean up the mess, instead waiting for the elections. The voter had different ideas. 

The most controversial bits in Modi’s speeches came in two parts over two days.

“The country trusts me and not the abuses and accusations you throw at me.”

“Ek akela kitno pe bhaari pad raha hai.”

He is just being truthful.

If hours long queues to take money out of ATM could not unseat him, if thousands of deaths caused by oxygen shortage could not unseat his party in Uttar Pradesh, nothing else will. Definitely not a businessman out to make some quick buck. 

Nor a cross-country yatra to unite the country. For starters, how do you unite a country where the majority feels there are no divisions.

The likes of Mani Shankar Aiyar and Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh will remind you how JP dethroned Indira and how VP Singh defeated Rajiv Gandhi.

There is a big difference.

Indira made an enemy of every Opposition leader. All of them ganged up with the common aim of toppling her and with personal ambitions of becoming PM.

Her son was no great politician and opposition had the self-belief – if Indira can be defeated, then Rajiv certainly can be.  

Modi has learnt from the mistakes of Indira, Rajiv and Manmohan.

One, don’t give opposition leaders a reason to gang up against him. So he will give Naveen Patnaik, Jagan Reddy, K Chandrasekhar Rao, Akhilesh Yadav, etc their free space at the state level. The opposition is perennially divided.

Two, rule with an iron fist when you have such a brutal majority. Rajiv suffered because VP Singh, right under his nose, turned against him, rather the PM allowed him to.  

Three, never let the public get even a whiff of a scam even if there is one. Ignore charges being leveled by the Opposition unlike Manmohan who would sack ministers and order investigations. Modi has one advantage. The fear factor. From the fourth estate to pretty much every estate, no one dare point a finger at him. 

Modi is bigger than the BJP. Modi is bigger than the RSS. The trouble is he knows it, though his modesty doesn’t let him say so openly.

 “Ek akela kitno pe bhaari pad raha hai.”

When Modi said that, thumping his Chappan Chaathi multiple times, his party colleagues in the ministry and Parliament, stood up to give him an ovation. As they did that, they saw something we didn’t on the TV, thanks to their privileged seats right next to the PM. They spotted the Halo.

To them, and sadly many more outside, Modi is India and India is Modi. 

Ek akela aadmi sab pe bhaari.

Post script : After all, the investors who put money in the group did so, not because India is a land of opportunities, but because of the promoters' proximity to the PM. 

Kerala Model: Good, Bad or Ugly?

Last year in the middle of the first wave, a neighbor approached me, asking why I wasn’t going to Kerala where it is safe to be. “Jaan hai to jahaan hai”, he said. I stayed put in Delhi. As it happened the virus ran through Kerala as well – the state was the first to report a covid case and the last to peak in the first wave.

Today Kerala is adding more than 10,000 cases to India’s daily caseload every day. The whole country is debating the Kerala model. But why? And what should Kerala do?

Politics

Uttar Pradesh is up for elections. In the second wave, many families in the state lost loved ones. A photo of the departed member hanging on the wall is a grim reminder of the hell they went through those two trying months. Covid is a big election issue. The BJP needs to douse the anger. So its cyber army runs online campaigns pointing to Kerala’s current numbers. We were bad but Kerala is worse. Will it click? Nobody knows. But it certainly has worked as a balm for the diehard fans of PM Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath.

The numbers

The whole world has been shooting in the dark when it comes to fighting the coronavirus.

The main idea across the world initially was to limit the infections.

Different countries had different strategies. Island nations shut down incoming flights isolating themselves and it worked remarkably well for them.

Others imposed lockdowns. While it helped build infrastructure, reduce load on hospitals, it only slowed the spread of the virus and not stop it.

That was one major lesson learnt. The focus now was on limiting deaths.

Survival of the fittest

Onam is to Kerala what Diwali is to rest of the country. This is when maximum business happens in the state. Two successive years of zero business would mean thousands of traders suffer huge losses. So when the rest of the country is questioning relaxation of norms during Bakrid for three days, people in Kerala are demanding a lifting of lockdown, covid be damned.

