Editor’s note: This article was originally written immediately after the blast that rocked Delhi on Sep 13th 2008.

I want to believe – Islamic anger against India is a myth! Hindu-Muslim conflict is manufactured by inhuman politics! There is NO Huntington’s clash of the civilizations in India. That is why I cant make sense of these bombings! Who are really responsible and what do they want?

The Indian Mujahideen is taking responsibility for all these attacks and sends emails just before the attacks. It sounds prankish and childish to me. Are we living in an Enid Blyton world where the criminal leaves clues behind for the CBI or the police to promptly trace? A report as recent as November 2007 says that Indian Mujahideen is a previously unheard of group – I am not suggesting any political conspiracy theory here, especially in light of the coming elections, however, I have trouble believing all that I read in the newspapers – the diagnosis and conclusions that come rather quickly.

What could be the result of bombings such as the ones we have experienced in the past few months be in our country?

It just kindles the Indian and specifically Hindu anger against Muslims and as a result all innocent Muslims get targeted as jihadis. I do want to state here, even though I am not a Muslim, and even if these bomb blasts are carried out by some Muslims, that they DO NOT reflect the sentiments of the majority Muslim population of the country. Please let us not politicize or communalize these events. Your Muslim friend and neighbour is still your friend and neighbour. Whoever is responsible for these attacks have stopped being human. Finding and punishing them is where our anger must be targeted.

Today yes, we have to agree, there is some friction and hate between religious communities in our country. Think deeper, aren’t they all reactions to attacks and events such as Delhi bombings of Sep 13th. The feelings of anger towards either Hindus or Christians or Muslims are not really deep rooted, they are reactions to the bad things we feel they have done to our community. Here, I am raising my voice to say please do not allow these events, however brutal, to change your views on your friends and neighbours who have nothing to do with these events. Because your friends and neighbours did not do these brutal acts.

I am extremely upset and so pardon my French thinking! Imagine TV channels interviewing a 11 year old for clues! What is wrong with our media?! Also the media should not carry news about compensation to victims immediately. It seems to portray as if money is going to make everything alright! For all those who have lost a loved one, 5 or 50 lakh make no difference in their sorrow tonight!

And for all the NGOs who have jumped in to help Rohit tell his story, please listen, if you are so damn concerned, 11 year olds should not be in the first place selling balloons in the streets of globalised Delhi. And our media reports Gujrat Chief Minister Narender Modi’s comments on warning the Primer Minister a month back about the attacks – it all sounds irritatingly childish and ridiculous. I wonder when will both our media as well as our politicians ever grow up. People are being slaughtered and we do not want some politician posing as the saviour of the Hindus to take advantage of this situation.

Pardon my venting but I have a deep sense, that we as a country need to grow beyond thinking communally. Tonight even as India sleeps, many including me are angry and upset. And none of the people we personally know irrespective of their religion or communal identity have done anything to bring about these feelings. And therefore, let us be careful that they do NOT become the target of our wrath and anger.

Let us weep with those who are weeping and channelize our emotions to stand with the weak and help those who are hurting. Let us dream of an India in which Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and Muslims or Brahmins, Baniyas and Dalits all will freely love and cherish each other irrespective of their caste or religion. Where we will learn to celebrate our commonalities and respect our differences. Where we can give our daughters and sons in marriage to the other irrespective of their caste or religion. Where our love will transcend our differences and make our country truly a better place for our children.

Jai Hind!

Image Credit: Bird Eye

Popularity: 15%

The admission of Pakistan that the 26/11 attack was carried out by Pakistan based elements is a significant turning point in the geopolitics of the Indian subcontinent. The Indian government can heave a sigh of relief as it can now tell the people that it has succeeded in nabbing the culprits. The Government of India should ensure that the real culprits are brought to justice.

From Pakistan’s perspective, this is a big loss of propaganda war against India. It is not clear if there is going to be a public backlash there. Pakistan is in a very tricky position. On the one hand, it has to show the public that the Pakistan army is defending the eastern border with India. On the other hand, several suicide attacks are taking place across the country.The Pakistan and NATO forces are also engaged in a fierce war against the Taliban in the NWF Province. In fact, it is reported that scores of civilians are migrating from the Swat region(a.k.a Pakistan’s Switzerland) because of the terror unleashed by Taliban. Taliban is getting stronger by the day and it is a worrisome trend for the world.Overall, the Pakistan civilian government is weak and has no full control over what is happening across the country.

