The Valentine Day Gift of 17 Commandments to Prime Minister Modi :: Genuine Criticism or Sophism & Obscurantism at its Peak

After the Delhi Debacle for the Bharatiya Janata Party on February 10th, even the most insignificant of analysts and commentators of all hues have come out in the open to have their share of relevance into the unfurling public narrative. However, the interesting and disturbing part of their grand narrative remains their diabolical and dastardly attempt to perpetrate sophism & obscurantism. 

The author of a popular anthology carrying neo-youth motifs in its write-ups, too participated in this ordeal and issued a list of 17 Commandments to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a Valentine's Day Gift to his followers. The very shallowness & superficiality of his arguments somewhere showcase one of the root causes of the Delhi Debacle for the agenda of Good Governance & Development.

These 17 Commandments somewhere need a befitting response as they are based on half-baked facts and display a severe lack of even the basic understanding of the machinations of Governance & Geo-Politics. If this is the state of observation of a non-political celebrated youth writer, the destabilizing state of affairs can certainly be ascertained.

#‎CBCommandments - 1 :: Realise the Delhi election loss was a pure, unmitigated disaster. It has ended the halo around Modi, or the Modi wave. It has also shown the top leadership has no clue about the feelings of people on the street or their own party workers. It also casts doubt on Modi’s actual execution ability.
The high octane electoral battle of a pure urban centre which receives extra ordinary dosages of public doles by dint of being the seat of Central Government of India, and which is straddled by a conglomeration of immigrants from various parts of the country for better economic opportunity who eventually are much more privileged in terms of public benefits, can always be swayed and affected by a differential discourse. 

The motley mix of electoral arithmetic which accentuated this so-called "disaster" partly emerging out of an unforeseen chemistry between the perpetrators of a degenerating political discourse.
The very counterparts of this specialized electorate would thereby have much more rooted and rounded opinion.

Shifting the very coordinate axis for winning a spree of arguments is the very basis of sophism. How come the halo of a national leader be compared out of the outcomes of an electoral warfare of a single theater. The multilevel political organization of the country has been conceived and put into force to prevent political plagues like the ones which got heralded in the National Capital of Delhi.

India has just crossed the cusp of being a young democracy which has its own set of aspirations and value systems. Swaying the opinion of such a innocuous generation on phoney propositions and inconsistent set of political offerings can always be masqueraded as "the public opinion" by adventurist political entrepreneurs.

Doubting the actual execution ability of Mr. Modi, would be a far fetched assertion. People with such limited agenda and comprehension of state of affairs can be great entertainers in their right earnest. Commenting on complex matters of public policy and governance, need some corresponding credentials.

#‎CBCommandments  - 2 :: The PM, with all due respect, is floating too high. Come back to earth. Don’t try to present an image of a global statesman. You have won an anti-incumbency election when Congress was weak, by increasing BJP’s vote share by a few percentage points. You have not transformed India yet. Don’t go to Fiji. (Sorry Fiji, just that we have more important issues here.)

Seems like the respected author having the prestigious IITD & IIMA tags is unfortunately oblivious of the economic realities of this century. His primary credentials of evoking the habit of reading amongst the younger generation, by simplifying the linguistic constructs somewhere make him ignore the fundamentals of Globalized world order which has got accentuated in the last two and a half decades. 

The well laid out and duly practiced relation of geo-politics with economics has been completely sidelined when the author discounts that the Indian Premiere should not even try to present an image of a global statesman.

Indian transformation needs a set of harmonious global positioning with respect to India. Modi has been extremely successful in creating a resounding multi-polar world by asserting the right of the Indian Public in the comity of nations to progress and that too on its own chosen terms. India, which was seen as a mere market of 100 crore plus consumers, out of which a majority of which qualify as the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Guys & Gals) Generation, somewhere emerged as a economic behemoth at least in terms of potential rather than as a high-end TALENT POOL which can bring about the requisite transformation in a technology driven knowledge economy. For this to happen, we do need a high dosage of aspiration which if can motivate and inspire even a handful of competent, capable and committed youngsters can certainly disrupt the course of history. Even if a significant section of the Indian Graduates finishing off their doctoral studies in one or the other foreign universities can choose to return to India to contribute to her growth story, such an aspirational index is most warranted for.

Fiji is the last island, far off in the Pacific. The Prime Minister's visit to this island nation symbolically asserted India emergence as a global power. It was a message back home as well to the Indian Youth, that India has it in her and together with, Indian Resurgence is not a far fetched proposition. The idea was also to invoke the footprints of the Indian power spread all across the globe.

The impending clash is probably between the two warring narratives, whereby one sees India as a consumerist market, the other which intends to make it a dominating society & economy through a different kind of political & governance interventions.


#‎CBCommandments - 3 :: Don’t just get claps from NRIs. If they love you so much, ask them to pay. If one lakh NRIs commit to paying BJP $1,000 a year, that is a hundred million dollars of clean money annually. Use that to clean up BJP’s funding. When are you going to do that anyway?

