Why is Congress losing its ground in India?

There was a question on Quora:

Why is Congress losing its ground in India?
A cursory look at the political map of India reveals that the Congress rules some patches at the margins with only Karnataka, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh left as the proper in-land states..

I tried to answer with March 2017 current assessment of Indian politics. See if you agree with me.

Congress is losing during the 2010s mainly because of the following:

1) An ailing President, who does not give up the top post.

Sonia Gandhi has been the President of Congress for nearly 20 years now. By far that is the longest stint in Congress party’s history, even if you go back to pre independence era. No one held for so long the top post. Congress talks of Muslims, Dalits, Poor etc., but never thought of giving the much coveted top post to any of them.

Sonia was doing well with well informed strategists for the first 10 years into her presidency. But then her health has started giving way. No one knows where she goes for medical treatment, what illnesses she has, who pays, how serious is her condition etc. Only half news and rumours float around. This is Congress party’s big weakness now. With a strong unbeatable Amit Shah- Narendra Modi combo sweeping India, an ailing and at times untraceable Congress President will weaken lot of plans and strategy. When Modi can do 100s of big rallies and road shows in a year, Congress can’t even match with 10 big rallies with Sonia as star campaigner. That is hurting.

2) A reluctant and incompetent Vice President

Rahul Gandhi is undoubtedly Congress party’s biggest weakness now. His track record is horrible, and in any corporate setup, such a Vice President would have been fired long ago. But as Congress party always runs around the Nehru-Gandhi family, he has to be kept in the center, with more capable mass leaders running around him like electrons around a Nehru-Gandhi nucleus!

Here is a famous joke about him floating on Twitter. It tells you everything in succinct terms.

And, he also has the same problem as his mother. He disappears out of India for longer periods without anyone knowing what is happening. You can’t run a party successfully with millions of workers and supporters, if you have mother and son combo at the top, be unaccountable in most cases and untraceable on occasions.

And interestingly, wherever Congress is still existing, like Karnataka and Punjab, it is mainly because of capable local leaders like Siddaramaiah and Amarinder Singh. Not because of Sonia or Rahul. Amarinder might even have strategically kept Rahul out of Punjab campaigns recently.

3) Lack of vision that matches with the vision of 21st century India.

Ask any Congress loyalist. What are the top 5 schemes or projects for India today? They will repeat the same things that were there during Indira Gandhi’s time. But young India is demanding much more. Modi’s Jan Dhan Yojana, Digital India, Standup India, Skill India are the kind of things young India wants. Not the same old Garibi hatao slogans and obsolete NREGA kind of artificial employment generation schemes of Congress. The very reason Congress was reduced to just 7 seats in a 403 member assembly of UP recently, shows that people have totally dumped Congress. Even the most loyal vote banks of Congress has been distancing itself out.

4) Most of its core political strategy is taken away by BJP.

Congress had great years between 1950s and 1980s. Mainly it was due to social engineering across castes and religions, and pro poor socialistic freebies. But now BJP has worked out its own social engineering. That has made Congress vote bank disappear in most states. Secondly, India has moved on and freebies don’t win elections anymore. India needs real work like LPG cylinders in crores of rural homes, electrification of the remotest villages, 10s of crores of new bank accounts, demonetization that the poor perceive as hurting the black money hoarding rich.. Most of Congress’ agenda and vote bank has been snatched by clever moves of BJP. Also, Congress playing second fiddle to regional satraps like Lalu, Mulayam and Karunanidhi is hurting even more. But who has time to sit and discuss all these? See reasons 1 and 2 above to know the core reasons again.

5) Unable to shrug off the SCAM taint.

During this decade, Congress means 2G scam, Coal scam, CWG scam and a host of other scams. It even made to recent UP election as SCAM acronym, but unfortunately Rahul Gandhi did not even understand the severity of that. He tried to snub Modi by owning SCAM acronym which made Rahul a laughing stock. Results were there to see after a few weeks. Congress decimated again. Congress needs fresh faces. Because right from Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, all the big faces are scam tainted now. Sonia and Rahul are out on bail in the National Herald corruption case. So anytime Congress opens the mouth on corruption of other parties, people will ask about Congress mega scams. That is hurting Congress at perception level.

6) Last and most importantly, unable to make head or tail of how to handle the Modi TsuNaMo sweeping India.

It is so serious now that for every one person living in a Congress ruled state, there are seven people living in a BJP ruled state. BJP has almost hit 2/3rd of India in terms of state governments. And they are nowhere near peak, as there is a lot of ground to still take over along the eastern coast of India. Narendra Modi’s clean image, hard working nature, and outstanding clarity in convincing a voter, is unmatched by the opposition. The only thing Congress and its allies are doing is to bad mouth Modi, which he is cleverly using to get even more votes!

So if Congress has to regain ground and relevance pan India, it has to:-

1. Get better leadership. Rahul is not the right man and Sonia is one step into retirement. Priyanka Vadra is just for guest appearance. Old leaders like Kharge, Chidambaram, Gogoi, Digvijaya are not going to cut any longer. Get 15 to 20 young and visionary leaders, with one pan India appeal leader at the top. Nehru-Gandhi family’s charm has faded and next in lines are not at all going to help Congress.
2. Get better vision, particularly more positive views to attract Indian youth. Minority appeasement, caste combinations and scaring India of RSS/BJP/Hindutva are so 20th century. Won’t work now.
3. Look at long term planning for 2024. Modi’s wave is so popular now, that they stand little chance to challenge him in 2019 in the current organizational setup. Keep in mind - Congress is BJP’s only alternative nation-wide at present. AAP, TMC, DMK, ADMK, TDP, TRS, SP, BSP, RJD, SS, SAD, JDU, JDS, CPM, BJD etc. can’t even win 5 seats across 5 different states. Congress has the brand and ready made cadre pan India. It is just in a self destructing mode due to horrible management at the top. Start from top, and change will bring fruits by 2024.

PS: All images from Google Pictures. All credits to the original photographer or owner of the picture, who placed it for public consumption.

How to win election with Lies, Fraud and BrainWash: The AAP Style.