India’s immediate task should be to strengthen the hands of the Pakistan civilian government. As a first step, India should wholeheartedly welcome Pakistan’s acceptance of blame and assure cooperation in the investigation to take it to the logical end. The next step should be to immediately stop the rhetoric of tough action. The objective of this rhetoric has been achieved and now i t is time to silently work behind the scenes. India should also continue its diplomatic efforts to get the terror infrastructure dismantled in Pakistan. The government should take all the parties on board and try to explain this strategy.

It is very important for leaders like Narendra Modi to show restraint and stop making vicious comments about the 26/11 attacks. This is critical because India should not be seen as aggravating Pakistan’s apparent humiliation. At this point, by showing more responsibility, India can gain the goodwill of the world community. This will also help Pakistan focus more attention on its western border and worry less about public opinion against India.

India should also take the initiative in restoring bilateral ties. As a positive gesture, Pakistan players should be invited to continue play in IPL and Pakistan artists allowed to perform in India. Other goodwill measures should be restored to reduce Indo-Pakistan tensions.

Cynics will argue that Pakistan is not going to mend it ways when it comes to promoting terror against India. After all, the very existence of Pakistan rests upon its hatred of India. While this argument is very valid, this is the time for India to support Pakistan and the international community in fighting the war against Taliban. India simply cannot afford to watch further weakening of the Pakistan civilian government and allow Pakistan fall into the hands of Taliban. At the moment, India should focus on addressing the weaknesses in the internal security apparatus and strengthen the intelligence gathering mechanisms.

As much as India hates the prospect of supporting Pakistan, India needs to support the current Pakistan government. If we don’t do it now, India will soon be fighting Taliban right across our border. A bad neighbor is better than a worse neighbor.

So India, please help Pakistan.

Image Credit: ElektraCute

Popularity: 12%

The 2009 General Elections are around the corner and the political scene is heating up. These elections will be conducted at a critical juncture and will have a great impact on the country’s economy and society.

The last 5 years have seen lot of ups and downs for the country. India continued to grow as a leading economy but also continued to be the victim of organized global terrorism. Overall, the country remained relatively stable on most fronts. Credit goes to the PM and his staunch supporters within the ruling establishment for the achieving the political stability. But there were also significant failures. The time has now come for the citizens to appraise the performance of this government and decide whether they want a change.

All the political parties have started their preparations for the elections. Coalitions are being formed, manifestoes being prepared and ticket distribution being finalized. The BJP took an early lead in its election preparations. It has projected Mr.Advani as NDA’s PM candidate. On his part, Mr. Advani is trying to replicate Obama’s US Presidential election campaign success and naturally, the theme of bringing positive change is on top of his agenda.

I recently visited L.K. Advani’s website and was impressed to see that development issues were the focus of his election campaign. His website talks about farmers’ upliftment, plans for drinking water to all and rightfully highlighted UPAs failure in the National Highway project. It went on to blame the UPA government for causing the recession and inflation. The accusation about recession was absolute dishonesty on BJP’s part as they very well know that this is a global phenomenon. Despite that, I happily concluded that this election will be setting new standards with regards to the discussion of developmental issues.

Two subsequent events totally shattered my short-lived happiness. First, the BJP party secretary announces that building Ram temple will be the prime election issue, again.If this is the main issue, why was BJP silent about it all these days? Is the BJP not aware that the timing of the announcement alone shows how morally corrupt the party is? This announcement shows their insincerity to voters and is shamefully opportunistic. And what is it going to achieve in improving the lives of millions of poverty stricken people? The only explanation I could think of is that it is aimed at improving BJP’s prospects in UP where it is very weak. But the repercussions of reviving this issue doesn’t look good for the country.

Second, during an election campaign, Narendra Modi hinted that 26/11 had internal support. No doubt about that. But is it responsible on the part of Modi to play into the hands of Pak’s theory about the attacks? The entire Indian diplomatic community is trying to expose Pak’s role in the attacks and here, the “Iron man” of BJP sabotages these diplomatic efforts with extraordinary ease. With leaders like these, do we need enemies?

