Month: November 2015

In some weird ways, I actually like Aakar Patel among the Queen’s numerous Mameluks in the media. Most Mameluks will at least make some lame attempts to avoid openly saying that they hate Hindus and everything about them. Aakar Patel minces no words and he says it like he feels. Aakar Patel seems to hate Hindus, he hates everything Indian, he hates his own mother tongue Gujarati and all other Indian languages, he hates Indians as a race, he hates India as a culture. And he says it very openly. This is good. If most of the Congress ecosystem were as open about their beliefs as Aakar Patel, we would have achieved Congress mukt Bharat decades ago. Here is Aakar with his latest column titled: “Intolerance has a name and it’s Hindutva, not Hindustan”

(http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/aakarvani/intolerance-has-a-name-and-it-is-hindutva-not-hindustan/)

In this article, Aakar Patel is actually bashing the liberal establishment for being too coy in naming their enemy. Yes, that’s right. Aakar Patel is tired of the liberal establishment saying that India has become intolerant. He wants them to be MORE frank and say that Hindutva is intolerance and intolerance is Hindutva.  Aakar Patel is tired of liberals pussyfooting around Hindu sentiments. In Aakar Patel’s world, liberals need to become pro-active about demonizing Hindus. Yes, Aakar Patel IS that close to joining ISIS…or a mental asylum…

Just sample these lines:

” The questions we are dealing with so far are: Is India becoming intolerant? Is India less or more intolerant than before? Etc. Already we can see the vagueness emerging.”

Yes, these questions are clearly unnecessary. What is the need to actually find out whether India has become more or less tolerant? Here is the “cold hard fact”: too many Hindus live in India and Hindus are the scum of the earth and so India is intolerant and disgusting. End of story!

And get a load of this crap:

“A full 85% of TOI’s online readers, tens of thousands of literate people, who were polled on the matter agreed with the BJP’s response to Aamir. This did not surprise me because we Indians love ourselves, but also because the BJP fully controls the narrative.”

Did you hear that? The BJP fully controls the narrative! That is why India’s elected PM with single party majority has to make statements in BOTH houses of Parliament to condemn Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti for saying “Haramzada”. Meanwhile, no media dares ask Queen Sonia to comment on Mani Shankar Aiyar asking for Pakistani help to remove Modi.

We need to understand what Aakar Patel sees here. He says it right there: “we Indians love ourselves“. THAT is his evidence that the BJP is fully controlling the narrative. In other words, the fact that Indians love and respect their country is evidence that they have been brainwashed by the BJP. Because Aakar Patel knows that there is nothing in India worthy of slightest love or respect. It’s only because of the BJP’s propaganda that patriotic Indians exist. Otherwise who could possibly love India? 

Previously, Aakar Patel has praised Queen Sonia for bringing “an European’s refinement” to our politics. He has gone full praise for Lord Macaulay for fully understanding the Indian mind, in  particular about how Gujaratis would go “bestial” in 2002 (his choice of words, not mine). And Rahul Gandhi’s charms and the European genes to which he owes his good looks have been praised fulsomely by this Mameluk. On the other hand, Aakar Patel has been attacking BJP leaders for being physically ugly for a while now. He has been bashing Indian vernacular languages like Gujarati and Hindi for lacking the ability to convey ideas about the wider world. Sometimes I wonder if Aakar Patel actually exists or is some kind of caricature, for it is uncommon to find this level of overt racism against one’s own kind.

What are your thoughts, guys? Does Aakar Patel actually exist? Does Aakar Patel walk among us as a physical human being? Or is Aakar Patel a shadow, a pseudonym, a mask behind which the Queen expresses her real thoughts?

This post begins with a hat tip to regular reader Mehul who alerted me to the recent words of this snake Arun***i Roy.

