JP Nadda Must Frequency Hop Like Hedy Lamarr

JP Nadda Must Frequency Hop Like Hedy Lamarr

Hell is truth seen too late- Thomas Hobbes

Jagat Prakash Nadda from Himachal Pradesh, unfurled the national flag at BJP HQ on India’s 71^st Republic Day, as the newly anointed BJP President. He has, with his elevation by the party top brass, added to the slim bench strength of heavyweights in the BJP.

With a shrinking saffron footprint in the states, Nadda must show real ingenuity to make his mark as early as possible. The problem he faces is that of late there seems to be a disconnect between national and local issues. The Shah led BJP in its last stretch when Amit Shah has also been the country’s Home Minister, has been emphasizing national issues during state election campaigns.

States are understandably more concerned about their own problems. Also there have been problems with ticket distribution vis a vis winnability, shown up most glaringly in Jharkhand, lost primarily to the e tribal vote for lack of an alliance between JMD and the BJP. This can still be rectified by Nadda, with Prime Minister Modi being exceptionally warm to Soren already. Jharkhand was also where a rebel candidate trounced the misleading and complacent sitting chief minister.

Nadda has a couple of near-ready potential scalps to take in the near future. No. 1 is the state of Delhi, in which the subversive, disappointingly corrupt, minority favouring and underperforming AAP, is due for a fall.  The BJP could leverage its regularization of unauthorized colonies. The Purvanchal vote is some 30% of the total, and BJP Delhi President Manoj Tiwari is not only a fresh face, but also a popular Bhojpuri filmstar/singer. Can Nadda quietly orchestrate the coup from behind the scenes to install Tiwari as chief minister?  

The other opportunity is to wrest Maharashtra away from the Aghadi. It was won by the BJP and the Shiv Sena in the first place, before the Shiv Sena decided to betray its own long-standing positions (and the voters). It can be retaken in the same fashion perhaps as Karnataka, where Nadda played a winning hand, or via a fresh assembly election if necessary.

Bihar may also go to the polls near the end of 2020 and the retention of power there along with Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) will be of the greatest importance.

The number of states in which BJP has won a near majority lately, but fell short, such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, are all ripe for some transactional politics. West Bengal, which promises to be a tough election in 2021, might again see BJP within kissing distance of power, and may need some TMC winners abandoning their party for the BJP to secure the the 42 parliamentary-seater state.

If Maharashtra, of the rich pickings, is indeed retaken without another election later in 2020 itself, Nadda will have established his mastery over his powerful job. In the process, Nadda would have also destroyed the credibility of the three-legged Aghadi, and ruined their dreams of a broader winning coalition in 2024.

But to do this, Nadda will have to move without being detected and apprehended in advance. Perhaps the emergence of the other Thackeray, Raj, complete with an eligible son of his own, and a newly minted saffron flag for his Party, MNS, is a ready step in the right direction.

And then there are three states going to the polls in 2021, including West Bengal.

Nadda, often credited with having won Uttar Pradesh for Amit Shah, is a seasoned player, trusted not only by the top brass in the BJP but also the RSS. He will have no problem in accessing the necessary human and other resources. What he will need in addition is originality and an element of surprise that outwits his opponents.

And here is inspiration. The mesmerizingly beautiful Jewish-Austrian Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr from the 1930s and forties, had an unexpected touch of real genius. Lamarr, who fled Nazi persecution, invented a communication process she called “Frequency Hopping”. It used over 80 frequencies in rapid and seemingly random succession, which made its signals virtually impossible to jam. She originally intended it for the American Navy to securely guide its torpedoes at German U Boats. The Germans routinely jammed all the radio frequencies except their own. This was the answer.

Today, Frequency Hopping is the basis of modern day WiFi, Bluetooth, secure satellite communications, much military communications technology including the coding that activates nuclear weapons. It is also the first bastion against cyber-hacking.

 JP Nadda will have to prove that the BJP magic that came into play with the Modi-Shah duo can be sustained into 2024 and beyond. If he can do this, he will wreck the hypothesis that the BJP can be driven back into a 160 odd seats party again. A party that had to resemble the Congress in order to survive at the time.

Modi-Shah have already broken that mould and inserted a strong bid for a “New India” with very different drummers to follow. Much of the policy thinking that has been put forward is the excitement for the BJP voter. On the other hand, it is anathema to the old Nehruvian order.

A political party like the BJP at this juncture can determine the future destiny of India. JP Nadda must bear in mind that “realpolitik” will demand that he does not fight shy of winning tactics and strategy. He must fight lies with truth, and lies too, if necessary. Well begun, as they say, is half done.

