A Response to NYTs Article on Haldwani Violence

Response to NYT Article

The above article was written by Sameer Yassir a journalist Reporting from New Delhi on the Feb. 9, 2024. Reading it was a depressing exercise on how to fight the battle against fake narratives, fake news and bringing truth out to the people. Sadly individuals like me can do little and at best provide objective take downs as i shall below. What depresses me is the extent main stream media in the West has been compromised to spread fake equivalences and narratives. Reference excerpts one can ascertain the degree of falsehood that the main stream media outlets like NYT spread and prevent readers knowing the reality and truth. Let me meanwhile try and correct the many lies and fake narratives, equivalences the author has stren all over his article.

NYT: The demolition of a mosque and a Muslim seminary has led to deadly clashes and an internet shutdown in northern India. The flare-up, in the hill state of Uttarakhand, is the latest bout of sectarian tensions as Muslim sites have become a broader target of the Hindu right wing after the opening of a major temple last month.

1. Incident has nothing to do with Hindu RW.
2. Incident has nothing to do with opening of a major temple in Ayodhya last month
3. Above A and B are false connections giving rise to a false narrative and equivalence.
4. The orders are issued as per Court Orders.
5. Courts in India are Independent.
6. Courts in India appoint judges independent of Government.
7. Thus, clashes between affected community and legal authorized action is played as Hindu RW vs Victimized Muslims by slantly bringing an unrelated Ayodhya connection.

That Hindu RW has nothing to do with the clashes is evident in the next line:

NYT: An official in Haldwani, the town where the clash took place, said in an interview that two people had been killed and dozens injured, including police officers.

Clashes between the affected Islamist community and Police Officials implementing legal court orders.

NYT: Thursday’s unrest began when officials and the police arrived to raze the structures, which the authorities said had been illegally built on public land, and encountered an angry crowd.

1. Again, undermines legal action legitimately taken after independent court orders cannot be translated to Hindu RW prompted one except by a bigoted Hinduphobic narrative peddler.
2. Authorities claimed they were illegal. Which in reality they were. This was verified by independent courts. If someone occupies the authors house will he peddle this narrative against taking action against the encroachers?

NYT: The violence unfolded against the backdrop of Hinduism’s rise as a national identity in India, a multiethnic state founded as secular republic

1. Again a repeated lie being peddled is about some nationalistic Hindu rise. Also false is India was founded as a Secular republic. This is false as the word was inserted in 1975 during an illegal emergency.

NYT: In his 10 years as prime minister, Mr. Modi has fulfilled many of his campaign promises, like building an enormous Hindu temple where a mosque once stood

1. This again is false. This is not some mosque that was being worshipped. Everyone knew it was built on a demolished Temple for decades. This was debated. It was in courts for decades. The Chief Judicial Officer under hose ruling the property was handed over to Hindus came from a family that opposed Modi and his politics for decades. The evidence that you are glossing over was overwhelming. Archaeological, existing, living memory, lore, Babars own books. This was hotly argued but cannot stand the ground and contention that the mosque was indeed built on a destroyed temple. The independent Courts ruling thus was inevitable. It had to be in favor of Hindus because there indeed was a Temple there. Thus the correspondents harping on destroyed Mosque only serves to foster enmity and hate against Hindus through outright distortion of data and fact. Not clear the air and matter by shedding light on the actual matter.

NYT: Thursday’s demolition was part of a larger government effort that leaders of the opposition say has been targeting Muslims. In 2022, a court in Uttarakhand ordered the destruction of about 4,000 homes of mainly Muslim inhabitants in Haldwani, located on land that the court said encroached on a railway line.

Again, while many in India’s opposition is infamous for creating fake narratives and communalizing issues against the majority Dharmic community it is the need of the hour that main stream outlets maintain a degree of objectivity. Protests against settlements on railway land is not new. Truth is determining whether there was encroachment on railway land. The truthful answer is a resounding yes. This was decided not by some Hindu right wing nationalist bureaucrat on a lazy Monday morning after some phone call from Modi, but by capable courts that are largely independent and even often critical of the Government. Thus, by no stretch the decision regarding the illegality of the mosque was not taken by any Hindu right-wing organization, let alone any relation to the Ram Temple at Ayodhya. Linking both is mischief by the author and the NYT

Largely the entire article is seething with fake narratives, distortion, incorrect assumptions, distorted history and poisons and ill informs those not familiar with the problems. It further sharpens the claws and conviction of those who want to take revenge and action against the Hinduphobic, Idol worshipping community in some form. It gives them a reason to retaliate, albeit a false one. This is how Main stream media fans poison and is encouraging terror.

Essentially it whitewashes the law-breaking perpetrators who:

1. Made the illegal construction
2. Attacked on duty police
3. Violated the court order

And does so blaming an alleged Nationalist Hindu Right Wing for the actions!

Trying to support illegal occupants and encroachers and then playing victim keeps India poor, shorn of planning and a hub of illegal activities. Main stream news media supporting encroachers and illegal activity and trying to tar legal actions using fake narratives and equivalences is fraught with danger and certainly ill informing readers. This also encourages individuals taking law into their own hands and fomenting acts of terror over imputed victimization.

Reality of the White Revolution

One of the most widely claimed success stories that the Nehruvian Dynasty has stressed has been in revolutionalizing milk production and milk consumption in India. Every school, college has taught about it in detail while crediting the vision and sagacity of the Nehruvian Dynasty. One would thus imagine a blazing turnaround and growth rate from a low base left by the British Empire where policy and sagacity of the rulers combined to produce a startling change in status quo. We here will look at data that is freely available, reliable and verifiable on various sites to check and cross check the reality of the white revolution in India. While doing so we focus on three major periods that between 1950 to 1970 and how the milk consumption varied after two decades of independence. Further, also from the commencement of operation Flood in 1970 to 1980 we see how the consumption went up. Further to check if the revolution really was happening, we see a larger extended period from 1970 to 1990. On that basis we will conclude whether there was a revolution at all in the sector.

Milk consumption in India and worldwide is generally described relevantly by grams consumed per person per day. This is a better measure as it shows increase of milk consumption per person than by production alone which could account for exports or be dependent upon the population. Milk consumption is a very important indicator and has been directly linked to health of the population particularly for populations like India where traditionally its consumption has been encouraged in almost all strata of society. In the sections below we shall refer to grams/person/day reference for uniformity over the decades.

When the British handed power to India in 1947 the per capita milk consumption was 124 grams/person/day. This was a very low base to start with for our first PM Jawahar Lal Nehru. Despite many planning commissions and expert opinions on various issues, still after 23 years which comprised of Nehru’s full terms and part of Indira Gandhis Premiership, for some reason, the per capita milk consumption had reduced gradually to 107 grams/day/ person. Thus, despite full terms and no opposition created friction there seemed a complete oblivion to increasing per capita milk consumption as no other major factors were visible for the downturn that could not be addressed by diligent union or state intervention.

Further to the end of the Nehru-Indira-Rajiv era in the 90s the consumption grew to 176 grams/day/person in 1991. Hence between 1947 to 1991 a full 44 years the Per Capita Milk consumption grew from 124 grams/person to 176 grams/person/day. This growth on a compound interest rate is a very lowly figure of barely over 1%. This rate nowhere will be termed as revolutionary. But in India this rate has been surprisingly credited as a “Revolution”! The data presented can be verified here.

While we see in the first 20 years there was a reduction in the per capita consumption we have a look at the period when Operation Flood commenced in 1970 to 1980. This was the first phase of the Operation Flood and the increase was from 107 g/person/day to 128 grams/day/person in 1981. This corresponds roughly to 1.65% growth rates which again was well below Sub Saharan Africa milk consumption rates. Very key to note also is that the rate in 1980 actually coincides almost with the same consumption rate the British left India with at the time of partition! So in 30 years we were on the same level as when the British left us even a decade and a half after Mr Kurien took over and Operation Flood had commenced. Hence certainly we can conclude the rate certainly does not conjure the images of a flood of milk by any means.

Even is we take the White “Revolution” to have commenced and give a further decade from 1970-1991 from 107 g/person/day to 174 g/person/day this is just a measly 2.3% over 21 years and rightfully no one should rightfully refer to this rate as a “revolution”.

The rates that we mentioned above are consistent with researchers as in this site here.

