Wit Wisdom and Whoop

It’s easy to be wise after the event. But sometimes some things are so easy to predict that it takes a very high degree of being intellectually blind sighted to not see it. The voter has spoken and how. Congress is decimated, SP/BSP combine got thrashed and opinion makers will give you complex PhD thesis to explain this. Those that had an open mind, could see the writing on the wall as these tweets would show from April 2019. This was not luck, just an OPEN mind. Whether the opposition Congress led UPA had a chance in the first place to return to power is moot but could they have done better is an important question. The answer is yes, only if the opposition and Congress under Rahul Gandhi had strategized well. This election was not about bad strategy in hindsight, it was known as height of foolishness from day one. That no one thought it fit to tell the emperor that he had no clothes on is obvious. That they actually strutted around like peacocks, as if they were dressed lik...

As the nation heads into the election season to elect its representatives in the Lok Sabha the jury is out and divided as to who is better, who will win, who should win and all gloves are off. Journalists who are supposed to be neutral and the 4th pillar of democracy have become 5th columnists whichever viewpoint you look at them from. Some have decided to come out of the closet after having leveraged their position to promote the views of their preferred politics and contesting elections. Yet others are unapologetic about their being cheer leaders of their preferred politics. Never before in the history of this nation was there as much polarisation of political views as in the past 5 years. Never before had there been such involvement of the common every day citizen in politics. Every street corner, every chai and coffee shop, every break in the office meetings, every chance encounter in a park, mall anywhere with friends, even casual conversations with total strangers in public ar...

Disruption: The one thing that Modi can be given full marks for is the disruption that his govt caused to a long established well entrenched ecosystem. Be it throwing out over 1500 high and mighty squatters from their Delhi bungalows, demanding accountability from NGO’s, making ministries and such offices out of bounds for media etc. they stirred up every retired hornets nest. Above all the secrecy and confidentiality that must be maintained in a govt had all but disappeared. It was like a nudist colony and many who hid all facts about themselves felt that govt being nude was cool. Thank god this changed. Now nothing leaks. Bottom line is that life is no longer as before. You can argue, debate, scream and protest but life is disrupted. The famed Lutyens club is finding its foundations being shaken. Some would argue that a new Modi club is taking its place. I say that wherever there is space created something or somebody will fill it. The difference is whether it is exclusive or...

Kashmir: When one looks at history, the number of Himalayan errors made are as so many, that this is like a entangled thread with knots. Every time you think you untied one, another appears. Today it has reached a point where even if you give up the state to Pakistan there will be no peace. For decades a whole generation of people have been brought up on the myth that Art 370 and 35 is the oxygen they live on. Nothing could be further from the truth. Given the free money that goes towards lining the pockets of everybody involved nobody will want to resolve the issue. An honest attempt was made with the Mufti but he died and with his death everything came crashing down. This is a cancer, make no mistake about it and even if god were to be involved, there will be surgery, pain, scars which will take time to heal. If one goes by the actions in the recent past the surgery is being planned. The strength of Modi 2.0 will decide that fate.      Narrative: Here ...

Starting from somewhere around the middle of 2011 when the mood of a nation was captured by a frail old man Anna Hazare the anger and frustration of the voters, especially the youngsters peaked around mid-2012 into a more visible, organised movement against corruption. By end 2012 the Delhi rape jolted every parent out of their TV couches and as 2013 dawned they were backing their kids, grandkids to go out and stand up against injustice, corruption, poverty, communalism, etc. From then on events speeded such that the Cong and UPA just didn’t have a clue what to do. They were trying to climb a speeding train while the BJP and Modi had already boarded the train and the only option was to get crushed underneath the juggernaut. The euphoria was high, and Modi tapped into that with 3 masterstrokes. 1) He was a gifted orator and could catch the imagination of the crowd and communicate brilliantly 2) He spoke the language of development which appealed to every voter 3) He talked of a dream wh...