Underwhelmed by one year of BJP’s government

It has been over a year since BJP formed its first full majority government.  And if one were to step back to look into this one year, one is underwhelmed by the performance of the government.  Now before I am branded as another die-hard critic who sees only the nefarious and amoral in all that the new government has done. Let me clarify one thing, I am and continue to be one of the biggest supporter of Narendra Modi. As founding member of an organization that played a vital part in ensuring Narendra Modi’s victory, I along with others have toiled hard to convince people to support Narendra Modi. Infact, it gives me pride to say that, we started campaigning for Modi in June 2013, when even the BJP had not even appointed him as the campaign chief in the Goa conference and where the established opinion was that the likelihood of Narendra Modi becoming PM candidate was as unlikely as India winning the next Football world cup. Further even though we spent our time and money in galvanizing across 2 states, hundreds of towns and thousands of villages, we at the culmination of our goal dissolved the very organization and got back to our normal lives. Hence it is the voice of someone who has staked a lot on Narendra Modi that I claim that I am underwhelmed.

Also neither I am those who had unrealistic expectations from this government. I understand how economics work and Rome was never built in a day. I am not demanding my Bullet trains today as I know that it take’s years to build one nor am I asking India to become a developed nation in the next five years. I clearly understand that things take time and effort to succeed. Therefore the question arises is why do I feel underwhelmed by the government’s performance. Given that it is a true fact that government has minimized and eradicated corruption at the highest levels, has given rigour to foreign ministry languishing since the days of Indira Gandhi. The government has done many things right from modernization and importance given to defence sector to socio-economic policies like the insurance schemes and others. The Swach Bharat Abhinayan is truly commendable and if it succeeds it would be truly transformational.

No, it is not because that I don’t see the positive developments in the last one year nor is it because that I doubt their intentions that I feel underwhelmed. No, not at all. The main reason, I feel underwhelmed is the progress made on the economic and development front. I see clear lack of rigour and drive towards development, economic reform and rejuvenation. My main grouse, when Narendra Modi set us a target of 272+, the so called “intellectual” opinion of this country sniggered at our unrealistic and quixotic goal. Even the staunchest of Narendra Modi’s supporter never believed we will win more than 272 seats to become the first non congress party to win majority on its own. We succeeded in achieving the same precisely because we set ourselves hard and brutal targets and strove with determination, single-minded focus on achieving it and nothing distracted us on our path to victory. Today, I see a lack of similar sentiment in the way government is approaching matters, from GST to land ordinance bill, from Labour reforms to relegating useless laws and regulations.

What the government has done in the last one years on the reform and development agenda has not be unique or special. It did not a Narendra Modi to do it and any sensible government could have done the same. If BJP had in its wisdom chosen Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley or any other so called secularly acceptable PM candidate, BJP would still have likely formed the next government in a coalition of myriad partners. This coalition government of Arun Jaitley would have easily achieved what this government has achieved in the last one year. Then the question arises is why has the government till now done what any mediocre Arun Jaitley government could have done with coalition government. Why did hundreds of thousands of youth organize themselves spend time and money in electing Narendra Modi has prime minister with a full majority if all that could have been achieved would have been achieved without us doing so. When I look back, I remember the volunteers with whom I interacted who were ready to spend even their meagre earnings to campaign for Narendra Modi and I feel disheartened that all their efforts have not mattered as we ended up appointing a Jaitley government rather than Narendra Modi led one.

Hence I urge our Prime Minister to relook at the last one year critically and understand the tremendous effort of the volunteers who are all looking for the same single minded determination, focus towards achieving unrealistic goals. To display drive and rigour in achieving necessary actions to reform and deregulate the mess created by the 65 years of misrule and set us up for double digit growth for the next two decades. Enough of testing waters solutions, half-hearted attempts, misaligned thrusts and working on “consensus solutions”. I would like to end my case by saying

 “Bas Karo Jaitley Sarkar ab Chahiye Modi Sarkar “

Is Indian army preparing for a war in Central Europe - Have we got the priorities right for the future

One can finally see a sense of purpose and impetus to move forward in the Indian military establishment. This is can be largely attributed to change in leadership and appointment of an energetic and purposeful defense minister. In the past one year, a spate of modernization programs have been cleared or commission and existing programs have been speed-ed up. The general view on these actions is that the intent is right but a lot needs to be done to rectify the years of inaction. But noone is asking the most important question on the army's modernization program and that is, whether it is planned anticipating the future. 

Let us get straight to the point, why is the Indian armed establishment preparing itself for conflict in central Europe rather than a Himalayan conflict in the north and Naval conflict in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). And are we equipping ourselves with the right tools to fight these conflicts.  The reason the question is being asked is that our armed forces are trying to build a platform similar to the one the cold war powers possessed during their stalemate on the German plains. 