(912 words)

January 26, 2020

For: WIONEWS

Gautam Mukherjee

Infiltrator Muslim Vote Banks Under Threat From CAA, NPR & NRC

Infiltrator Muslim Vote Banks Under Threat From CAA, NPR  & NRC

Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts- Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord

There is a red alert, panic stations, a little hysteria, much opinion, and frantic political mobilization afoot. There is however nothing secular about it. Tellingly, it leans on concentrations of Muslims, Communists, gullible students and illiterate Muslim housewives.

Political parties that rely on their votes, are exhorting them to oppose the government. In Communist run Kerala and TMC run West Bengal, this protest is leading to frequent maiming and murder as well.

The people who are paying for it hope against hope that this will turn into a countrywide mass movement. That none of the three laws in contention, CAA, NPR or NCR have anything harmful for Indian Muslims is being glossed over. Fear amongst the large Muslim minority is the key, and it is being deliberately fanned.

What could not be done by democratic means in parliament or through two general elections, is being attempted via a cooked up and ultimately bogus protest. It has seditious overtones, uses expert arson, destroys public and private property, blocks roads, beats up people. It is deliberately provoking the police and other authorities with physical attacks on them.

Overthrowing the Modi government is the abiding desire and fantasy, though it is couched by its intellectual supporters in much unctuous verbiage. However, the government’s responses have been canny, measured, cautious. This even as it asserts that there will be no roll back of the Citizens Amendment Act (CAA).

It is only the first of three laws on the anvil, the latter two carried forward from the UPA regime. But like the related Assam Accord signed by Rajiv Gandhi, they have remained unimplemented.

The protest for the TV cameras, web portals, the social media, the broadsheets, is ostensibly against what a section of the depleted Opposition, supported by a propagandizing, dwindling, Lutyens Delhi media, calls “polarization”.

This polarization is meant to be diabolical because it allegedly favours Hindus. This is a frequent charge during the Modi administered years, grown out of the earlier sneer that labelled the BJP communal. That tag no longer works like it did over 10 years ago. Today the BJP gets on and works with a number of regional political parties, who accept its desire to engender progress for all, and do what is best for the nation. These parties vote with the NDA to pass crucial legislation.  

However the Congress and those who agree with it, find it difficult to accept the ascendancy of the BJP. This, particularly since they have either been driven from power altogether, or into a humiliating subsidiary role, by the very voter that was with them till six years ago. Shrill as their outrage is, it may be no more than the sooty kettle calling the cooking pot black.

A recent India Today-Karvy Mood of the Nation opinion poll, released just a day after the Supreme Court refused to stay the implementation of the CAA, suggests a dip in the Modi government’s popularity. It suggests  unhappiness with both the abrogation of Article 370/ 35A in J&K and the expected implementation of the CAA, already begun in some states.

But even this poll, which may be far from objective, given its slanted questions, says if there was a general election right now, the NDA would win 303 seats. That means a comfortable majority, even if it is much less that the over 350 seats the NDA had in 2019. It also calls Modi the best ever prime minister, Amit Shah the best performing union minister, and Yogi Adiyanath the best chief minister.

It is clear  that the Congress, CPM, TMC, SP, BSP, RJD and others who encourage Muslim infiltrators and rely on Muslim vote banks feel an existential threat. After all they have furnished the illegals with Indian identities, inclusive of addresses and voter/aadhar cards. The numbers involved are estimated to be over 2 crores of such immigrants.

It is this subversion of the electorate and national security that has necessitated the implementation of the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens (NCR) now. And why Muslims in particular have to be excluded from the largesse of the CAA. The Rohingyas from Myanmar via Bangladesh, often terrorist, are also being targeted.

CAA has, in fact, been mandated by the Supreme Court for Assam. It is now likely to be implemented nation-wide, even as an earlier failed exercise in Assam will be redone. While NPR is also beginning to be implemented in some states, no final norms or roll-out dates have been worked out for the nation-wide NCR. All these laws may appear confusing but their intent is all too clear, and disruptive for the nexus between the illegals and certain political parties.

But the current protest is not really about the CAA at all, though liberal and Left-leaning intellectuals have been trying to give it a high-minded tone of being violative of the Indian Constitution.  That it is a democratically passed law by parliament after due deliberation in its formulation, debate in both houses, and voting, does not seem to impress these thinkers.  

The Supreme Court, at first glance, seems to think that the CAA is not ultra vires. However, a five judge constitution bench is slated to begin hearing some 140 petitions in about four weeks time. As for similar petitions against Article 370’s nullification, the Supreme Court has reserved its judgement in the interests of the nation.