“Given the atmosphere in India, “intolerance” is an inadequate word to describe the “fears” under which minorities are living, author Arun****i Roy said here on Saturday”

(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Intolerance-inadequate-to-describe-fear-among-minorities-Arundhati-Roy/articleshow/49966148.cms)

Which minority Arun***i Roy? I have seen in movies that after arresting, the police lets you make one phone call. Did Hasan Suroor call you after he was arrested to tell you about the “intolerance” he is facing? And then Arun***i Roy elaborates:

““Killing people, burning them alive and the other goings… ‘intolerance’ is not sufficient. We have to coin a new word to describe all this,””

Indeed, for secular people belonging to the religion of peace, it was not sufficient to just kill people and burn them alive on Feb 27, 2002. They were burned alive but they came back from the dead to punish you with May 16, 2014. Indeed, burning people alive is not sufficient. You see, their ideas, their dreams, hopes and aspirations live on….the stories of their sacrifices live on. Be it Aurangazeb or the crowd that set fire to S-6 bogey on Feb 27, 2002, burning alive is never sufficient. You need the crew of Romila Thapars and Irfan Habibs to clean the ashes and whitewash the memory. In the digital age, these dinosaurs like Romila Thapar tried their best, but the memory of Feb 27, 2002 could not be whitewashed. The chain of events that began on Feb 27, 2002 culminated in May 16, 2014.

Of course, the idea of “burning alive” is a recurring theme in the sick fantasies of Madam Arun***i Roy. Here she is in 2002:

“A mob surrounded the house of former Congress MP Iqbal Ehsan Jaffri. His phone calls to the Director-General of Police, the Police Commissioner, the Chief Secretary, the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) were ignored. The mobile police vans around his house did not intervene. The mob broke into the house. They stripped his daughters and burned them alive. ”

(http://www.outlookindia.com/article/democracy/215477)

It matters little that Ehsaan Jaffri has only one daughter, not “daughters” and she is still alive and unhurt. In fact, she was safely in America on the day she was “stripped and burned alive” in the violent fantasies of this maniacal woman.

Let’s find out what else happened with Arun***i Roy on this magical evening in Pune:

“The 55-year-old Booker Prize winner’s comments came at a function where she was presented with the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Award by the Mahatma Phule Samata Parishad (MPSP). The function attracted strong protests from pro-RSS Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.  AVBP activists raised slogans calling her “anti-national”, “anti-Indian Army” and “pro-Pakistani” before they were detained and taken away.”

I don’t know about people, but irony was certainly burned alive in these lines above. Here she is, talking about the BJP’s intolerance while pompously receiving an award in a BJP ruled state even as BJP activists protesting against it are dragged away to jail by the BJP government 🙂 You are right, Arun***i Roy, the word “intolerance” does not apply here 🙂 We need to coin a new term.

 

 

They did it. After days of dithering, brazening it out and then posting platitudes about how Snapdeal benefits small traders across the country, Snapdeal decided to yank Aamir Khan’s picture from its Twitter profile.

As of this moment, I no longer see Aamir Khan on Snapdeal’s website either. Seems like the #SnapdealforIndia trend did not do the trick for the company. I won’t say that the trend was created by petty paid trolls. But I will say that on digging through the timelines of some of the “people” trending the hashtag #SnapdealforIndia, I discovered that these “people” had previously been excited about lots of things, from new movies of SRK and Salman to the new show “Sumit Sambhal lega” on Star Plus to discounts on various shopping websites to 1 million fans of Motakshi Sinha or something 🙂 Maybe these “people” just have an uncommonly positive view of life…

Neways, the Snapdeal episode has showed that Internet Hindus are not powerless. Snapdeal was particularly vulnerable to this form of protest because people who shop online are also more likely to be on social media, Twitter and Facebook. I don’t know if Aamir has been removed as Snapdeal’s brand ambassador or merely that his face has been replaced for a while till the storm subsides. But I know for sure that this episode has brought the egoistic self-righteous jerk called Aamir Khan down by a couple of notches in both public perception and his own perception. The man who saw himself as a Prophet must have been jolted to find out that this country is not full of sheep. What a shock that must have been.