We divide the period from essentially the complete Nehru Years where the consumption went down, to the Kurien era from 1970 to 1991 where the consumption went from 107 to 174 g/person/day which as we mentioned was a measly 2.3% over 2 decades. Between 1991 and 2014 we can assume start of overall reforms of the closed license Raj structures and assorted political non dynasty groupings in power. Thus, we see the continuation of the “Kurien Rate” of 2.5% over 23 years to 2014. What is significant is the real “revolution” actually has taken place between 2014 to 2022 where the rate of increase of per capita milk consumption is 4.2%. So waht is notable is it was not the dynasty years that we had a revolution, nor the non dynastic reform era between 1991 to 2014, but the post 2014 era that we saw the real leap frogging in percapita consumption and us go past the world average and well beyond as of today. We can verify the data again by crosschecking from NDDB publications available on the web itself here.:

In a recap of the periods thus, we do not see any effort by the Union Government till 1965 when a National Dairy Development Board was set up by the then PM Lal Bahadur Shastri. Mr. Kurien was the first Chairman of the NDDB and the operation flood in 3 phases was basically liberalizing imports of milk powder and some dairy products as part of food aid to the country.

We also observe that the rate of 107 grams/day/ person is well below average nutritional standards recommended and surprisingly there was little worry at the Union level till 1965 where the most minimalistic efforts to set up a National dairy board was started. (In another post will reflect on the remarkable similarity that the first national highway policy formulation in Inda was put in place after 40 years). Further the so-called White revolution involved setting up a few sheds where imported cows of A1 variety were preferred over the local varieties that were largely producing the A2 variety of milk. While studies later proved that A2 is superior the revolution almost wiped out the local A2 industry. This again was revived largely after 2014. Our real revolution can be said to have commenced from 2014-2022 where we peaked at over 4.2% and crossed the world average per capita milk consumption figures.

The conclusion we can draw from the data and statistics above is clearly till 1965 the Dairy sector was under neglect and lack of proper leadership resulted in its stagnation for over 2 decades. The development of NDDB and collective efforts into a centralized kind of plan for the dairy industry began in 1965.

With this data we can hardly refer to the rate as revolutionary in any sense of the word. Was this overblown and hyped as India was dominated by a single party family system during these years. There is a good possibility that is the reason, but what is surprising is with so many studies no one apart from this author has as yet really pointed to the fact that there was no revolution. Lack of critical study of the period is evident and more focus is needed on the policies of the period that led to low growth to prevent such in the future.

References:

https://pib.gov.in/FeaturesDeatils.aspx?NoteId=151137&ModuleId%20=%202

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1897084

http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.fph.20221201.03.html

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Production-and-Per-Capita-Availability-of-Milk-and-Egg-in-India_tbl2_288944303

Why Kids can appear for Exams without issues

Introduction

Every day we hear debates, mostly ringing with emotion that involve opposition parties bent on throwing a political bone in the spoke of Governance, a few hyper excited Class X or XII children gushing how they are the future, a Principal or two who gush on her students and a doctor who has done very poor risk analysis on the problem. Keeping aside the emotions, let us look into the matter on how risky it really is for million children who have such important exams to sit for.

While online exams in such a short time would not be fair for many in rural areas, the importance of actual exams cannot be underestimated in the scheme of things. So considering that, let us analyze how risky it is for a million kids taking exams physically in their Class room. The results will show objectively how wrong or right, the MSM is when they talk about “grievous risk” but do not do a proper risk analysis of what “Grievous Risk” is.

How are children in the group 15-20 affected by Corona?

Scientific Data from all possible sources show that while children are affected by Covid, the numbers are lesser than normal, and far lesser of them have the need to go to hospital and even far lesser require oxygen and die. Hence we need the studies and data to show what those figures are. So let us say 1 million students follow Social distancing norms, wear masks, have limited time exposure only for exams and still we assume they are exposed to the virus as before. Let us go to the studies: A very narrow age group 14-17 years would be appearing for the exams and not the 10-20 years age which i am including in the calculations. Data shows the following

The age group 10-20 years suffered 8% of Covid infection. This is not a figure for hospitalization.

(0.1%-1.9% of all child COVID-19 cases resulted in hospitalization). Of that even a smaller fraction will result in death. If we assume the same risks for 2 million that the larger population has despite that is the limited period of exposure, masking, sanitization procedures.

Assume 1 Lakh cases all over India for all age groups.

Of that by all figures we have 8% children infected. That is 8000 infected. (Data from quoted sources)

Studies show that age group only about 0.1 to 1.9% cases result in hospitalization. (Data from quoted sources)

Hence 8 to 160 children can be estimated to be hospitalized. Let us assume 160 children.

Data again shows 0.00 to 0.03% of children who got Covid died.

That shows a figure where the risk of children dying by flu is greater than children dying due to Covid for writing limited exams in enforced sanitized conditions!

Other simple parallel calculations from other data sources also show for 2 million kids appearing for exams a maximum 2000 will get covid. 1.3% of them will get hospitalized and of that deaths are negligible to nil. Risks that are lesser than crossing a road, getting a flue etc.

Nature magazine recently also did a study on the clinical severity and epidemiological spectrum between coronavirus disease 2019 and influenza in children and found risks very similar. Attached the study below for readers.

Conclusion:

It is a no brainer that children safety is paramount and no one in their right mind should put the safety of our future generations at jeopardy. But those in MSM who debate this for endless hours call in experts who have not done adequate risk analysis or react to loaded questions in a particular way do not solve the problem at the end of the day. Yes the problem of children getting infected remains. We need to reduce that drastically. So masking, enforced sanitizations, sanitized pick ups to reduce risk will have to be carried out. Even wiser is vaccinating the parents of the 1 million children! That exercise should not take more than a day or two! Then the risks to the family are very minimal. In the emotional din and noise that we are putting our children at risk without basic risk analysis we are putting fake narrative, falsehood, creating panic and endangering the future of our youth. This post is intended to course correct on factually wrong data and conclusions for record. Also will appreciate any changes to figures to recalculate risks for children. Please do share and post.

https://www.aappublications.org/news/2020/12/29/covid-2million-children-122920

https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/children-and-covid-19-state-level-data-report/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-85340-0

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apa.15271

https://adc.bmj.com/content/105/12/1180

Analysis of Covid 2nd wave Preparation

An Analysis of Second Wave Covid Management

In any crises situation which the present pandemic is, it is important to see in hindsight how well our Institutions have reacted to different benchmarks well in advance of an actual predicted catastrophic event. Disaster Management throughout history has been littered by lack of strategy, planning foresightedness, petty bickering and much more. India suffered from catastrophic disasters some regional and some on a national scale. Tsunami’s, Cloud bursts, Flooding, Drought and now Virus mutations playing havoc. Hindsight offers both a chance at objective analysis to get to the root of the problem but also course correct lot many who play blame games than analyze hindsight with an objective mind. This post here will try and analyze different parameters and create an objective benchmark for each institution to what extent it was predictive, co-operative, not cooperative, neglectful of expertise, authorities, and serious in it’s intent to tackle an impending calamity.

The First Wave:

The First wave in hindsight was well tackled by the Center in comparison to many nations world wide and has been largely acknowledged as so, except by large sections of the Main Stream Media, Opposition parties and parts of the Judiciary. This was not well analyzed as a din was created at every step made by the Government and any sane voices were balanced out by equally insane but louder voices to the opposite in their version to impose ‘neutrality’ by the Main stream media (MSM). This forced a narrative on MSM that neglected institutional Governmental warnings and fostered increased vaccine hesitancy and reluctance quite openly. As the wave subsided towards October 2020, it became clear that many voices speaking against Vaccine were gaining prominence. Advocates in the Supreme Court, Main stream print media, Opposition ruled state Chief Ministers, very prominent MPs in the opposition like Tharoor presented a very large resistance pool to increase reluctance at the time the first wave was ebbing. Vaccine hesitancy then should not have been a contention but debates should have centered on vaccine policy. But alas, it was not so. Thus, let us analyze further the following:

Graph showing Wave Peak, ebb and rate of rise of second wave: Credit BusinessToday.in

Above are key curves of Wave 1 and 2 that tell more than the full story. They indicate:

1. First Peak
2. The lowest ebb of the First Peak
3. The starting cusps of the second wave
4. The rocket like rise of the second wave.
5. Note the 62 days for 100,000 cases
6. Note the only 10 days for the massive rise to 2 lakhs.
7. The curve was to go up to 4 lakh cases each day

In hindsight it is easy to blame once the peak has been reached and shortages are galore. What is important is to analyze which Institutions were active during the lowest of the ebb working to alleviate the impending situation in the anticipated 2^nd wave! Surely since experts were unanimous on the 2^nd wave if not the severity, many should have been heeding their advice and acting on it. Particularly the Pillars of our Democracy, the Executive, Legislature, Media their responses when the ebb was lowest will indicate the real story of the Pandemic. Hence by May 10^th 2021, when Covid had erupted in all its fury and exposed our shortcomings it is/ was no time to develop immediate demands and play a blame game without understanding what went through in the last few months. That is the first mistake many are making. So let us dig deeper into the real situation as it unfolded last few months.