If facts are to be believed, in the last 9 years Indian Families living abroad have contributed to the tune of $335 billion in foreign exchange thereby financing India's whopping Current Account Deficit (including the Rs 35000 crore worth of mobile phone which we import annually) which is much larger than the paltry $100 million.

I think, the rationale of the Prime Minister to visit Fiji was there quite well justified. It was to resonate the commitment of the Indian People with the People of Indian Origin residing even in a far fetched island as that of Fiji, and not just limited to some limited popular precincts on the globe. 

#‎CBCommandment - 4 :: Get the Lokpal. Have a good, independent CBI and CVC office. Clean up corruption systemically. Don’t say if Modi is there, nobody can be corrupt. What if Modi isn’t there tomorrow?

It's really interesting to note this dichotomous stand. On one go there is a complaint about the multiplicity of agencies in the semi-state of Delhi and an integrated set of institutions to better govern the national capital is advocated for. On the other hand, the demand to create yet another guzzler of public money in the name of a Jan Lokpal just to satisfy some of the octogenarian career aspirations and to rally a neo-political movement.

 

Constitutional Democratic Governance, rallies on an adequate balance of power for a stable equilibrium. There cannot be one single hinge or pivot around which the entire set of probity or propriety can rest.

The very argument of having an all encompassing Lokpal is quite overwhelming. What's can immediately help is to empower the existing set of institutions and make them effective?

A T N Sheshan got the Election Commission its teeth; a Vinod Rai could unleash the power of the CAG. Reforms in the CBI & CVC were also be accentuated by the noted journalist Vineet Narain, out of his singular crusade under corruption by making the CVC and CBI further accountable. In a vast and diverse nation like India, we just can't have disruptive propositions. We have to better our existing institutions incrementally.

#‎CBCommandment - 5 :: Don’t bully the media or juniors in the party. Inspire respect, not fear. Don’t be smug. Don’t kill talent in the party because it could be a threat to you one day. It’s not in BJP’s DNA to be a one-man party.

Well, in a democratic polity, a strong man is the strongest alone when this strength emanates from the entire power pyramid which has chosen him/her in the first place. Decisive Democracy surpasses the dilapidated demagoguery in the name of democracy. You can't dilute the power of democracy every now and then by retorting to theatrics of plebiscites and public polls as the complex business of governance is inter-connected having far reaching implications. 

A section of Indian Media motivated from diverse interests, has somehow retorted to the lowest ebb of intellectual insinuations with no objectivity and interestingly in the era of research & analytics, retorting to sheer sensationalism. This tabloid media whose protagonists are fighting their lone ego escapades have become the primary agents of anarchy and not of good governance. The former, makes it powerful, the latter forces them to become responsible and accountable. And who needs responsibility & accountability in a consumerist economy perpetrated by marketing mojos.
A Government is different from a Political Party and it needs to run professionally with the singular principle of Unity of Command.

#‎CBCommandment  - 6 :: Shut up regressive Hindutva fanatics. They talk. You ignore. They are your supporters. You have to tell them loud and clear this is not OK. The young generation doesn’t find it cool to support a leader who doesn’t believe in a free and equal society. Send some of your old-fashioned partymen abroad to learn about gender issues and minority rights. They will make you sink otherwise.

Every society has got its fringe elements who would continue having their extreme viewpoints. Whether, they are absolutely right or wrong is again a matter of larger societal discourse. The role of the government of the day is simply to safeguard the constitutional liberties guaranteed to all citizens under its supervision & governance. The law should take its own course objectively and in a non-partisan manner. The Hindu Fanatics have their right to expression, on a similar footing as that of the Zombie Zealots.

A civilized intellectual discourse has to be prevented from sheer name calling and monopolizing the narrative. Let the societal issues be left to the society itself without poking in undue political interventions. The youth of the country are sensitive & intelligent enough to make their informed choices. They would also bat for equality & freedom to express, profess and practice the views & convictions of even the Hindu Fanatics. A singular worldview on multifaceted societal issues has never been the Indian way.  



#‎CBCommandment - 7 :: Don’t be overconfident in your speeches. Keep a circle of critics around you, not just those who keep singing ‘Modiji is awesome’. Everything you utter in public must be pre-checked. If you did that, the Naxal and Bazaru comments would have been edited out. A PM cannot be a rabble rouser.

A Prime Minister is the Prime Leader of the country and has all the authority and freedom to express his very own way depending on the time, place and circumstances. Public leaders have the onerous responsibility to inform, education and shape the public opinion of the day. It can't be at its appeasing best, all the time unlike that of entertainers who simply look for commercial success. Any attempt to censor or control the sovereign right of expression of a Public Leader would be the death of democratic traditions. Victory or defeat, politics is largely a business of convictions and not of momentary opportunism.
 
#‎CBCommandment - 8 :: Dress down. Charisma comes from integrity, competence and compassion. Not from expensive clothes. 