As I said before, this form of fully legal and highly effective protest fills my heart with joy. This is the first step towards smart protest. The sickulars always count on one or two guys on the Hindu right to go throw a stone or two when they are angry. In an age of media, this is then circulated as proof of “intolerance”. The Hindu right has come of age by denying the media hyenas this one bit to chew on. Yes, I know it ain’t fair. But the reality is that the poisonous media in India is more eager to discuss ink attacks than suicide bomb attacks. Even angry trolling on Twitter is blamed on Hindus in particular and massacre of 120 people is blamed on all humanity in general.  But that’s the media paradigm we live in and we have to make the best of it. So, keep on the pressure, dear Internet Hindus. Today we have made Snapdeal hide Aamir, tomorrow we can get the libtard “celebrities” to start losing endorsements. Can Internet Hindus influence enough people to boycott Aamir’s next movie? I doubt we can. But one day….for sure.  Don’t worry, the tide of history is with us.

 

Like I said on Monday, in every defeat there are seeds of victory and in every victory lie the seeds of defeat. And I also said that Nitish’s 2015  victory, like that of Vajpayee in 1999 is built on sand. I tried to support my argument with some data, but of course I did not have access to deep survey level data. Well, I would recommend everyone to read Yashwant Desmukh and Manu Sharma’s analysis in Firstpost:

(http://www.firstpost.com/politics/the-fine-print-of-the-bihar-polls-how-ghettoisation-of-secular-votes-trumped-ndas-firm-social-coalition-2519200.html)

First of all, I must say that this is in no way intended to console BJP supporters after the disastrous results in Bihar. I’ve said it before. We take defeat on the chin. We eat humble pie. All I am saying is that we should look for the seeds of victory amid the defeat and plant those seeds so that they may grow. Don’t take it as a consolation, take it as a plan for restoration.

So, let’s get to the data. Here is Yashwant’s key conclusion:

“Contrary to traditional political punditry the NDA did not hit a social base ceiling as was the case during the Mandal-era. In other words, the social catchment of NDA’s coalition was not deficient, however, it was bested by a better marshalled and organised social coalition of the MGB.”

This is what I was saying on Monday when I pointed out that NDA’s voteshare of 34.4% is nearly 20% above the core upper caste voteshare. Whereas the MGB’s voteshare of 42% is merely 7% above their core Muslim-Yadav-Kurmi voteshare of 35%. This means that the NDA managed to attract huge numbers of Dalits, Mahadalits, EBCs and non-Yadav OBCs. If there is one BIG IDEA of the 2014 election, it was the “Mandalization of BJP”: bringing Dalits and lower castes into the BJP fold, partly through Hindutva and partly through tapping into their aspirations. This was symbolized by change right at the TOP, with Modi being the first OBC PM (I am ignoring “by chance PM” Deve Gowda).  There is a huge social churning happening in the Hindi belt and the larger society: the Dalits and OBCs and EBCs are enthusiastically shaking hands with the BJP. At the political level, it shows that the curse of Hindu society, i.e., caste, is no longer as big a barrier to Hindu unity as it used to be.

Here are Yashwant’s words:

“only about a quarter of every 100 NDA voters are coming from their core Upper Caste combination. This also means almost three-quarters of the NDA’s composition comes from the Dalit+MahaDalit+EBC voters which historically has never been the core BJP constituency.”

Yes, 3/4 of the people who voted for NDA are not upper castes. This in Bihar, the heart of the Mandal belt. No longer upper caste party. Never again. It’s not a Hindu party yet, but not very far. Here is a table from Yashwant and Manu Sharma:

Look at that! Solid leads for NDA among Dalits and Mahadalits and EBCs. But what is very interesting is that the NDA has just begun its march among Dalits and Mahadalits and EBCs. Even though it is grabbing the largest share of these votes, it is nowhere near to the extent Yadavs polarized for MGB. Which means MGB is at peak performance with its 42.1% vote. NDA is far from it. In 2010, the RJD+JDU+Cong polled 50% of the votes and now they have peaked at 42.1%. This concept of saturation is explained by this chart:

What’s the “saturation index”. For instance, Mahadalits are 13.5% of Bihar’s population but 15.5% of the NDA’s votes came from Mahadalits (see the first chart). This means the BJP’s saturation index for Mahadalits is  the ratio 15.5/13.5 which is about 1.15 or 115% as expressed in the chart above. Hence, higher the saturation index, higher the polarization of that caste in favor of the party. In the chart above, you can see saturation index of 182% among Muslims in favor of MGB, showing near total polarization. On the other hand, the BJP has a similar 178% saturation index among upper castes. So upper castes fully polarized for NDA to the extent Muslims did for MGB.