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A prime example being India's continued efforts to build Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun. As the First and Second Gulf War, IDF-Hezbollah war and other modern conflicts have proved, Main Battle Tank is an out-dated concept. While they were the main thrust tools for Soviet plans through the Fulda gap, in today's low intensity conflict, they are just cumbersome piece of equipment with little tactical advantage. Given that majority of our border is mountainous, a Main battle Tank is useless in any conflict with China or future low intensity warfare in Kashmir like Kargil war. Therefore, wouldn't it better if India instead focused on building low turreted futuristic platforms like the Russian Armata that can be developed to various vehicles evolved to operate in different situations. 

This takes us to another important point, are we spending enough on research in Mountain warfare and High attitude warfare. Simple but very important aspects including cold weather clothing and material research, mountaineering equipment are in some cases still being imported and not produced indigenously. If this is the situation of our preparedness in terms of even basic necessities, we can as well forget about ability to fight futuristic warfare. Take for-example the research by countries on development of Wing-suits for long distance insertion deep inside enemy territory. This is highly relevant for mountainous terrain in the Tibetan plateau. This is just one of many things that we are not looking into. In-fact given that more than America or Russia, mountain warfare is highly relevant to us, we should be at the forefront of developing radical and path breaking weapons. India's defense establishment should not only have long term strategic plan for mountain warfare but also dedicated laboratories for development of radical technologies rather than as in today focusing on irrelevant research such as the discovery of Sanjeevani plant.

The point of building an army for the past is not just the case of the Indian army but also its naval and air forces. Take for examples, the tremendous money being spent on building aircraft carrier groups. Once again aircraft carrier groups are becoming obsolete from their hey-day in world war II and cold war world. Just as Long range Bombers made battleship's irrelevant, access denial strategies involving cruise and ballistic missiles are making today's aircraft carriers nearly impotent. The latest issue of the Economist, calls for development of such fantastic technologies such as Rail guns and directed energy laser weapons if aircraft carriers and other surface ships are to remain relevant in modern battlefield. Given that India's potential conflict will be more likely with China than Pakistan. How would Indian aircraft carries be effective when China has devised ways to counter and neutralize American carrier group dominance. And surely, China would down the road give access to Pakistan to such carrier defeating technology like the recently tested WU-14 which would easily neutralize all our planned aircraft carriers. 

The Economist in the same issue calls for America to develop its third offset technological jump innovations. It asks for America to ditch the expensive human controlled fighter aircraft in favor automated drones. In this context, the entire debate about Rafale and Grippen aircraft is non sequitur. India should rather emphasis on developing low cost stealthy automated drones that can produce rapid and large scale impact. 

Hence it is time, India stopped building a World War II army. Sure the mandarins of the armed forces would rather like to have Big Tanks, Big Ships (aircraft carriers) and Faster Jets. But the defense minister should take holistic view of the future and conserve our limited resources in developing and building the forces required to fight a 2040 war rather than 1940 one. India should follow the leads of China, Russia and America and develop multi utility armor platforms and integrated soldier packs. The focus should be for rapid response, high impact warfare in limited time-scale as modern battle will evolve to that. India air modernization should focus on Drone and anti-drone warfare in the same vein while the naval department should increase its focus on submerged warfare including larger submarine fleet and even autonomous unmanned submarine drones. And not the least, India should remember that tomorrow's battlefield will be five dimensional one rather than a three dimensional like in the past. Cyber and space warfare will be a key component of any attack.  Development of anti-satellite and anti ballistic technology will be key in the latter's case while harnessing Indian IT and technological bench strength to develop cyber capabilities to not only defend our assets but also as a deterrent for future mischief.  

Therefore the minister should think for the future, think out of box taking an outside view rather than being confined to vision of bureaucratic mandarins of the north block.

What China wants from India?? - Untangling the Liberal narrative

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarks on his three day visit to China, the question that needs to be correctly asked is “What does China really WANT from India??” Before we attempt to answer this question, it is important to understand “What China does NOT WANT from India??” This question is critical to untangle the myth perpetuated by Left liberal intelligentsia and “secular” establishment about Chinese intentions about India.  The myth about Indian Chinese friendship, the repeated calls of shared heritage of two ancient civilizations working towards a stable global order while cooperating closely economically, politically and culturally.  This is in-fact a repackaged version of Nehruvian “India China Bhai Bhai” philosophy that led to historic defeat in 1962.  

What China does NOT WANT from India is peaceful and cooperative friendship between two equal partners. Now before our hyperventilating Liberal friends jump and accuse us of war mongering and retort that China is not currently in a war with us. Let me clarify that the operative word here is equal. China is not like the rabid minded Pakistan intent on continuous warfare with us. However China never intends to consider us as an equal partner, anything but that they consider us as infinitely inferior and subservient race.

Yet, why does the left liberal intelligentsia perpetuate the myth of Chinese Indian friendship. They do because there are three different set of people all part of this group who have stake in perpetuating this myth.