Hold on. It's really going overboard in dressing down. Democratic Decency warrants for some restraint. If it was not integrity, the man under preaching would not have survived the long haul of opposition from all quarters for 12 long years. If it was not competence, the course of India's future would not have been catapulted towards long term prosperity and peace. If it would not have been for compassion, over 10 crore families would not have been brought into the formal financial fold.

The choice of clothes as well as its frequency of change is a personal choice. Do we really need to peep into the same and comment? If at all, the imagery which the Prime Minister intends to present to the whole world is of opulence and prosperity which is innately Indian. How this got stolen or robbed, is yet another elaborate topic. There is a lot of symbolism which a supreme leader carries with himself, it probably matches up with the direction in which he wants to lead his country towards.

#‎CBCommandment - 9 :: Stay connected to and do something visible for the youth. They screamed for you in the Lok Sabha election, filled their twitter and FB walls in your praise. What have you done for them? You went to SRCC to give a speech before election. Have you visited any college after that? Why not? Is Fiji more important (sorry again Fiji)?

The United States of America required some 250 odd years of uninterrupted interference from alien powers to come up to this stage. A Modern Indian Nation empowering and enabling its youth need some foundational steps before the edifice starts visible. Instead of provocative insinuations and pointless propaganda the youth need to be educated about these steps as a mark of responsible commentary. The future of youth just cannot be shaped by cosmetic phoney promises or superficial actions.

#‎CBCommandment - 10 :: The party president may be really clever. But sometimes it isn’t about who is most clever but who genuinely cares. Chess moves don’t win elections all the time. A connect with people does. The party president, given his perceived persona (which may be at variance with who he really is), doesn’t inspire confidence. You standing next to him is Amitabh Bachchan standing next to Amar Singh. Did it help Mr Bachchan?

Quite appalling comparisons with no relevance or co-relation with the context under consideration. If trivialization of the narrative to this extent is called popular writing and if this determines the popular mood, I would certainly like to work on this first before advancing ahead. But incidentally, at times the comprehension of the people is not that poor as is made to be believed by connoisseurs of cheap clamor. You reflect what you already are at times. 

The Modi-Shah combo is one of the finest which has ever happened in India's polity for a long long time. One is steering through the reigns of Government to unimaginable & unprecedented heights demanding accountability and performance; the other is taking care of the political machinery in due consonance & coordination. Never before such a delicate thread of trust and competence has been seen, at least on the political turf. This intricate resonance can only be accentuated when you are driven by higher motives of self-less service and are united in some well & widely cherished goal.

The relentless spirit and spree of work in which the combo has been working has a great possibility to usher the country to glorious heights. Trivializing the political conversation beyond a point sucks.

#‎CBCommandment - 11 :: Don’t talk down to people. Talk to people. Don’t address people if you never want to take questions. Don’t give monologues on radio. It reminds one of Indira Gandhi and North Korea. It’s not cool. Do you really think a kid in Delhi University will tell his friends, hey, can’t miss that Mann Ki Baat on radio?

I think that the first portal Mr. Modi got created was the www.mygov.in. How much of it has been used to communicate? A thinking and pro-active kid of Delhi University along with his horde of friends would certainly log in and express his innumerable ideas pertaining to various socio-economic-political issues and would not be mired in self-delusion & deceit which paragons of passive transformation would make him/her believe.

#‎CBCommandment - 12 :: Open more colleges. Open up tourism. Reduce taxes on high employment sectors. Give tax breaks for companies that move headquarters to smaller cities. Do anything to take skills and jobs to the interiors. Fix the primary schools. They have to teach well. Half our school kids can’t read properly.

The author seemed to have missed out the interim Union Budget in July. A simple hash tag analysis of Modi speeches would herald a new reality. The very purpose of Swacch Bharat Abhiyan is to boost tourism in the first place. Simply wait for the first full fledged Union Budget. Moving the headquarters to Smaller Cities need an augmentation of basic infrastructure. When the inner city precincts of the national capital have been stagnating for decades, what to talk of other cities per se. Doing anything in desperation won't help the skills and the jobs cause. I think there is a very strong foundation laid out in the form of Make in India. Just get a brief from the insiders who attended the day long super-intense workshop on Make in India. A much celebrated intellectual Nassim Nicholas Taleb has sung praises for the focus of the Modi Government on primary education. Don't miss out the reforms in the B.ED programme heralded by the MHRD.

#‎CBCommandment - 13 The cities need extensions with very low cost housing solutions, with good water, electricity and transport infrastructure. That is the only way the urban poor can live a life with dignity. Give them dignity. They didn’t vote for you in Delhi, remember? Win them back.

The stagnant Indian cities are being augmented under the vision of SMART CITIES. If you follow the real estate market, there has been an average drop of 30% in the prices. There is nothing new in this demand and ample work is happening on this forefront. The kind of approach & professional assistance which is being sought on each such schemes is mind-boggling. May be, you might like to go through some of the approach papers on Ministry of Urban Development Portal, you would find unprecedented bold steps going on. And this whopping work has been done is less than 9 months.