But now we come to the fun part. The saturation index for NDA among Dalits is 142%, almost as high as that of Yadavs for MGB (145%). Yes, Dalits in Bihar support BJP almost as much as Yadavs support Lalu! This is a tremendous number. If this statistic holds across the country, politics will change forever. And if you look at Mahadalits, they are clearly leaning towards NDA with a saturation index of 115% to the MGB’s 67%, but there is a LOT of space for the BJP to grow. With Jeetan Ram Manjhi’s career at its end, this is the space for BJP to expand. Among EBC’s, BJP’s index stands at 127% which in itself is really big. But what is good news is that the BJP has a lot of space to push these caste groups to polarize further in its favor. On the other hand, the MGB has already maxed out its support base of Muslims and Yadavs and has no place left to grow. The MGB is attracting very few swing voters and very few votes outside its caste core. This is the sand Nitish’s victory is built on and this is the quicksand he has to tread.

To see where all of this will go in the days to come, see Yashwant’s third chart:

Whoa! Among first time Dalit voters, the MGB is nowhere in the picture with just 6%. The NDA gets a lion’s share of 56%. What is even better is that a full 37% voted for “others”. These are all voters that can be attracted to Modi, especially in a Lok Sabha poll.

Again, among EBCs first time voters, the BJP gets 50% already and the MGB is simply nowhere at 18%. That leaves another 32% EBCs who voted for “others”. Again these are people that BJP can potentially persuade to not waste votes on local players, especially in LS polls.

On the other hand, the MGB has no place to grow. It’s vote share among first time Yadavs is 61% and its share among older Yadavs is 64%. The numbers are stable and there is no generation gap. All age groups among Yadavs are equally polarized in favor of Lalu. Ditto among Muslims, with slight losses for MGB among younger Muslims! Ouch!

I should repeat that this is not consolation, but restoration. We have to recognize the seeds of victory. And plant them. The fruit will come.

 

Tukaram Omble was scared….really really scared. Here was a member from the religion of peace shooting out several rounds of tolerance from his AK-47 in the heart of Mumbai. In the confusion, Tukaram Omble suddenly remembered his wife’s often expressed fears about living in India. It became a moment of clarity. Tukaram Omble made his decision quickly, turned around, ran home and immediately flew out of the country that had made him a superstar, taking his millions with him. For many years, Tukaram Omble had been saving the nation from its million miseries on his weekly TV show. How much more can one man do for his country? It was time to leave.

Oh wait. No, that wasn’t true.

When the bullets were coming, Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Tukaram Omble must have thought of his wife and children. But, he remembered his debt to the motherland and its people. After all, they were paying him Rs 15000 a month. How could he be so ungrateful as to run away at this moment? So, he grabbed Ajmal Kasab’s AK-47. Kasab poured bullets into his body. But Tukaram Omble would not let go until other policemen had captured Kasab. After all, Tukaram Omble had been receiving Rs 15000 each month. How could he run away?

Dear Shaheed Tukaram Omble, we bow down to you. We bow down to the rest of the Mumbai Police, the military and paramilitary and commandos who fought for us on 26/11.

But there is a special debt we  owe to Shaheed Tukaram Omble. Had Ajmal Kasab not been captured alive, there is little doubt that the 26/11 attacks would have been blamed on the “Hindu Taliban”. Does anyone think that the Dynasty and its propagandists were not up to the task?  If Kasab had not been captured alive, Tukaram Omble would have been the terrorist in secular memory today and Kasab would have been the innocent Muslim framed by the communal Mumbai police and the Hindu Taliban. Just remember what they did to Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma and the Batla House terrorists. Some Cabinet Minister would surely have gone to election rallies and told people that the Queen cried when she saw the dead body of innocent Ajmal Kasab. You think Prashant Bhushan wouldn’t have gone to court claiming that Kasab had been killed in a fake encounter (I will be surprised if Prashant Bhushan still hasn’t gone to court claiming Kasab was innocent). And you think Arvind Kejriwal would not have written an exclusive “Letter to Muslims” taking credit for efforts of AAP members to prove the innocence of Ajmal Kasab? You think some secular Chief Minister would not have claimed that Ajmal Kasab is a “Bihar ka beta”?