January 21: MSM was promoting laxity, while PMO and experts were warning not to take it easy.

The First wave we can see was far more subdued in India compared to this one and was also so in comparison with many European and Western Nations. Surely infectiousness is a factor but our Governments strict, early though not perfect lockdown was a major factor in restricting spread. Instead of backing and developing modalities for a next lockdown if needed with the least hurt to the economy, the Media and Opposition led a campaign largely against the lockdown itself. So, we had key pillars develop opinion for lockdown hesitancy followed soon by fostering vaccine reluctance when the PM was pushing for quicker and faster trials and emergency sanctions for vaccine production.

The Institutions and Key Benchmarks of action:

Key Institutions that have duties to remind, cajole, have powers to influence, affect, assist, prod, develop opinion, laws, Acts are taken as our Courts, SC and HC, State Governments which are Pro center and Anti. We have a Main Stream Media considered a very key pillar of our Democracy and instrumental in shaping opinions, we have people in Social Media and of course professional bodies of experts and Doctors who have educated opinions on the Virus calamity which largely mirror each other without much conflict.

Hence, we can classify essential influencers, doers, power and image brokers as follows:

1.  SC Judges, HC Judges
2. Pro Modi and Anti Modi State Governments
3. Main Stream Media Journalism
4. Social Media
5. Experts, Medical Fraternity

Thus, we list out these key Institutions and map what exactly they exhorted, stressed, neglected when the curves were at the lowest! This is of utmost importance. What exactly were Institutions exhorting during the critical December 2020 to February 2021 when warnings were minimal? Only analyzing that will give us our best insight into which Institutions were working at best to tackle the upcoming wave/ Tsunami virus rocket second wave. Severity of the event aside any serious initiative would have involved the following:

1. Predicted the 2^nd wave.
2. Predicted increased requirements for Oxygen to some extent.
3. Called for interactions between executive, legislative centers of power.
4. Taken interactions seriously
5. Sanctioned money for beds, Oxygen plants. Acted on the same.
6. Outright rejected, did not take seriously or created vaccine hesitancy during the ebb.

These factors are all very important to develop the correct picture particularly in hindsight of such cataclysmic events. Just blaming a shortage of oxygen, medicine on a central figure when the calamity is unfolding will certainly not be the right approach as we will see the very Institutions who in hindsight do cursorily blame the Center or PM might have been least responsible during that period when Covid was at it’s lowest but there was this looming 2^nd wave still in the offing. That period where collective effort and backing experts and Institutional initiative was the need of the hour.

Hence the best analysis in hindsight we can do is mark out the key Institutions as above, and in between December 2020 and March 2021, map out their cooperation, initiatives in cooperating with expert opinions and help extended to Center in executing key goals and objectives. Hence, have instituted a simple point for co-operation, and no points for either mocking initiatives or not being aware or neglecting key warnings and overlooking and belittling support. This is how the chart looks like:

Institutions and proactive benchmarks made prior to impending calamity

MSM anchors are very vocal in program after program hour after hour declaring dares to get to the bottom of who is responsible. Yet there is little objective analysis that they are doing except pit known baiters of the State to mouth inanities that drive the truth further away. Hence the above exercise for example asks simple queries that are objectively verifiable. Did the particular Institution predict the 2^nd wave for example? We have ample evidence for example whether Experts, SC Judges or MSM stalwarts predicted very importantly in this December 2020- March 2021 period need for oxygen. Importantly we have so many reports and tweets on MSM journalists, SC Advocates and Non-BJP ruled State Chief Ministers dismissing the vaccination drive and initiative that was taking shape then.

As a result of an objective analysis, not surprisingly we see the PMO comes pretty high on the point list and MSM, SC/HC Judges and Opposition very low. We shall point reasons for same, but it is key that the same Institutions that score lesser in the objective analysis are blaming center in hindsight. Hence the Dec 20 – Mar 21 or prior period has been analyzed as key to preparing for the coming disaster to unfold. The reasons why the PMO scores high are surprisingly for Oxygen and Vaccine preparations. These are also two aspects opposition States, MSM took very easily. Plenty articles, posts, tweets exist to show how they mocked, neglected, failed to report Financial sanctions of oxygen plants for NCR and other State’s, encouraged vaccine reluctance and mocked Center’s efforts to be Atma Nirbhar in Vaccine production in that period.

PMO scores high as in December 2020, they gave financial sanctions for Oxygen plants for States including Delhi. This was neglected by most States. For example, Delhi did not implement eight sanctioned oxygen plants. Time taken for it to do so should not have been more than 2 months at the maximum. But it was neglected. A MSM that was alert should have taken up these initiatives and questioned the negligence. Advocates practicing at the highest courts gave public opinions questioning money the PMO had sanctioned for vaccine production in December 2020 and January 21. This clearly shows that the PMO was in the right direction while opposition states and MSM was moving in another.

Key pointers missed out by MSM that deserved to be well covered:

1. Oxygen Plants (162 numbers) sanctioned by Center in December 2020, Jan 2021 clearly point to PMO taking seriously reports linking 2^nd wave with lack of oxygen. MSM neglected same in reporting anything at all. Possibly did not understand the importance Oxygen held in the 2^nd wave. These plants were sanctioned in January 21, and only 33 made till April 2021!
2. Talks for Vaccine self sufficiency were on since April 2020! This was not taken up by anyone except PMO and vaccine makers. Mr Poonawallas ‘2020 tweets to the effect point to a proactive PMO and not a laid back PMO. Contrast lack of any initiatives and ideas coming from either the Courts, Opposition and very importantly the Main Stream Media. Attached some tweets from MSM editors and their thought processes for reader to understand the reality.
3. As cases started rising in Opposition States, Center warned the Quad: MH. Kerala, Delhi and Punjab that ‘their combined case load is going above 70% in January and February 21. Ignored and mocked in MSM. Nothing was done to rectify and reduce then.
4. April 8^th the PM held an important briefing for CMs of different states. This was taken lightly by the opposition states that were going to be most ravaged by the impending rocket in a few days. MSM mocked the PMO and his Office by printing articles how the Delhi and Maharashtra CMs laughed, yawned off the briefing the PM was making. This clearly indicated a lack of seriousness within key institutions like MSM and the Opposition States.
5. April 13^th the Delhi CM came and assured all that Delhi had enough oxygen, ICU and beds. MSM reported this faithfully without questions. This clearly showed that till April 13^th the only Institution that had done something to supplement the Oxygen requirement in whatsoever manner was the Center. What is key to understand is that Constitutionally health is a State subject. By April 18^th 2021, the CM was pleading for oxygen from the Center. All MSM, CMs, Opposition, even Courts had forgotten how the CM neglected making provisions for Oxygen plants sanctioned in December 2021. This neglect would cost Delhi many lives as sudden increases would take time to cater to.
6. While relative vaccine shortages have been experienced in May this year primarily due to the sudden drop in vaccine resistance as a result of the 2^nd rocket wave, it is the duty of MSM that was one key institution that has been woefully neglectful in its most primary of duties to point out that despite the shortages, India still was the fastest to reach a 100 million vaccinated, 150 million vaccinated. That the cause of ‘Shortage’ lies in Bidens blocking of Raw materials delaying the Novavax Deal and procurement shifts in Covishield. Those crying for immediate “Vaccination for all” were the same people who were creating vaccination reluctance in the Dec to March 21 period or were oblivious of how important vaccines would be a year ago.