Yes, you read it right.. this article is about how to win election with Lies, Fraud and BrainWash, following the immensely successful model of AAP in Dilli-2015.

At the same time, I understand democracy, respecting the verdict of people, work done on the ground by AAP volunteers etc. I have nothing to speak negatively about those. Those who supported AAP can certainly celebrate and rejoice.

This is only to highlight how shady methods were employed and how they succeeded. Throughout this writeup, a series of social media posts would be used. All credits to the original posters. The reason they are cited here is only to prove some points. Also, I hope all the pointers posted by them are accurate and done with due diligence. If anything is inaccurate, please point out in the comments for the benefit of myself and other readers.

1: Pre-emptive strike on your opponent with rumour-mongering:
Of course a blatant rumour. AAP started putting Jagdish Mukhi as BJP's CM candidate long before the election. One this was a clear rumour as BJP never declared him as the BJP CM candidate. Second, this was unethical as you don't put your opponent party people's pictures on your posters, without their permission. Maybe illegal too. 

Image: India Today

This was followed by a series of such speculations about a dozen possible "CM Candidates" of BJP. Finally they settled down with Kiran Bedi when she was announced officially by BJP. That too, using her picture without her permission, calling her "opportunist", when Kejriwal himself had betrayed Anna Hazare with opportunism.

Image: Dailmail.uk

The idea was to create massive confusion in the minds of voters about your opponent. A guerilla tactic.. Highly unethical, but who can tell that to AAP? They did succeed in creating confusion within BJP camp that showed up in results later.

2: Fooling Modi supporters about Modi for PM, Arvind for CM:
Let's face it. Everyone knows what a massive wave was there in 2014 for Narendra Modi. Dilli gave 7 out of 7 MP seats to BJP. So AAP had to reinvent. They started a fraud campaign on their website and Youtube/Facebook/WhatsApp videos about Modi for PM and Arvind for CM.

They were exposed on Twitter, and had to roll this back. But the subtle impression was built on Modi supporters who were undecided on the Dilli government part. Hey, this does not sound like a bad idea, coming straight from AAP website.. that's how a first time voter might think.

Again, an unethical and blatant fraud. You don't put such things without taking permission from BJP to use Modi's pictures.

3: Blatant misinformation about the sensitive Black Money topic:
Not just AAP, but their partners in crime, Congress too used this extensively.

Lies were planted in an organized way in social media, mainstream media, political circles, and even all the way to the parliament sessions. What were those lies?
> Modi has promised to deposit Rs.15 lakhs per person after retrieving black money.
> Modi has promised that within 100 days of coming to power, this would be done.

Watch this video and decide for yourself. It clearly exposes the lies propagated by highly iresponsible leadership of Congress and AAP against Modi. I have watched a few more of Modi's 2014 campaign videos and from what I know, nowhere he made the 100 days kind of promises.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOa04NN1M_Q

This particular topic made a huge impact in the minds of the middle class that had voted for BJP or sympathetic to BJP. It confused them to come extent about BJP govt's intentions and lured them towards AAP which promised a very "clean" government. BJP did not do a good job in telling people that Modi government had done its work before June 2014, submitting to Supreme Court monitored SIT, all the necessary documents. It is a court matter now which the government is actively pursuing.

4: Fooling people about "clean" politics and candidates being really "aam aadmi".
After confusing people about BJP (NDA) government at the center, AAP kept on repeating that they are very clean. Unfortunately, educated voters did not do fact checks.

Here are some that they should have checked.

They should have asked AAP - How clean are your candidates?
The reality was that, when the "bad" Sheila was CM, Dilli assembly had 43% MLAs with criminal cases. When "good" Kejriwal becomes CM now, it would be just 34%. Nothing to be proud of. AAP fooled Dilli on this front.

They should have asked Arvind Kejriwal.. how clean is your criminal record sir? 
This "very clean" Yug purush has 4 serious IPC cases and 43 other IPC cases against him as per Delhi Election Watch website. Is that a very "clean" politician profile? 

If you don't trust me that's OK. At least find out what Prashant Bhushan did internally at AAP side about the dubious money and muscle power that was being given ticket in the name of "aam aadmi". Read why Bhushan was furious about 12 candidates in particular -> http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-prashant-bhushan-questions-arvind-kejriwal-on-candidate-selection-2055256

They should have asked how "aam" are your aam aadmi candidates?
They didn't. So now Dilli has some extremely rich people as MLAs, while the drama was all along about being "aam aadmi" or common people.

• Parmila Tokas declared assets of just Rs. 88 crores! 
• Naresh Balyan - 58 crores. 
• Kailash Gahlot - 38 crores. 
• Naresh Yadav - 27 crores.
• ....... and so on.

In comparison, India's per capita income is still well below Rs.1 lakh per year. How many years does it take for an "aam aadmi" to earn 1 crore at that rate?

BTW, the same Naresh Balyan was quizzed by police for the large scale illegal liquor distribution allegations.

They should have asked how qualified your candidate are?
Remember when Om Puri was launching scathing attack on the educational qualification of MPs when Arvind Kejriwal was with Anna Hazare movement? Now, we have an assembly in Dilli, wherein 34% of the MLAs have not gone to college!!

So 1 in 3 MLAs is an "anpadh" and "ganwar" as Om Puri screamed with same gang! How hypocritical.

See how easy it is to fool the gullible, even in the capital of India! In contrast to these super rich "aam aadmi" MLAs, the "pro-rich" Narendra Modi is 52 times poorer than AAP MLA Parmila Tokas.

5:  Character assassination of India's Prime Minister over a suit.
There were many different ways PM Modi was targeted throughout the campaign. I would not get into the subtle social media attacks on his child marriage's wife which was construed as "disrespecting women". There were very derogatory images circulated which are better left out here. But one thing I must speak about is the controversy created over Modi's "10 lakh or 15 lakh Rupees suit" during US President Obama's visit to India.

