Hinterland onslaught

POLITICAL STABILITY HAS PITFALLS TOO. It allows shift of attention to issues unattended for years or decades. Such issues could have potential to disturb social amity. Some of them are well known to those who matter, but they refuse to open their eyes for fear of consequences. 

Larger worries for cascading effects of political instability preoccupied people for two and a half decades. And they ignored social upheavals taking place in their backyards. In those years of collective social disbelief, nature-loving tribals in Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh were lured by benefits of education and healthcare along with other material gains to become Christians. The governments, both at the Centre and states, knew well of the goings-on, but chose to become silent approver or collaborator at some places.  

That the Christian Missionaries savoured poverty of tribals in India's hinterland is a fact commonly known. And the manner in which tribals of Jharkhand and other states turned Christians is brazen to speak the least of the Missionaries. Also, to say that Missionaries broke all the rules of the book will be just an under-statement, for they in the process showed that they had least respect for India's Constitution. 

In Congress they found a benign political patron. And, the Missionaries went about their proselytizing jobs in the hinterland with impunity, while Sonia Gandhi remote-controlled the Manmohan Singh government for a decade. The Congress rule earlier in a few of the states directly (Andhra Pradesh) and in proxy (Jharkhand) gave them the kind of hunting ground for proselytizing they just dreamt for.   

Yet, tipping point came after the emboldened Missionaries began targetting Dalits for conversions. And their brazenness brought them at staring glance of those who sought out to defeat their designs through their own trade in the tribal land.

Incidentally, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, an affiliate group of Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS), had been trying to slow down conversions of tribals with their educational activities in Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. Former Jharkhand chief minister Babu Lal Marandi is a product of this RSS offshoot, besides many others. However, it could not match the wherewithal of the Missionaries who could afford to bribe the poor in lieu of change of religion with the might of foreign fund flow. And the foreign fund flow ballooned in the last one decade, with Sonia Gandhi making the Manmohan Singh government bend to the extreme.

Ironically, Manmohan Singh had questioned the NGOs getting foreign funds after they tried to stall the Koodankoolam Nuclear Power Plant and many such bodes came under the scanner of the FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act). The Centre ensured fund flow squeeze. But no such clampdown happened on those brazenly carrying out conversions by the UPA government for a decade.

HOWEVER, the BJP with Narendra Modi changed the status quo. And the Christian zealots had since been angry with Modi. They are yet to fathom how could a Hindu "hawk" become Prime Minister of the country. 

K V Thomas

Prof. K. V. Thomas is one such Christian Congress leader from Kerala. He became Union minister in Monmohan Singh Cabinet by taking care of Sonia Gandhi's taste buds. Congress leaders would tell gleefully, that Thomas would bring freshwater fishes to 10, Janpath straight from Kerala for years, and the reward later ensued in him becoming a minister. 

Now, he's an angry man.
  
"He's a dictator. Can you believe, this government sent non-Catholics to represent India when two Indians were canonized by the Pope. Earlier, only Catholics were sent. I called up Sushma Swaraj to tell her that never ever non-Catholics had been sent to Pope, but she was unaware of who had made the decision and was helpless. Only one man calls shot in this government and he's is Modi," ranted Thomas.

Incidentally, Thomas is not a solitary angry bird. Sonia Gandhi had been more angry than him and any other Congress leaders. Her eagerness to rally her MPs and those of the Trinamool Congress in the Lok Sabha to create ruckus has been noticed on numerous occasions.   

And she finally succeeded during the Winter session of the Parliament to paralyse the Rajya Sabha, with the CBI stung Trinamool Congress more than willing to eat out of Sonia Gandhi's hands. The Mamata Banerjee brigade along with the Congress paralyzed the Rajya Sabha on an alleged incident of re-conversion,which allegedly took place in Agra in Uttar Pradesh. Taking part in a discussion on the same issue, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav refuted any tension in his state and wondered why was it being discussed in the Lower House. 

COMING Coming back to the issue of conversions and simmering tensions, the Congress must take credit for exponential rise of Christian population in the country. The Congress prepared the grounds for the Missionaries for their proselytizing activities by keeping education and health care infrastructure moth-eaten.   

Children in this country are at the mercy of the Missionary schools for their education. The poor in the hinterland can not access reliable health care except for those offered by the Missionaries. And there is no free lunch in the world is not lost on these evangelical zealots. They've extracted the price by swelling their numbers. And the governments, both at the Centre and in the states, have done just lip services to these twin areas, which make people, especially the poor, vulnerable. And, it's to the credit of the Congress, that people in this country largely are at the mercy of the Missionary schools and nursing homes for the basic needs.

Going forward, there may be more confrontation among the offshoots of the RSS and the Christian zealots. The design to proselytize can not be defeated by replicating the modus operandi for lack of financial muscle. So, the war will need to be won at the psychological level, that by the use of the muscle.

And, it's true, that the lack of monetary wherewithal could well be compensated by that of the muscle. That seems to be the strategy now to turn away the tidal wave of religious conversions.

Postscript:

ARTICLE 25 of the Indian Constitution grants the freedom to practice and preach one's faith. No right comes without reasonable restrictions, which in the case of preaching (and promoting religion) is that there should not be any inducements. The Central government never bothered to codify these restrictions. But the state of Odisha did it first followed by Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand would soon do it. 

"My freedom ends when my elbow touches someone else's body,"

Bhartruhari Mahatab

said erudite BJD MP in Lok Sabha Bhartruhari Mahatab, while taking part in a discussion on the issue of conversion. 

He detailed extensive conversions of tribals in South Odisha carried out by the Missionaries and explained how the anti-conversion law enacted by the state has now become a role model for other states.  

The elbow has not just touched, but bruised others. 

And that calls upon the Centre to enact a strong law to define and codify room for the elbow to swing.

Besides, there is a strong need with the right intention to block the foreign fund flow for religious conversions and let there be a CAG audit of all the religious bodies receiving donations from abroad in the last one decade.  

Nehru: A forgotten icon

HISTORIAN'S pen and surgeon's knife are a lot similar, for both know no emotions.

Elders rightly lament that history had been unkind to Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru. But an argumentative and cynical India finds no hero in Nehru now. And he makes for no political capital either. Nehru's statesmanship and his fashion style may appeal those in power, but the mass has moved away from him. This blogger seeks to put Nehru in today's perspective.   

WHILE travelling in a car to a political rally, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru's eyes caught a wall poster claiming a Congress candidate for the Kerala Assembly elections having committed financial irregularity. He was headed for a rally to boost chances of that candidate only. On stage with the candidate in question in tow, Nehru told his audience, that he would no more be the Congress candidate and asked people to choose a better alternative. 