Conclusions:

Of all Institutions we find the PMO has been most effective in tackling both waves. The intensity of the 2^nd wave was not predicted and taken seriously except by PMO and parts of the Medical fraternity. That the intensity of the rocket wave was not anticipated. From making 700 mT oxygen to 10,000 tons/ day in 20 days, it would be impossible for any Government in the world to cope with this rate of increased demand. This would have been greatly alleviated if States had cooperated with the Central Government and MSM not played the Devils advocate and ventured into coaxing States and opposition to deal proactively with the Center to mitigate the effects of the 2^nd wave. However, MSM did not even notice and report on the Centers sanctioning 160 plus Oxygen plants and States neglecting the same. This remains a very key area of neglect.

Central Health Minister trying to alleviate Chattisgarh Health Minister creating vaccine reluctance. Chattisgarh was reeling then under rising Covid cases!

The actions of the MSM and Opposition particularly in Maharashtra, Delhi and Punjab must be further investigated for negligence as cases shot up in January to April 21 and reasons why they neglected key warnings found out. Every anchor today is whipping the LCD of public opinion against the very set of people who have had foresight and whose efforts possibly have saved many millions more.

In the midst of the Pandemic the only suggestion I like millions of other well-meaning citizens have is that MSM Anchors and Print Media stalwarts stop shedding crocodile tears, cooperate with the PMO and get the Opposition to do the same. Playing devils advocate and neutral between falsehood and truth and cynically observe proceedings is not journalism, particularly in pandemic situations like we face today.

https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/news_updates/pm-cares-fund-trust-allocates-rs-201-58-crores-for-installation-of-162-dedicated-psa-medical-oxygen-generation-plants-in-public-health-facilities/

https://www.bloombergquint.com/coronavirus-outbreak/new-vaccine-policy-can-states-achieve-what-modi-couldnt

a/in-last-corona-meet-kejriwal-was-found-yawning-laughing-reports/598631.html

Photo Credit: Bloomberg India.

Telling the Bully: NO

“This Land is Rugged and Barren..The King of this Country has received the Faith and there are Four Thousand and more Priests, all belonging to the Lesser Vehicle, but all practice the Religion of India”

Fa Hsein in Lop Nor.

The Conflict

Dharmic India is a Nation of a Billion plus people.

Han China too is a Nation of a Billion plus people.

Han China is about the same size as Dharmic India.

That is where the similarities end.

Between Han China and Dharmic India lay a rugged, largely barren highland almost the size of Dharmic India or Han China itself. Tibet despite its size however was populated only by a few million denizens and survived independently for centuries because of the rugged features of the area that prevented settlers and invaders in large numbers. However its serenity and areas of pristine bliss became attractive to a number of adherents of Indic faiths that made serene meditative contemplation of the divine a key pillar. Where could a better place exist than where Lord Shiva himself chose to sit down in pure contemplation!

This geographical entity of Tibet is almost the size of its Han and Dharmic neighbors in China and India respectively and retained an independent identity mostly but the civilization leaned heavily on Buddhist legacy from India. Despite being a neighbor Han influence on religion, culture, linguistics in Tibet remained minimal. That is why Fa Hsein wrote the above more than a millennium back in time, the lesser vehicle remark indicating followers of the original Buddhist teachings from India in present day Lop Nor which is infact even further north.  The fact  remains a huge amount of scholarship flowed into China via the Tibetan route and further to the Koreas and Japan and that is a legacy that is India’s and can never be Han China’s. Communist Han China’s problem is a desire to own that legacy. I will explain why.

Among the icons most celebrated from Tibet is the Iconic picture of Lord Shiva in meditation at Kailash Mansarover. Every Dharmic house in India in calendars, pictures, sculptures has this iconic image of Lord Shiva. This is the holiest of Holy spots for millenia. This land was never as holy to anyone more than it was to the Sanatani Dharmic. Tibet and India shared a very close relationship and Indians required no visa. Boundary disputes between the two nations were virtually nonexistent. India had similar relations with like minded states like Bhutan and Nepal of yore. There was free movement of people, goods and services with India keeping the special status of such states in mind. This worked well for century after century. Skirmishes or friction if at all existent would be exceptions and not the defining rule of the relationship. India’s spiritual, cultural, root linguistic affinities with like minded neighbors ensured that.

In the present skirmish it is key to note Han China to Aksai Chin claim areas  actually need crossing 3-4 independent nations of yore while Aksai Chin is just relatively adjacent to every mainland Indic city!

Why do Interstate conflicts happen?

Inter Nation state conflicts happen because of ideological non conformities between states that end up attempting to resolve with force. Whether it is Napoleanic Wars, Islamic invasions of Persia, India, WW1 and 2, Japanese expansionism, the Rwandan conflict and closer today the India-Pakistan, India-China conflicts. Everyone of these conflicts happened because neighbors had no ideological parity to each other. Today our neighbors that have an ideological compact with  expansionist Islamist or Communist ideologies find themselves in violent conflict with us on our borders. The Nations that do not have these ideologies eg Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet would never have this kind of conflict unless they changed for good their underlying ethos. For reference it is easy to see how Nepals transition to a communist bastion coincides with inter nation state border conflicts even if a few villages are in contention. Further beyond us we can see how Western European states that have non conflicting democratic, transparent ideologies have presently no inter nation state conflict. Neither does Canada-USA for exactly the same reasons.

Coming back home even our ancients recommended the Ashwamedha to spread Dharma all over the region so that all neighbors were agreeable with evolving in understanding and upholding Dhriti, Dhii, Dham, Asteya, Akrodha, Satya, Shouch, Indrayanivigrah, Vidya, Ksham. Thus as neighbors embraced Dharma and values associated with it peace and prosperity as a consequence lasted across multiple regions and basic ideological disparities with neighbors remained similar.

India failed in controlling the buffer regions it possessed naturally to the North and West. The Hindu Kush, Balochistan were natural buffer zones while Tibetan highlands to the North. While Tibet accepted the Dharmic faith, we forgot to follow up on protecting it from faiths that would be in deep ideological contention with us on our borders. Instead we welcomed them (sent food to the invading troops), empowered them (invited them unilaterally to the UNSC). We chose appeasement over ideological affinity to keep peace, whereas appeasement never had an example of success and investments in ideological affinity with neighbors worked wonders always.

The way out:

Today we have the worlds most heavily militarized borders at our West and North. We have already invested tens of thousands of lives in defending these and from them pouring inside our nation state borders. We are in a state of constant conflict as they raise claims and we meticulously and with great academic respect attempt defend or negate those claims. We have created entire departments in social universities like JNU that attempt to justify invasions against us and gift a motive to bullies where none actually exist.

For peace on the Northern frontiers we must understand that academic gobbledygook justifying motive is not going to help and neither appeasement as a policy. Loser barbs eg “Not a blade of grass grows there” have been lazy excuses for giving up tens of thousands of square kms of land.  For the communist dragon the Buddhist legacy that emanates is key to controlling vast tracts of land ultimately. Its control of monasteries in Tibet, its forays into Arunachal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Ladhak all point to a desire to control the legacy and ultimately destroy it or own it in full. That is the way pure evil has always worked, on ownership or destruction. That is why Communism as a State philosophy failed and left a trail of blood in 100’s of millions worldwide ever since its inception. Its desire to control, dominate, intimidate, bully and destroy have been underestimated only by the very naive and we have many such amongst us that these ideologies persist much to our civilizational detriment.

So understanding the above is key to understanding reasons for Chinese communist expansionism. Ironically the other factor is secondary eg water and mineral resources. China’s leap to developed status has been a transformative phenomena the last few decades. However that was not the purpose of expansion. Legacy issues are perceived as honor and dignity ones. Retaining them is key. Chinese are more irked at the Dalai Lama being accorded some welcome in New Zealand or in a Mangalore School than the loss of a 60 billion USD trade surplus with India during the present stand off! Not every root cause analysis cannot be on a material driven motive as some analysts feed off.

Understanding this India should make sure it not only owns that legacy, but challenges China in claiming it. The challenge we must throw back to them is the challenge anyone putting a bully at school in his place does. Size is not the issue here. Legacy is. Towards that i enunciate a few steps that can be taken to shake China of it’s stupor. Some are listed below.

