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!

Kumara Parvata - A dream trekking experience!!

I got a message from friend Bharath in early January that he is planning for a trekking trip to Kumara Parvata, near Kukke Subrahmanya in the Western Ghats of Karnataka. After initial shock hearing 10 hours of travel overnight, and then trekking 20 to 30 KM, then returning another 10 hours overnight, I said.. sorry boss.. I don't think my body can take that now.

Then he insisted after a couple of days. Change in plans.. Only 7 hours of trip. He ended up making me sign up for this. And I should really thank him for this wonderful attempt. Because, this was one of the best treks of my life!!

See the pics and watch the videos.. you will know what I mean!

In a nut shell, we had to travel from Bengaluru to Somwarpete in Kodagu district, and then to Beeda Halli where the forest office's gate is there for trekking the Pushpagiri mountain range. Kumara Parvata is the highest peak in the Pushpagiri forest range. There are two ways to climb to Kumara Parvata (Kumara, is the name of Lord Shiva's second son Subrahmanya or Murugan or Kartikeya - Parvata means Mountain or peak). One from the popular temple destination of Kukke Subrahmanya which is in the Dakshina Kannada district. The other, the easier option is what we took, from Kodagu district. Most importantly, don't try all by yourself. Take someone who has done this before. This is NOT for beginners or even mid level trekkers. Take my suggestion very seriously, as we had 3 in our team who had climbed among themselves, a total of 25 times!

Indicative route map - image courtesy coorg.xyz

Once we reached the area near Beeda Halli by 4.30 AM, we had nice Uppittu at a home stay. After freshening up and eating plenty of carbohydrates, we prayed at the age old Shiva temple near the forest office gate. Our enthusiasm and energy levels at a peak level just before the start.

Thanks to Lokesh Raju for this excellent pic

Then carefully analyzing the path of our trek. Playing with nice puppies at the gate. Sending our TT driver away by road to get to Subrahmanya while we reach there either in the night, or next day.

The highest peak Kumara Parvata is about 5617 feet above sea level. Shesha Parvata is at 5086 feet. With two massive peaks above 5000 feet to conquer, the biggest advantage of climbing up from Kodagu district (Beedara Halli) is that we only have to climb 712 meters or about 2336 feet. The distance is approximately 7 KM. If you try the climb from Kukke Subrahmanya, which is in Dakshina Kannada district, your climb would be at least 15 KM in distance and 1600 Meters (5250 feet) of climb. So you are talking about half the elevation to climb if you go from east to west, instead of the other way, as the steep descent of the mighty western ghats is visible on the western side. Send your vehicle with driver to the other side (3 hours by road). Either way, without fail carry a sleeping bag, at least 5 liters of water per person, good carbohydrate food and a tent to stay overnight in chilly windy peaks. Do NOT try a single day trekathon (2 of our guys did it) from sun rise to sun set, unless you are a very experienced climber with very little weight to carry on your back. Stay overnight at one of the marked peaks or areas.

Image courtesy: vishwanaths.wordpress.com

The first hour was lots of fun. Singing, photographing and loving the early morning stay in some of the thickest rain forest ranges of the planet. Bliss.

After another hour, it started getting tiring. Here is some video commentary from that position.

After 3 hours, we were really cursing, why did we take such heavy tents.. But the scenery was amazing.. rest and watch after every few minutes.

The climb from the east is essentially 3 hours through thick forests, then 2 big boulders to climb (you have to crawl, if you are not experienced), and then just 10 minutes from the peak, you will see this saffron flag welcoming you to the holy peak!

Here is how you climb one of the two big boulders. It's not for beginners, I repeat! And also, no children allowed on this trekking trail. So only adults in good health, who can climb for hours, in good mountain climbing shoes should get here. There is absolutely no help anywhere in sight, if you need it during emergencies. Try to avoid rainy seasons as it rains very heavily here. These are some of the tallest and wettest peaks in India outside the Himalayan range.

After 4.5 hours, 2100+ feet of climb across 7 KM, we finally made it before noon to the great Kumara Parvata peak. Lots of joy there.. Jai Shri Ram slogans, pooja at the small Shiva temples, photographs, discussions and fun time. In short, YES WE DID IT moments :) We ended up showing the small forest office 7 KM away, from where we made it to this majestic point.

With all euphoria of conquering the sacred Kumara Parvata's peak, we headed west now. Next stop Shesha Parvata, just 45 minutes away. On the peak of Shesha Parvata, with Kumara Parvata (KP) and Siddhara Betta (un-conquerable) backdrop, we had our lunch.

Isn't this a dream spot for the packed chapati and dry subzi lunch?

And my heart close to my mouth when some of our guys are trying things too risky with over 4000 feet of steep fall at the edges!

Along with height, this was also the peak of our energy levels.. From now on-wards, the real difficulty starts. Climbing down over 15 KM, finding a place to camp and rest for the night, and managing the steep climb down amidst some of the harshest conditions.. It is REALLY tough!

From a distance, things look easy.