It is now incumbent upon Advani to clearly state his stance on the election campaign. Does he want to be inclusive and focus on development issues? Or is it business as usual with issues planned to divide people along communal lines? Advani must be the first to admit that this is not the mid 90s when the Ram Janma bhoomi issue was a huge vote generating issue. (IBNLive highlighted this confusion in it’s website)

Since Advani is modeling his campaign along the lines of Obama, he could learn from the US election results that after a period of time, people become tired of the ideological issues and start yearning for real change. In US, the “Right” and the “Left” ideologies were rejected and the pragmatic development oriented centrist policies were welcomed. India is lot more complicated with the caste and regional issues thrown in. However, the overall trend will be in the same direction. The recently concluded assembly elections in a few Indian states are a pointer to that.

Thankfully, a BJP supporter, one Mr.Aditya, has expressed his frustration over this issue and has posted his views in the forum in Advani’s website. He rightly says “NO RAM TEMPLE ISSUE AT THIS POINT OF TIME “.

Mr. Advani, are you hearing?

Image Credit: Bast

Popularity: 14%

I started working about a decade ago and bumped into this pretty girl from a state in India called Gujarat. She was hired to work for me and I must clarify that I had no role in her selection…these were early days you see!!

We got chatting about our lives one day when I asked her the question, “What gets you to Bangalore?”. She didn’t pause a second to think and replied pat saying “I am looking for a bright career in the IT industry”.

I was real cocky those days – cocky about the fact that my city was considered the Silicon Valley of India and was a real magnet in terms of attracting all these young people from different parts of the country. I’ve had countless conversations when I’ve raved about Bangalore and ridiculed her state for being “under developed”. I’ve even gone to the extent of ragging her saying “do you guys have roads, public transport etc back home?”.

Gujarat’s transformation from being one of those under developed states about a decade ago to being a top draw for investments has been phenomenal.

How did all this happen?

One man and his desire to make things happen – Narendra Modi. Here comes a leader who like most of his counterparts says, I will do X, Y & Z and unlike his counterparts goes on to deliver all of them. The result – public loves them and want more. To do what he did with the Tata’s to bring in the Nano was probably the tipping point in this state’s ascendancy.

His leadership and the state are raved about today. And why not?

A recent corporate summit had Sunil Mittal and Anil Ambani suggested that Modi’s prowess should get him the big job in the country soon – being Prime Minister. What baffled me the following day were the reactions that were expressed for Industry leaders making that remark. The party that he is a part of, itself, was in arms, needless the mention the Congress and the other numerous fingers and toe parties that are around the country.

That gets me to ask the question… WHAT THE HELL?

Here’s a guy who has done what he said he will – that is the fundamental principle of good governance and people like it. All that they want is someone to focus on development and do what he/she promises to do. India over the last 12 months has clearly seen and recognized this – If Modi won a second term and Sheila Dixit a 3^rd, it’s just the fact that the work they do speaks volumes for them. It’s a known fact that no politician is clean and I don’t want to even go there.

What people want is good governance, tangible signs of development and keeping up of promises.

As leaders running businesses, it is extremely frustrating to see the lack of this across the country. Case and point to this is what’s happened to Bangalore over the last decade. While Gujarat was on it’s upswing, the Congress with Dharam Singh and the Son of the s(p)oil, Deve Gowda but Bangalore and Karnataka into reverse gear.

Bangalore bursts at its seams with little to no development in the last decade – the results here to see in the form of crippled infrastructure, no new industries coming in and of course, traffic jams turn this city to a standstill at pretty much any time of the day.

I consider myself fortunate for not having to bump into that pretty girl often these days – she must be dying to give back to me some of the hell that I gave her!

Is it unfair for the people of India and the business leaders to ask for someone who’s proven himself at governance and delivering on his promises to lead them? I think we’ve had enough of the days of Presidents who can’t walk and Prime Ministers who can’t talk (we’ve had exceptions alright, but the need is for exceptions to become the rule).

Come on… these requests are not unfair at all – it’s not about being favorable to one party or the other.. it is picking someone who is the right man to drive the bus, and drive it forward of course!