Lifting all lockdown norms means racing to reach herd immunity. It also means survival of the fittest. We saw that in Delhi and other north Indian states. Many people I know died without getting proper medical treatment. 

Trust me, it’s a horrible sight.

Imagine spending a whole day working phone numbers looking for a cylinder and oxygen to fill it with.

Imagine hunting for medicines that don’t seem to exist throughout the day and returning to hospital without anything to show for the effort.

Imagine you are a thirty year old struggling to breathe… you can see your wife and friends frantically making calls for ambulances, hospital beds… you can see your little kids looking at you scared and puzzled at what is happening around them… you can feel life draining out of you, the surroundings blur into darkness… you want to say good bye, but can’t find your voice…

Trust me, it’s a horrible sight.

Only Rahul can stop Modi, but will he?

Even during my toughest missions in the remotest areas hunting down enemies, even when I am busy seducing or being seduced by pretty spies and operatives of all kinds, even when I am getting drunk on arrack and rum, even when I am experimenting with truth, half truths and innocent lies… I don’t take my eyes off my primary objective – that is world peace. But that is not the case with Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul is a nice chap. A handsome old young man with no known vices and quite a tharavadi. In short,  sundar and susheel. Qualities any parent would seek when looking for a match for their daughter.  Now the problem is he is not seeking a bride but looking for votes, enough of them to unseat Narendra Modi in 2024 or even 2028.

Nothing he has done till now gives his fans the confidence he will be able to do it.

Look at this. Rahul goes to Bihar where Tejashwi is working up huge crowds with his promise of 10 lakh govt jobs and what does he do? He starts talking about demonetization. Agreed note ban was a blunder of gigantic proportions, but people have moved on, and don’t seem to mind the trouble DeMo brought on them. 

For Rahul, somewhere the fight has become personal.

He probably hates the PM who has slapped cases against the entire Gandhi family and bad-mouths the dynasty starting from Jawaharlal Nehru. Naturally so.  But he was not out there seeking votes to settle a personal score.

He probably thinks 'how does that dumbo rule the country while I sit in the opposition', but then the BJP says Rahul is the dumbo, and unfortunately for Rahul, the voter seems to share that view.

To be a politician you have to have two necessary qualities. One, he or she must be a good communicator. Rahul is not. Two, he or she has to be a cunning backroom player. 

If the BJP can build a Hindu umbrella alliance, who is stopping the Congress from a forming a Brahmin-Dalit-Muslim tieup in let us say, Uttar Pradesh.

If BJP can split votes by fielding Asaduddin Owaisi, as the Congress claims, what is stopping the Congress doing something similar to the BJP.

Rahul is neither a communicator nor a cunning operator.

Like I have written in a post earlier, a Priyanka or a Rahul won’t win the elections for the Congress just because they are a Gandhi. We have moved on from the dynasty and it’s time the party and the family realized that.

I don’t know if Priyanka can revive the party, but from the 11 years we have seen of Rahul, we can safely conclude he can’t.

Every time he joins a protest or supports a cause, the BJP is able to dodge the bullet.

For example the current farmer protests have cornered the Narendra Modi govt and what stands out is Rahul’s absence.

Rahul Gandhi must focus on the objective.

If the aim is to remove Narendra Modi from the throne, then Rahul must abdicate and let someone else lead the Congress into the next election.

If the aim is to be the chocolate boy of Indian politics, he has won the title hands down. It’s time he let someone else take a shot at that title too.

SC rejects plea seeking relief for migrants

Irrfan: the Super Actor Among the Stars

“Hello bhaiyon or beheno, main Irrfan hu.... me aaj aapke saath hoo bhi nahi bhi,“ said Irrfan in his last message his fans ahead of the release of his latest film Angrezi Medium.

His words turned out to be prophetic.