The crowd was in disbelief, but that was the character of Nehru, who sought spotless characters of people in politics. Nehru would have been a misfit in today's politics. The current practice of "ends justify all" was alien to his brand of politics, as "means" was much more important to him. 

Those who were young in Nehru's time and now pushed by age to that painful reflective phase of their lives recall India's first Prime Minister as a true democrat. Surely, he earned rare contradictions in his political life when he dismissed the Left led Karala government and later put Sheikh Abdullah in jail. 

Yet, he was not only tolerant but even receptive to the Opposition voices. That he encouraged leaders of his time to express their opinion freely is well known and fill pages of the golden history of Modern India. His praise and appreciation for the then young Atal Bihari Vajpayee is now legendary and his prophecy of his becoming Prime Minister one day came true three decades after his death.

But history has not been kind to Nehru. His contribution in building Modern India is no less than that of Mahatma Gandhi in winning freedom for the country. On closer examination, it may emerge that history is less kind to those who wield power. And Gandhi was the supreme leader of India till his death, but never occupied a seat of power. In contrast, Nehru led the provisional government even before Independence and made many enemies. 

True to the characters of youth, Nehru did differ from the painfully slow method of Gandhi to win freedom for the country. That he subordinated his angst to the ideals of Gandhi is well documented. He, arguably, did not believe in the Gandhian method to polarize Muslims for the cause of Khalifa, that to the understanding of this blogger sowed the seeds of Muslims as a separate nation. Rest is history, as Muhammed Ali Jinna ran his knife on the body-soul of this nation.  

WHILE India insulated Gandhi from critical review by elevating him to the Father of the Nation, Nehru became the fall guy for the gloom of the 1970s. That his internationalism cost the nation dearly in relations with China and earlier in Kashmir bear high in the minds of the people. 

Ironically, while Nehru did not come off in flying colours in the political domain, the nation undoubtedly should be grateful to him for his economic vision. He tied up with Germany to set up IIT-Madras and Rourkela steel factory and replicated this model with the erstwhile Soviet Russia, etc. India's economic resilience owes its strength to Nehru's vision.  

Most importantly, Nehru with the help of able and astute Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel shaped and fortified India. Together, they proved many doubting Thomeses wrong, who in those days dreamt balkanisation of the country (Lord Mountbatten was one of them). And the most important contribution of Nehru was making the people of the country believe, that India can stand on its feet firmly and with pride. 

While millions of people are apparently enamoured to hear long and extempore speeches of Narendra Modi, people in villages in the 90s still recall travelling several kilometers to hear the oratory of Nehru. They still believe that none spoke like Nehru and after hearing him out they sensed confidence in them. 

That Nehruvian era is gone and gone forever. And it was none else, but her daughter late Indira Gandhi, who made sure that people forget Nehru so soon. Her systematic destruction of the Congress and constituting a political dynasty were all un-Nehruvian works. And, she was surely not a worthy political heir to Nehru.

Now that Rahul Gandhi seeks to Nehru legacy to revive his gloom-stricken Congress, Nehru has zoomed out of the box. But he again is misguided, for Nehru no more makes for any political capital for any to invest in. He is history and has played his innings. 

Foolishness has no ends and many fools hope for historical icons to revive their political career. History enlightens and offer clues to issues of present and future. And one clue that history offers to Rahul Gandhi is to embark on a path to rid the Congress off the sycophants.

Five percent politician

NOT many months ago, a chief minister snubbed his senior ministerial colleague in a Cabinet meeting in such a manner that tears rolled out in torrents from the swollen eyes of the poor soul. In politics, tables turn often, and, fortune too.

The tearful man, that day, is now chief minister of Bihar -- Jitan Ram Manjhi -- and his tormentor then was an aspiring Prime Minister, until May this year -- Nitish Kumar. And after the turning of the wheel, Manjhi is paying back in kind for what all he got for over a decade from his political master.

Just another day, Nitish Kumar showed up in New Delhi in the august company of Shivpal Singh Yadav, who has many identities besides that of a brother of Mulayam Singh Yadav and senior minister in Akhilesh Yadav Cabinet, but his fame is for his being a popular political "goonda" of Uttar Pradesh. Also giving him the company was Prem Chand Gupta, the man-friday of Lalu Prasad and not known for great virtues. 

A few weeks back Nitish Kumar showed up at a rally of Jat leader Ajit Singh in western UP for political unity of parties smashed by the Narendra Modi wave. That commitment for political unity lasted only a few days, as Mulayam Singh Yadav found no space at his home for the Jat leader. That should sufficiently speak of the political convictions of Nitish Kumar and his restlessness to leapfrog to the national limelight again.

A month after the May verdict on Lok Sabha elections, a mentor and man instrumental in propping up Nitish Kumar as CM of Bihar had this to say: "It was his personal ambition that Nitish helped Narendra Modi's cause in becoming BJP's PM candidate. If we -- JD (U) -- had not snapped ties with the BJP, Modi may not have bulldozed through his party to become the PM candidate. We were a bone stuck in BJP's throat and snapping ties with the party we ourselves helped Modi. It was not ideology but a personal decision to break away from the BJP."

DID Nitish Kumar really believe he could have been a PM candidate? The media is conditioned to patterns, and most believed people can not give majority to a party at the Centre, that too to the BJP. And they drummed up the Nitish Kumar card since 2012 as the acceptable face for the PM post. "Yes, he not only believed, but had started living the dream. And a number of BJP leaders had helped him believe this dream," the mentor-turned-senior leader of the JD (U) told this blogger.  

Nitish Kumar not only lived the dream, but turned destructive to nurse his personal enmity with Narendra Modi. And, he continues to find ways and means to gather the strength to challenge his political turned personal enemy -- Narendra Modi.

"Nitish Kumar never forgives any and can wait for years to take revenge," Sabir Ali, once a close confidante of Nitish Kumar and former Rajya Sabha MP said when asked to spell out five negative features of former Bihar chief minister. His personal ego overwhelms other issues and carries arrogance in party and administrative works, said Ali, while listing the negatives.

On the positive, of course, Ali credits Nitish Kumar to be a pleasant person for whom smile comes naturally. "He told me once that even if a CIA agent spends whole day with him, he would fail to take out any secret," Ali quoted Nitish Kumar having told him about his art of keeping secrets. 

And for that matter, Lalu Prasad never tired of saying for over a decade that "while all have teeth in their mouths, Nitish Kumar had them in his stomach". Lalu Prasad's description was not for Nitish Kumar's art of keeping secrets, but for his guile. But enemy of an enemy is a friend in politics, and both are now family. That bonding obviously has happened after politics took a turn hostile to their brand of politics.