Popularity: 15%

Kandamangalam’s article, “Modi-fying Gujarat – Is Narendra Modi leading by example?” was interesting as it explored matters of leadership as well as development. One of the comments to the article was the question,

Do you want an India which is highly secular (which I doubt will ever be the case) or a progressive India?.

Today, (November 26, 2008) Gujarat’s Chief Minister was in the news, campaigning in Delhi for his party. NDTV reporter said BJP’s poster boy, Modi was at his acerbic best and pilloried the government for the prejudiced handling of the Malegaon blast case.

Confronted with the reality of Modi’s road to progress and his style of politics, I want to re-phrase the above question and ask,

“Is it really possible for India or any country to make progress without secularism?”

We have examples of countless leaders whose world view was narrow, confined to the boundaries of a race or a religion. Hitler idealized and romanticized about the pure Aryan blood of the German race. He saw the rest of the world as disposable commodity and exterminated about 8 million people. True, while he was around, he also brought about progress in ample measure.

About one millions Hindus and Muslims lost their lives during the mad communal frenzy during Partition days immediately after our Independence.

Idi Amin in Uganda expelled about 75000 Indians and Pakistanis in 1972 - determined to make Uganda “a black man’s country”. During his barbaric rule, he exterminated about 300000 people.

Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984. And Delhi witnessed the blood of Sikhs spattered on the roads of the city. Babri Majid was demolished in 1992 and then all mayhem was let loose and one thousand people were butchered because they belonged to the “wrong” community. Godhra happened in 2002 and the rest is history. In August this year, it was the turn of the tribal Christians in Khandammal in Orissa to flee their homes for the safety of the forests.

I search from history for instances of countries progressing amidst sectarian strife. I draw a blank. In fact I learn that sectarian strife was always accompanied by decay in the economic fabric of countries. Have any of you readers, come up against exceptions?

Right now, there is news of terrorists in Mumbai striking yet again, blowing out many innocent lives. We should deal with them firmly and make an example of them so that we will be rid of this menace. But I maintain that they are only puppets on a string, while those who pull the strings occupy the central stage of our national arena. They are the progressive leaders who have prepared the soil and seed for these mindless, violent crimes against humanity to germinate. Who will bell those real cats, is the question.

If we permit communal hatred or talk of “the others” to dominate, it will lead to the hunter soon enough becoming the hunted. The Bible says, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”  What is economic prosperity and progress, without security to life itself? Winning battles but losing the significant war will make all of us losers. 

Gandhi was totally and unequivocally opposed to the concept of “the end justifying the means” A lofty goal has to be achieved only through lofty means and actions.

Popularity: 11%

In the late 80s and early 90s Narendra Modi  was virtually unknown. He fought very hard to accomplish the tasks given to him by the Senior Leaders of BJP. Towards the later part of the decade, we saw a belligerent Modi moving closer to his political ambition of becoming the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

In 2001, Narendra Modi became the Chief Minister of Gujarat, got promoted to the office at a time his predecessor Kesubhai Patel lost the by-elections. In July 2007, he became the longest serving Chief Minister.  Later the same year, he was re-elected for the third consecutive term as the CM.

In 2001, just when he took office Modi was given the task of rebuilding Gujarat. This was in the wake of the biggest natural calamity India had seen – The Gujarat Earthquake which killed nearly 20000 people and another 170000 injured.  Modi was a man on a mission

In 2002, he faced the biggest test of his life – There was a communal riot in which Hindus and Muslims killed each other following a Godhra train incident. The riot killed nearly 2000 people and about 150000 were displaced.  The entire nation was pitted against him and some even went to the extent of terming the Godhra incident as an attempted genocide, a largescale massacre.

Modi did not sit quiet. What followed was a successful stint – one after the other. In his first term as the Gujarat Chief Minister, the economic growth touched 10%. In 2007, the growth touched a stunning 11.5% reducing the fiscal deficit of the state economy by a stunning 50%.

Other noticeable achievements included infrastructural developments, electrifying rural Gujarat, the Narmada success story etc.

Narendra Modi’s leadership and his extraordinary capabilities made him the darling of media. And soon a brand called Moditva emerged. Modi translated excessive criticisms and a burgeoning popularity into mass votes which made gave him a landslide victory in his third time.