Portrait by Green Chromide

Irrfan aaj hamare saath hai bhi, nahi bhi

He went as he came into Bollywood, without any fanfare.

A quiet good-bye to the master who found eloquence in silence.

Irrfan was so soft spoken, even when he was shouting, his villains were more adorable than the others’ heroes.

Irrfan could switch into any character as easily as changing robes, or did he just make it look that easy?

He could be the rebel, the troubled lover, the obsessive lover, the adulterer…

In his hands ordinary roles became good, and the good ones extraordinary.

His eyes spoke much more than he did.

Intense.

That was Irrfan in one word.

In his cameo in the Oscar-winning Life of Pi, Irrfan says, "I suppose in the end, the whole of life
becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye."

Cancer is so cruel. It puts you on notice, and gives ample time, not just a moment, to say the final good-bye.

Alvida Irrfan.

The Great Migrant March

What Modi is doing Manmohan couldn’t have done

Sometime when the the capital city was done with rioting, when the ruling party was plotting the fall of a state govt, when the country was busy wondering if the junior finance minister actually said goli maaro, an Opposition leader warned the novel coronavirus was heading India’s way and it wasn’t getting the respect it deserved.

That Opposition leader, you may find it hard to believe, was the Pappu of Indian politics - Rahul Gandhi. Now his fans are asking what if Rahul Gandhi was the PM and not Narendra Modi. Would India have been better prepared?

That is an unfair question to ask. We know what Modi’s performance is like but we don’t have any work by Rahul Gandhi that could be compared with Modi’s. When he could have become a minister and honed his skills under the best tutor he could possibly get, he refused. Instead he chose to wield the remote control to the govt even as he let his advisors remote control him.

Now one can argue, as I often do, it is better to have someone who does nothing than have someone who does demonetisation.

The valid comparison one can make though is between Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi.

What if Manmohan was PM

We can safely assume Manmohan’s govt would have been prepared for the coronavirus crisis. We can expect that for many reasons. He has done it many times in the past, so he can sniff trouble when it comes. We would have had enough PPE kits, we would have mass produced ventilators, etc, etc.

Yes, there would be media plants on how Sonia Gandhi put her foot down, Rahul Gandhi put his best foot forward, how Digvijaya had his feet on the ground, while the sardar was always on the wrong foot.

In all that chaos, Manmohan would have ensured order, and seek no credit.

But we would still be unhappy. We Indians are like that. How many Indian victories we didn’t savour because Sachin Tendulkar scored a century and the match got over with a few overs to spare. Instead what we ask is why didn’t Tendulkar win that match we lost.

Now think of the present day. We didn’t plan for the novel coronavirus and we are where we are now. In such a situation Narendra Modi is the best PM India can have.

No other PM could have announced a lockdown at 4 hours’ notice.

No other PM could have asked citizens to bang their thalis and belans and katoris and made them do exactly that.

No other PM could have asked citizens to light lamps and candles and mobile flashlights and received total obedience.

In fact they did more than what Modi asked for. Like the old Hindi dialogue goes, Modi ne dil manga, hum jaan dene ko taiyaar hai.

No other PM could have made the Amit Shahs, the Ajit Dovals, the Rajnath Singhs of his govt fall in line so meekly. No hunt for headlines, no hunt for credit, it is all reserved for the Saheb.

No other PM will come out of the crisis unscathed and blemishless like Modi is going to do. The man is going to blame every failure on coronavirus - the failing economy, the social strife over citizenship law, the Kashmir distrust, the badly made dhoklas you get in Aggarwal’s mithai shop. You name it, it was all because of corona. And the countrymen believe it.

Some time last week, a message started spreading that we all have to stand in the balconies for 5 minutes to salute the PM. We were all getting ready to do exactly that -- some out of fear and some out of bhakti -- when a wise soul said it was a prank.

Good or bad, it is this unquestioned obedience to Modi that is going to save our lives in the pandemic, though many of us may not have a job to survive.

Jaan hai to jahaan hai.