1. India’s clear linkage to Buddhist Dharmic legacy. We must own it.
2. Foster Dharmic Ties with Dharmic Nations.
3. Confront China any more showdowns with India will result in recognition of the Tibetan Government in Exile and well as putting back HH Dalai Lama’s institutional status in Tibet
4. Derecognition of Tibet as part of Han China.
5. Irrespective of whether Chinese move out of Galwan, we must lay a claim to the entire Kailash Mansarover region.
6. Develop Military plans to break Tibet away from China.
7. Develop Plans to raise costs for misadventure from the Chinese side.
8. India-US-EU-Japan-Aus must draw up plans to recognize Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong as independent identities.
9. Hit China hard with sanctions to make them comply with basic norms in dealing with neighbors.
10. Move to remove China from the UNSC and replace with India.

All above are not possible at one go and will require a build up of narrative and agenda. But none of  the above must be given up on. Giving up on any above is taken by the communist fascists as signs of weakness and feeds on an expansionist narrative. It is important to note that as history indicates the legacy is more important to the Communist H&D, taking it away is a very big threat. We must use that to get them to back off silly claims in Galwan and Aksai Chin even while we keep all options open. The last thing we must do is to back down.

The bully must be unequivocally told NO now.

 

Acknowledgements:

@Tibetruth for the simple but very clear Map.

Copyright expired archives

Understanding Fake News

Some of the Fake news last few days we all have spotted during the Covid crises:

1. Meerut Hospital screens out Muslim Covid Patients.
2. Gujarat Hospital segregates on Faith.
3. Children eating frogs due to lock down
4. Arunachal people eating snakes due to lock down.

And you can every week point to large number of reported incidents that are totally fake and provide a picture far removed from reality. Below are some more examples i attempted to list:

I don’t know much about Journalism like most people and went by the impression that reporters painstakingly went to report from remote corners and mostly it was truth that filtered out. While many still do and report painstakingly, i am convinced that reporting and fact collection have become a subset of narrative whichever side of the larger debate.

The moment that happens something suspect crops up in journalistic integrity and the ethic of reporting. I know there are superb, honest, painstaking and extremely capable editors and doyens of the Industry, but when major publications, main stream broadcast media and also those Institutions that are supposed to uphold journalistic credentials and ethic are compromised by narrative despite my own naivete of the profession it is obvious something is seriously wrong particularly with the very basics.

When we look at two versions of an event say a debate or warring between ideologically opposite entities, selective reporting of facts is often used to justify one side of the debate. Hence it is valid to ask what exactly do we ask of our accredited  Journalists particularly those who comment daily on happenings in India. Even Neutrality and Objectivity can be used subjectively. Bias at times over the years runs so deep that many journalists assume their objectivity and neutrality as above par are actually so far removed from reality. The shock of being reminded and exposed on their hypocrisy on Social Media surely hurts and it does not help them dismissing them being exposed as some “trolling”. It is not. That is exactly what Social media is and where its strength lies. What Main Stream Media could not unplug eg the biases in our narration and selection, ordinary citizens on SM platforms expose with ease.

Take the example of narrative being set by established media on lynchings. This narrative was and still is being set by completely ignoring cow smuggling, thefts, smuggling syndicates and direct attacks on people whose livelihood depends on cattle and very importantly those groups who traditionally consider them as revered and sacred. The narrative was reminding people of the alleged backwardness of ‘Cow friendly” groups eg any ‘Gau Mutra’ cure proposed by however obscure a section on a regular basis even  while any beating/ lynching done even as a reaction to theft was given a one sided communal hue and run weeks on end on prime time.

Thus while SM outrage could point a 100 times to lynchings of Gau Rakshaks, or owners or cops by cattle thieves and smugglers, the MSM would need just 1 counter to mainstream it in print and Television main stream outlets. This kind of reporting might have a number of takers in the West or the Middle East who have been fed a narrative against Idol worship, heathenism, Paganism but not in India! While there is a lobby here who think all Western narratives are based on a higher realization they forget with time many Western narratives will fall on the wrong side of history. This kind of reporting also has another reaction, the massive growth in reliance on SM outlets for fairness and the daily fall in trust in visual and print mainstream media and journalism.

All above has led to a debate and social media outlets professing to bust “Fake” news. Yet they also ‘bust’ fake news on a selective basis. For example they too bust what suits their narrative and what goes against either bust a selective,  inadvertent or irrelevant portion to belittle or underplay the overall narrative and label it ‘Fake’.

Yet it is not difficult to bust fake news. Fake news is completely dependent on narrative and specifically the propagation of a Fake one. Fake news is completely selective. Fake news goes by the exception is the rule for my narrative. Fake news completely ignores very vital statistical information and makes a concerted bid to hide that from its readers for reasons that it considers more valuable than the truth. Hence readers to tackle bias in news do consider the following:

1. If News is repeatedly selective. Eg only propagates from the perspective against a Gau Rakshak.
2. If News goes by the “Exception is the Rule” standard. Ignore 99 good things X does and highlight 1 bad. Also ignore 99 bad things Y does and highlight 1 good thing. Thus the narrative X is bad and Y is good is set even though the statistical precedent rubbishes the narrative.
3. Changes narrative by monkey balancing  for fear of violation of Order. False Equivalences. 
4. Considers Truth to be subservient to Order.
5. Considers Truth to be subservient to Communal Harmony.

Reasons for many normal people falling for fake narratives is narrative again. That Truth can be subservient to Order, that Justice too can be subservient to the need for Order. That keeping a group placated is more important than Truth. Also that it is communal to state a truth like the TN Health secretary labeled vital corona spreaders as ‘Single Source’. People in general saw through the facade and laughed at it, but there were many particularly in Officialdom taking the precedence of Order above Truth very seriously. These are the kind of self inflicted persuasions that motivate the basis of fake news and fake historical narratives too. Here below in an excerpt from an old Rediff article SL Bhyrappa explains how imperatives that make Truth subservient to order or harmony may have devastating effects on an entire civilization.

Further from penchant for creating fake news for fake narratives develop a bizarre desire to smear oneself with delusional, controversial and wild theories full of evil groups of men sitting huddled and planning misfortune for the rest of humankind. Such individuals so deluded framed bizarre theories of Modi and Shah running riots and sending death squads if not personally supervising killings in 2002. They published books since then rubbished, wrote opinions in major publications and even today hold sway in certain deluded but increasingly more ridiculed circles.

Fake news will exist much like Covid, but there will increasingly be more people enlightening themselves with the ability to spot it out using the points i have pointed out earlier. As that breed grows the relevance of fake news will come down. These are early years of social media and while the battle is still on, like always we must believe SatyaMevaJayate. 

Truth about Diwali Pollution

For quite sometime we have been hearing of Green Diwali, No Cracker campaigns in schools, colleges sponsored mostly by non governmental associations. It was all good as long it was voluntary. People rightly objected to high decibel levels or problems that arose due to high concentrations of cracker smoke. Many societies started curbing celebrations within a particular time and place and that was being appreciated. Yet a PIL in the Supreme Court of India for an outright ban and the subsequent diktat regarding banning of sale of fire crackers upset a large section of society and if data shows rightly. We heard bytes on TV studios that made it sound that the sole cause of pollution was that night of Diwali in remembrance of Ram returning to Ayodhya. So was perception and not data that led to the drastic ban?

I asked many children in top schools what was the leading cause of pollution in a city like Delhi and most gave me Diwali Crackers as an answer. So certainly the perception seems warped as data shows Diwali is hardly a major cause of pollution in the city. The bigger causes persist without much focus and endless debates on Diwali pollution serve little purpose to solve the the problem. So let us see what are the major causes of pollution in a city like Delhi that hardly find time in main stream media studios for discussion and rational debate.