THOSE who have seen Nitish Kumar from close quarters also state that he is a man of few friends. And that cripples his worldview. For that matter, his eyes and ears were two persons for at least a year running into the May Lok Sabha elections -- Pawan Kumar Verma, an unlikely person from the background of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and a prominent journalist, who wears and smokes socialism to an extent that the changing wind easily gives him a slip. 

These two made Nitish Kumar believe that the Narendra Modi wave was all about the one pumped through a "blower". And people heard him his denial of changing winds in politics. He had been blinded by the blindness of his two friends. Such blindness is attitudinal for which, sadly, there is hardly any cure.  

Whenever a political biography of Nitish Kumar is written, an apt title for it could be "A political gambler". His belief in politics of arithmetic is religious. And he believed that the combo of Backward-Dalit-Muslims is too tall a wall for any to climb. That Modi not only climbed but smashed it has been spoken and commented enough for any repetition. Religious belief lasts long and still beholds Nitish Kumar.

                                                                                                                                                            

And, hence, he propped Jitan Ram Manjhi, a Mahadalit, to win back the community, which to his shock, had deserted for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. But the gamble seems to be going haywire. Manjhi soon realized that he had had enough of his master and began shrugging off his shadow. That Bihar is hostage in recent times of drama enacted each day by Manjhi is part of the larger political design. The gap between the pawn (Manjhi) and his master had been so wide in recent days that Sharad Yadav had to dash recently to Patna to build bridges. 

Nitish Kumar is restless to carve out a role for himself in national politics. So, he was in the company of Mulayam Yadav, Lalu Prasad, H D Deve Gowda, Dushyant Choutala and others. 

Chirag Paswan, son of Ram Vilas Paswan and Lok Sabha MP, would largely be considered a political novice. But his take on Nitish Kumar's efforts to reunite the old Janta Dal to counter Narendra Modi is worth taking note of. "All of them have been tigers of their respective territories. If they all come in one cage, the fate of the cage could well be imagined," junior Paswan told this blogger.   

For the moment, tigers invite only skepticism, because two plus two is not necessarily four in politics and that too in India.    

Eastern approaches

THE western disturbance has blown over north and west parts of India with all its might, plucking electoral fruits in loads. The gust seemingly growing in strength is now seeking eastern approaches. 

Now that the dust is settling on the battleground in western and northern parts of India, moves have begun for the next electoral war zone, that will be played out in Bihar and West Bengal. That the battle would be fierce and bitter is a foregone conclusion. Because the political generals in the eastern battlefield have already begun their acts of fortification to block the western gust.

In 2011, a temperamental street fighter -- Mamata Banerjee -- uprooted the Left regime in West Bengal, which then seemed to have had millions of roots in nooks and corners of the state, and, hardly any one dared to think that such a gigantic tree could be cut to pieces in such a manner that it would wither away in quick time.

But a street fighter hardly thinks beyond its immediate foe. And sometimes the foe even when vanquished lives through its slayer. That the spirit of the Left rule got another lease of life to survive in West Bengal through Banerjee has been the story of the state for the last three years. 

And, thus, even though the CPI (M) and its multi-headed Left may be terminally ill and counting days to irrelevance, its reincarnation had been immediate and swift through the Trinamool Congress. So, Poribartan (change) was a mere slogan.

Protest in Burdwan.

The extent of Saradha Chit Fund scam is only unfolding and has apparently robbed Mamata Banerjee of her famed clean image. Her obsession to herd the Muslim vote bank has unnerved even her ardent supporters. The Burdwan blast at a premise being used by terrorists has shaken the belief of a lot of people. And, the subsequent political campaign with the apparent blessing of Mamata Banerjee to pitch the Muslims and NIA against each other appears to be the turning point in the politics of the state.

THAT West Bengal is turning into Uttar Pradesh is the clear writing on the wall. Since 2012, Uttar Pradesh under Samajwadi Party government saw a brazen "Muslim flexing muscle" political phase spearheaded by senior minister and till 2014 (May) close confidante of Mulayam Singh Yadav -- Azam Khan. And in a span of two years UP reported incidences of over 300 communal riots. 

Azam Khan with blessing of Mulayam Singh Yadav attempted to polarise Muslims in UP. But he and his aka realised to their horror that the BJP set in a reverse polarisation, which they had not thought in their wildest of the dream. By the time Mulayam Singh Yadav dumped Azam Khan, his party was decimated. 

Mamata Banerjee idolized her foe (Left) for its political longevity and stability. She knew that she could emulate the Left only if she herded Muslims, who roughly account for about 30 per cent of the state's population.  If she succeeds in her herding game, she would not need the Congress. And for three years, the Poribartan had been about herding Muslims. The extent and brazenness of this exercise does not have a parallel even in the usual suspect UP.

For about three years, she and her confidante Mukul Roy were the politburo of her party. In May this year, the BJP woke her up from deep sleep by bagging two Lok Sabha seats. The gentle wake up call turned into horror, after the BJP won a byelection for state Assembly. The horror  now threatens to turn into a nightmare. Because, the western gust is not just at her doorstep, but sweeping through her state in a gentle wind, with promises to gain more strength.

Realizing she is in a spot, Mamata Banerjee made Mulul Roy at whose residence she loved to play piano for hours a scapegoat and dumped him. Her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, an MP, is now in the forefront of her party, with insiders sensing birth of another political dynasty. And all those who were keeping distance from her due to Mukul Roy is now enjoying pleasant bout of mood swing of Mamata Banerjee. 

But two years may not be enough to undo a course which ran for three years. For those three years have ended the political monopoly. 

NITISH Kumar trusted his Mahadalit constituency. He believed that Mahadalits and Muslims would ensure his further run in Bihar politics. The May verdict proved, he was wrong. That he did not sense the changing wind was for his two ears being hostage to Pawan Verma and a Delhi based journalist. He sensed too late, that he had lent his ears to those who had no ear to ground. 

He thought, he could survive in Bihar if he could hide behind a political shikhandi and he found one in Jitan Ram

Teachers lathicharhed in Patna

Manjhi, a Mahadalit. Nitish Kumar may have bought a few more days to discover strategy to save his political clout, but his decision to prop up Manjhi pushed Bihar into greater disarray. 

The political caste is changing and is no more herding. And, it has been none other than Dalits, who bolted first. They reason, that they had been electing people from their caste for decades, but barring community pride no other tangible benefit came their ways. And, hence, they voted for the BJP in UP and Bihar in sizable numbers. Therefore, Jitan Ram Manjhi may turn out to be an effective political shikhandi but may not stop the inevitable.

Bihar and West Bengal now host the Great Game of Indian politics.

