Modi’s
surgical strikes bear resemblance to a game of Kabaddi--watch out for the next
‘raid’ by the PM
(National Herald, 5
Apr 2019)
Narendra Modi’s record in office being quite pathetic and
people having neither forgotten nor forgiven him for the economic mess that he
created with his ‘demonetisation’ that caused havoc in the economy and
destroyed livelihoods, it is hardly surprising that he has fallen back on faux
nationalism as the cornerstone of his poll campaign.
Modi has been pining from ‘day one’ for a hallowed
pedestal in India’s history and the single puerile act of Demonetisation
ensured that he gets a slot, next to the reckless Muhammad Bin Tughlaq. His
hastily implemented GST that he announced at midnight in Parliament in cheap
imitation of Pandit Nehru’s Tryst with Destiny speech harassed an entire nation
for months and years. This half-baked GST and the mindless Demonetisation
caused growth to nosedive to such abysmally low levels that he had to let loose
his ever-obliging coterie of economists and crafty mandarins to invent new and
extremely doubtful new rules of growth measurement.
Job creation has hit the lowest level ever in 45 years and
the spate of crude fudging and inventive apologia have failed to cover up the
disaster. He is, therefore, pining to display his questionable machismo to
deviate public attention from this messed-up reality and we have not even
mentioned his failures to deal with agriculture, education, scientific research
and many other spheres. In this crisis, the tragic attack at a convoy of
para-military forces at Pulwama on the 14th of February that killed close to 50
CRPF jawans was a ‘gift’ to him from Jaish, as former RA&W chief AS Dulat
has said, and the Indian Kashmiri suicide bomber was unbelievably
‘made-to-order’ for Modi.
As it shook the shocked nation, Modi resorted to his
theatrical call to war — “we shall avenge!” and calculated hysterical outbursts
like #EndPakistan and #IndiaWantsRevenge rent the air. No discussion took place
on who was responsible for this terrible security lapse and hysteria was just
synchronised on the media, fed obviously by a Machiavellian establishment. It
almost coaxed the great leader to strike back, which he did on the 26th of
February at Balakot in Pakistan — a 1.5 days’ war that is in keeping up with
India’a great indigenous sport called Kabaddi.
Everything was over in a flash as the genuflecting media
announced that an important target within Pakistan had been hit by the Indian
Air Force and that 250 or even 300 Pakistanis had been killed. The government
smirked in silence and the Air Force refused to give any number, even on
repeated questioning.
It was clear that Modi’s regime had outsourced the
whipping up of frenzy to a new breed of ever-obliging media. It accused
everyone else of not being patriotic enough and branding these who raised
common sense questions as anti-nationals. This was most surely the first
private public partnership (PPP) of propaganda. The idea was to stun a
disturbed nation with calculated overdoses of Goebbelsian fake news and
freshly-brewed series of blood-curling hatred.
A game of Kabaddi
A word about Kabaddi — as the hit and run, zip-zap-boom
‘war’ at Balakot is best described. This sole-surviving indigenous game of
India and Pakistan, Kabaddi, incidentally, outlasted the domineering colonial
sports like football, cricket, hockey, tennis and the lot. Indians and
Pakistanis love this very exciting game for the surge of blood that it pumps up
and drops, both rather dramatically.
Under the rules, a lone attacker sneaks into ‘enemy
territory’ with some aggressive choo-choo sounds and his mission is to simply
touch any one of the players on that side — which then knocks the ‘hit’ person
off from the game. The defending side is equally alert and its objective is to
entice the attacker deeper into their territory and then grab the raider and
pin him down.
It is all over in a flicker, with a lot of sound and fury
on both sides, just as the Balakot skirmish was, where an Indian Air Force
officer landed in Pakistan and was pinned down. Both sides enjoy that feverish
excitement but, unlike Kabaddi, no one could really make out who won at Balakot
— as both sides screamed that victory was theirs.
We need to understand that the extreme fundamentalists
and the army who monopolise Pakistani politics and dominate society are indeed
most benefitted by Modi’s regime. Its pronounced anti-Muslim acts and its
calculated ambivalence to the recurring lynching of Muslims heats up a larger
section of the Pakistani people, that then supports both terrorism and an
anti-democratic polity.
The Pakistani Military-Mullah establishment just love
every excess that the India regime indulge in and its uncontrollable paroxysms
of anti-Kashmiri detestation, as these provoke reciprocal hatred for India,
which strengthens the Pakistani establishment.
The poison that Zia-ul-Haq injected into the body of
Pakistan in the 1970s was deeply regretted by secular and democracy-loving
Indians until the present Indian government arrived, to match villainy with
villainy.
Bitterness, hatred and war help only demented
megalomaniacs on both sides and jumping the gun after Pulwama is exactly what
the international conspirators desired. Modi appeared just too glad to oblige.
It helped him foment dangerous ultra-nationalism on which he feeds, and gave
him an opportunity to indulge in demagoguery, the only thing he has mastered.
The war option, however, ran out of steam obviously
because it was much too dangerous for the world to permit two nuclear nations
to slug it out. Modi soon realised that he would not be permitted to escalate
his ‘war’ beyond a 1.5 day Kabaddi match as China would just not permit its
ally, Pakistan, to be hit, beyond this token gesture. Russia was certainly not
willing to have either America or China gaining from a war in its backyard.
Even Trump must have displayed rare bouts of sense and must have conveyed that
he would surely intervene, most forcefully.
Let us remember that Indira Gandhi had to convince every
important world leader over several months to obtain their ‘no objection’
before she sent the Indian army into East Pakistan in 1971. Even so, the US
Seventh Fleet came perilously close to intervention but she won the game of
nerves.
Modi’s constant anti-minority terror techniques and his
crackdown on Kashmiri Muslims have worried every important foreign leader, his
embarrassing bear-hugs notwithstanding. All, except Israel’s Netanyahu — who,
anyway, has blood on his hands and is charged for taking bribes. War was soon
realised as a non-option and even imagined machismo that followed in lieu has
its own limitations.
We need to remember that, under the circumstances, one
more option always exists and this is communal riot — that invariably polarise
voters.
It must not be allowed to happen suddenly, as it did in
Gujarat in 2002 or in Muzaffarnagar in 2013. Well over a thousand people were
killed in 2002 but till now no big leader could be fixed for inciting pogroms
or for abetting the killers. This frightening option of communal riots is never
closed in India and we need to remain on alert.
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