In reality the main causes of pollution that cause severe deterioration of PM (Particulate Matter) can be very broadly listed as follows:

1. Burning of Garbage dumps: Natural or artificial. There are few dumps all over Delhi where garbage is just dumped. The non segregated garbage includes everything you can imagine, toxic plastics, food, chemical, industrial waste. This is being dumped for decades. A city like Delhi produces millions of tons of garbage every year and the garbage mounds have become mountains. The garbage produces methane and combusts spontaneously. Powered by winds particulate matter mostly toxic floats to surrounding areas causing huge deterioration of air quality. Any random day PM figures will show high levels around these dumps.  The figures here are for Nov 9th a good 10 days post Diwali. The area around garbage dumps show almost double the PM levels than areas around. For guidance remember 100 is the benchmark alarm by Indian standards. 300+ are extremely high levels. World class cities usually have 20-40 PM levels!
2. Vehicular traffic: Delhi has to bear the burden of very heavy vehicular traffic. Trucks hardly follow any pollution norms. Most trucks are allowed post 9 in the evening. Along the two major routes they take pollution levels remain extremely high all year round. Solutions are to create bypasses and the Easters and Western bypass when ready will make a significant impact. High levels are seen areas where flow of traffic is jamming up.
3. Construction dust: A large many projects in and around the capital throw up huge quantities of particulate matter that remain suspended in the air. This is a very significant contributor to heavy smog and PM levels.
4. Thermal Power plants: A number of them in and around Delhi contribute about 11 GW of power but also a significant about of Sulfur oxides and NOx as secondary particulates in the atmosphere. An excerpt from the IIT Kanpur study is shown:

There ate other significant factors that need expert level investigations, but the three above would possibly be accounting for 90% or more of the PM levels that we see. On the other hand Diwali pollution is hardly a blimp. Check this for 2016 for example. Two major locations show PM levels actually went down post Diwali day!

 

Above pics from independently collected data depict further how many pollution peaks occur well before Diwali.

According to the study by IIT Kanpur major sources of pollution have been identified and tabled as above. A more concise screenshot is available here, conspicuous being Diwali does not figure:

The campaign against Diwali crackers thus is not based much on facts, but lies possibly in motivated agenda. Schools have long been fed with “Say no to Pollution, No Crackers” This has created an adamant mindset that pollution problems are due to Diwali, Since Diwali falls at the beginning of the smog season, it gets an unusual amount of blame. Some of this is acknowledged by the hon. Court in its judgement for example:

So what possibly could be the rational solutions to this issue now:

The solutions to letting people enjoy traditional Diwali obviously lie not in outright bans but:

1. Controlling or substituting Perchlorates in the chemicals and associated heavy metals.
2. Making ‘Green’ crackers, auditing and enforcing decibel level rules.
3. Encouraging only community based bursting of crackers.
4. Local monitoring of pollution levels.
5. Acknowledging high levels of pollution while burning crackers and in vicinity, keeping elderly and children well protected.
6. Safety precautions and responsibility in purchasing only crackers that confirm to a given set of standards and operating only in allowed environments.

The idea should have been enjoy a Green Diwali but be ready to pay more for more environmentally friendly chemicals used in crackers. But that neither was attempted nor thought of. Truth and Data will eventually show Diwali is hardly a contributor to overall pollution problems prevalent in India or the NCR region. But by then lot of legitimate questions on why so much rigidity in some judgements coming out will be raised.

Credits and References: 

Hariprasad N. @pranasutra

Ashish Naredi @naredi

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/iit-kanpur-study-says-trucks-and-road-dust-are-bigger-pollutants-than-cars-in-delhi/articleshow/50115310.cms

Click to access Final_Report.pdf

http://www.cpcb.gov.in/CAAQM/frmUserAvgReportCriteria.aspx

Note: Will request people with some time to also go through the excellent IIT Kanpur report on Delhi pollution above in pdf. 

 

 

 

 

Modi is the Liberal, Not the Lutyen Elite

Liberalism can be defined as a political philosophy that arose with the clamor and desire to achieve Liberty and Equality against the wishes of well entrenched dynastic despots that denied them both. While Classical Liberalism veered towards Liberty and was supportive towards anything manifest that increased an individuals liberty vis a vis an established authority, social liberalism advocated Equality more than Liberty. It is another matter that historically social liberalism was more used by despots as a popular plank to power than those that advocated a mixture of both the social and classical approaches.

In a present context real Liberals using a mixture of both approaches should advocate a healthy dose of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to practice ones beliefs, individual rights, gender equality, a government generally indifferent to religious contexts except where religion or its zealots trample on individual rights and democratic norms for example. Thus in the Indian context it is important we look at these ‘liberal traits’ in particular with respect to the self styled Indian Liberal elite claimants today. Who exactly claim that mantle, who do they usually represent or rather what kind of political forces do they represent and who they consider their antithesis.Also with respect to those broad traits that define who makes a liberal today, how would we qualify this Secular Liberal Indian Elite.

At present the loudest claimants to this Liberal legacy happen to be rooted in and around the bungalows of Lutyens Delhi. A media which has fed of them, moulded public opinion as they wished, spoke with as refined an oxford accent as they could pass muster. Liberalism became associated with traveling ‘Phoren’, speaking in an accent, drinking at star hotels, womanizing all traits one was unlikely to find in native villages across the country. Thus a true liberal, open minded Jat villager from Chaprauli would always be ‘liberally’ inferior to that Che Gueverra T-Shirt sporting St Stephens guy drinking scotch at Le Meridian whose father is a Businessman and had family contacts with Rajiv Gandhi’s PA in the PMO. However much the Jat was open minded it just does not match to the ‘liberalism’ that the St Stephens dude exudes. The Che Gueverra T Shirt irony is lost here as it simply does not arise. Elite rules implied that Jat deserved the excesses of an emergency not this dude.

Modi changed this equation. In a very sophisticated but unsubtle manner he kicked the butt of that dude, literally called his dad a good for nothing dalal, and to top it all called them illiberal in comparison to this ‘theth’ Gaon ka Jat! Now that just did not apply to this dude, it applied to the media that fawned the connections, loved the scotch, the women that flowed in this circuit and the political setup that sponsored this club. Modi told the Jat and millions of others that this was a setup that kept them from achieving their dreams, that this setup was responsible for the emergency and the corruption prevailing all round the country. The English brew that this elite was drinking literally spurted out of their mouths. They could not believe the attack coming from someone who hardly could speak a polished sentence in English, had hardly any degree from a Padre saintly named institution.

With the advent of Vajpayee’s term in the late 90s, the elite was determined to crush any notion of liberalism that the village ‘aam’ kinds tried to exert in any form. 2002 was an ideal start point. With the panning of events recently it was this elites misfortune that the man at the helm was Narendra Modi. Almost 10 years they could hold him. But the more they held him his base consolidation kept increasing. 2013 events just took over. Modi was bursting that chimera of liberalism this elite had nurtured falsely for so long. Modi was telling them liberalism is not about how you hold a wine glass in your hand, but in giving opportunity to all citizens irrespective of gender, race, color, religion. This was now breaking the vote banks of those that banked on community, caste and religion to nurture their constituencies. The Media which had developed many cosy relationships with business, political elite was lost. It however gathered every bit of resource to try and malign the man. But the man was one step ahead and was communicating the message directly to the people using all possible technological innovations and resources and the media itself got maligned and mauled beyond credibility. The dude in the Che Gueverra T looked now backward and dumb in comparison to some of Modi’s own cheerleaders. The tables had turned.

People saw through that this elite espousing social equality from the ramparts of 5 star bars created nothing but inequality in the 60 years they had ruled the country. People saw that the liberal elite political tables were loaded against the tolerant and benevolent majority. People saw they were being divided by a loathsome and selfish media. People saw themselves in a man working selflessly and tirelessly 18 hours a day for the country and related and voted. He gave vision, he gave hope, he gave all his effort. He didn’t hide behind vote banks of caste and religion or trepidation at taking hard decisions. The facade of liberalism from this elite started slipping. The hypocrisy of a bogus campaign against intolerance was nurtured a year ago and it failed miserably in that it exposed the inherent hypocrisy of most who took part in it and exhorted it.

When the intolerance bogey failed the elite took up cudgels for those that advocated breaking India. The ‘Bharat ki Barbaadi tak Jung ladenge’, ‘Bharat Tere Tukde Tukde honge’ brigade. The Jat villager who may till now have thought his upbringing did not make him liberal enough as the Scotch sipping dude, now was fully aware and alert that Modi that his liberalism was different from those that supported such language. While he still tolerated that vile gang, he would never vote for those that supported and gave those same people a political backing. True Liberalism would have at the maximum “tolerated” such acts not exhorted or given massive political patronage as did the Lutyen elites. The liberal mask had all but fallen by then.

Whether it is freedom of the press, freedom of faith, individual rights as the Govt is taking up on the Triple Talaq issue, people began to clearly see that the principles of true liberalism are better represented by a Gujarati and Hindi speaking PM Modi than this selfish elite. Social media and in print too now the excesses of the emergency have been roundly getting exposed to the new generation. Nehru’s curtailing of the 1st amendment also has been widely circulated in different forms of media now. The cookie has crumbled and in what spectacular style. And now after Modi’s magnum opus in UP, it is not going to return to be the same ever. Let the elite know it is Modi the Liberal as opposed to the Lutyen Fascists is what is now evident.