Advani once said about Modi

A leader who, after being subjected to a malicious and prolonged campaign of vilification, has been able to impress even his critics with his determination, single-minded focus, integrity and a wide array of achievements in a relatively short time.

The year 2008 saw Modi take a complete u-turn with industrialists and politicians alike yearning for a piece of the pie in the Gujarat success story. Budha’s pain was Modi’s gain. Under the leadership of Modi, Gujarat opened the doors for Tata and Sanand became the Nanoland.

Modi did not stop there. He continues to woo Bangalore based IT and BPO companies to set up their units in Modiland. 

If this was not enough, Modi surprised all his critics as late as last week. He embarked on a demolition drive of “illegally built temples” in Gujarat including that of a Sai Baba and a Hanuman shrine. Facing the axe are another 161 illegally constructed temples.

Modi invited widespread criticisms for his actions especially from VHP – the erstwhile ideological partner of the BJP. In fact Ashok Singhal, of the VHP compared his government to that of Aurangazeb’s. Modi loyalists however argued that he was painting a picture of a Nationally acceptable, Secular Leader

Read the words once again – “Nationally Acceptable, Secular Leader.” Wow !!!

That made me think a dozen times before I wrote this article.

Is Narendra Modi really trying to lead by example ? Your comments please…

Popularity: 22%

Bangalore bombed – 2 killed, 20 injured.

Ahmedabad bombed- 49 killed and still counting

Surat on a rampage – 20 bombs discovered

Bomb threat to Vadodara Stock Exchange, cops on alert

Five days, 21 bombs later – Cops still clueless

Sushma Swaraj blames Opposition, says

In two BJP-ruled states in a span of two days and within four days of the UPA Government winning the trust vote have some meaning, and what I am saying is proved by enough circumstantial evidence

And later on comes to the forefront and does a CYA exercise by saying

I stand by what I said earlier. It was a personal remark made by me and was not a part of the NDA. I still firmly stand by what I said

Introspect the contradictions, now - Why did she have to say it in a press conference anything that is even closer to a personal remark ? If it was a personal remark, she could have spoken to her husband, her in laws or any of her other friends and relatives. Correct ?

Moving on, lets take the example of the self made Godman of Gujarat, Modi saab.

Narendra Modi did not blame anyone but says it is a proxy war that the nation will have to fight.

Well, coming from a  person who is alleged to have hands in Godhra riots and shied away from answering intelligent questions (refer Karan Thapar’s interview on CNN IBN’s Devil Advocate ), is indeed a surprise move and may be a smart one too.

Advani plays neutral. He neither supports the Modism, nor is he a fan of Sushma, in this case. He wants to play safe as he knows come next elections, his eyes are on the Prime Minister’s seat and he can not afford to displease anyone, even if it means taking a political stand.

Net net, BJP seems to be the boiling pot of confusion at the time of crisis. I am not sure how well this will go with the public with elections round the corner.

Congress, on the other hand, doesn’t want to speak on the subject. Home ministry is silent on the issue. Shivraj Patil has not uttered a productive word on this. 

Priya Ranjan Das Munshi who was in limelight during the Aarushi murder case for asking certain sections of the media and the entertainment world to use restraint seems to have lost it this time.

Either he is not doing what is right or may be he is following the orders of the high command.

BJP, however confused they are,  is still pleading with folded hands to revive POTA. Congress doesn’t relent.

Every body is playing the blame game. In the middle of this crisis, the common man is paying the price. His life is not secured at the very least. There is fear, tension, turmoil, chaos all over. And what is the basis of all this – the ever growing political confusion.

Will this ever end ? Can India take a tough stance on terrorism as United States or any other progressive nations ? Will there be a day where one can walk freely on the road without having to fear what’s in store for the next moment ?

It is this lack of accountability and irresponsiveness that has made our nation the target of many terrorist experimentation. Our government needs to take accountability of the situation and do all it takes to avoid another attack on our land, even if it calls for sending a training team to one of the best counter terrorism squads in the world or spending millions to uplift the security levels.

We simply can not afford to be the cynosure of the terrorists’ eyes !!!

Image Credit : Ozgurum

Popularity: 13%