The JNU Equation

Time and again India has proven that for our politics and our political agenda cares more about the past rather than the present or the future. We spend most of our political effort and consensus building on events that occurred in the past and which have no effect on any policy or any way improves the life of the people.

Conceding that these things are important but making it the only political agenda is outright ridiculous. The JNU debacle is one such example of utter nonsensical politics by all parties that call themselves secular first and patriots second.

Reading from the accounts on the internet it seems that one group from JNU(self proclaimed Marxist) wanted to organize a protest on the Judicial killing of Afzal Guru, a parliament attack convict. Officially the protest was a cultural event to protest the Supreme court ruling just after the third death anniversary of Afzal Guru. The group invited many Kashmiri's from outside of campus to voice their protest against the supreme court ruling.The were protesting against the corruption in the judiciary which resulted in the eventual execution of Afzal Guru who they referred to as a martyr.

I am a proponent of free speech but I think you should always criticize people and organization and not national Institution like supreme court of India. If you start questioning Institution it means you have no confidence in the  fundamentals of the country which for me classifies as anti-national.

Continuing the story, ABVP(the right wingers or the BJP folks) wing of JNU stepped in and said that a protest of this sort should not be allowed. The college administration agreed on banning the protest as they thought that it might create the pointless hysteria which it eventually did. The group of self-proclaimed Marxists went anyway with the protest and agreed to do it without mikes and much fuss. The ABVP stepped in and starting intimidating the Marxist which could have been easily avoided. To make matters worse the Invited Kashmiris came in and then they started shouting anti-national slogans like: "won't stop till India is destroyed" and "If you kill Afzal Guru from every house in Kashmir will produce a new one"

As an Indian I am offended by these remarks and think that it is unhealthy to support any remarks that are outright anti national. I am OK with people criticizing the right wing, the government and even the specific people in power but questioning, criticizing and threatening India and its fundamental Institutions is wrong and invites fierce condemnation.

Now the fun part was the politics after this incident. The most weird and counter-intuitive thing to me was Rahul Gandhi supporting the JNU students. I want to remind Rahul Gandhi that it was your government that hanged Afzal guru and rightly so. The students were protesting against your government decision  and somehow the strange part is that no one finds it strange neither you nor the students. I guess politics and political agenda are as characterless as any Tushar Kapoor movie.

I guess rather than problem solving capabilities, accountability and manifesto promises ,people judge governments and establishments on how they treat their ancestors and their beliefs. I guess this is why we move with so much tussle since we are so tied up with our past and beliefs that we don’t see what is good for us in the present and the future.

I think it is a classic example of game theory where everyone wants the best outcome for themselves and eventually due to mutual conflict everyone has to settle for an outcome that is way poorer than the optimal. Mr. Nash(won Noble price for game theory) was right, the more selfish and self-centered we are  the more we will suffer. As Mr. Nash says don't go for the most beautiful girl, you won't get her and waste your chances of getting the other ones which will eventually result in your happiness. I don't when will we understand his simple and beautiful mathematical logic 

The Pathankot incident

The recent attack at the Pathankot Airport facility has sparked a national debate and rightly so and just 8 days after our Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit in good gesture to his Pakistani counterpart. I think this a trend that Pakistan loves to follow, if I remember the Kargil Attack was just a few days after Atal Bihari Vajpayee met with Pervez Musharraf  Before saying anything or expressing my opinions, let me put some numbers in perspective, since 1970 there have  been more than 4,108 terror attacks on India with a total of 12,539 fatalities. India ranks sixth in the number of terror attacks in the world during this time.

The key difference between any country and India is that we have always known where of our terror attacks originate from and still we have another Pathankot to tackle. Now, if you think there are two possibilities, first that the incumbent Pakistani Prime Minister has no control over the Army or the terrorists group in his nation, if this is the case then it makes no sense to talk to him or engage in any diplomatic talks with his government since it will bear no fruits  as we are talking to the wrong person and the second possibility that incumbent Prime Minister knows about these attacks and if this is case then in my opinion it is backstabbing which is more condemnable. So, I don’t think it makes any sense to talk to him. I might be emotional at this point but I don’t see a third possibility.

I was listening to Gen Bakshi and his views were very clear, precise and logical. You have to increase cost of these attacks to Pakistan. Be it by economic sanctions, proxy war or an overt war. Recently one Russian flight was shot by Turkey and the next day there were several sanctions on Turkey, Putin gave a statement making it clear that there will be consequences and there were. Trade was seriously affected, Turkey contractors lost their right to do business in Russia, cancelled visa on arrival and many more the very next day and issued the statement that this act will be revenged. I think things like this sends out a clear signal to everyone not to mess with the Russians.

The number of terror fatalities in India by themselves are statistical alarming without accounting for the number of families affected by these attacks. I always believe that force should be the last resort, but I think we are a couple decades past when the tipping point of that last resort came. The terrorists and their ideology needs to be wiped out, .i.e. surgically removed ,since I don’t see a medication for this disease.

Something has to be done proactively, we have been on the receiving end of this for quite some time and it is time that we give them a befitting response. I put these stats after 1970 because we gave a good response to Pakistan in 1970 and they didn’t dare to attack us post that. Indira Gandhi might be the only Prime Minister with the will to answer Pakistan. The people and the government/army of Pakistan might be laughing at us that we just entered your Airforce and successfully killed many of our best officers.

I think when you make foreign policies or even make a business transaction you always take into account the practical reality of the other party. You won't make a business deal with minister of magic when you know Voldemort Is making shots. The diplomatic policies should be made taking into account the history and the internal dynamics of the other party you are making a deal with. Our leadership should take into account this while dealing with Pakistan

I might be angry and emotional today because our brave soldiers were killed because of the failure of our terror policy, specifically with Pakistan. The people of India have been paying a very heavy price for the inability of our leadership. It creates a feeling of frustration. The only acceptable reason that we keep on going back to talks is that we think that we might lose to Pakistan in open warfare that is unacceptable in itself. This incident is a saddening day in Indian history and I hope should incite some decisive policy change against Pakistan.