Last nail in the coffin

A cartoonist may love to caricature PM Narendra Modi floating over Maharashtra and Haryana with hammer and nail looking lustfully at a coffin. And that will sum the whole story of the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections. 

India incubated and harnessed the art of coalition politics for over two decades. The saffron juggernaut led by Modi believes that the coalition politics accounts for most of the ills afflicting India. And, hence, Modi seeks to hammer that proverbial last nail in the coffin of the coalition politics. He thinks it could be done without wasting much of time, and, Maharashtra and Haryana offer him the right target for being home to strong regional parties -- Shiv Sena, NCP and INLD.

Modi's belief is further strengthened by the sheer lack of a competitor in the opposition camp. His campaign blitz in the two poll bound states and the size of the crowd flocking to hear him are not yet matched by any of his rivals. It will not be far from the truth that there exists no rival to his scale of campaigning. 

And that makes him to take a much bigger leap of faith and think of becoming what late Indira Gandhi was for Indian politics in 1970s and for four years in 1980s. She won states for the Congress. People in the rural areas sought divinity in her. In short, she was an icon, with no rival to match her.

Can the BJP riding on the Modi wave become what the Congress was till 1980s?

The saffron zealots would like to believe it's doable. If they succeed, Indian politics will surely take another flight towards stability. And if Modi fails to deliver, the envious run of the coalition politics since 1990s may get more legs.

It's not that the coalition politics surfaced with late V P Singh only. It had been there in pre-Independence India and briefly in 1970s through the Janata experiment. But, then, the coalition politics was there as one pole, with another being the Congress. After the mortal blow delivered by late Rajiv Gandhi to the Congress, the two polls of the Indian politics succumbed to the arms of the coalition politics. 

Modi, arguably, is not wrong to believe that the coalition politics accounts for the ills afflicting India. None has yet forgotten Madhu Koda, who as an Independent MLA became the chief minister of Jharkhand and was later found to have amassed wealth of millions of dollars through investment in mines abroad. 

Or, for that matter, late P V Narsimha Rao buying out the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) to save his government. And, the 10 years long rule of Manmohan Singh is a saga in itself of what damage the coalition politics (or its excuse) could do to the nation. Singh's meekly explaining away the compulsions of coalition politics for omissions and commissions would surely stay alive in the memory of the people for a while.

And, hence, Modi has launched his carpet bombing rallies in Maharashtra and Haryana to hold that one pole of Indian politics firmly as enjoyed by the Congress in its glory days. 

That the saffron juggernaut saw a few hiccups since the magical May verdict also did not deter the BJP

from snapping ties with its oldest ally -- the Shiv Sena.  In doing so, Modi is also taking the risk, that of excessively using his charm for local elections. And the last two decades have shown that the people have voted differently in the national and state elections. This makes Modi's political challenges more daunting. If he succeeds, he will begin inviting comparison with late Indira Gandhi. And he may help the BJP to hold one pole of Indian politics quite firmly for quite some time.

Nonetheless, the other pole of the Indian politics is set for a messy affair for quite long time. That the Congress is heading for much worse performance in Maharashtra and Haryana is all there for those who can read the writing on the wall. And, even the Sharad Pawar led NCP thought to shrug off alliance with the Congress signals the journey down the hill of Rahul Gandhi and his party.

More than electoral losses, the Congress is staring into a looming crisis of leadership. The occasional banter against Rahul Gandhi and his leadership will come in torrents after the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections. The chorus within the Congress -- a party where sycophancy and family worship is in the DNA of all of its leaders -- will become shrill for larger role of Priyanka gandhi.  

Furthermore, the Congress will be left with no option to play junior to a lot of regional satraps. Till Modi fumbles and misgovern, the Congress could wallow in the abyss of political disfavour by the mass. And, so, the party may have to ride piggyback regional parties to remain relevant.

After Maharashtra and Haryana, bitter political war would be fought in Bihar (2015), West Bengal (2016) and Uttar Pradesh (2017). That these three states are bastions of regional parties had been the constant of Indian politics in the last two decades and thereby of the coalition politics era. And, the BJP has posited itself at position to strike at the seat of power in Bihar and UP, while the saffron party is herding all anti-Mamata Banerjee elements in west Bengal.

Will Modi nail the coffin on October 19 (verdict day for Maharashtra and Haryana) or wait till 2017 will be a question to ring the political commentary for a while.

Gone like a camphor

Could a 17-year-old boy just disappear, leaving no trace and clues behind? That his mother sent to a downstairs grocery store, after which he "disappeared", rules out accidental speculations. And for six months his parents and their extended society rue in disbelief.

If not for an emerging pattern and larger indicator for social distress, the incident may have been dismissed as one of those weird happenings.

While the Prime Minister Narendra Modi trumpeted his long speeches during the election campaign, he left many charged and super-charged to debate with all passion about "ifs and buts" of his coming to the power. In one such charged conversation, a Modi supporting colleague ran into a senior bureaucrat in a government broadcasting organisation. He's a christian from Kerala. This disclosure is for easy understanding of his political orientation. 

The two argued at the top of their lung power and many a times threatened to tip over into a quarrel. They were saved with timely moderation offered by a little less charged political commentator. However, it became evident that the bureaucrat was in a disturbed state of mind. 

Since he was occupying the chair of another officer for some computer works, his full biography awaited his leave. And soon he left, explanation poured, that the man is disturbed, because his only son, who was on the brink of becoming an adult, is missing for six months.   

One and a half months later, the officer, whose office had hosted the "hot" discussions, was still baffled over the missing boy episode. "He was such a nice boy. He would mostly stay home. The family has no enmity with any as well. He just had gone to buy Harpic from a downstairs shop where he was last seen. How could such a grown up boy evaporate like a camphor," he asked.

In the intervening six months, all that could be done (FIR, missing report, forensic examination of laptop, mobile, etc.) have been done, but for no clue at all. 

The minds conditioned by patterns of past experiences could speculate on the lines of kidnapping (no ransom call yet, but could be for organ trade), fatal accident (body taken away by culprit), suicide, etc. 

But two incidents in far off areas of Odisa and Madhya Pradesh help think beyond the fixed patterns. First, the MP incident: Son of a small grocery shop owner was arrested from a small town in MP, who was about 18 and going to local government school, for murder charges. In the course of investigation, it emerged that he had befriended a "girl" on Facebook, that he accessed from his mobile phone. 

The "girl" had used a mugshot photo of an actress on her Facebook profile. The boy was in a fantasy land. Hundreds of calls were exchanged between them. After long courtship in the virtual world, the "girl" sought to meet him the real world.The boy got a rude shock to find the "girl" being actually a middle-aged woman from western Uttar Pradesh. He shot her dead a day later.     