#‎CBCommandment - 14 :: Be real. Have work life balance. Why can’t the PM catch a movie sometimes? Or eat chaat in Delhi somewhere? A humanised PM works better than a glorified PM.

Quite a mixed bag of mutually contradictory commandments indeed. May be you may help produce a flick of substance worthy for the Prime Minister to take out his 2.5 hours in his next term. People of substance who inspire and drive the real word have no time to indulge, at least when there is so much to be accomplished and set straight.

#‎CBCommandment - 15 ::  No statues, please. School or statue? Hospital or statue? No need to explain further. 

Both have their due importance & relevance. Schools & Hospitals go hand in hand with statutes. Let's not get into a ruptured fragmented worldview.

#‎CBCommandment - 16 :: No personal attacks on opponents no matter how punchy the joke or the temptation to say it. Again, run it past those critical advisers first. 

The public discourse has got extremely vicious and biased towards a singular set of sensibilities, while ignoring the other. The increasing lack of comprehension of the motifs and meanings of native languages is one of the predominant cause of the same. India's public life has to be stubborn and all encompassing.

#‎CBCommandment - 17 :: No hanging out with rich industrialists. Of course, you may need to officially. But that doesn’t have to be a media event. Hang out with the billion people, not billionaires.

Deriding wealth & prosperity has been an hypocritical proposition for long which has somewhere condemned people to rise out of poverty. It doesn't serve any purpose whereby state remains the sole arbiter for people's energies. The creative entrepreneurial and business energy of the nation has its own value and importance. No sensible and visionary Prime Minister can draw daggers with the thriving business community of the country. This very fact proves the substance & vision of the Prime Minister. 

Epilogue

Mr. Bhagat, a very noble and well hearted individual having genuine concerns for the well-being of the nation has somewhere got hay wire in issuing these commandments to the Prime Minister. Being in the public space and commanding a sizable youth following, he ought to be extremely responsible in bringing out facts and not just advance his writings as a mere piece of fiction. Criticism and Comments are very central for a thriving democracy, but when Sophism (A deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone) & Obscurantism (A policy of opposition to enlightenment or the spread of knowledge) get supplanted, the integrity of individual comes under scanner. 

Oracles of Gloom : Good Governance Day on Christmas

Gloominess is what characterises a tribe of utterly alienated commentators on India's public discourse. Alienated because they have scant knowledge about the very country they are commenting upon and more so as they have almost no inclination to even get acquainted with the same. Their motifs, their symbols, their allegories and analogies are quite distant from the ethos, beliefs and lives of the very people they are supposedly concerned about in their commentaries.

With these inherent fixations, these commentaries can't be directed for the due consumption of the native people, as in that case empathy, compassion and an inherent commitment for change & transformation would have been reflective than mere satire and an all round attack on the very civilizational foundations of the natives. If these prophecies are simply meant for the consumption of the foreign alien interests, which can never be wholesome or harmonious in nature, then it's a different subject matter altogether.

Sagarika Ghose is one such Oracle of Gloom whose imaginations run far and wild. In her latest commentary published in Times of India titled 'Santa ki Jai' she goes on her journalistic best to advocate that Christmas is a thoroughly Indian Festival.

If Ms. Ghose would have been a little sympathetic to the Indians at large and would have been a bit more of an insider, she would have better used her gift of the gab to champion a more worthy cause rather than spending her creative energies to put forth an article of gloom for an issue which just doesn't exist.

For a celebrationist civilisation which boasts of 'Saat Vaar and Nau Tyohaar' (7 days and 9 festivals) Christmas is already an integral part of Indian way of life duly recognized and assimilated in the national mainstream like that of Good Friday, like that of Id, Muharram, Guru Parb and all others. 

The birth of Christ is a cause of great applause and a source of jubilation for the Indian masses who celebrate the birth and death anniversaries of a large number of gurus, saints and seers. There are ekadashis, pooranmasis, amavasyas, chauths, ashtamis, saptamis and what not bearing their philosophical and religious connotations which are all celebrated in the Indian Households. 

There is enough space and accommodation for all celebrations in the Indian way of life that it outsteps the extreme of affecting the productivity of a modern economy at times. Where there is already so much abundance, accommodating a single day should not be and interestingly has never been an issue.

The inherent gloominess of this piece is either an outcome of a mischievous plot or is probably a result of the sheer lack of comprehension emanating from utter ignorance about the machinizations of the Indian mind. 

In the Indian tradition, there are layers of festivities. If on an important festival, someone in the family dies, that festival turns into remorse. It's not celebrated in the family till another occasion of joy like the birth of a child supplants the same. It's a fine tradition of locking in and locking out a social occasion. 

The aforesaid was a binary case, so easy to understand. Now going a bit deeper, there are festivals over festivals superimposed on each other as layers of design on a Corel Drawl or a Photoshop file. There are mere 365 days in the year, but innumerable number of social occasions which mark the same day. So what you would do? You would simply create a layered framework giving every occasion it's due space. 