JNU under attack

Faiz Ahmad Faiz haazir ho

Jasoos Narayanan Kutty has scooped the report of the investigation committee that probed whether Faiz’s poem Hum Dekhenge is anti-Hindu. Excerpts from the report are given below.

Translation of Faiz’s lines under investigation

From the House of God
Every idol will be removed
We, the pure, the faithful
Who were barred from His house
Will be made kings
Their crowns will be flung in the air
And thrones will be smashed
We shall bear witness

Critical analysis by investigation committee

From the House of God
Was it vaastu compliant?
Since the poem was written in Pakistan, chances are it didn’t follow any features prescribed by vaastu shastra for a healthy and meaningful life.

Every idol will be removed
What is the reference?
Is Faiz alluding to ordinary idols like Narendra Modi, Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan? The verse per se doesn’t elaborate. The poet has mischievously left it open-ended. He could well be referring to a ruler, but it can’t also be ruled out he might be referring to Ram or Durga for that matter.         

We, the pure, the faithful
Who are ‘we’?
Does ‘we’ indicate the people or believers of a particular faith?

Who were barred from His house
OK, someone closed a door on someone. That doesn’t mean we write a poem on that. Free speech my foot.

Will be made kings
Even harbouring such thoughts of becoming a monarch goes against the very foundation of our Constitution - that is democracy, equality, liberty. Totally not done.

Their crowns will be flung in the air
If their crowns are flung in the air, does it mean the new ruler will have to buy a new crown. If that is so, who pays for it? Wasteful expenditure, recommend a CAG audit of the poem.

And thrones will be smashed
Again totally unnecessary. If it’s a functional throne, why smash it? All this smells very fishy, like a scam in the making. Dal mein kuch kala hai.       

We shall bear witness
And do nothing? These people are material witness to destruction of public property and the poet is asking them to stay silent and - even more shameful - support the criminal act. That amounts to conspiracy and tampering with evidence. A notice should be issued to Faiz to recover the cost of crown and throne if and when they are thrown and smashed.

Conclusion
The police have not been able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the poem ‘Hum Dekhenge’ by Faiz Ahmed Faiz is against Hinduism, and by extension, India. But some logical reasoning by this committee has proved beyond reasonable doubt Faiz’s intentions were suspicious. There are many gaping holes in the poem which leave it to interpretation. The committee hereby decides to summon Faiz for questioning. It may be noted this is India, and the poet can’t plead the Fifth Amendment if he chooses to depose before the committee.

Anti-Citizenship Amendment Act Protests Escalate Across India

Citizenship Law Rewritten, Right to Equality Redefined

A Malayalee Hindu’s Confession on Citizenship Bill

The Citizenship Amendment Bill is now law. Many of my colleagues on twitter say they feel sad, scared, angry, disappointed. I feel no such emotion.

And why should I? It doesn’t affect me. I am a Hindu. I don't know why Muslims are upset. They are not losing citizenship or anything.

And these protests in the Northeast! To be honest, where is the Northeast? It seems somewhere back of the beyond. I have never been there. I don’t see the region becoming a job hub in the foreseeable future. If and when I go, it will be as a tourist. I will click a few photos to keep at home, a reminder of a good trip.

To be honest I don’t know how many states are there in the Northeast. That would be an exaggeration, there are Seven Sisters. Is Sikkim one of the sisters or a distant cousin or neither? I don’t know.

I learnt the capitals of the seven states to score marks in GK. That done, I readily forgot them the moment I passed out.   

I mean who cares about the Northeast? If it wasn’t for the blank cheque, err passport, for illegal Hindu immigrants and a babaji ka thullu, isn’t that what Kapil Sharma says, for illegal Muslim immigrants, we wouldn’t be wasting any airtime or ink on the Northeast.
You don’t believe me?

Manipur was blockaded for nearly 5 months - that is almost half the year - a couple of years ago. Did anyone notice it? Did anyone cover the news?