The second incident from Odisa may scare the bureaucrat from Kerala. A 16 years old girl disappeared from her hostel from a small town in the state. For six months, there was no trace of her even after the police did what all could have been done.

But one day the principal of the school, while surfing the net, came across a news story. A girl married a Pakistani man after running away from her home in India. It was that girl, who had been missing for six months. She had befriended a Pakistani Muslim on Facebook. And they fortified their bond in the virtual world to such an extent that this poor girl managed to reach Pakistan from Odisa on her own. 

Photo from today24news.com

In the meantime, it's worthwhile to recollect how the officer described his colleague's son. "He would stay home always. He hardly had too many friends...," he had said. Add to this the personality of the distressed father. He had appeared dominating enough to have been dismissed as a domineering person; argumentative and man of fixed ideas; believing in "I know all"; full of negativism (he would dismiss all politicians as thieves), etc. Such a man would invariably be a strict disciplinarian, one many consult any book on Psychology. 

We may err in pointing fingers at any for not knowing clearly what the personal world was of the boy, who has vanished without a cause. But his vanishing act is reflective of the social distress. 

If he's not dead, he must have been too cold-blooded not to have spared a thought for his parents. He was their only child. And if he was so, he must have been psychologically disoriented despite going to one of the best school and brought up in New Delhi. 

And if he was lured at an age of 17 years by organ traders, he must have quite a weak person mentally. And the blame must squarely rest with his parents for not equipping him with enough defence mechanisms to cope with the challenges of the world. This should also apply in the event of him having given a damn to the real world in his pursuit of the virtual world. 

Above all the current generation is a first, which has accepted nuclear family in toto. With no grandparents around and no siblings to play with, the children are growing amid parents pursuing professional glories in utter loneliness. And the parents even if they think they're too smart to be deceived their offspring may have erred in underestimating the guile of the growing ups. 

The Principal of Tagore International school in upscale Vasant Vihar of New Delhi was unrelenting to a mother of 15 years old girl. The mother was seeking forgiveness for her daughter abstaining from the school without permission. "How is that you had no clues whether your daughter had been coming to school or not? It's for five consecutive days," the Principal told the distressed mother, who replied, "I always saw off my daughter in the morning taking school bus. But I don't understand where she had been going if not the school".     

"If that is so, I will not allow her to join classes for a week. This is a punishment and she has earned it. Let her know that she has done something bad, that of having cheated the school and her parents," quipped the Principal to the nodding mother.

Time to wake up, parents! 

Off the mark

The voice of the poor is most difficult to hear. You make efforts to hear them. The voice of the rich and affluent are too easy to hear. They're everywhere. 

And there lies the explanation for disoriented commentary on the Narendra Modi government in the first 50 days in the office. Not that all of them are undeserved, for Modi sowed their seeds by his brazenness in forming his Cabinet, which is, arguably, full of "Yes, Prime Minister" men.  

But first turn the focus on magnitude of lamentations post-budget. Some have commented to the extent to suggest that sky has fallen. Predictably, loads of advice have poured in for Modi and his colleague Arun Jaitely. 

Undeniably, India is a country of advisers, who offer their services mostly free. And mostly they are unmindful of the fact that hardly any one is keen for their well thought out advice. 

Furthermore, India is blessed with majority of its population who suffer from stereotyped thought process. And a large number of Indians are affected by the opinions of the rich and affluent, who enjoy ease and comfort in transmitting their vested interests as "independent analysis". Niira Radia tapes are just some confirmation of the malaise.

Post-Budget lamentations mostly veered around missing "big bang". We should forgive these anglicized commentators, for their little knowledge of language and governance. Evidently clear from the origin of "big bang", it's a phenomenon too rare and full of unprecedented consequences. Indian economy saw such "big bang" reforms in 1990s; first orchestrated by P V Narsimha Rao and Manmohan Singh combine and secondly by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Yashwant Sinha duo.

Perusing to find out what "big bang" reforms Jaitely could have done but did not, one would come across suggestions to scrap "Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)", "National Food Security Act (NFSA)", "dust-binning retrospective tax", "hammering away subsidies -- diesel, urea, LPG, Kerosene, etc.", "taxing big farmers", etc.     

Wishful thinking is too common. And they are passed on as well-thought views most of the times.

Could Modi and Jaitely scrap MGNREGA and NFSA? No, they can not and would not. For a great majority of people in this country have no secured means to ensure two meals a day. Almost half the Dalit (Scheduled Castes) population are dependent on MGNREGA for their livelihoods. That holds true for Scheduled Tribes (ST) also.

This blogger in a previous post titled "Red ant eaters" has illustrated field stories on how senior citizens work with their daughters-in-law from Mahadalit community in Bihar to run their families, as their young men idle away time with social ills for lack of jobs. Vast swathes of the country have not yet seen industries. And, undeniably, more than half of India's population are economically vulnerable.

And, therefore, to think that the Modi government can scrap MGNREGA, one needs to delude oneself with high dose of opium. 

But the widely unknown fact is that the state governments are no more able to spend MGNREGA funds as they had been doing in 2006-12. That was due to the performance audit by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and a few CBI cases. Even though it being an Act and, therefore, the government bound to provide for whatever the demand is, the fact is that expenditures under this head is going down. From the high of Rs 42,000 crores a few years ago, it's now about Rs 28,000 crore a year. And demand for jobs under it's going down also because of vulnerable people having earned enough to buy small parcel of land tp work on their own. 

The National Food Security Act is fundamentally a bad law. Not that it would suck over Rs 1.49 lakh crore each year to implement it in its entirety. It's bad, because it considers 75 per cent of population in rural and 50 per cent in urban areas deserving of almost free foodgrains. This is like splurging. That too when government estimates that 4 per cent of grains meant for public distribution system (PDS) ends up in black market. 

The business of subsidy is undeniably highly profitable for a few. Even without NFSA, government's food subsidy burden is close to Rs 80,000 crore a year. Barring Chhatisgarh, Odisa, Tamil Nadu, food subsidy through PDS has only fattened a class, which includes bureaucrats, politicians and middlemen 

And amendment to the NFS Act to limit beneficiaries to not more than 35 per cent population (currently 67 per cent) and ensuring Aadhar enabled PDS delivery system could give a robust direction to deliver the benefits to needy only.

Dust-binning retrospective tax, introduced by former Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee who handed over death warrants to industry and investors, could not have been practically possible for one simple reason. India has been dragged into international arbitration by Vodafone. Therefore, dust-binning it would have adversely affected the ongoing litigation.    

Rest of the possible "big bang" ideas are not really big bang but procedural in nature and doable as well. 