Now depending on the priority and inclination people choose and celebrate in their own ways and means without getting into the unwarranted discourse of 'Christmas Day as Good Governance Day'.

It was probably not the conspiracy of the stars following the dictum of the marauders of Hindutva that Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya and Atal Bihari Vajpayee were made to share their birthdays with Jesus Christ. To add insult to this injury, these two individuals grew out to be the charismatic mass leaders of the Indian people by their sheer hard work and commitment to the public cause.

We do have many in our extended family whose birthdays co-incide with Janamashtami, Ramnavami. This poor author too shares its birthday with Ramanujaharya as per the lunar calendar.  What we then do is to synthesize the large occasion with that of the personal one. My mother never wailed as Ms Ghose seems to be in great slumber that you have capsized the birthday of the great stalwart like Ramanujacharya. It rather amused her that I got to born on the same day as that of a great Vaishnav acharya. The latest always used to take precedence over the old. 

If my daughter shares the same birthdate as that of MHRD minister, I would naturally prefer to be in the birthday bash of my little sweetheart while would obviously greet the minister and an elder sister duly as well. I don't see any contradiction or controversy in this modus operandi.

Why can't the Good Governance Day superimpose on the Christmas festivities? Why can't the Indian kid be tuned in to this glorious tradition of synthesis whereby he is made to celebrate not just one, but 3 birthdays in one go. He would get inspired by the life and times of these stalwarts in their own spaces and would somewhere create a differentiated impact through his well led life. 

The life and times of Malviya ji and Vajpayee ji are a great source of invitation for the Indian people. By juxtaposing the celebration of their appearance day, with the core central mission of Good Governance of the present disposition should be a cause of great satisfaction rather than remorse to these observers of Indian Public Life. We can always dilute the intention and integrity of an action, but as a refresher why can't we see the immense beauty and effectivity of the entire proposition? 

School kids or for that matter, citizenry of a knowledge civilization harboured in a sovereign nation state having a democratically elected majority government should not be treated like an imperial sheep. Their innate intrinsic inclinations and aspirations need to be respected and adhered to. 

I have no qualm in being one with Ms Ghose in accepting the fact that all the colors of India are represented at Christmas. Then why not add a couple more. 

Ms Ghose, let's shed off this gloom and gear up to celebrate the Good Governance Day on Christmas. You certainly would do a great piece on that.

Can there be any better service to Christ who always worked for the poorest of the poor? 

The quintessential Ram Madhav :: From Emergence of Indian Era to India Ideas Conclave

We become what our motivators and mentors inspire and influence us to be. 

I have had the unique privilege and opportunity to be in touch with one of India's ardent nationalists of this era for over a decade. 

The rendezvous with Ram Madhav ji took off when we invited him for a guest lecture at IIT Kharagpur in fall 2003 under our fledging Students' Forum for India's Heritage. The theme of the talk was chosen as 'Emergence of the Indian Era'. 

Before the emergence of a grand nation like India, could be discussed and talked about, we had to make sure the emergence of common interest amongst the student community about this talk. 

There was a sinister sensation across the campus which boldly elucidated on its main building 'Dedicated to the Service of Nation', that the Official Spokesperson of RSS is coming to address KGPians. 

Being an enthusiastic band of passionate youngsters determined to explore the objective foundations of Indian Nationhood, we went further to hear as to what the most versatile nationalist organization of India had in it to offer. 

Till then, I personally was an uninitiated 'Sanghi' as is the popular label accorded to those who dare to love and admire the vast landmass of 32 lakh square kms spread from the majestic Himalayas to the mind boggling Indian Ocean and its innate intrinsic variegated cultural and spiritual ethos. 

My quest to synthesize my vaishnavite spiritual moorings with my feeble but dominant sense of belongingness to my village, town, state and country couldn't be satiated by any of the mutually competing and warring spiritual cults prevalent on the campus. 

My inability to grow beyond the national boundaries into a true universal self, something which was so very easy to accept and accommodate for a lot many of my friends. 

I was thereby condemned to sustain and survive as an outcast having eccentric 'ebola' type ideas. 

It was this rendezvous with Ram Madhav ji which comforted me that I was probably not the only odd man out. 

The content of the talk is not very vocal on my memory, but the overall impressions of that small but significant interaction somewhere gave me an anchor and a much wider window to explore and quench my inner moorings to synthesize spirituality with nationalism.

A spark is what is needed to put you on charge. It somewhere happened automatically while being in touch with a man who had stood and lived for his convictions.

In a bid to link up the well meaning and wide base thinking student bodies across premiere institutions of the country and spread the contagion, we ended up meeting with Ram Madhav Ji all over again within a year in June 2004.

This was incidentally just after graduating from the comfortable confines of the campus. A lot of issues of national concern were duly discussed and the various reasons behind the same were explored as well. 