It all started with the discredited Times of India running a story in late January about the so called "Nine Lakh Rupees" suit that Modi wore while Obama was here, which had his name embroidered. AAP and Congress picked up on this, along with some discredited media houses. They ran a full fledged campaign everywhere, including social media trends about this suit. 9 lakh suit.. 10 lakh suit.. 15 lakh suit.. Some irresponsible speeches were also given like that of Rahul Gandhi where these lies were repeated in a Goebbels method.

When all was done and dusted, the same Times of India brought in a small paragraph of "clarification" and "regretted" for the false news.

So in reality, the suit material was a gift given to Modi by a fan. He did not pay any lakhs from his pocket or using government money. He had it stitched in Gujarat. I doubt if he even knew that it had his name as embroidery, but that's a separate topic. It is NOT a crime for a world respected head of state to wear good cloths, that too when gifted by a fan. But this AAP campaign threw so much muck into the campaign painting him as an "agent of rich", completely obscuring the track record of a man from very poor background who rose one step at a time in his life. Highly negative and immoral campaign was launched against Modi, that fooled lakhs of voters.

The same Modi had donated most of his savings and gifts in Gujarat as CM, for the education of daughters of poor people of India. Read more on that here -> http://www.narendramodi.in/narendra-modi-donates-the-gifts-he-has-received-in-2012-towards-girl-child-education/

There was a brilliant and emotional post on the social media today, that exposes the blatant character assasination method of AAP in Hindi. My apologies for not translating it, but if anyone wants, you can do it in comments.

In summary, a poor man who sold tea as a child, who spent 3 decades with nothing more than 2 or 3 sets of cloths traveling across India, who slept wherever nature offered space for him, who ate at places wherever food was available, a very humble and down-to-earth man, was projected via negative campaign as an arrogant rich man who wears 10 lakh rupees suit using a phony news paper article of Times of India. And, this is not the first time Times of India did hit jobs on Modi. They had done it with "Rambo act" during Uttarakhand floods too. To his credit, Modi has never sued these hit jobs of media. 


6: Negative campaign against a very successful NDA government's first 9 months:

An extensive campaign was launched that Modi government has not done anything in the first 8 to  9 months. And many lakh voters believed it due to the poor countering mechanism of BJP. There was a systematic misinformation launched at slums about land acquisition bill, about the government spending a lot, whereas it was actually saving expenditure. False information was spread on inflation and GDP, when they were actually being corrected well. Last but not the least, the Jan Dhan Yojna which has brought financial inclusion to over 11.5 crore poor Indians in 4 months (a record in human history in terms of numbers for 4 months), was painted as negative!

So, Modi did not do anything substantial in 9 months as claimed by AAP and Congress? Read this impressive list shared by @rajji3351 user on Twitter. (the last 2 words are not in good taste, but I am just using what was shared)

If you have more time, read through how Modi changed the global perspective of India in a very short time. Here is my blog written a few months ago -> http://kiranasis.blogspot.in/2014/12/how-modi-is-changing-global-perspective.html

7: Allegedly receiving dubious funds while screaming that other parties have shady funds:
Social media was abuzz with #AAPFundingScam a few days before the election. Of course, this was brushed aside by the self-professed "honest" AAP with a bravado to "arrest me". When you screamed for years that BJP and Congress gets shady funding, how come you ran a campaign with shady funds too? Social media was abuzz for months with very dubious transactions shown on AAP website. Just search around and you can find 100s of such examples.

But this one about 2 crore of dubious fund was important. Not surprisingly now AAP has received an IT notice.

And @nayanchandra who shared this, claims that not only that they had this notice before the results, but also deliberately leaked it after results, to cry foul about "vendetta politic".

Very concerning matter as a whole which Dilli voters completely missed. 

8: Scaring people with rumours about EVM tampering:

This was again a well thought out dirty trick of AAP. Throughout the campaign, even during prior elections, they kept on saying BJP and Congress are giving money and liquor. This time, Kejriwal got chided by the election commission. But rumour mongering did not stop. Kejriwal himself lead the rumour mongering about electronic voting machines (EVM) being tampered by BJP!

 So all those who screamed about EVM tampering, would accept that they were tampered in favour of AAP, after the massive 67 seats result?

Dirty politics at its lowest level by AAP.

9:  #KejriMaths - The dubious mathematics that fooled voters:

2015 Dilli election was primarily won with a barrage of promises of free things and subsidies. Water, Electricity, Wi-Fi, homes, VAT.. you name it and AAP claimed it would give either free or at a high subsidy. Unfortunately, the voters of Dilli did not scrutinize the claims. 

They did not ask.. Boss, where would you get money?

For starters, the most latest annual budget of Dilli is only Rs. 36,766 crores. This is a semi-state that lives up for most part on the money of Indian union, contributed by all states, including some of the poorest states like Odisha and Bihar. Being the capital region, the roads, trains, airports and pretty much every form of infrastructure is built mostly using the Union of India's money, unlike Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai etc. who have to build mostly using their local tax money. No one in Dilli loudly asked.. even at basic Rs.10,000 per CCTV, Kejriwal has to find Rs.15,000 cr just for his CCTV promise. Mumbai spent over 900 crores just for 6000 odd CCTVs. Where would you get that money?

Here is a well analyzed article from Business Standard that exposes the highly dubious freebie plan of Kejriwal and company. You can see, late of course after the damage is done, that most promises in the manifesto of AAP were camouflaged or with poor mathematics.

Now many news outlets are doing post-mortem. Here is one such post mortem. Five crazy promises of Kejriwal that are next to impossible to implement -> http://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/5-points-from-the-aap-manifesto-that-bjp-fans-might-find-hard-to-believe-230125.html

Nothing explains the impractical nature of these over ambitious promises, as this small writeup that made rounds extensively on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter. 

Good luck Dilli, trying to find money for this #KejriMaths!

Reading the @ramaraoKP shared news paper link, it is amply clear that the Santa Claus Kejriwal has promised the sky, but didn't tell that his account has no money!

Expecting lots of Dharmacracy now about how "Modi is not giving money"? Light.. sound.. action!

And, a lot of young folks voted AAP for the "free WiFi". But the fine print is emerging now after the election. This is shared by @vickymackdown.