I am RW and say: Don’t Hang Yakub Memon

It was late 11th March 1993 and me and one of my roommates had decided to go the Worli Passport Office for some official work. Next day however plans went awry and i got stuck in a different engagement and my friend made it alone to Worli. Even at the last minute he asked me come along, but i decided not to. Somehow the urgency of the task i at hand seemed more important and i stayed put. My friend left and it was only late afternoon news began filtering in about the devastation in Mumbai, Worli PPO included. It was late evening and we didn’t still hear from our friend. Meanwhile the CM had addressed the city, people were lining up blood banks in true Mumbai spirit but we were searching for news of our friend. Those were the days when Mobiles didn’t exist and for that matter even landlines hardly existed in India. The good part was we heard in person from our friend next morning. By providence he too had skipped the Worli PPO for another urgent matter in another Churchgate Office. I visited the devastated PPO later and saw with horror the kind of damage these dastardly attacks had caused. Shaken like everyone else i felt that the perpetrators must not be let off and mercilessly hounded to the ends of the Earth. Individual Officers and men of brilliance would lead us to the right track i was sure. But bringing total accountability also required resolute and a determined Political vision, that was where i was a little skeptical.

Within days Police and intelligence had pieced together evidence that directed the trail to the Pakistani Intelligence, Dawood and Tiger Memon in Mumbai. Fact is days before they had even arrested a man who had been trained in Pakistan for exactly this act. While he revealed that the plan was for April, the masterminds decided to speed it up to the day i was deciding to visit Worli, 12th March 1993. Not many are aware of the scale of the 1993 Mumbai blasts. The logistics involved were huge. If a weapons cache came in and was to be stored, the person in whose house it would be stored would not question, nor even want to know what was in it or what was the purpose. Airport Security may ask us these questions on how we packed our luggage, but when you know known criminals openly operating without fear of law, asking you “Hey i want you to keep 3 suitcases”, you don’t refuse and run to the nearest Police Station to report. With an ineffective and disinterested State, apathetic Officials it would be a death warrant for not only self but family too in many cases if one was to do that. For the sake of Justice it would also be important to understand this aspect in many of the cases pertaining to the 1993 blasts. However i would leave Sanjay Dutt out, as he was so well connected that would leave him being at the mercy of apathetic officials and a disinterested State as null and void. In fact his family was itself a part of the State and so thus his involvement was indeed of a much diabolical nature.

WIth this background will ask readers to look at the whole thing from this angle here too:

Imagine ISI planning the blasts with Dawood.

ISI: Listen Dawood, this is the biggest you’ve ever done till now. Who is the Man you have on the spot to coordinate selection, training, receiving cargo and final execution? 

D: Tiger. 

ISI: Will he be able to keep it secret?

D: Yes. Modus operandi is goods will be received, shifted, stored without anyone really knowing what is happening. The people doing so will be too afraid of questioning what is in the boxes or what it is for. 

ISI: Maybe Tiger can organize, but what about his family, they may leak it somehow, we want it very quiet, not a whiff should get about.. 

D: See everyone in his family knows he’s basically connected to Bhai. They will never question him the why or what of it. They will do what he tells them to..do you think families of  politicians ask them what is in that suitcase which some Mehta or the packet that Industrialists give daily? 

That indeed is the tragedy of a Mafia don. Everyone knows something is being done, but the end purpose is no ones business. That is a reason why many of  Tiger Memon’s family came back and tried and cleared their name. Yakub was married and had two children. His dealings with Tiger apparently were very minimal. That would be easy to establish. If they were indeed minimal, it would be highly unlikely he would be a co planner/ co conspirator, and at max possibly a safe asset to store suitcases, shift stuff, even get bikes etc. All this he may even have done dozens of times for his brother without question on many occasions, and that was pretty much even what Sanjay Dutt also did.  But one thing doesn’t make sense. The 1993 tragedy was on such a massive scale, certainly for those times, it would be impossible for an active planner/ conspirator to ever think of coming back to the country. It would be impossible and an incredibly stupid thing to do.

If one wants punishment to deter, then hundreds ought to be hanged for helping ,store, shift and plant arms and ammunition particularly after knowing it is deadly stuff. One of them is the famous actor mostly out on judicially granted bail. Actually hanging even a hundred of those types and dispatching people to eliminate the planners whether in Karachi, London or Dubai would be a deadly deterrent. But that we do not expect for some reason from our Govt., so we leave that train of thought alone. But why not hang the foot soldiers, the ones who went and trained in Pakistan, came back to knowingly plant the bombs etc. What sense does it make not to punish them, (a stance taken by our Judiciary)? The Army doesn’t fight the enemy saying hey lets leave the Privates, Captains and Lieutenants of the enemy, we will only target the Generals and Brigadiers. It doesn’t work that way. Here we have absolved the Privates, Captains, Subedars of the Enemy but got the Brigadiers younger brother and want to hang him. We have to revisit this aspect then too.

In all of this Main Stream Media has done an awful job all these years. Their analysis of what happened has never been rank poor and inadequately conveyed. I have failed to come across a single worthwhile note on exactly the “How and Why” of exactly why Yaqub Memon is being hanged. But from all available resources this is what is available and none point him to be either a General or Brigadier of the enemy:

1. Yakub Memon was a professional CA staying separately from Tiger and worked till late.

2. Yakub had little to minimal contact and closeness to Tiger

3. If Dawood had chosen Tiger, the chances of Yakub his younger brother being a co-planner is even remote

4. Mafia families don’t work with family members knowing what specific job is being worked at.

5. More than 60% of Yakub’s family was in Dubai. Travel to and fro from Dubai was commonplace.

6. Yakub was at Dubai when the blasts took place.

7. The magnitude of the blasts, prevalent anger, calls for nailing those responsible were extremely loud.

8. Yakub would have certainly now known that Tiger was behind this.

9. It would be an impossibility for him to immediately return to India.

10. If he was a Co Conspirator he would never make the attempt to come back

11. His fear on returning would be a Death Sentence using stretched evidence due to relationship with Tiger.

12. Everything Indicates his surrender was based on assurance of no Capital Punishment by the Home Minister.

13. The above point is reinforced by RAW Chief B Raman who was responsible in being able to bring him back

14. Shri B Raman clearly was disgusted at the Death Sentence handed and wrote a specific article on it.

He felt certain “mitigating circumstances in the case of Yakub Memon and some other members of the family were probably not brought to the notice of the court by the prosecution and that the prosecution did not suggest to the court that these circumstances should be taken into consideration while deciding on the punishment to be awarded to them”.

Thus Raman felt  the prosecution had held back crucial evidence to get the maximum sentence for Yakub Memon!

15. Tendency for Political brownie points to show a Key Planner for 93 blasts has been caught and executed was evidenced by the way the Home Minister thumped his desk and lied in Parliament over the manner of Yakub’s arrest

16. It is plain wrong under any civilized and rational Judicial system for someone to serve 2 sentences for the same crime: A Life Term and a Death Sentence.

Key thing is the above will come to light irrespective of rhetoric flourished. And once it does, it will not do the Political System, The PM in power, the Judicial System and most importantly the cause of deterrence any good. This will certainly alienate a lot many. Trust in the Indian Judicial and Political system and their promises will be lost.

For deterrence to be effective for the 1993 blasts two things must be done:

1. Dawood and Tiger must be got in Dead or Alive for trials.

2. Detrimental and hard punishments for the Foot soldiers who knowingly planted the bombs.

Nowadays it has become a farce to show the person who does the killing as an innocent working under the command of evil planners. The Planner and Doer are both evil and need quick and deterrent punishment. In Yakub’s case he may neither be Planner and neither the foot soldier Doer. In Indian Law the two highest punishments are Death and Life Imprisonment. It is strange that Yakub has already served a life term and now needs to be served the highest punishment. This is not justice under any civilized legal system.