Irom Sharmila, a resident of Manipur, was on a hunger strike for 16 years demanding removal of AFSPA. Hardly anyone noticed. AFSPA is still in force in Manipur. Irom just gave up her fight and got married. Her wedding made more headlines than the fast. BTW, she also lost an election somewhere in between. It would be wrong to say nothing fruitful came out of Irom’s hunger strike. A few people wrote her biographies and she got the title ‘Iron Lady’.

This is how much we Indians care for the Northeast.

I don’t know much about CAB, but what I know is it was in the BJP’s manifesto and the party swept the Northeast. It means the people of the region want the law, right? I may be wrong, but I have already admitted I give a damn about the place.

That is not to say I am a heartless soul. I have deep affection for people and things Northeastern. Just like I relish Hyderabadi biryani and mutton kababs, I like momos and red chutney. They are good touchings for rum. Not to speak of the people. They make for wonderful drinking buddies.

Now you know why I don’t feel sad, scared, angry or disappointed over the citizenship bill.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has mastered one trick. Us versus them. And this ‘us’ is always a lot more significant in numbers than the ‘them’.

At some point, the party’s gaze will turn to Kerala. It fits the bill. Small state. Sizeable Muslim population. Just 20 Lok Sabha seats which the party anyway doesn’t win. It could come in the form of a countrywide beef ban for example. Us versus them.

That is when I will feel sad, scared, angry, disappointed.

World Exclusive: Transcript of hacked WhatsApp chat out

Demonetisation of Bharat Ratna

Every time a Bharat Ratna is announced, the first thing a journalist does is look at the winner’s caste, religion, state, mother tongue, etc to decipher the logic behind the honour.

So when Pranab Mukherjee wins it, it is an outreach to Bengal, an insult to the Congress, which apparently didn’t do justice to his talent and a reward for visiting the RSS headquarters.

The ratna to Bhupen Hazarika is an outreach to the Northeast, the one to Sachin Tendulkar is to win the support of the youth, the honour for Lata Mangeshkar is well, how can anyone say no to Lata tai?

The point is Bharat Ratna has been devalued beyond repair. It is not anymore an award to honour builders of modern India.

So we have given Bharat Ratna to Lata Mangeshkar for singing songs, thousands of them. Her songs entertained us, no doubt.

Her songs made us happy or sad, philosophic or patriotic, depending on our varying moods. If she wasn’t there, Suman Kalyanpur would have done that, or someone else. May be Asha Bhonsle.

Sachin Tendulkar got a Bharat Ratna for scoring centuries, exactly 100 of them. He also entertained us. If he didn’t play cricket, we would have had some other cricketer as our icon.

The country honoured a few classical musicians as well. One of them apparently put pressure on the govt, another got it because he was senior and more accomplished than the earlier winner.
Now there is another fad.

My freedom fighter vs your freedom fighter. So we are looking up history books to confer awards on heroes of the independence movement.

After Madan Mohan Malviya, we will be giving one to Veer Savarkar soon. One day I hope one of my great grandfathers also gets one. A Bharat Ratna in the showcase is always a matter of pride.

Ask why Verghese Kurien and E Sreedharan haven’t got it yet. They are nation builders, not entertainers or freedom fighters. We are sticklers for standards.

BJP to honour Veer Savarkar with Bharat Ratna

Solution for Slowdown

Mission Kashmir: Modi Finishes What Nehru Started

Many years ago one of my distant relatives went in search of his father who had abandoned the family. He met him, but his father wasn’t willing to return. The young man kept travelling till he reached Nagaland, where he married a tribal woman and settled down. He returned to Kerala decades later, after his wife died. 

Such heart-warming stories are rare when it comes to Kashmir.

When the Narendra Modi govt scraps Article 370, the romantic in me who values democracy, liberalism, fairplay, virtue of fulfilling promises, etc gets edgy. But remove the romanticism, then as an average Indian, I feel nothing. No joy, no thrill, no excitement, no sadness, no grief. Nothing. Jammu and Kashmir seems so far away and distant.