I have long believed that the BJP’s greatest blessing is that it has so many people who support them without wanting a paisa in return. The Congress patronage network is the opposite of this.

On the intolerance debate, I see the official BJP floundering, I see BJP spokespersons on TV being overly defensive, unable to turn the tables on vicious presstitutes and the Award Wapsi gang. I see topmost ministers sitting calmly in the audience as Aamir Khan trashes our nation. Yes, I am talking about Arun Jaitley. I see even Modi mouthing platitudes about Islam, when Obama, Hollande and Putin have the guts to tell it like it is.

The official BJP seems scared, apologetic about its massive Lok Sabha victory. The BJP’s supporters are doing the opposite. Frustrated by the party’s placid approach, the BJP supporters are stirring the pot. Vehemently and courageously. When top Ministers sitting in power are scared to rock the boat of secularism, Anupam Kher is putting his career on the line by coming out openly against repeated insults to our nation.

March for India was brilliant. By bringing out ordinary people against the compromised Congi elite, it took the PR initiative decisively away from the tolerance mafia. And the latest Aamir Khan episode is even sweeter. Common people hitting these hypocrites where it hurts most: in their pocketbooks. Snapdeal was an excellent choice. People who shop on Snapdeal are also the people most active on Twitter and FB. Insult the nation and you will have to deal with us.

This is the beginning of smart protest. Please…no more hooligan style stone throwing. In this age of cameras, don’t make it so easy for NDTV. Bad optics only gets you a bad name. But enjoy the leftie morons seethe with rage as the online world junks Snapdeal, applying pressure where it hurts. Totally bloodless, totally legal and stunningly effective. With smart protest there should be smart Hindutva. Talk less about cows and much more about Uniform Civil Code. Whether the BJP is awake or not, the larger ecosystem has begun to organize spontaneously with or without help from the party. Country above Party. Dear Aamir, very few people have benefitted so much from the tolerance of Indian people as you have. You spit on us, we turn our back on you. If we don’t like you, we don’t have to watch your movies, right? You said that in all your arrogance because you were confident that Indian Hindus were tolerant enough to enjoy your movie trashing our traditions.  Dear friends, let’s make it a reality now.

Oh and just in case anyone feels that Snapdeal is an innocent bystander who should not have to face the heat:

https://twitter.com/IndiaSpeaksPR/status/669367695867940864

 

 

 

 

 

I am a big supporter of people’s freedom to choose. Freedom of choice, you know…like this guy:

And if you don’t like India, you shouldn’t have to live in it. So, well, now that Aamir Khan is considering moving to a different country because of “intolerance” in India, let us look for a good tolerant country where this great conscience keeper of the nation can safely preach the “idea of India”.

Surely America, the land of liberty will give space to Aamir Khan (after the standard cavity search, of course). After all, this is where Revd. John Dayal goes to complain about lack of religious freedom in India.

Oh…never mind.

What about Britain? After 200+ years of imperialism, the British have settled down into a nation that greatly appreciates liberty.

Damn! What about France with its motto of “Liberte – Egalite – Fraternite” ?

Translated, that means: “Hollande’s ruling Socialist Party (in French: Parti Socialiste or PS) has suggested forbidding all preaching in Arabic in French mosques”.

Ouch! What’s with the civilized white world turning its back on the Religion of Peace? Well, maybe there is ONE place that would welcome harassed, tortured Muslims from intolerant India and the civilized white world: there’s always the Islamic State. After all the motto of ISIS is:

Give me your tired your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…I lift my lamp beside the golden door! 

No cavity searches guaranteed while entering. Let’s see what’s on the other side of the golden door of peace:

Damn!