Our PM is understood to be RW and hard on Terror by most. Most RW are for heavy deterrent punishments to be handed over. But the RW also must importantly be seen as being Rational though Hard on terror at the same time. If at all Yakub turns out to ultimately not be a Key Conspirator (and he is not a foot soldier for sure), then RW Rationality to deal with Terror will be questioned. All it will take post hanging is a mail from Tiger Memon saying “My brother Yakub was innocent. He never knew what we were up to. They made him a scapegoat” . Every Left wing vote bank socialist and Islamist communal will play this tune to the people. Thus what this Govt does vis a vis Yakub is extremely important. The Prime Minister himself must be involved and make sure this pans out justly. If at all Yakub is not a Co Conspirator and Planner like Tiger/ Dawood, and he urges cessation of the Death Sentence, he will probably be seen as a very tall leader capable of delivering justice to all communities.

Added 26/7: Thinking on this a bit further, let us assume Yakub Memon is a KEY player along with Tiger Memon his brother in planning the 1993 blasts.

1. Why would he then come to Nepal armed with evidence against Tiger-ISI-Dawood in the form of documents, videos, audio tapes just a year post the atrocity? Nepal is RAWs backyard, its the last place he should be visiting! It just would not make sense at all. 

Yet if his role was marginal-innocent and certainly nowhere or NOT as a Key Conspirator, then coming to Nepal armed with evidence makes sense.

1. He tries to negotiate terms for himself and his family to clear up on ISI-Tiger-DI nexus and his own marginal role.

2. Whatever way the intrigue happened, he is in India and now at the mercy of the Indian Legal system.

3. DI-ISI-TM are alarmed. They try and ‘work’ the system to show he is ‘guilty’.

4. Working the system entails a weak defence and witnesses nailing him as Key Conspirator.

5. The Intel team who got many details from him in Nepal/India are a bit surprised at his death sentence and possibly his role at being identified as a Key conspirator. They are confused themselves. Shri B Raman’s letter confirms this.

6. Nationalists bay for his head. The Supreme Court has excellent witnesses against Yakub. 

7. Yakub goes under depression. ISI-DI-Tiger laugh it off and doubly make sure he is hanged. 

Both those options must play up on ones’ mind. The Truth is not out in the open yet. But frankly if the above is the case i wouldn’t want to be baying for Yakubs’ hanging. So maybe a rethink/ execution stay, keeping these points in mind may be of essence. And yes,

I would appreciate people to look into these resources to understand the complete Picture:

References:

http://m.rediff.com/news/column/exclusive-b-ramans-unpublished-2007-article-why-yakub-memon-must-not-be-hanged/20150723.htm?sc_cid=twshare

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-yakub-memon-death-sentence-raw-official-who-coordinated-operation-of-bringing-him-back-said-he-doesn-t-deserve-gallows-2107691

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Bombay_bombings

http://scroll.in/article/721782/the-many-wrong-messages-that-hanging-yakub-memon-would-send

Why they label you a Modi Bhakt

In the Media, both Social and Mainstream, there has been much rancour and debate on the terms “Internet Hindu” and “Modi Bhakt”. Both terms are used derogatorily and have implied connotations that some think should fit in their imagery of what exactly constitutes an “Internet Hindu” or a “Modi Bhakt”. Towards that it is creditable, they have come up with a number of articles even in Mainstream publications like the Times of India trying to detail what is a Modi Bhakt. While they have attempted to profile, or rather caricature what a Modi Bhakt resembles (usually the silly imagery concocts itself around a Cow belt type, Hindi speaking, Trishul wielding, Tilak sporting, frothing at mouth, sexually frustrated, brainless retard ready to prostrate himself at Modi’s feet whatever he does or says), it will be an absolute waste of time proving the imagery above as shallow and devoid of any logic. It is of some interest though, to know what is the profile of those who come up with such concocted imagery, despite the fact that PM Modi commands a massive 330 plus seats in the lower house and has a massive groundswell of mass public support for his developmental initiatives.

It is thus logical to assume, this is a small but well entrenched, elite minority completely at odds with Modis mass support base. And the fundamental reason is they lack a similar support base themselves and in recent times a political backing that has a support base that Modi today garners over the country. There is a feeling of inferiority of not having a mass support base that appreciates their English, the largesse that they may throw every 5 yearly mandatory trip to rural constituencies, their foreign trips, their knowledge about Louis Vuitton bags, their concern about how ugly Indian males look at foreign airports and so on. Whatever happened to that humble guy with wide eyes who deferentially said “Yeh England Return Hain”?

So there is a profile for these non imaginative label throwers that is emerging:

1. Unimaginative and prone to sympathising with Leftist rhetoric.

2. Elite and in High positions for reasons other than imaginative or analytical skillsets

3. A very open deferential inferiority displayed towards Native English Speaking cultures in US/UK particularly

4. Dropping terms that Hindu types should (but now don’t) feel ashamed not knowing eg Louis Vuitton stuff.

5. Sadness at Hindi speaking BJP types not understanding inherent inferiority of Native language for picking up women

All the above was expressed in the many apologies issued by this elite to not just the White English Speaking world but also particularly the Islamic world, how sorry for the real India they were, that a crass village Hindi speaking Modi was elected so overwhelmingly. This Header and Editorial after Modi’s historic win on May 17th 2014 in the Indian Express said it all:

Over 60 years of left and ultra left kind Nehruvian Socialism, there grew a large body of Indians that started losing interest in politics. They incorrectly and maliciously labelled Nehru’s Socialist led GDP growth of 1% over decades as a “Hindu Rate of Growth”. Cinema, Institutions, Parties and Politicians instead of fighting poverty romanticized it so people learnt to bear the pain and not question the entire failed Nehruvian developmental model. So there grew an elite that got to the top not so much through hard work, logical and analytical skills but because their so and so was a DD Director or a famous cricketer or was a batchmate at Doon or Stephens and so on. This club was cosy as long as they didn’t disturb the Nehruvian model and his Dynastic clans in power. That is where Modi came in seeking a mandate on Development and “Congress Mukht Bharat”. That shook this cosy elite pretty much like an earthquake 9 on the Richter.

Social Media was meanwhile being harsh on these kind of elitists. Their lack of basic intellect and analytical skills were a subject of wide ridicule on Social Media. It surely hurts when an English speaking, Doon/ Stephens types is called by a KV kinds on intellect and analytical skills. The largely HIndu male, KV educated, accented Hindi speaking types ridiculing those that called them Ugly or dropped terms like Louis Vuitton for a Vimal shawl surely hurt a lot.

Fortunately for them some Bollywood left kind Icons were making popular cinema that called for revolution against politicians. An Anti-Corruption movement confirmed the desire that people wanted a clean Governance. Yet while it was the job of the Media elite to educate people that Corruption is an “effect” of Nehruvian and Dynastic socialism unleashed on India by the INC and not ” the root” cause of much of our hardships, it encouraged a party with no credentials that held the same Nehruvian ultra left socialist principles that engendered corruption in the first place as it’s manifesto. AAP got a large following amongst youth that had been taken in once again by slogans. They were thrust imagery that Arab Spring was a great awakening happening in Islamic states and that was just what India needed. Only problem was Modi and his supporters laughed at this joke. Thus what one may call a Nehruvian-Ultra Left United Socialist front opposed to Modi particularly and his supporters in the social media started appearing.

In the near future too one must expect nothing but half truths, twists, turns, deception, lies, selective outrage to be their hallmark. They will lose this battle. Many are determined of their own time and energies to battle it out on SM or beyond. The hit jobs in this elite media have hit a pinnacle of deceit and untruth, but the wave of voices against #Presstitutes has just started. Timesnow may have worked hours after maliciously twisting a Gen VK Singh tweet to try trending “#VKDisaster”, instead within minutes “#TimesNowDisaster” was a world wide trend. And here i maintain while MSM might be at it’s hit job peak, the ‘Bhakt’ wave is nowhere at its peak.

The understanding of competing value and ideological systems the average “Modi Bhakt” understands much better than the average cosy club elite that mocks him. This is apparent on SM. That is the reason why some of India’s present top MSM elite would not like to be on SM. They cannot compete on rational and analytical skills. That is why they will conduct hit jobs and when faced with isolated verbal fury will play the victim. While there is a long list of abusive tweets from the ‘elite’ and  so called ‘anti corruption camp’, it is the selective singling out/ mocking of Modi supporters that is covered in the MSM. They forget their Amaresh Mishras and their own tweets of a few months old. Deceit, lies will go only so far, it wages a losing battle against those with rational and better analytical abilities.