One key central message which got impinged on my inner consciousness were the words of Ram Madhav ji again that India needs to build up a Nationalistic Intellectual Movement as this is the most wanting ingredient for national resurrection. It's from this fountainhead that the real and effective solutions to Indian problems would emerge.

Carrying the additional burden of these guiding words, I entered into the School of Life and somehow or the other couldn't continue for long away from my fascination and conviction to make some meaningful difference somewhere. 

During my stint to contribute to restore the pristine glory and grandeur of Braj Bhoomi and thereafter with my initiation into the field of developmental and educational journalism in an entrepreneurial mode, whenever I was in doubt about the chosen path, a direct or indirect interaction with Madhav ji used to reinstate the conviction. 

Till then, I had encountered and met with and worked under a lot many people of eminence, nobody could provide that anchoring effect despite the elaborate interactions which even a word or a line of Madhav ji would induce.

Somewhere or the other, the dispassionate approach and an all encompassing architecture of his scheme of things, used to catalyse that comforting confidence.

I am still in the process of unraveling the nuances of this approach which comes to you in times of your strenuous times when your self gets quite heavy. 

The ascendance of the nationalist aspirations of the country in the form of a majority government under the leadership  of Prime Minister Modi, somewhere created the rightful platform for evoking and accelerating the building up of a Nationalistic Intellectual Movement, something which was duly espoused by Ram Madhav Ji a decade back in front of some fascinated youngsters entering into the school of life. 

Today, when I am present at the valedictory session of India Ideas Conclave, I can very well sense the resilience and doggedness of this man of few but forceful words. He invited, communicated and met with the same dispassionate but contagious affection. 

It dawned upon me that it requires this level of grit and determination to influence and contribute to the national life. I got a chance to laugh, contemplate and forgive myself for my youthful fallacies during my very little journey so far.

The Quintessential Ram Madhav somewhere represents that innate intrinsic spirit of man making and motivating youngsters like me to a directed path to channelize their energies to make some meaningful difference somewhere and give some relevance to their existence. 

I can say with responsibility and confidence that I certainly have found a definitive life goal and path to tread on, thanks to the rendezvous which took off a decade back and still continues. 

The Ruckus over Ramzaade - Haramzaade Taxonomy :: The Tactics of Obscurantism in India's Public Discourse

The sadistic pleasure of breaching the impregnable & closely guarded armor of Prime Minister Modi's stellar performance so far might be the innate intrinsic reason for the procrastination of the resolution of the parliamentary logjam over the supposed Ramzaade Vs. Haramzaade taxonomy unleashed by Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti during an electoral expression at Delhi recently. 

While the Prime Minister has dis-approved of her remarks to placate the shenanigans of parliamentary discourse. He has much more to accomplish on his governance agenda which needs a parliamentary sanction, the reason for his supposed softening and letting go approach. 

However, this entire episode presents an interesting opening into exploring the undue bias, dichotomy & sophism which has got crept into India's public discourse. This is somewhere to reign in the self-expression of the people at large in the language and lingo they are comfortable and well versed with. 

Sadhvi's political discourse somewhere emanates from the traditional Indian worldview whose central inquiry and concern for time immemorial has been around the twin axis of dharmic and adharmic conduct. The ignorant and uninitiated adherents of alien & adversary ideologies might deride it by labeling it as an Hindutva bandwagon. So what? What's wrong with Hinduism after all. It's one of the finest living traditions on the earth which advocates for universalism, positive assimilation and transcendence of humanity to higher echelons through self penance.


It's interesting but alarming at the same time to note the dubious sensitivity of these rabble rousers who would celebrate and sanction the terming of a bollywood actress as Asia's most sexiest woman - someone who tends to arouse sexual desire or interest. Objectification of the institution of womanhood is an accepted reality, but the classification of dharmic and adharmic conducts sends shiver down their spine as it somewhere exposes the inadequacies & hypocrisies of their political worldview. 

What Vishal Sikka has put very boldly that Indians don't speak up, they simply tend to follow orders. This smacks of a defeated, subjugated and tormented people. They fear in speaking up because they lack the courage, the confidence and the conviction that they would be laughed at, mocked at and looked down upon in some way or the other. They don't take a stand against these very attacks on their civilizational ethos because they still live under a psychological threat to their very personal, social and cultural liberties which somewhere continued for more than half a century after the exodus of the British from the Indian Soil.

The all-out support of the Indian people in the centenary year of World War - I to the self-assuring voice in Narendra Modi is just a reflection & proof of their deeply rooted fears which persist to this date. 

Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti's taxonomy is just an outward example of that innate intrinsic need of self-expression of the common Indian which is not shrouded in the homilies of "white man's burden". It's simple, honest and closer to life, which is led and pursued by this billion plus nation for millennias. The diversionary tactics of heralding obscurantism would probably not withstand their credence any further.