In every victory lie the seeds of defeat. And in every defeat there are seeds of victory. I was very young (well below voting age, but already obsessed with politics…lol) in the autumn of 1999 when Vajpayee won a clear majority. All I remember is that there was going to be a BJP sarkar and my mother was very happy 🙂

Years later, somewhere around 2010, I opened up the Wikipedia article on 1999 Lok Sabha elections and began to look at the numbers. Yes, the BJP had reached a historic high of 182, but look at where those seats had come from:

Andhra Pradesh: BJP 7

Tamil Nadu: BJP 4

West Bengal : BJP 2

Odisha: BJP 9

These were seats coming purely at the mercy of allies like TDP, DMK, BJD and TMC. Once those allies either deserted (like BJD, TMC, DMK) or collapsed themselves (like TDP), the BJP’s tally also collapsed in these states. In reality, Vajpayee’s 1999 mandate was built on sand. Once the arithmetic moved a little, the allies got shuffled, the mandate fell apart.

Modi’s 2014 mandate is made of much harder rock. And that’s not just because of the BJP’s stunning 73/80 tally in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP has come to power under Modi by maximizing its core states and establishing itself as dominant in traditional Congress states like Karnataka and Assam. Right now the BJP has just 1 seat in TamilNad compared to 4 in 1999, but even this 1 seat is from the BJP’s own strength, not from allies. I would say this 1 seat in Kanyakumari in Tamilnad is worth much more than the 4 it had in 1999.

However, there was one weakness in the Modi mandate. That was in Bihar, where the NDA’s voteshare (38.8%) was less than the combined voteshare (44.3%) of the RJD+Cong+JDU. A very solid lead of 5.5%. A lot of us believed that a spirited Modi campaign could wipe away this deficit. A lot of them believed that a spirited campaign building on the obvious positives of Nitish Kumar’s Chief Ministership could hold off Modi. In other words, both sides expected this to be an exceptional election. But, what happened is that the electorate saw it as an ordinary election and gave an ordinary verdict.

The Mahagathbandhan’s voteshare fell from 44.3% to 42.1% and the NDA’s vote share fell from 38.8% to 34.4%. The vote gap of 5.5% widened to a gap of 7.7%. What is interesting is that BOTH sides lost votes, which went to local players. This is a well recognized phenomenon. As elections get more local, BOTH the big parties lose voteshare and smaller players get more and more votes. It happens everywhere. There was no switch of voters from NDA to MGB. What this means is that the Dalits who voted for the NDA in 2014 have still preferred NDA to MGB by roughly the same margin in 2015. In fact, the NDA’s vote share of 34.4% is nearly 20% more than the BJP’s core vote bank of upper castes (15%). Whereas the MGB’s 42.1% is barely 7% more than the MGB’s core vote bank of Muslim-Yadav-Kurmi (35%). What this means is that NDA is attracting many more non-caste based voters than the MGB. In other words, the NDA is getting many more “Chemistry votes” and the MGB is getting many more “Arithmetic votes”.

Why do I say that Nitish Kumar’s victory is built on sand? Because an analysis of voteshares shows that the JDU has been decisively pushed to No. 3 in Bihar. First let’s look at the headline voteshares from 2015:

JDU: 16.8%

RJD: 18.6%

BJP: 24.4%

Clearly no. 3. But of course, one would say that the JDU and RJD fought only 100 seats each and so their voteshares would appear artificially lower compared to the BJP which fought 160 seats. Let us ask ourselves: what happens to vote shares in an alliance? The purpose of an alliance between 2 parties is obviously to pool voteshares which will increase seats and strike rate of both. Because the stronger party has more voters, it’s vote share decreases when it fights fewer seats because of the alliance. On the other hand, the weaker party sees its vote share go up. Now watch:

2014         2015

JDU          15.8%            16.8%

RJD            20.1%           18.6%

The alliance causes JDU to gain vote share and RJD to lose vote share. There can no doubt that JDU is the weaker party than the RJD today. Just like politics abhors a vacuum, politics abhors an unnatural distribution of power. Right now, JDU is the weakest party in Bihar but enjoys the highest amount of power. This is unsustainable. The verdict is built on sand.

Like Vajpayee, if Nitish fails to recognize that his “victory” is built on sand, he will be looking at a very long dry spell out of power very soon. And with Nitish’s core votebank of Kurmis at a mere 4-5% of the electorate, once out of power, Nitish may never be able to bounce back.