Looking beyond the CAA which is likely to stay, the government may find ways and means via NPR and NCR in particular, to disenfranchise, if not also detain and deport the illegals.

The government, having got away with three revolutionary successes in a row in the first flush of Modi 2.0, is also said to be preparing a population control bill that will deny government jobs and succour to those who have more than two children, as well as the long awaited Uniform Civil Code (UCC). These are essential laws if the per capita income is to rise and the inequities of the Muslim Personal Law are to be curtailed.

The three successes that caught the Opposition unawares because Modi 1.0 proceeded with much less speed, despite demonetization and GST, were first the parliamentary nullification of Articles 370/35A and J&K’s overnight transformation into two union territories.  Second came the passage of the contentious Triple Talaq Bill into law. And third was the momentous verdict handing the long sought-after land at Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya to build a grand new temple upon.

 The Congress Party and those in its train do not want to be caught napping again. However, this government seems determined to press on with its legislative agenda. Perhaps it thinks that protests are inevitable, even useful safety valves in a democracy, and is unimpressed with threats of general anarchy.

The economy too is showing signs of responding to efforts and a cyclic revival, and may take away yet another plank of the opposition ire. Once this revival gains momentum, and the upcoming Union Budget on February 1^st may give it a fillip, it will be difficult to say these laws were brought in to distract the public from their economic and financial woes.

The Modi government always seems to thrive in the face of constant opposition, but the nation too may have come to a watershed worth noting.

Even as the largest minority, nearly 200 million strong and 17% of the population today, along with its rabble rousers, sharpens its attack, the Hindu majority, per even a partisan poll, is in no mood to relent.

It is true however that the attitude of the protestors stem from legacy issues. However, that particular construct and its benefits have already been redeemed in full. It is no use acting spoilt because there is no sympathy for it except in motivated quarters.

Now we all live in a “New India” that takes inspiration from other sources.  It is not just the epics like the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, but the thoughts of long sidelined historical stalwarts such as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Swami Vivekananda, Sardar Patel, Veer Savarkar, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, that count. And yes, even the recently departed Balasaheb Thackeray and APJ Abdul Kalaam. It is time these great men got their due in the task of nation building and the shaping of our thoughts.  

(1,396 words)

For: The Sunday Guardian

January 24, 2020

Gautam Mukherjee

The US Juggernaut Wants No Less Than Regime Change In Iran

The US Juggernaut Wants No Less Than Regime Change In Iran

The recent Golden Globe Awards handed out the best actor in a limited series or TV Movie to The Loudest Voice. It is the saga of Fox News, the Rupert Murdoch owned American TV news-from-the-Right channel. And, of course, its pitbull-like head honcho Roger Ailes, played by a wonderfully made up Russell Crowe.

When it was launched, all the other News TV channels in America were competing for the left-of-centre eyeballs, leaving the entire 50% of the field that spoke to middle-America, open to Fox. And unlike in other countries that favoured newspapers, Americans preferred to get their news from 24x7 TV channels. Fox News soon topped the charts in cable news TV.

It has often been said that our own Republic TV, and to an extent, Times Now, is modelled loosely on Fox News. They too use a pro-government, nationalism-patriotism combo, delivered loudly, and with an underlying strategy to lead the news into directions it favours.

Though, The Loudest Voice TV serial takes you back to 9/11 and the George W Bush- Dick Cheney era, it does remind you of one thing more. It reminds you that the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) charge put on Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was a complete myth.

America decided to use 9/11 to effect regime change in Iraq, a matter treated as “unfinished business’’ from the term of George Walker Bush,  Dubya’s father. Fox was privy to this government objective and worked hard to propagate its merits.

Iraq was a Sunni minority run country under Saddam and his Ba’ath Party, but quite unrelated to America’s  9/11, or the Al Qaeda that perpetrated it. If anything, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were the authors of 9/11, and not Iraq. But America was not keen to put them in the dock owing to overlapping and multifarious common interests.

Nevertheless, today, when we see war clouds hovering over West Asia after the US drone strike killing of Maj.Gen. Qasem Soleimani five days ago, one has to wonder why it was done at this time. What intelligence input does America have? Soleimani, a military man, was the de facto no. 2 of Iran.

The simple answer is that Soleimani was held responsible as the mastermind of multiple terrorist strikes against Americans. But, his elimination poses a threat to the stability of the present regime. That the strike took place outside Baghdad airport is remarkable. And while an unstable, unhappy, ruined, and insurgency-torn Iraq is now under a Shi’ite administration- it is not doing very well. But it is close to Iran, a country that Saddam fought an eight year war with in his time.