Only 30 minutes free.. Not for any house, office, mall etc. Even when available, Facebook, WhatsApp, Email, Twitter would be restricted. I am sure these fine prints were not in the manifesto or public ads before the election.

After reading all these.. I am reminded me of that famous ad.. No Ullu banaoing :)

But too late for Dilli public.

10: Unholy partnership with a single minded greed for power:

To get into power in Dilli, AAP pretty much used every possible corner available.Who cares if Mamata Banerjee herself is in a serious mess with Saradha scam running into 1000s of crores? We will take her support! Interestingly, her party MP was in forefront talking against Church attacks, that were mysteriously hapening right before the election. Who cares is communist ideology is opposite to Mamata, for power in Dilli we will take CPM support too. Who cares if Owaisi family is highly controversial with anti Hindu communal speeches? We are all same here fighting "communal BJP". Who cares if Nitish Kumar has a dubious record of backstab politics and caste politics in Bihar, we want their support.

Importantly.. who cares if we said we have nothing to do with religion. Our people will visit Church priests and openly tweet their support. We also got support from the controversial Imam Bukhari, but for publicity, we want to stay away.

What was that again? Secularism means separation of church and state (politics). But for power, we will go with anyone as long as they are against BJP :)

And AAP even gave tickets to highly controvesial people like Amanatullah Khan, who did not hesitate to insult Ashok Chakra awardee, Martyr Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma within hours of getting elected!

As long we are keeping  BJP out, everything else is fine! Who cares about ideology, religion-mix and other factors. "We" would even play caste politics twisting an ad of BJP that talked about a gotra.

In summary:

AAP tried every trick available - whether it was unethical, immoral, illegal, outright impractical.. doesn't matter. As long as BJP is defeated. And they succeeded.

But it was not as bad as media projected for BJP. As @durgaramdas computed:

BJP in 2013 assembly elections of Dilli got 26,75,857 votes which resulted in 32 seats.
BJP in 2015 Dilli assembly elections got 29,36,390 votes, but only 3 seats.

That's because BJP retained it's assembly vote share. What really happened was the ganging up of everyone else against BJP, particularly the Congress voters who deserted Rahul Gandhi fully. 

That's only a consolation for BJP. But the real failure of BJP was in not being able to counter the long list of lies, frauds and outright misinformation braiwash campaign that was launched in 2015 Dilli elections. Hope they learn. Goebbles method has been used extensively against BJP here and the same can be replicated in the upcoming state elections if BJP is not careful.

I also hope AAP learns from the mistakes and compromises they did during this election. The trust of youth power of Dilli on them is quite huge. They should deliver now. How they deliver is up to them, without blaming Modi or BJP!

How Modi is Changing Global Perspective of India

Before Narendra Modi became the PM of India in May 2014, a huge campaign was launched by the media and politicians against him. Without going into the lengthy details, it is sufficient to note that he was snubbed as a man unable to get US Visa since 2005, a “regional leader”, a man who will do harm to India's image internationally and so on. The hatred towards Modi was so deep among the so-called secular society people of India that 65 MPs went to the extent of begging the President of United States of America to disallow Modi from coming to US, on a signed letter on an Indian parliamentarian's letter-head. Height of it!

Also, the confidence level on India among the key global investors was low.

One of the world's biggest consulting firm, McKinsey's CEO DominicBarton came on record recently summing up how the investors felt about India before Modi came on board:

"I was not (advising clients to come to India) two years ago because it was complicated... and companies and clients were deeply frustrated with the bureaucracy, no decisions getting made. Companies were saying... let us go to Africa, let us go to Nigeria, let us go to Indonesia, let us just go to the US, but that has changed. I think because if you look at the trends that are going on in the world, India is right in the centre"

And things changed.. changed swiftly since India got its first full majority government in 30 years, and the first independent Prime Minister in a decade.

By the time this article is written, Modi has already met 45 world leaders in just 6 months. These leaders are covering every inhabited continent of this planet! He is generating tremendous euphoria and positive vibration among global leaders and investors about India, which was considered as a sleeping giant till now.

So how did he do it?

For starters, Modi began his foreign diplomacy right from the word go. For his swearing in ceremony on May 16, 2014, he invited all the SAARC leaders. Needless to emphasize, even the Pakistani PM came and Modi started off with a very positive note in the immediate neighbourhood. Bhutan's leader said that Modi's swearing in was almost a mini SAARC summit! Now that's a very smart start to his international diplomacy.

Then he started his first international visit in June 2014 to Bhutan. People expect a PM to first look at big and powerful countries, but BJP's ways are very different. They started with a tiny neighbour that is having just 1/13th the population of Bengaluru city, but is strategically important between India and Tibet (China).

Next stop? 14,500 KM away in Brazil. When the whole world was gripped with Worldcup football fever, Modi was quietly working with his team on important positioning of India at the BRICS summit. India gave well thought out presents to the players for good will and came up with good initiatives. South Africa, Brazil, China and Russia were handled diligently. By the time BRICS summit was over, India was positioned to head the brand new BRICS' $100 billion new Development bank. This was an unprecedented move as the strategic vision is to give an alternative to IMF and World Bank in the long run. A completely new pole for international bank assistance that is outside North America and Europe! Big victory scored and eye brows already up in Washington, Berlin and London.

With a huge win up his sleeve just in 6 weeks of becoming PM, Modi now focused back on the immediate neighbourhood. Kathmandu in Nepal, just 100 minutes flight from India's capital, was snubbed by previous Indian PMs for 17 long years. This obviously has reasons originating from Rajiv Gandhi's disastrous Nepal policy when India imposed economic blockade on Nepal in 1989. Narendra Modi's was the first bilateral visit by an Indian PM in 17 years and the repair start process is swift and clean. A key Himalayan state that is a buffer between India and Tibet (China) was let to turn anti India over the past decades due to bad policies. Now things are quickly healing. Another strategic win for India.