Taking the Best of West and not the Waste of it

The West has given some of the finest technological and managerial wonders to the entire humanity. There is however a drive to restructure and reorient the entire world around them. This might be a justifiable objective of the thinkers, philosophers and leaders of the western civilization. All the intellectual skulduggery confined in the research and advocacy can be given a fair chance as well honoring the innate intrinsic right of every civilization to push through its very own values, visions and virtues.

Nevertheless, invoking the very same principle of reciprocity the other oriental and ancient civilizations of the east should have the right to exercise their very own choices as to what they consider worth accommodating, adopting and accepting. 

The thinkers, scholars and leaders of these civilizations should exercise their discretion in allowing only the best what west has to offer and avoid the waste which it's astute business minds tend to push onto the humble, civilized, self contained and non-aggressive people of the eastern worlds.

In the garb of hallowed but hollow skewed and monopolised concepts of globalization, technology, democracy and blind faith of evoking fairness in all human transactions by dint of freedom accorded to the market forces the indigenous individual rights of civilizations just can't be snatched away or at best duped in the name of people's choice brought about using the power of ruthless reckless unbridled media which adheres and pushes the worldview of its benefactors.

There is therefore a greater need to consolidate the indigenous experience and create an elaborate blue-print of what all to accept and what all to discard from the west. The power of technology shows be unleashed by independent voices to create a truly interconnected world and not dominated by one civilization in particular.

The mantra which need to get propounded and propagated is 'Accepting the best of West while avoiding the Waste of it.'

A decade of discovery

June 1st 2014 marks the end of a decade of discovery for a youthful me having a lot of dreams and determination graduating from IIT Kharagpur and stepping into the real world full of challenges and inequities. The 3650 days that have passed by have had a recokening of their own. 

The social beliefs got normalized, the spiritual realizations got strengthened, the political understanding got fine tuned, the intellectual worldview got widened, the emotional self got stratified.

The decade was full of tormenting losses as well as tantalizing gains. At the very start of this momentous journey I lost my beloved father, whose words of wisdom do guide and goad me to this date. The more I advance in life, the more grateful I become of my father and get filled with the awe and reverence to his grand intellect and grasp of the real state of affairs. And towards the close of this memorable decade got blessed with a lovely daughter who has been named by her grandma after the reigning deity of Braj Bhoomi Nikunjeshwary Srimati Radharani. 

The coming in of Surbhi in my life 3 years back started yet another chapter of deeply anchored stupendous success on all forefronts. I had the distinction of harbouring a set of good motives, loads of sincerity to accomplish the same but had somewhere gone dry and rough on the emotional plank. The coming in of Surbhi added that much needed dimension of all round love, acceptance and accommodation. Her day to day tips to handle both the mundane as well as the most meticulous and strategic professional challenges elevated her to the status of not just a wife but a constant friend, philosopher and guide. The care and control which she takes of me makes my mother greatly relieved that she has got the good fortune of passing on the baton to a worthy Bahu who easily fits into the cherished role of leading the family from the front.

The very first evidence of the same was displayed when Gaurav's matrimonial project was driven singly by Surbhi. It was on her behest and consistent effort that he could get his soulmate well in time.

These 10 years were a reckoning on the family forefront whereby I witnessed the increasing hollowness, hypocrisy and helplessness of family relationships both on the paternal as well as the maternal side. After getting married the same scenario was witnessed amidst the paternal and maternal sides of my spouse as well. This somewhere certified the much widespread decay which has engulfed our personal bondings whose bindings have gone utterly materialistic, contracted & constricted to the nearest nuclear concept of a family. This might be giving a sense of fulfillment in the immediate run but is severely weakening the social structure not just in the longer run but also in the medium one. 

Got the biggest emotional trauma of my life when I tried to stand upto my belief of a family and the sense of duty towards the extended family comprising of my Mamaji over the issue of marrying his daughter and our beloved cousin sister. The severe abrogation of trust in a relationship which was forged at birth and the sheer hypocrisy & silence of the entire set of relatives ever-ready to burn their time and money on family festivities was mind blowing and hooked me off in its entirety from the business of family relationships. This cost me severely on the professional front as well as it led to the momentary closure of the version 1 of my media enterprise. The blow was momentary but reckoning on multiple counts. It blew me apart for a while, but then I recovered and restored my personal belief all over again and committed myself to make a dent in the space by my own exemplary conduct as well as through the creation of a larger advocacy and sensitization framework.

While being in college, I was deeply drawn to the exhortation boldly engraved on the main building 'Dedicated to the service of nation'. The impression got so severe that I couldn't contain myself on a well paying and self-serving career in the IT industry. My explorations for a meaningful platform to channelize my ethos and energies took me to the land of Braj whereby a larger movement to restore the pristine glory and grandeur of the fabled land inspired by Sri Ramesh Babaji and spearheaded by the noted investigative jounalist Sri Vineet Narain was building on. The inner conviction of creating a meaningful difference somewhere hooked me instantly to this open ended challenging but worth trying project. I started with utmost commitment and dedication and contributed towards the building of a global Braj restoration movement on all forefronts. 