One digs to look for specifics to justify a lack of confidence. And Modi is himself to blame for this lack of

confidence in his Cabinet. He chose a bunch of ultra-loyalists as his Cabinet colleagues. And, he, thereby, shut the windows for free flows of ideas. His basket of talent is too narrow to instill confidence, that he can do a Vajpayee on Indian economy.   

The Modi cabinet is so inexperienced that it's very well vulnerable to become prisoners of suave bureaucrats. Inexperience of Modi ministers has already been exposed in the current Budget session of the Lok Sabha. If not for Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, the government could have been ripped apart for being callous in Parliamentary matters.

Post script

July to October is a period when prices of onion, tomato shoot up and leads to hullabaloo for a few months only to revive a year later. A seasoned bureaucrat having seen all of it for four decades had to say this:

"Onions and potatoes can easily be grown in pots. And it can be done rooftops and balconies easily. so,

while a lot of people grow flowers in pots, time has come that some vegetables like ladyfinger could be grown at home. So, in place of breast-beating lamentations on price rise, people should just take a little effort to become self-reliant in vegetables and that's doable also."

One would believe that individual actions too when aggregated can make a big difference. And that too when the flavour of the time is organic farming. So, why depend on vegetable carts; have your own small farm at your home. 

Modi's brazen take off

A walk through Jantar Mantar at stone's throw from Parliament may give a measure of India's restlessness. It's firmly etched in history after being host to many events, which later caused upheavals in India's polity. 

During one such walk, a booming woman's voice poured in torrent from a distance. A little closer, the verbal torrent turned coherent. A little more closer, victim of the verbal torrent appeared in sight. He was being led away by Renuka Choudhary, a minister in the Manmohan Singh led UPA government and a Congress spokesperson. 

The "victim" was in his 20s and later it emerged that he was a research scholar in JNU, New Delhi. And, he became a target of the verbal torrent released in seething anger by the woman, because he had asked a question during an open-air TV discussion, which was being recorded there.

"Your party supports division of Andhra Pradesh. Will your leader, Narendra Modi, support division of Gujrat, since your party favours smaller states," he had asked.

The answer apparently abruptly ended the TV discussion, but verbal torrent ensued. And Renuka Choudhary, apparently sensing that the young man could get in more trouble, forcibly led him away. Even significant moments after the man had been out of sight, the woman was still seething with anger.

Nirmala Sitharaman

About four months later, she was sworn in as Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce. She is Nirmala Sitharaman. 

In the last two years, a lot of people started believing that the TV discussions in late evening shaped opinion of the people. Though this blogger does not watch any TV discussion, on and off one man had been seen with all the shrill in the most noisy news channel. He would shout down all voices against Narendra Modi and BJP.  He showed that his lung was better than that of intemperate anchor, who demands answer on behalf of the nation each night.

That man with most shrill voice is Piyush Goel. He, too, was sworn in as Union Minister of State for power in the Narendra Modi Cabinet. 

Though Modi declined taking son of Rajsthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Dushyant Singh, in his Cabinet on the ground that he would not have anything about dynasty, Goel is son of late Ved Prakash Goel, who was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Cabinet. And, therefore, he is also a product of political dynasty.So, Modi not having anything about dynasty falls flats on close scrutiny.

The faces of BJP beat reporters would invariably turn dull at the sight of Prakash Javdekar. He would most sincerely defend Modi from opposition barbs. He would be too plain straight without any spin to elicit interest from reporters. He too became a minister with dual charge of Information and Broadcasting and Environment.

And, Ravishankar Prasad, as chairman of media cell of the BJP, would most sincerely defend Modi. He, too, is into Modi Cabinet.

Former Miss India contestant and India's most famous "saas and bahu", Smirti Irani had been on all news channels for the past one year to defend Modi dutifully. She surprised all with her Cabinet debut, that too as Union minister for Human Resources Development.

That she is not even a graduate has taken much of the print and air space should not cast aspersion on her ability, because even Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalitha is just 10th pass. But unlike Jayalalitha been a political heir of the founder of AIADMK M G Ramachandran, we still do not know what Irani is in that sense. 

"She is very articulate in Hindi and English.." was all that Ravishankar Prasad fumbled when asked on the controversy. But India has millions of people who are very articulate in two languages.  

When former Union minister Jairam Ramesh threw his barb "Modi talking of

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

sanitation is like Asaram Bapu speaking about chastity", calls apparently came to BJP spokespersons to attack the irrepressible minister. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi apparently ignored instructions from Gandhinagar. Making his case more worse, he red-flagged induction of JD (U) leader Sabir Ali in BJP with his "Dawood Ibrahim" tweet. He could not make into the Modi Cabinet.

A pattern emerges that all those who valiantly defended Modi in the media are now in his Cabinet. And that invites the criticism, that Modi yielded to favoritism and bias while picking his team.

That the Modi team is young and lean is all accepted, but ministers like Dharmendra Pradhan, who is an illiterate as far as the business of oil and gas is concerned, is looking after petroleum ministry tells the larger story of brazenness of Modi in picking his men.

Afterall, the decisive 2014 mandate is not at all for the inner circle of Modi. Rather, the mandate is for a stable and strong government. And, Modi has given opening hints that he had been quite exclusive in picking his team. That surely is not a good omen, as has been admitted by most die-hard admirers of Modi, who admit having been led down.

A close Modi watcher explained that Modi had been like this only, as he had picked the likes of Anandiben Patel, Saurabh Patel, etc., who were unknown in Gujrat till they became ministers after 2002. One of them is now chief minister of Gujrat. But India is not Gujrat and running a Central government requires working closely with states. However, Modi, arguably, is taking forward his Gujrat model in New Delhi literally.

Incidentally, Modi, who seeks to emulate India's most admired Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has been far off in at least picking the men for various challenges. Vajpayee had B C Khandoori who heralded road connectivity. He had Pramod Mahajan who brought in telecom connectivity. Jaswant Singh steadied Indian ship through uncertain waters during the US sanctions against India after the nuclear test. Yashwant Sinha captained economy with aplomb.

Ironically, the RSS laboratory ignores history of medieval India most, while singularly remaining obsessed with ancient India, in shaping intellectual base of its products. Had it been otherwise, Modi would have known that the glory of Akbar had been due to his fine generals, who expanded his frontiers, and ministers, who perfected the statecraft. 

It's early days for Modi government and it will serve him well if he could find people who would be more than proponents of "Yes, Minister". India has enough of sycophancy. Another spell could break too many hearts.

A mighty slump

That pampered lots are supremely blessed with power to self-destruct is surely a hard truth of life. Such individuals leave stories largely unheard, but those in public life leave telling tales to be told and re-told. 