Then Modi played his cards very smartly. He had visited Japan as a CM of Gujarat and had good rapport. He knows how to pit Japan against China, and China against US and so on. His diplomatic chess game is paying off big time. Japan agreed within hours to invest $35 billion in India over the next few years. That's a lot of money, almost double of what Japan was saying before! More importantly, this investment is strategically invited in Bullet Trains, smart cities and other badly needed infrastructure for 1.23 billion Indians.

Not just the robust political and diplomatic discussions, Modi also won the hearts in Japan by being a sportive foreign visitor. He sat for Japanese style tea, played with kids, and even played drums. But he didn't forget to link India's heritage city Varanasi with Kyoto to make a point on cultural side too.

As expected, Modi now expected a different perspective from China, Japan's enemy. China's head of state, Xi Jinping visited India in September. This was a Chinese head of state's third visit in 2000 years to the neighbouring India. That shows how strained the relationships have been and how cut off-ed the neighbours have been. Not to mention, China's dual strategy of pinching India at the border with aggression, and then doing smooth talk at trade meets. Modi clearly and openly raised the border issue with China, without trying to be politically correct during a head-of-state visit. Of course, this is something China did not expect after seeing weak governments in India before. Beyond border and other discussions, Modi was able to extract a pledge from China to invest $20 billion over the next 5 years. Note that China has hardly invested anything in India till date. Some figures I have seen show that only $1 billion or so from China into India over the past 2 decades! So this 20 billion $ number is quite a huge number showing the importance of India with China now.

Then Modi focused where the whole world was expecting him to focus. The Uncle Sam!
Here is a man who was in the Visa news for 9 years, suddenly setting up a very high profile itinerary in New York and Washington. Many people were expecting him to keep grudge against US, but like a mature statesman, he opened up his arms and hugged USA in style. He gave UN a lecture on how to run the world, at UN itself! It is stunning that a PM from a developing country can go to UN and give it a lecture on how to run the world affairs better. Then came his most magical moment. The Madison Square Garden. The event was such an extravaganza, paid for by Indians living in America, it caught international attention. #ModiInAmerica was the world's topmost trend on Twitter that day. Nearly 30 US Congressmen, Senators and top leaders came and stood on the stage on a Sunday afternoon. That by itself was something unheard of for any foreign head of state in US. His talks about Mangalyaan and others truly turned the table on the image of India and it's potential.

And PM Modi's speech was classy with crowd going into applause every other minute. He brought in many key issues like keeping India clean, Making in India and investing in India.

Then his visit to Central park, then to other areas, and finally a meeting with Barack Obama. Obama showed extreme interest by taking Modi himself to Marin Luther King memorial!

Not just the image make over for India as "India has arrived", Modi also used his trip very efficiently to sell India's opportunities to 11 Fortune 500 CEOs over a breakfast meeting. Whatever he does, he always has India's job creation in mind. That's a great asset for India. Modi's super success at USA, in spite of his strict fasting schedule during Navaratri, must have been a true heartburn for those 65 MPs who had begged Obama to not let Modi in. These #65Traitors as they were called on social media would have had a hard time to sleep after seeing a rock star reception for Modi, in spite of one trouble making Indian journo trying to spoil the show.

To ice the cake, Modi met with the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. This was the first Indian PM meeting with Israeli PM in over a decade. That shows how keenly Modi is playing his cards. While at it India was also balancing the foreign relationship with those who despise Israel in the region. Modi govt had carefully worked to secure the safe release of over 40 nurses from Kerala from ISIS terrorists. Modi govt also voted in UN and gave pledge to Palestine, but without affecting Israeli relationship. Nice balancing act of a statesman.

Now that Modi had captured the attention of the world at BRICS, Japan and USA, his next focus was looking east. Before heading east, India was already working on opening up a 4 lane highway to drive all the way from North East India to Vietnam, via Thailand and Cambodia. Just 3 more years :)

And he hosted the Vietnam's head of state Nguyen Tan Dung in India. This was strategically important as Vietnam is in a tough conflict with China over South China sea. And being a strategic thinker, Modi tried to check mate China here with a promise to supply naval vessels to Vietnam, in spite of China's protests. This is the first time India ever stood up with guts to China's bullying, while keeping up the dialogue with China!

After sufficiently taking care of SAARC and other immediate regions, Modi headed east now to Myanmar. The tough cookie of the neighbourhood, this secretive country has for long been a China's ally. Modi did a variety of things for smoother Indo-Myanmar relationships. The strategic ASEAN meetings, bilateral issues with Myanmar and more importantly a tough stand on South China sea to keep China guessing. And, just after 6 weeks, Modi again met with President Obama who in turn called Modi a man of action!

Now to Australia. Modi charmed the guests at the G20 summit in Australia. Modi mania was gripping Australia. For the first time ever, a special Modi train was arranged to get people to Sydney for this AllPhones arena extravaganza. And when he mentioned there that it takes just one overnight flight to come to Australia, but it took the Indian PM 28 years to get there, people just fell in love with him. His speech was as magical as his Madison Square Garden gala, if not better.

Watch from 1:55:00 onwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju3wC_6klfg&feature=player_detailpage#t=6940

His calls in Australia for investment and partnership was well received. Just like in US, here also he talked of OCI and PIO improvements, and in fact what the government had done since US visit. Skill development and cleaning up India were his calls for help needed from Australia. Modi not only charmed the business and political leaders, he also charmed a 3 year old Indian origin girl in Australia by showing special interest!

Then Modi showed his magic in the south Pacific. For those not familiar, south Pacific islands, over a dozen of them, are independent voting countries in the UN. Whenever India has a need for large number of votes, likely in cases of mischief from Pakistan, these could come handy. They vote en-bloc in most cases.

So Modi did something no Indian PM ever thought of till date. He called for a summit of South Pacific nations in Fiji. Not only that he is the first Indian PM to visit Fiji in over 3 decades, he also managed to keep all the south Pacific islands aligned with India. Incredible diplomacy and statesman skills of a supposedly "regional leader"! Even when dealing with Fiji, which has over 4 lakh Indian origin people, Modi balanced the economic assistance with diplomatic support.