All this is not meant to console BJP supporters after a humiliating defeat in Bihar. Like I said on Nov 8, the BJP needs to learn the importance of eating humble pie. This is to understand that Nitish Kumar is sitting on a very wobbly throne. In 2005, Nitish Kumar had the benefit of being compared to a disastrous Jangal Raj of Lalu Yadav and his Chief Ministership shone brightly in comparison. All the low hanging fruit has been plucked now. And Lalu Yadav needs to promote his own children. With 80 seats compared to Nitish’s 71, Lalu is under pressure to show himself as the dominant partner. You may say that fear of Modi will keep them together. But you must ask: is the fear of Modi in 2015 even greater than the fear of Indira in 1980? Why did the Janata govt fall apart then?

OMG! What did I see on AajTak last night? The nightmare began around 10:00 pm and lasted a full hour. The program was titled “Uparwala dekh raha hai” (God is watching) and featured a roundtable with BJP’s Sambit Patra, Saba Naqvi, John Dayal and some other Mameluks from Queen Sonia’s court.

The topic was “Is it fair to connect Islam with terrorism”? I can assure you that in case God really was watching this show last night, God ended up with a terrible headache.

Yes, the show was all about repeating the same tired old platitudes about how Islam is a religion of peace and yada yada yada…

Why am I calling this a nightmare? Because BJP’s Sambit Patra was right there, validating the vermin like Saba Naqvi and John Dayal. This was really an outrageous example of how BJP has managed to lose the media narrative. Who the hell are Saba Naqvi and John Dayal to speak for India, India’s Muslims, India’s minorities or for anyone but themselves? By agreeing to sit at a roundtable on equal terms with these people, is the BJP not contributing to the sense of self importance of these vermin? By agreeing to sit at a roundtable, is the BJP not allowing these people to set the terms of the debate? Does anyone really believe that these Mameluks like Saba Naqvi and John Dayal can be convinced by argument? If not, then why does the BJP engage with them? By engaging with them, the BJP is only raising the profile of its enemies.

And what outcome could be expected from such a debate? Nothing except platitudes about the “peaceful nature” of Islam. TV debates like these keep the spotlight focused on pseudo-secularism. Does the BJP really expect to win the debate? Why not change the debate to topics that matter: such as FDI pouring in at breakneck speed, soaring forex reserves, the government’s big reform push after the Bihar polls? Instead of discussing Devendra Fadnavis’ successful “Jal Yukt Shivir Abhiyan”  in Maharashtra, a historic water conservation effort, the BJP ends up sitting in debates over beef and Dadri and what not. In the run up to the 2014 elections, I remember Ravi Shankar Prasad saying once that he was no longer interested in the “sterile debate over secularism”. What happened now? Why are we back to discussing stuff that doesn’t matter with a bunch of Mameluks?

Well, now you could say my blog itself could be accused of the same crime. I myself am always talking about the handful of Mameluks in the media. Am I not giving them undue importance? Totally fair point. But let me say this. I am not an official spokesperson of the BJP. I do not represent the BJP in any capacity. I’m one guy who responds to what I see on TV and what I read on the internet. Dear BJP, leave the lowly work of responding to Mameluk talking points to Chaiwallahs like me. They are at my level, not yours.  YOU represent 282 Lok Sabha MPs who received 17 crore votes. YOU can drive the debate. YOU can starve the Mameluks by refusing to talk about “secularism”. And whatever little propaganda they have left: we on social media can take care of that. The BJP’s greatest blessing is that it has literally millions of supporters who do not expect even one paisa in return. Let us respond to the Mameluk circus performers like Saba Naqvi and John Dayal.  YOU go talk about FDI and reform. Laugh away the issue of “secularism”, for that is what it is: laughable. Will you dare?

Last night on India Today, New York boxing champion Rajdeep sat down to discuss the swearing in of Nitish Kumar. On the panel were spokespersons from Congress, BJP, JDU and of course Shri Saurabh Bhardwaj from India’s honorary national party: the AAP. Rajdeep kicked off the debate by asking (paraphrased):

Rajdeep: “Arvind Kejriwal’s politics was built around ending corruption. So is,  Arvind Kejriwal embracing Lalu Yadav an example of opportunistic politics?” 