The first set is the establishment itself, the ancien regime of political-bureaucratic leviathan that has characterized our governance for the past 65 years. The motive for them to propagate the myth is to cover the huge governance bankruptcy under their establishment. In the decades since Independence, this establishment has fretted away critical years in corruption, nepotism and short sighted policies instead of building strategic capacity. Similar to the typical Delhi attitude of looking at one’s near abode and thinking only of personal advancement and aggrandizement, officials and political masters responsible for Chinese policy have for too long focused on promotions, departmental feuds, ego battles and making money out of everything including toilet seats.  Hence today they have NO CLUE about China. They really don’t know what Chinese think economically, politically or militarily and what their objectives are. Therefore to cover their sheer incompetence they proceed with blustering their way out. As typified by our former foreign minister’s response to Chinese incursions as mere acne on the face. They shout out from all available media that everything is fine and there is nothing amiss and that we need to continue this “exalted” friendship with China.

The second set consists of the “Hippie”, idealistic, utopian, day dreaming crowd of left liberals. This set typified by our usual AAP supporters believe in the global order of Human beings. To them, the world is harmonious collection of people who need to live peacefully with each other by sharing and giving and caring and so on…. Similar to their economic and governance philosophy, their foreign policy is centred on the core belief that every human being is absolutely good at heart and intent on global wellness. Now however wishful this might seem, we know that this is not true when we look at the cold reality of our existence. Just like how organized communes and Mohalla shabhas fail in our real world, so does this Utopian foreign policy. However this left liberal set, who consists the largest among the three sets utilize every channel to call out for peace. To them the ideas of real politick and strategic building of capacity are horrors that disrupt their childish fascination to achieve the cartoonish world of “knob the builder” or “Dora the explorer”. Therefore they will like hugging trees to prevent development will do all that is possible to disrupt anything that can be considered “war like”.

Finally, the third and most dangerous set are the set of people who are completely against the very idea of India. This includes the Maoists, their sympathizers, JNU crowd and other anti-national elements including Medha Patkar, John Dayal and others of the NGO crowd. This set secretly wishes for disruption and destruction of India itself and Balkanization into multiple entities. Their desire is driven by ideological anchorage to Mao China, similar to Kolkattans who celebrated the Chinese advance in 1962. They are actively sponsored and device many devious ways to propagate their goal. And hindering all matters of developing capabilities to counter react to Chinese designs is foremost part of their strategy. Hence they will try to blind us all in to believing Chinese friendship and good intentions and warnings us not to look at gift horse by its mouth.

Given that we have now untangled the web of lies spread by left liberals about what China wants from India. Let us look at what they really WANT from us.  There are two main driving factors to understand this.

One, China wants to dominate the world. This is fact that is now known by most of the global sane population. Here again lets us not be dissuade by false arguments about retard-ness of the above statement as it is foolish for China to engage in World War III.  The fact is that the entire premise China doesn’t want to dominate the world because they don’t want global conflict is again a product of childish thinking. As detailed out in the book “The Hundred year Marathon” by Michael Phillsbury, China wants to achieve dominance in the world by replacing USA as the pre-eminent power of 21^st Century. This would entail developing economic, political and military might silently through stealth and mis-interpretation of intent.  China would like to then redesign global institutions and order in a framework of its liking. The principle drive for this is to reverse the humiliation of recent past under western imperialism and hark back to the glorious days of “Heaven’s Mandate”. 

Hence, for them any coupling of India and China is naturally insulting. The whole India China bracketing is unjust and illogical. The truth is that we are nowhere near China economically, politically or militarily, Our 65 years of left liberal establishment has hallowed us from within. They know this and they resent any attempt to equate us with them. Our previous establishment’s attempt to mask in the fake glory of being equal to China definitely instigates it to show the world what our place is.

Secondly, though China understands that India currently is nowhere near matching it. India still has the potential in next 50 years to seriously undermine Chinese order. This is because of the sheer weight of our numbers. Just like in the initial stages of WW2, inferior Russian forces were able to halt superior German forces by their huge and almost infinite size of army and land. India even today can in the next decade develop enough capability to make any Chinese intervention into a costly affair. It is only India and India alone that has in the future the potential to give Chinese a bloody nose if we get our act together.

Therefore, China really doesn’t want India to develop and acquire the potential and the capabilities. China doesn’t want to share its glory equally with India. China has not planned for the next hundred years displacing America to see India hitchhike its hard work to acquire place in the high table. No, China doesn’t want any of this. What they really WANT is for India to remain a third world country. Yes. That is what China really wants of us. Just like USA long neutralized potential competitors like Mexico or Brazil in its neighbourhoods to global lightweights. China would like India to be the same. To be eternally internal focused on domestic squabbles, dealing with myriad problems and never have the institutional and united will to stand up to it. 

Hence if we truly want India to be a superpower, to be counted among the developed nations of the global order, to have our voice matter, then it is time that we got out act right. Let us first get facts straight about true Chinese intentions and let us sort our putrid domestic mess left over by Nehru Gandhian establishment and focus our energy in building economic, political and military capacity.

However let us be aware of the ever existing Left liberal goebbelsian threat against our efforts for we need to cut and discard the cancerous tumour that has affiliated us for so long.