Now back to the immediate neighbourhood. After an unofficial SAARC summit during his swearing in itself, Modi headed to represent India in the SAARC summit in Nepal. Here lots of meetings, proposals and of course, a carefully planned snub to Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif for the misadventure of Pakistan at the border during the prior weeks. In fact, Pakistani journalists reported that India's shelling response to Pakistan's shelling in 2014 was worse than 1971 war! So a strong leader had shown what Indian army could and should do for any misadventure of Pakistan.

Just like in Australia, he stopped the convoy to meet the people standing for his sight. And he was a super hit among Nepali people. India has again captured the minds of Nepalese, after the disastrous economic sanctions of Congress government in 1980s, that pushed Nepalese towards Chinese. Similarly he is repairing the relationship with other immediate neighbours. Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa went to the extent of openly praising Narendra Modi's foreign policy for the release of five Indian fishermen who were facing death row in Sri Lanka!

Similarly Pakistan released Indian fishermen from Karachi. Modi launched the bus service to Kathmandu in Nepal. He is talking to Bangladesh about the resolution of the decades old complicated enclave problem in the border areas.

So Modi addressed the parliaments of many countries. He met 45 world leaders in just 6 months. He has traveled more in the first 6 months as PM than any other PM in India's history. This immediately after he traveled the most miles by any politician in human history for 2014 election campaign! He has dazzled the Indian origin people abroad. He has signed significant treaties. He has charmed G20, SAARC, BRICS, ASEAN and South Pacific summits. He has given a lecture to UN itself in UN. Here's a man who has shown strong will to portray India's military might, young labour potential, entrepreneurial spirit and a definite aim to dominate the 21st century.

How did the world business community watch and react to this monumental vote for change in India during 2014?

In addition to all these foreign trips and diplomacy, Modi had initiated a long list of good governance tasks in India over the past six months. We can talk about them in another article, but it is sufficient to say that he is putting India's governance on the right track. So the initial results are already here.

The world's biggest whiteshoe consulting firm's CEO, Dominc Barton says Modi has turned India into a magnet! This coming within 6 months of BJP govt speaks volumes as these CEOs advice big fund managers on billions of dollars worth of investment.

India's factory growth in November 2014 is the highest in 2 years. Investors are watching Indian factories closely. Eight core industries of India were stagnating at nearly 0% growth in Oct 2013. In Oct 2014, growing at 6.3%! Foreign investors are waiting to invest now. Global oil prices are helping BJP govt as petrol, diesel and gas prices have come down, helping inflation cut back to five year lows. More than 1 lakh crore Rupees poured into Indian markets this year.. The MOST into any developing country! S&P BSE Sensex has soared 35%.

On the Corruption Perception index from Transparency International that all international investors watch closely, India is now ranked 85th best in the world out of 175. That's nine spots better than 2013's ranking which is sending positive signals that a government in India is ready to tackle corruption.

In fact, India is now ranked less corrupt than China for the first time in 18 Years! The influential Wall Street Journal highlighted this to the whole world. Business Insider went a step further and said, India is the Last BRIC standing. India needs access to foreign capital, advanced technology, resources, lots of energy, newer markets and skill set. For that, India should have a secure environment, a peaceful neighbourhood and a stable world as parliament was told, and most importantly, an open and stable global trading system.

Here's a man who has shown in just six months that he is very much capable of making India stand up to the challenges. He is not remote controlled like the prior one, nor tied down by coalition dharma. He's independent, excellent statesman and a brilliant strategist. Plus, has a very good team supporting him.

Next big show for NRIs? England's Wembley stadium in January with nearly a lakh people! Modi's 2015 schedule is already on the public domain, unlike the secretive foreign trips of prior government's power corners. For the first time in India's history, the President of USA will be at the Republic day march as chief guest. This in spite of India taking on US at WTO aggressively. Modi might have Chinese, Russian and US heads of states visit India within 8 months duration, which is a solid statement of engagement from the world.

India.. Your acche din are visible on the global trade and foreign relationship side. Here's a very hard working, smart gentleman in charge. Rejoice and expect more!

Images from: indianexpress, indiafacts and southpacificislandsforests.blogspot. Thank you!

Why Would I Hesitate To Support AAP?

Today, I was discussing with a soft-spoken friend. The topic was the most current hot topic now-a-days. It is nothing but the English media hype for a relatively insignificant political entity like AAP, that has mere 0.68% of assembly seats in India.

And he gave some really good pointers. From that discussion, here are five category of questions to anyone who supports AAP or considering a support.

1) Arvind Kejriwal and some key AAP leaders have connections to foreign funding, via avenues like Ford Foundation. And Ford does not have a good image in India. Why do they hide or downplay their Ford funding?

Read the most reputed teacher, Prof. Vaidyanathan questioning: Is India safe–What is Ford Foundation

If you want a leftist ask the same question, here is Arundhati Roy stating: "the main reason why I am is so skeptical of Anna’s movement (now AAP avatar) is because it was a ‘copy book of the World Bank agenda’.

And don't miss this. It might sound a bit like conspiracy theory, but there are points to ponder. CIA’s Trojan Horse enters the Heart of India.

And remember the noise about NGOs to be kept out of Janlokpal ambit?

2) Fighting corruption is a noble cause. But at the expense of compromising on naxalism, jihadi threat in Jammu and Kashmir, flirting with communalism, to name a few. If you want national space, you need to be clear on contentious national issues.

Why disrespecting a court decision on Batla encounter?
Why soft on maoist violence?
Why soft on Congress CM's corruptions?
And many more relevant national issues. 

Read: 25 Questions to Arvind Kejriwal and his Fan Boys

Similarly, there is another set of 10 very direct and clear questions to Aam Aadmi Party supporters. Most have no answers for these critical national interest items.

A little introspection for AAP supporters

Credit to the original creator of the 10 set questions' image. I don't know who created it, but it is fabulous thought provoking work.

Now the maoist sympathizing segment forms part of various AAP advisory committees.

Aam Aadmi Party and the potential implications for national security.

How could anyone support Prashant Bhushan, who is openly anti Indian army, talks softly on Jihadi terror and openly supporting separatists who want to break India? Isn't his statements exact replica of Pakistani and ISI's lingo across the international fora?