Iran has been firing missiles ever since at the US bases in Iraq. Present reports mostly state that these Iranian strikes have not resulted in the loss of Allied lives. Others, from Iran, indicate 80 American soldiers have been killed.

President Trump has not addressed the nation on his next move as yet, apart from debunking the report of casualties by tweeting “All is well”.

But the Russians and Chinese are warning against retaliatory strikes by America. Russia has raised the bogey of nuclear war. Britain has spoken up in support of the American action. Israel is in strong support. France and Germany too are advising caution. As is India, eyeing the 5% escalation in petroleum prices already.  Iran has asked India to help in the de-escalation process. Other international voices too, from the Gulf and elsewhere, almost unanimously, are clamouring for de-escalation.

But what does America want? It eliminated Soleimani unilaterally despite the near certainty of strong reaction. The desired end result, backed no doubt by Saudi Arabia and Israel, from the near region, is to see the back of the Khamenei regime.

This is not the first time the West has intervened to bring about regime change in Iran. It installed the Shah when his predecessor nationalised the oil fields. Much later, the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini broke the link of American influence.   Now, successor Ali Khamenei and his cohorts must go, to be replaced by an order more favourable to the US and its friends.

The economic sanctions placed on Iran by the US and its allies to stop it going nuclear are hurting the ordinary people. Most of Iran’s 80 million are fed up with its rulers. As a consequence, there have been large protests, put down harshly. The grass-roots in Iran may be quite ready and ripe to get rid of the puritanical mullahs, but they don’t have the strength to do it by themselves.

America’s attempt to bring about regime change by military means in different countries has generally succeeded; but not in bringing a consequent peace and prosperity to the natives.  However, this has never stopped it from pushing ahead with its perceived strategic objectives.

The main one, with regard to Iran, is to stop it becoming a nuclear power fearing that this will make it unmanageable.  But is it too late? What was that seismic activity near Iran’s nuclear weapons development site?

Will the other major powers intervene militarily on the side of Iran if America attacks it? It seems very unlikely, because both China and Russia cannot afford to precipitate war against America.

As a consequence, while oil prices will be very volatile going forward, President Trump will probably be able to attack Iranian strategic assets and nuclear facilities and drive the current regime out of office, if it acts quickly. And yes, undertaking this aggression successfully will see to it that President Trump will be re-elected to his second term.

The impeachment drama is already deleted from the news cycles, and most recent opinion polls show an uptick in support for President Donald Trump.   

(951 words)

 For: WIONNEWS

January 8^th, 2020

Gautam Mukherjee

Run Over The Barricades

Run Over The Barricades

It is difficult to lay aside a confirmed passion- Catullus

By the time the largely silent Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao finished rolling out his reforms via then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, the Licence-Permit Raj had become history.

The country was actually on the point of bankruptcy in 1991, brought on by the heavy borrowings of the previous five-year-long Rajiv Gandhi administration. The reforms were, in fact, dictated to India by the World Bank, in return for a sorely needed bail-out. It made Prime Minister Rao’s given task easier. And it is anybody’s guess where his own economic instincts lay.

The infamous shipping of RBI gold to Switzerland during the short-lived Chandra Shekhar administration, and the permission given to refuel American war planes, when India was on the point of defaulting on its loans, is not altogether forgotten.

But the moot point today is that Prime Minister Rao, who had the temerity to keep his own counsel, put in place and unleashed the energies of a new, liberalised era. One that could not be rolled back by his successors even if they had wanted to.

Not only that, but after even another quarter century going on three decades, no further reforms have quite equalled those unveiled in 1991. Land and labour reforms are still pending keeping major foreign investment at bay. But, even in 2020, taking on the many powerful trade unions is no mean task. Just trying to disinvest money-losing Air India is a multi-headed Hydra, one of which is its unionised staff.  

GST, the reforms in income tax, company, and trust laws, the bankruptcy code, from Modi 1.0, are all good economic developments, but they have come in linear progression, rather than all together, as in 1991.

There is much to be said for doing what one must as quickly and efficiently as possible despite the possible fallout. It tends to be epoch-making and the turbulence fades with time.

The very birth of modern India is a case in point. Lord Louis Mountbatten,  not only India’s Viceroy, but with plenipotentiary powers, decided  to accelerate and advance the partition of India and independence by many months. This, before, in his estimation, any fragile agreements he had put together with the Congress and Muslim League unravelled, and the rioting got a lot worse.

As it happened, a sub-continent that had never been a theatre of war under the British Crown, lost over half a million dead on each side, with millions more dislocated and impoverished by the loss of all they owned. And yet, Britain has never second-guessed its decision to pull out of India and Pakistan as rapidly as it did.  