And Nitish Kumar, a Prime Ministerial candidate till not long ago, has been such a masterly phenomenon of political rise and fall, that Shakespeare might have found in him a tragedy king. Political commentators can not deny being in love with him even if he is being denounced for his masterly swing to casteism from being a development icon.

Incidentally, RJD chief Lalu Prasad was political mentor of Nitish Kumar during the march of Mandal politics, which swept through Gangetic belt in 1990s. When Lalu Prasad had to quit as chief minister of Bihar, after being charge-sheeted in fodder scam, he thrust his illiterate wife, Rabri Devi, onto the state. 

That act of political expediency may have extended Lalu Prasad's reign in Bihar for a few more years, but a whole generation grew up with a sense of inferiority complex thereafter. The Congress president Sonia Gandhi aped Lalu Prasad in 2004 to pick Manmohan Singh, who was not an illiterate but an economist of high repute. But another generation has grown up with gloom during the last 10 years.

Political scientists may need to invent a term to explain this art of political expediency of thrusting somebody for personal exigency. Because, it's spreading like a virus, which has infected Nitish Kumar now. 

Some extraordinary commentators could go to the extent of claiming the anointing of Jitan Ram Manjhi, a Mahadalit hailing from Most Backward Caste (MBC), as a political masterstroke of NItish Kumar to checkmate rise of BJP in Bihar. But that will be too shallow to last a few days in public discourse. 

Jitan Manjhi

Because, Bihar inherently has a restlessness, which may not be in other states, to turn people repugnant with the very idea of casteism imprisoning governance in the state. By the way, Manjhi's administrative skill was so well acknowledged by Nitish Kumar, that he could not find for him a better ministry than the SC&ST welfare.  

Incidentally, Nitish Kumar is not the only chief minister who faced an electoral rout in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He is in the company of Omar Abdullah and Akhilesh Yadav. But they have reacted differently to the verdict.

In fact, Omar Abdullah is seeking to undo mistakes of his government and tweeted his e-mail id to connect with the people to learn why was he punished in such a manner. Akhilesh Yadav is seeking to shrug off the shadow of his father Mulayam Singh Yadav and assert his leadership. 

But Nitish Kumar chose to relinquish the office, while "taking moral responsibility". His party chief Sharad Yadav has not yet resigned. Arguably, it can also not be ruled out that Nitish Kumar could not digest the idea of his arch-rival Narendra Modi becoming Prime Minister.

Arguably, the fall and rise in political career of Nitish Kumar and Kahkashan Parveen seem so overlapping to

Kahkashan Parveen

ignore. Parveen, a little known woman from Bhagalpur, first became a municipal corporator a few years ago and since then she has been rising and rising only.

Nitish Kumar first appointed her chairperson of Bihar Commission of Women and a few months earlier shocked most of his party men by sending her to Rajya Sabha. Politically Nitish sought to send the message that he was reaching out to Muslims. He denied Rajya Sabha nominations to party heavyweights Shivanand Tiwari, NK Singh and Sabir Ali.

Within JD (U), leaders and party workers saw Nitish in his full arrogance bloom during Rajya Sabha nomination episode. And, politics is sadly no hunting grounds for arrogant lots. That Nitish was handed over worst electoral defeat confirm him having lost touch with ground realities.

Was not Nitish Kumar hailed a development icon till a few years ago? Did he not win best chief minister awards at the hands of TV channels? Did not the media hail him for turning around a state, which had a long spell of dark age under his predecessors -- Rabri Devi and Lalu Prasad? Did not the Planning Commission of India certify Bihar of having achieved highest State GDP growth among all states?

Questions are too many and they should baffle political commentators. Because, Indian democracy in the last two decades has come to reward good governance. And answers of these questions will reveal the narrow world view of Nitish Kumar and his aloofness.

State of roads in states generally give a good measure of the administrative skills of chief ministers. In his first term, Nitish Kumar won accolades for building good quality roads. His models of monitoring on real time basis was also replicated in other states.

Incidentally, by the time Nitish went to people for another mandate in 2010, he even claimed that any one can reach any part of the state from Patna in a flat six hours.

But claims were highly exaggerated. Incidentally, this blogger, believing Nitish's words, could reach half the distance that chief minister had stated in 12 hours time a year ago. And the ride had been so bumpy, that one would need full two days of rest to recover from agony of road journey.

Public at large blame Nitish Kumar in the state for having destroyed education in schools by using teacher recruitment to further his political interests. Law and order situation improved and later nose-dived.

"Nitish did not take drive against criminals in  the state to its logical conclusion. The man who was credited to have put an end to lawlessness during Lalu-Rabri time soon lost favour with Nitish and was transferred to police training institute. Nitish is running a bureaucratic government where dissent is not heard," said Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh during a conversation with this blogger two years ago. At that time Lallan Singh, after being the close confidante of Nitish Kumar, was also thrown out of the inner court of former Bihar chief minister.

And clear pitfall of a bureaucratic government is wide-spread corruption. So, greasing palms of all kinds of people in government jobs, from a beat constable to a clerk to higher ups, is the story of the second tenure of Nitish Kumar.

Surrounded by sycophants in Patna and encouraged by adulation of New Delhi media, Nitish Kumar apparently thought of himself as Navin Patnaik of Odisha, that there was no alternative to him in the state.

But his belief was utterly out of place. And he chose to self-destruct by snapping 17 years alliance with the BJP. That he did because he was convinced that weakening of the Congress meant revival of the idea of Third Front, and the BJP not being a pan-India party could at best get 180 Lok Sabha seats.

And, therefore, the JD (U) had supported Pranab Mukherjee in Presidential elections even while the BJP backed Purno Sangma. "After next year's elections, there will be instability at the Centre and, hence, we need someone like Pranab Mukherjee in Rashtrapati Bhavan," JD (U) chief Sharad Yadav had explained why his party was not going along with the BJP.

The 2014 verdict shattered all hopes of instability at the Centre. Nitish Kumar misjudged people's minds. And that he did, because he was disconnected. Incidentally, he's repeating his mistake, that of thinking that key to power in Bihar is through the caste arithmetic.

Those who do not learn from their mistakes are condemned as fools of worst orders. And Nitish should know that Indian politics has left behind arithmetic and is now flying with wings of hope.

To catch this ride he needs a mighty leap of faith, but he has chosen a mighty slump instead. 

Turning of the wheel of time

A decade back India's most admired politician Atal Bihari Vajpayee could not believe that the people had rejected him. That six years of "good works" could not impress people seemed beyond his comprehension.

In his moments of disbelief, his friend and colleague Sharad Yadav visited him one evening in 2004 just after the Lok Sabha elections. "Aap bhi haar gaye (you too lost)," Vajpayee sighed at the sight of the socialist. 