"There should be a referendum on whether people want AFSPA to continue in the valley or not"

The associations of Kejriwal, the past and present, give no confidence to an Indian who believes in integrity and soverignty of India.

Statements aside, his associations tell us much more.

 Another dubious association of Kejriwal

3) Have you ever wondered why Kejriwal's corruption fighting ideas are fundamentally flawed?
Here is some food for thought.

Kejriwal’s slogan of ‘Corruption Hatao’ is in many ways not very different from what Indira Gandhi said ‘Garibi Hatao’. Both are populist slogans. Kejriwal’s ideas like Swaraj and Lokpal are fundamentally flawed.

Kejriwal & Aam Aadmi Party have made a push for Economic Policy that we left behind in 1991. i.e. Policy of Subsidies.

They offer no fresh, meaningful, productive idea. They have none, can offer none. They have Zero Experience of Governance. They stand to lose nothing. Only India stands to lose because of such Worms & Germs.

Arvind Kejriwal's methods are so medieval.

For instance, the attractive sounding schemes like “junta darbar”, which uncannily resembles the erstwhile kings’ modus operandi in the role of “dispenser of justice” through their diwan-e-aam darbars. Compare them with 21st century methods of Narendra Modi, which work.. actually work very well!

Public grievance address system: Medieval mode versus 21st century approach

4) Coming to pretending or misleading people.. Why does Kejriwal do it so often?

Didn't he know that center has to approve Janlokpal bill? If yes, why mislead Dilli?

Anna's decision becomes "my" decision!

And let's also revisit the prior blog entry in this same site.

How can anyone tolerate a party that flip-flops so quickly, even shaming chameleons?

U turns of Arvind. A complete compilation.

5) Why does AAP indulge in Congress-BJP bhai bhai nonsense? Now that it has formed a government in Dilli with Congress support, popularly known as AAPCON govt, this bhai bhai claim sounds so silly.

24 hour rhetoric of “all parties are equally corrupt” (because of their vested interests and which directly benefits Congress). 
Congress and BJP looted us for 65 years…really ?

In fact whom was Yogendra Yadav mentoring around 2009 election?

How did voters who had vitriolic hatred for the Congress suddenly agree to support Kejriwal’s tie up with that party? Simple. the entire operation is focused on stopping Modi's march.

And if Narendra Modi is removed, India will be joined in anarchy. You can write off this nation for a whole generation. 

Kejriwal has been exposed on TV screens, unable to justify some of his corrupt and dubious party members.

So much for Congress-BJP bhai bhai!

And the newest entrants into AAP have dubious credentials and corruption baggage.

Be it Bihar's Singh history sheeter rowdy Kundan Singh or Tamil Nadu's Christina Samy

Coming to clean politics, Over Rs.24,00,000 of expenses were under-reported by Kejriwal's AAP from their pre-election musical concert. Are they any different from the people they snub?

This is shown in the Order passed by the Election Officer on the discrepancies in booking expenses incurred by AAP on musical concert.

Summary:
Finally, there is a clear 10 mantra collection, called as NaMo Mantras in here. When preferring a party in 2014 election, keep these 10 mantras in mind. Even though that presentation is clearly pro Narendra Modi and BJP, you can decide in favour of anyone you want. But your nation's future at stake. Make a judicious and well thought out choice!

If you still need to think, read through or see/hear, all the links provided above. For a person with "Nation First" intention, there will be ample clarity after going through them.

Good luck!

Godhra Train Burning : Yet Another Rewind

We saw Narendra Modi getting yet another relief today on the judiciary side when Supreme Court handed over further probe of a particular 2002 case to a trial court. The right of center folks on internet are celebrating this as yet another defeat for the long list of lies propagated by Teesta Setalvad and co. The left of center folks are either silent or having difficulty gulping the news that Supreme Court would not act against Narendra Modi. Even though a gazillion websites and videos talk about Narendra Modi's stellar development track record transforming Gujarat into a model growth story, there is one thing about 2002 which just doesn't go away when talking about him.

So let's dig into Godhra 2002, particularly the train burning incident, a bit more for clarity. We have heard enough about what happened after Godhra, but not much on this very important trigger. Let me provide plenty of links here, majority being reputed national level news papers from India. Once you read through the entire saga, including the links, I would let you draw the conclusion yourself.








Section 1: Godhra Town's history & pre-plan for a mass murder:

1. Godhra town had settled Sindhi Hindus who moved in from Pakistan & Ghanchi Muslims after partition. The relationship between Hindus and Muslims was apparently not that cordial right from the start, as Ghanchis were termed as very aggressive per some reading I did online.
2. Godhra town witnessed communal riots in 1947, 1952, 1959, 1961, 1965, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1980, 1983, 1989, 1990 and in 1992. Wasn't Congress party ruling all along?



Godhra Train Burning in Feb 2002. {Source: The Hindu}

3. Two Godhra petrol pump men, Ranjitsingh Patel & Prabhatsingh Patel said they sold 140 liters of petrol the previous evening to Muslim looking men. This was established in the court in 2010-11 period conclusively.

Section 2: Let's learn about the Congress party's M. Kalota:

1. Mehmud H Kalota, Salim A G Sheikh, Abdul R A M Ghantia, Farroukh Bhana and Haji Bilal, were the five Congress members/supporters at Godhra. Read More via a Rajeev Srinivasan writeup in Rediff portal: http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/mar/25rajeev.htm
2. Read more on Kalota's link to Congress party in particular, from Rediff's 2002 writeup by Onkar Singh: http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/mar/12train3.htm
3. Mohammad Hussain Kalota, acquitted for 'lack of evidence' was an independent president of Godhra corporation. But worked for Congress minority cell for six years, so the political leaning & support was hard to hide.
4. The same Kalota had given an ad in a Gujarati paper on May 10, 2001, thanking Congress for getting him elected per another old news item.
5. Kalota was a district convener of minority cell of Congress. Salim Sheikh (absconding) was the youth Congress VP and Haji Bilal (Convict) was associated too.
6. Tablighi Jamaat, whose links Godhra Congress minority cell leader Kalota had, also had former Pakistan president Rafiq Tarar as its member. Being just a member is not the concern, but read on.
7. Kalota, who ran Congress minority cell at Godhra for 6 years, had past links to Tablighi Jamaat. Tablighi founded Harkat, a Jammu & Kashmir terror org (which claimed responsibility via an email for 2011 September 7th Delhi blasts too). So here we have the grand old party of India, whose main guy in Godhra town is linked to one of the worst human rights violating terror organization in Kashmir that is fighting India itself! So now we have Godhra conspiracy, linked to Tablighi, which in turn an incubator of outright terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir..<cry> . Read an elaborate writeup from 2002 by journalist Praveen Swami, exposing all the above mentioned details here: http://www.hindu.com/fline/fl1906/19060120.htm
8. The main accused in the Godhra genocide, Mohammed Hussain Kalota, has been a "Congressman and a protege of a sitting Congress legislator". Read more about that here in Indian Express:  http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=8349

Section 3: Haji Bilal, the first in death penalty list:

Haji Bilal {From TribuneIndia}

1. DeshGujarat portal lists the names of all 31 convicted for Godhra train burning, based on 21st Feb 2011 court verdict: http://deshgujarat.com/2011/02/22/godhra-verdict31-accused-guilty-63-acquitted-punishment-on-25-february/
2. Those who had poured petrol over coach S-6 are: Aiyub Pataliya, Irfan Kalandar, Mehboob Popa, Shaukat Patadiya and Siddik Vohra.:(
3. Their leader was Haji Bilal per the writeup. The real name of Haji Bilal, prime convict in Godhra train burning is Abdul Raheman Abdul Majid Suleja, a member of Godhra corporation under M. Kalota.
4. Haji Bilal was not arrested after Godhra train burning. He was missing, but arrested later. The second main planner Faruk Bhano may be in Pakistan per some other news items.
5. In 2008, two of the Godhra accused, possibly Haji's men, were hiding in Pakistan : Ibrahim Dhantiya and Salim alias Paanwala. More here: http://islamicterrorism.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/two-godhra-accused-in-pak-say-they-want-to-return-home/

Section 4: Terrorism/Riot links to Gujarat Congress:

Mahmood As'ad Madani of Jamait in front {From Milligazette}

1. Well before Godhra, Congress party had black sheep, who were actively hand in glove with terrorism in Gujarat. Read about how a former Congress Fisheries Minister of Gujarat Mohammad Surti and ten others were found guilty in 1993 Surat twin blast case by TADA court in 2008.
2. Apr 29, 2002, Mahmood Madani of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind sent a list of 25 Congress workers, including one MLA & one MP involved in post Godhra riots. Of course neither Sonia Gandhi, nor her loyal supporters ever talked about this.. for obvious reasons! Read more from Times of India: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2003-08-09/india/27201201_1_congress-leaders-congress-mlas-gujarat-youth-congress
3. From February 2011 verdict, it was clear that Godhra train burning also had Congress supporters involved. Gory details of train burning here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godhra_train_burning. To get a background of the same folks, read the May 2002 Godhra charge sheet featuring five apparent Congress party members/supporters like Bilal. The chargesheeted names prime accused Haji Bilal, a municipal corporator and Congress supporter. Bilal along with President of Godhra municipality Mohd Hussain Kalota were arrested in March. Others arrested include corporator Abdul Razak and Shiraj Abdul Jamesha. Read more here from 2002 Indian Express: http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=10692

Section 5: Episode of cover-up via media & sham commission:

Justice Banerjee {From Jagran}

1. All those fans of Tehelka's journalism, read this Godhra "Investigative" report - - "spontaneous mob fury".. Sick! Read more on the apparent paid coverup: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107Godhra.asp
2. Should Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Lalu Yadav & Justice Banerjee be questioned further for apparently lying to the nation? Infact, it was not just a lie, but a lie of the century. Read more: Godhra was an accident: Banerjee panel: http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=63804 Can't believe how such an 'accident' resulted in death sentences to so many in the court in 2011!
3. Thankfully, the judiciary of India is still working outside the evil clutches of the manipulating politicians. Gujarat High Court categorically stated in October 2006, that Sonia Gandhi's government has committed an unconstitutional blunder & threw 'honest' Manmohan, Lalu & Sonia's efforts into dustbin. The Gujarat High Court termed the appointment of the high-level Justice UC Banerjee panel that probed the Godhra train carnage as “unconstitutional, illegal and void”. UPA's cover-up chapter closed. Read more from DNA: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_banerjees-findings-contrary-to-facts-gujarat-hc_1058373
   

Section 6: Post February 2011 Godhra court verdict:

Lalu Yadav {From Hindu}

1. "Godhra verdict exposed Lalu, UPA and a fake inquiry under a retired SC judge, that blamed victims themselves" - BJP : Read more: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1480169.ece
2. "Can't comment on verdict" BUT "post Godhra was blot on democracy" - So Congress folks' involvement in Godhra train burning, a celebration of democracy?  Read more: http://www.sify.com/news/congress-declines-comment-on-godhra-verdict-news-national-lcwpkfehhdi.html
3. Just read the headline from Sonia Gandhi's birth country news paper which sums up: "India: 31 Muslims condemned for massacre of Hindus". That's how the world is viewing the real story. Read more: http://www.agi.it/english-version/wo...acre_of_hindus
4. Long back, on Oct 22, 2000, Sonia Gandhi had accused Sangh parivar of killing Mahatma Gandhi & partitioning India. What a baloney! Read more: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2000/10/22/stories/02220007.htm. Nathuram Godse had left RSS in 1930s per RSS' accounts. Still we hear "RSS killed Gandhi in 1948". After the 2011 court verdict, it seems five 2002 train burners were Congress members/supporters. Will she or her party accept that Godhra train burning was a Congress party event, following the same logic?

I have drawn my conclusion well, and you can do so, after going over all the info provided in the dozens of links from mainstream media.