Today, India stands at an ideological and philosophical crossroad once again. To go back is unacceptable to the millions that support the BJP and its NDA government. There are those who are not part of the NDA, who are quite willing nevertheless to support its initiatives in the Rajya Sabha. The upper house is no longer a sticking point in the passage of legislation. But parliamentary success has had the consequence of pushing the battle on to the streets.

It is a noisy if vainglorious challenge that looks better on TV than it does in reality, with its street-thuggery and arson. But many take it far more seriously.

 Still, given that the mayhem is unlikely to stop throughout this second term, can the government afford to turn back now? The dramatis personae include the Libleft, largely stripped of power; the enormous almost 200 million strong Muslim minority; Maoists, Communists, Socialists. And then, there are the expert sections of the Opposition backed by inimical foreign powers.

Foreign interests that include the Pakistanis, with their military, intelligence, and terrorist arms; the Chinese, clandestinely promoting the Maoists; some Wahhabi forces from West Asia and other OIC countries; separatist forces of Kashmir and Khalistan operating from Europe and Canada. These, and also those that do not want India to make rapid progress, from the West, and elsewhere.

These powers are funding direct and indirect activism and organising protest too. They have been doing so for a long time via a tribe of NGOs and madrassas; but the government is pushing this back too. Yet, it is seen, despite the considerable investment, that the earlier envelope of minority favouring secularism is torn, and cannot, it seems, hold fast any more.

With the rapid developments since May 2019- J&K integrated, the triple Triple Talaq law passed, and the resolving of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya in favour of the Hindus; the old status quo is shattered. The pace adopted for the core agenda of the BJP in Modi 2.0 is much faster than in the first term.  

Today’s CAA, NPR, NRC and campus protests orchestrated by agent provocateurs are harbingers of more landscape altering laws to come. This means that either the government has to be frightened into retreat right now, or it will steam-roller on to create a New India- as advertised and promised. The legion of the government’s supporters are looking forward to a population control act and the Uniform Civil Code any day soon.

Going back will destroy the BJP’s credibility with its legions of voters. These are, after all, ideological and civilisational issues, more important than livelihood and food in the minds of many.

Paradoxically, it is the economically much better off middle classes from the Libleft who are fanning the flames of discontent amongst the Muslims. Some , amongst the Muslim leadership, if not that of the Communists, have read the writing on the wall.  They are therefore exhorting their followers to fall in line. The tone of the leadership at the politically important Jama Masjid in Delhi is a case in point. But, there are others who want to take the battle to the enemy, regardless of the cost. That they are mostly Communists and Jihadists that have everything to lose is not to be ignored.

However, the latter may see their bluff called continuously, between now and 2024, till there is nothing material left of their revolt. The old tactics of intimidation, stone pelting, sloganeering, arson and occasional murder on the streets will not carry.

This modern republic has not been fair to its majority Hindu population. It is remarkable that the original Constituent Assembly debated the issue of adding “Secular” and “Socialist” to the Preamble and rejected it. These words were added, without discussion, much later, during the notorious Emergency of the 1970s.

This present political construct and narrative from sections of the Opposition cannot be allowed to prevail. All talk of a polity where majoritarianism must be stamped out probably lost value decades ago. It was when the minorities, aided and abetted by politicians dependent on their votes, decided to abuse the covenant.

Today, the feeling is that it has gone too far. Its fringe elements seek to overthrow the majority and threaten daily retribution. This wild fantasy can only lead to bitter tears. Even though Muslims elsewhere, in the West, have typically started a disproportionate assertion, even at 5% of the population to our 17%. They call for Sharia Law in Muslim majority areas. This is increasingly resented by the natives- who are also pushing back.

By the time this country goes to elect a new central government in 2024, it will, for its very survival, be a much changed place from what we can see in the first days of  2020. Congress, in an echo of the 1940s, has made it clear it would like to bring this government down even before its term ends by creating mass public law and order problems.  

They forget this is the beginning of a new decade in the 21^st century. One in which the emergence of a New India will see to it that this country is not run for, to an extent by, and largely on behalf of the minorities. Dressing it up in terms of freedom of expression, plurality and justice is just so much self-serving propaganda for the government’s opponents and a longed for return to the status quo.

This means, that like the economic reforms of 1991, it is already too late to go  back. And the quickened pace of the move forward will leave nobody harbouring false illusions on rolling the time-clock backwards.

(1,382 words)

For: Sirfnews

January 6^th, 2020

Gautam Mukherjee