"Aapko to maaloom hai ham kis liye haare...(you know why we have lost)," gushed Yadav.

Vajpayee, with a sense of rejection, sat down to chat with his former Cabinet colleague. They concurred, that the NDA government would have retained power in 2004 had Gujrat chief minister Narendra Modi been punished for the post-Godhra riots in 2002.

"This country did not re-elect Vajpayee because he could not act against Modi. People forgot all the good works of Vajpayee and punished him for the (mis)deeds of Modi. Yeh desh Modi ko kabhi PM nahi bana sakta (this country can never make Modi a PM)," Yadav told this blogger last year, after his party, JD (U), had snapped 17 years long relations with the BJP.

Yadav has lost another elections from the same Madhepura Lok Sabha seat in Bihar.

In 2004 he had lost to RJD's Lalu Prasad. Now, he has lost to Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav of the RJD. And, Madhepura where Yadavs consider themselves to be too intellectual to elect a muscleman has exactly done so.

But Vajpayee is no more in his senses to receive Yadav and ask him why he lost another elections. India's most admired politicians for many decades no more recognizes people and at the most he smiles at those who go to meet him.

However, if Vajpayee had been in his senses, he would have again been bewildered to see that India has elected Modi for Prime Ministerial job. That too with a number so stunning, that the whole Opposition may stay in shock for quite longer time.

And with his insight he would have known that his belief in 2004 of having lost re-elections due to post-Godhra riots and his inability to act against the "rogue" chief minister was so off the mark.

That the 2004 NDA defeat had much to do with arrogant "India shining" campaign and sheer arrogance of Pramod Mahajan were lost to majority of media, who were blinded by stereotyped campaign against Modi and now hopefully seeks to rediscover their sight, after the people have given their verdict. 

The wheel of time has turned.

Now, India's most demonized politician for a decade is all set to be sworn in as Prime Minister. He inspires so much of hatred in his rivals, that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi do not consider proper to take his name on their lips. And true to the character of the Congress, other leaders of the party ape the mother-son duo to the hilt.

But India has moved much beyond the comprehension of Sonia Gandhi and her son. And by the time they would realize that India is no more a country of people seeking free rice and wheat, Modi would have delivered fatal blow to the very roots of the Congress.

An unemployed educated in Bhagalpur, Bihar.

Last two and a half decades of Indian democracy saw willy politicians  putting fetters of "secularism" to the people.

In the garb of protecting India's secularism, these willy politicians institutionalized dynasty in Indian politics. And to perpetuate their "secular" politics and safeguard dynasties, they took an ultra-Left turn for worse. 

The game-plan may have lasted a little longer if not for P V Narsimha Rao opening up India's windows to the world.

That Manmohan Singh was such a gifted Finance Minister under Rao and such a wasted Prime Minister under Sonia Gandhi should surely be a matter of another commentary, but he did help India see enormity of opportunities, which lied on the path of development.

In those frosty years of 1990s, India and its people had seen and read progress made by South-east Asian nations. And they rightly thought and aspired that India too could do much better than the smaller South-east Asian nations. 

Furthermore, Vajpayee gave wings to dreams of teeming millions of people. And then the A P J Abdul Kalam phenomenon happened. This dreamy man made Indians not only dream but even chase them.

And he made a lot of people believe that India would be a developed nation by 2020.

But Vajpayee was ousted, and, with the support of the Left, the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) came to power in 2004. The Left painted the UPA in deep red colour.

The dream of India becoming a developed nation by 2020 was thrown into a dust-bin and the country returned on the path traversed in 1980s.

If the Left was not enough, Sonia Gandhi packed her National Advisory Council (NAC) with ultra-Leftists and jhollawaalas who ran NGOs here and there.

And they believed that ensuring almost free rice and wheat to 75 per cent population of the country was the job for which there should be a government in New Delhi. 

A village in Itawa (UP)

A whole decade was lost. A generation soaked themselves in anguish at the lost opportunities.

The colleges graduated skilled professionals, who sought jobs to sell soaps.

Government stopped recruiting and corporate began laying off.

And India soon had an army of unemployed and under-employed and improperly employed mass of youth cursing each and every one on government and politics.

India had been such a paradox from 2004-14, that the posterity would ask, how could so many fools ruled the country at the same time. And the younger generation knew better than the most, that they could not afford to waste another decade chasing the discarded Russian ways of governance.

In Modi, India has seen a hope to redeem itself. And, he as a true politician had the measure of the pulse of the nation before any one else had. He knew that there is a lot of anger in India, which is aspirational. 

And, the "culprit" who cut short the innings of Vajpayee presented himself as the man who could empathize with anger of the nation and yet jacked up aspirations manifold. But he carried the track-record, which made the people believe each word that he uttered.

"A business house based out of Kolkata had applied online to Gujrat government for setting up a plant in the state," said a senior Samajwadi Party leader, who tried to drive home the point why Modi was connecting with the people.

A couple of days later, mobile phone of the businessman rang and to his hello, the man on the other side said, that he was Narendra Modi speaking. Still in shock, the businessman heard Modi asking him if he could come to Ahmedabad next day for a 2.30 PM appointment.

He readied a suitcase of files to make presentation and met the appointment. As he spread out his files on the table, with Modi sitting on the other side, Gujrat CM told him, that the papers could be put back in the suitcase. 

"This is a three-page MoU, which we have prepared, wherein we have mentioned what all support the state government would provide for your proposed plant. If there is anything missing, you can let us know," Modi told the businessman, who found that there was nothing missing. And the MoU was signed there and then.

"Now, tell me which chief minister in India works like that and if he is able to connect with the people, why should any one complaint," the SP leader told this blogger.

Arguably, 2014 verdict is a body blow to practitioners of politics of secularism in Gangetic plains of UP and Bihar. The only other state where this brand of politics could survive even after the Modi Tsunami is West Bengal.

That the mercurial wonder lady of Indian politics has survived Modi onslaught is true, but is surely not going to be her permanent feat. And she will have to face a much bigger push of developmental politics in 2016 state elections, which is written clearly on the wall. 

Some dreams never die.

The wheel of time has turned and has turned against all those who take people for a ride in the name of saving India's "secularism". 

And not only Vajpayee was wrong in diagnosing defeat of NDA in 2004 even his comrade L K Advani has been utterly out of sync with time.

You can't flog one man all years for one riot irrespective of the fact whether he was complicit or not. There has been 179 communal riots under the watch of Akhilesh Yadav in UP since 2012 and still this chief minister is "greatest custodian of secularism".  

Hypocrisy has an expiry date. And it lasts a little longer only in places, where people are hell-bent to commit suicide.