As it happens with all loosely held socio-spiritual movements, people with all motivations and denominations do come and engage in an innate power struggle to exploit the best out of the drive. 

An overdose of idealism compounded with a blind belief in the infallibility and absence of human frugality of the top preceptor and spiritual leader, made me inflexible and created undue hurdles of ego clashes. I tend to make inadvertent attacks on silent but dominant aspirations of a many in the establishment an thereby became unpopular despite immense hard work and results on ground. The political side of even a so called sacred social movement driven by spiritual sensibilities was my biggest realization. This could however come only at the cost of a severe death threat heralded by the strongmen of the very high headed, noble and pious institution which I considered my inspiration and soul keeper. 

My foray into creating an enterprise of my own in the educational Infomedia space also brought their own share of learning. Over reliance in the goodness of people, the inherent motivations and diverse temptations, the power equations and a whole lot of other worldly dynamics got further transparent. 

The life journey however goes on and every day is a new discovery. However the decade gone by was noteworthy as it mapped quite closely with national events. I graduated in the year when Atal Bihari Vajpayee lost the India Shining Appeal. I moved on to create my own educational media enterprise after serving the Braj Bhoomi for 5 long years in the year when India elected UPA-II. I am closing this memoir in an year when the country has ascended Narendra Bhai Modi to usher an era of good days. 

After all these ups and downs; coronations and criticisms; failures and successes, the convictions and beliefs with which I had started this fantastic journey stand much more amplified and strong. However a lot of worldly wisdom has dawned into handling the day-to-day imperfections. The flight of fancy and dominance of romanticism over reason still rule the roost, as it continues to the innate intrinsic DNA of mine, life really goes on and on. 

Swadharme Nidhanam Shreyah; Pardharmo Bhayavah goes the saying. It's better to pursue one's own convictions and beliefs rather than to retort to those of others. 

I could withstand with this ideal so far amidst all tormentations and hope to continue the same even in the next decade which unfolds with all its tribulations. 

The tryst with destiny continues.

The dawn of a new era :: 50 Years After Nehru

May 26th, 2014 would go as a watershed day not just in the history of India but also of the entire world. It would mark the departure of India's First Prime Minister and his ideological undercurrents which continued to influence India's statecraft 50 long years ago even after his demise and the ascendance of India's 15th Prime Minister who has a mind and worldview of his own.

While the late J L Nehru ascended on the India's political scene courtesy his Anand Bhawan legacy as well as the blessings of the national leader of the time Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Narendra Damodardas Modi had to confront one and all to make his way upto the top. The very patriarch who could have anointed him as his political successor simply found himself in a competing slot. 

While Nehru was the blue eyed boy of the retreating imperialists as his beliefs and vision were quite in sync with theirs, Modi is seen with tremendous suspicion and caution by the powers of the day in a yet another epoch of global change.

While Nehru was unapologetic for his English taste and convictions, Modi has not let any doubt about his conviction for Hindu Nationalism and to put it into practice. This would certainly mark the political advent of a third worldview of Pagan ethos led by the Commonwealth of Hinduism apart from the Christian and  Islamic ones.

Even after being the protege of the Mahatma, Nehru was known for his vociferous indulgences of all extremes, Modi coming from his RSS training is a mere tea totaller who displayed his frugal vegan life by ordering a pure vegetarian banquet right on his swearing day.

While Nehru was oblivious and anachronistic to the Indian ethos & traditions and systematically sidelined the leadership of the day to a dry, materialistic, indulgence ridden ideological cocktail which later came to be recognised as Nehruvianism; Modi on the other hand is extremely vigilant about the cultural diversity of India and has the mettle to not only understand it but also the uncanny capacity to synthesize it in prevalent systems and institutions.

Nehru's 18 year rule and romanticism was somewhere involved in brewing an unnecessary impractical cocktail which led to the eventual invasion of India by China. Modi on the other hand has demonstrated in his 12 year stint in the State of Gujarat a unique originality on almost all fronts quite in sync with the realities and realizations of the Indian ethos. He displayed his statesmanship right on his swearing in day by engaging the immediate neighbours load stock barrel.

While Nehru created a blind trust and belef into the capabilities of the western educated mandarins, Modi is more biased towards sons of the soil for critical advise and action.

Nehru was enamoured by power and pelf and most importantly the personal cult to such an extent that even after being preferred over Sardar Patel to take on the reigns of the nation, he dumped his very benefactor and his entire vision for the nation at large. Modi, though might have passed through a gruelling succession heat, has not sidelined any of the ideals and vision which his political mentors in Vajpayee, Advani and Joshi had crafted all through their political life. He lives and seems to continue the same principals. The operations might see his characteristic originality.

While Nehru left a battered, bruised and breathless nation which had to beg for even food grains, Modi by all means is expected to leave a legacy of self-reliance, self-confidence and self-sustainability.

They say it's all in the man at the top. This 26th May after 50 years of Nehru's demise would go down as a transformational day for the nation as a whole.