Spokesperson: “No it wasn’t….yada yada yada”

No, I don’t really care about the exact words, what I care about is who the question was posed to. So, who did the anchor ask  to explain why Kejriwal was joining hands with Lalu Yadav? And who is the spokesperson that stepped up to valiantly defend him? No, it wasn’t Saurabh Bhardwaj, the AAP spokesperson. The person who was asked to defend Kejriwal’s conduct wasn’t the AAP spokesperson, but Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

This was a telling moment. Rajdeep naturally assumed that the Congress could speak for Kejriwal. The Congress did not shy away and spoke authoratively on behalf of Kejriwal. The AAP spokesperson did not object either. It was kind of beautiful: Congress and AAP speaking naturally for each other with an easy familiarity.

Yes, the inevitable happened. I’m not complaining. In fact, I am proud. Yet another political movement born in India has naturally flowed into the arms of the Congress party. When the Anna movement began in 2011, many people were tempted enough to compare it to the JP movement. Yesterday on stage, the lieutenants of the JP movement blended easily with the star of the Anna movement and formally decided to cast their lot with the Congress party. Yet another political party carved out a small slice of support for itself and jumped into the Congress orbit. This is where it ends. All those exhilarating promises of “new politics” and “corruption free governance” met with the same end as the “Sampurna Swaraj” of the JP movement and that of the Mandal movement in the Hindi belt: in the arms of Congress.

For any budding political entrepreneur in India, this is the path well traveled: start a localized movement, build a small market and then wait to be acquired by the Congress.

With ONE exception. When I see the trajectories of Kejriwal, Lalu, Nitish, Mulayam and the Commies, I begin to appreciate the magnitude of the BJP’s achievement. Could the BJP-RSS, having won one state or two, not traded in similarly with the “all powerful” ruling Congress of Indira and Rajiv? But they didn’t put a cap on their ambitions. Instead they chose the hard path with the aim of uprooting the Congress party nationwide. And look what they managed to achieve. The Congress today has space for the Commies, could it not have found a place for the BJP? Surely it could have, if only the BJP had agreed to accept the Dynasty’s authority.

Here I must admit that for a brief period in 2011, I myself was enamored of Kejriwal’s “new politics”. In retrospect,  I am not angry with Kejriwal. I am merely laughing at my own foolishness. What did I expect Kejriwal to do?  To dig in his heels and fight with the Dynasty? Who would be foolish enough to go fight with the Dynasty? The Dynasty is like The Godfather. I should have known that sooner or later, the Dynasty would offer Kejriwal a deal that is “too good to refuse”. Did I expect Kejriwal to deny that offer? Did I expect Kejriwal to deny the offer and begin a long hard lifelong struggle against the Congress? Fighting the Dynasty takes a lifetime and even if you do excellently, you might not be able to enjoy the fruits. Just ask Advani: he built the only nationwide alternative to Congress ever: and by the time that party reached 272 seats, Advani was too old. He is now left out in the cold. Would Kejriwal be ready for a lifelong battle knowing that there is a good chance that even if his party wins, he might not get a chance to enjoy the fruits of power? That’s foolish. Kejriwal did what anyone else would have done. He took the offer that was “too good to refuse”.

Dear Kejriwal, you don’t have the guts that BJP had. And that’s fine. There are many good players. But not everyone can be Sachin Tendulkar. Vajpayee, Advani and Modi were exceptional. Not everyone who gets selected in the Indian team can be Tendulkar or Gavaskar. But getting selected in the Indian team is a massive achievement in itself. Dear Kejriwal, you did a fine job. Be happy.

Yes, it’s gonna be a gang up against the BJP now.  Let them gang up. I believe in my nation and the power of our civilization to overcome them eventually. Earlier this month, the BJP polled 17% of the vote in Kerala local elections. Just for comparison, Nitish Kumar’s JDU polled 16% of the vote in Bihar! Yes, BJP gets more votes in Kerala than JDU gets in Bihar. I’m not scared of their gangs or their gang-ups. I’m excited by the prospect of even greater glory. Call me a Bhakt if you want…