There is a reason for that. Kashmiris never mingled with the mainstream. There is no dil ka ‘connection’ with Kashmir for the ordinary Indian. But he does hear stories of horror from the jawans who come back from the state, stories of how they are targeted by the locals in the Valley, how the Kashmiris abuse the rest of India. And of course those terrorist attacks.

No struggle for autonomy or freedom can be successful unless you earn people’s sympathy, especially the outside people. You cannot take arms and money from Pakistan and hope for sympathy from the rest of India.

Jammu and Kashmir is in India only because of Jawahar Lal Nehru. Sardar Patel would have let it go, Nehru hung on as it was the land of his forefathers. The wily politician that he was, India’s first PM sugarcoated the accession as people’s will, by enlisting the support of popular leader Sheikh Abdullah. The same Nehru later jailed Sheikh Abdullah.

Mission Kashmir was started by Nehru, but is being completed by Narendra Modi.

Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi or Narasimha Rao too would have been tempted to revoke Article 370 if they were PM today. That’s because geopolitics has changed. Today a bankrupt Pakistan will hesitate to bankroll a full-fledged terror campaign in India. In any case, after the WTC attack, terrorism is seen for what it is, not as a guerrilla warfare for freedom.

Today’s India is one of the World’s biggest markets. A market everyone from the US to China needs. To that extent, Modi government’s decision will not meet the kind of resistance Nehru would have faced in 1947.

Yes, there might be turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir, with a serious threat of it spilling over to other parts of the state.

The Modi would have factored in that risk and is ready to pay the cost. The BJP will certainly profit politically from the decision to scrap Article 370. The question is can India bear the cost? We have to wait and watch. 

Wholesale Defections to BJP

An Open Letter to Virat Kohli

Dear Virat Kohli,

Ten to fifteen years ago if an Indian team was unable to chase a total of 240, they would have faced hell. That team was not even the best, as yours is now. You had the best bowler and the best batsman in the world.

You have nothing to complain about. You can’t complain of red tapism. You can’t complain of divide in the team. You can’t even complain of a nasty boss, in fact you forced Anil Kumble out for your pal Ravi Shastri. You got everything you wanted, the Board would have arranged even Jawan Rum from Kerala if you wanted. You just needed to ask for it. 

Your captaincy however sucked. Your plan for the world cup was 'we score 300 or more if we bat first, we chase down whatever score they throw at us'. Very simple and easy, isn’t it? But your plan didn’t account for the one off day even the world’s best team could face.

So we had Rishab Pant and Dinesh Karthik walk in when India were 5/3, a situation where one should have had a Pujara or a Rahane bat. Basically we had three or four No. 6 batsmen but not a single solid No. 4 batsman.

Sanjay Manjrekar was wrong in saying Ravinder Jadeja was a bits and pieces player, he should have said we are a team made mostly of bits and pieces players. The semifinal proved that.

The worst thing about the team, which no one would openly say, was the swag off the field. It was as if all the other teams were there to give you a walkover. In the middle of the world cup, Ravinder Jadeja had the time and energy to pick up a fight with a commentator, he celebrated his fifty with a swordfight aimed at the commentary box. Everyone is praising him for his 77, but it only gave us an honourable exit, not a ticket to final. He will rue the shot that got him out for the rest of his life. The incomplete knock only proved what Manjrekar said. Jadeja is a bits and pieces player after all, not one who can take the team to victory. He is no Yuvraj so to say.

Mr Kohli, we lost the semifinal not just because of the ‘45 minutes of bad cricket’ as a newspaper headline put it, but because you took a Twenty20 team to win the one-day world cup.

In an environment where we demand accountability from a govt office peon to a Rahul Gandhi, it is a miracle the Indian cricket fan is seeking none from you.

Virat Kohli, we cricket fans have been very kind to you.

Thanks and regards
Jasoos Narayanan Kutty