But as you climb down, every step is challenging. It is slippery sand.. odd shaped pebbles and tightly packed odd shaped stones. Every step has to be careful or else you can fall or twist your ankle. Heavy on your knees and this is where you need lots of fluid consumption to keep up your energy and focus.

This was our original camping destination. The Kallu Mantapa (stone structure). But we moved on as water source was not good considering the nearing summer season.

At every few 100 feet, we see a person climbing up from the Kukke side. We ask them.. how far is Bhattara Mane (Bhatta's house, which is the ONLY place where we can get food, water, sleeping place and toilets during the entire trekking stretch). We were told, see that green area after the dry spots.. That's where it is. We were less than "one hour" away each time..

But it took a grueling 4 hours of climb down from the Shesha parvata to get near Bhattara Mane.

With all energy out.. stomach crying for a decent meal.. we set up the camps that we carried with so much difficulty all along. But it was WORTH it! I wouldn't describe much.. but we got at least 10 other tents as company near Bhattara Mane in the night. Talks, games, watching the bright stars from the camp during midnight, enjoying the gossip in a rain forest area.. it was heavenly!!

While waiting for dinner at Bhatta's home, we enjoyed the magnificent sun set.

Then the 90 minutes of wait for dinner was the longest in my life.. it felt like that. But the hot rice, saaru, butter milk and pickle seemed like heaven!!! After a whole day of climb and descent, after conquering nearly 20 KM of a tough stretch across the western ghats, this dinner along with 100 other folks was so tasty and so fulfilling.

Then the night at the camp till 5.30 AM wake up calls. Oh.. did I tell you that we slept not far from the elephant corridor in Karnataka, the state with the largest number of wild elephants in India? :)

All we had to do was trek down another 2 to 3 hours to reach Kukke Subrahmanya temple. Two of our friends already did the trekathon and reached in the evening itself. And the pleasant January chilly morning was ideal for us to trek down. We were well fed in the evening. Our knee pains had vanished with some good sleep.

But climbing down from Bhattara Mane is really scenic. It's tough. It's slippery and steep small rocks with each step, but really enjoyable. (Or maybe we had rest, so it was enjoyable).

After nearly 2 hours, reached the "Bheemana Bande" (Bhima's boulder). It's so awesome that I slept there for a few minutes. Took selfies from all sides. Even if someone charges me a few 1000 Rupees to sleep on it for 20 minutes, I would do that :)

And after a grueling 27 hours and over 25 KM of walking.. and most importantly after climbing up 2500 feet and climbing down nearly 5000 feet, we had done it! We reached the Kukke Subrahmanya side of the trekking path. The end!

Then some nice refreshing time.. Swimming and bathing in Kumara Dhara river.. It's considered a sacred river where your skin gets purified of all diseases.

Then a nice darshan of Subrahmanya Bhagawan at the temple. Tasty food and...

heading back fully refreshed, relaxed in spite of a grueling trek, and thoroughly excited :)

Go do this trek. You have 4 ways to capture Kumara Parvata.
Start from near Somwarpete like we did and end trekking down to Kukke (for this you need someone to take your vehicle on road while you trek).
Start from Kukke and do the trek till Somwarpete area. Again someone needs to drive your vehicle.
Start from Somwarapete and get back the same way. The easiest way!
Start from Kukke and get back to Kukke. This would be the most difficult way. You might need 2 full days, unless you are really a pro in trekking.

No matter which way you pick, carry lots of water, very light luggage, preferably individual tents and not heavy ones like we did, someone experienced with you, some pain killers/ muscle sprays, a small first aid kit, fully charged mobile phones (some areas you get signal) and a refreshed & well hydrated body! Have lots of fun.


160+ Pictures here if you want to browse through. Most have comments detailing the situation:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/110981894709471519856/albums/6107115113582064705

Some videos if you have time or planning to conquer this really tough mountain range!

After 2 hours of climb, this is where we were:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slvHJqHq-4E

You can hear me huffing and puffing after a big boulder climb. But I can assure you, if you reach this spot, your adrenaline kick would be so high, you would immediately decide to go back again!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWrrkFUg8CI

Do you plan on carrying a big camp? Watch this and then decide for yourself :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZs3NR4MSsk

And how can our friends miss the opportunity to loudly chant "Jai Shriram" after conquering one of the most difficult peaks in India?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti6pXhRYPlo

Two small Shiva temples exists on the top of Kumara Parvata.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WUBwYNaHZo

Commentary from the top of Kumara Parvata.. while enjoying breath taking greenery and peaks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNChvO2Mwbk

And, me video taping our ace photographer clicking from top of Kumara Parvata.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1SdXAFZKkI

And a view of Kumara Parvata and Siddhara betta (impossible to climb), from the top of Shesha Parvata where we had lunch. This Shesha Parvata is visible from the Kukke Subrahmanya temple!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy04N1Bvi5M

Go for it.. Climb up the Kumara Parvata.. Jai Subrahmanya!!

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!