Are Indians so unhappy a lot?

In July 2011, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution Happiness: Towards a Holistic Definition of Development inviting member countries to measure the happiness of their people and to use the data to help guide public policy. The 2018 report features the happiness score averaged over the years 2015-2017. As per the report, Finland  is the happiest country in the world. Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland hold the next top positions.  Among the 157 countries listed, india occupies a dismal 133rd position much behind our militant neighbour Pakistan which is at 75! But most appalling is, we are even behind the poverty ridden Ethiopia which is at 127!

This perplexes a sane mind as to ponder what is happiness? Whether the indicators followed by the world body is contestable?

An excellent study published by Joshua Shenk, based on a 73 year study tracking the lives of 268 men, the longest ‘quality of life’ project, reveals the following six basic tenets that contribute to the human happiness: Education, stable relationships, alcohol abuse, warm cohorts (siblings, friends, etc.,), exercise and healthy adaptation to changes. Wealth does not figure in the list!

The wealthy, since they easily get everything that money can get without lifting a finger, pursue the thrills of high speed driving, dopes, poaching blackbucks and sex orgies, while in pursuit of happiness. Shouldn’t you be happy for not being wealthy?

Don’t you agree that in life even small tasks and hopes of accomplishments bring in cheers… I recall the elation during my youth during planning for upcoming festivals like Diwali or long tours or marriages of close kith and kins or for that matter even your own marriage… (?) 

Have you ever experienced happiness when you get back an item that you might have misplaced which you have thought as lost; But have you realised the happiness would be more than if it had not been lost at all!! Doesn’t it seem very funny? The status remaining the same how the mind could feel happier with a passing event? Is happiness not a state-function in the jargons of physics? Does it depend on the path the mind traverses? 

There was a story of a rich man who had lost all interest in worldly life, and went searching for peace and tranquillity. So, he decided to take the guidance of a spiritual master. “Let me offer everything to the master and forget about it. What I really crave is true happiness.” So he put all the gold coins he had in a bag and carried it along with him.

After an entire day’s arduous journey, he met the master, placed the money bag and bowed down to him. But when he raised his head, the man was astounded to see the master running away with the money bag. Totally confused and startled by the guru’s strange behaviour, the rich man chased him as fast as his legs could carry him. The master ran faster as he was so familiar with the village’s narrow, winding system of paths and lanes that the rich man had great difficulty in keeping up with him. Finally, giving up all hope, he returned to the same spot where he had first met the master. And there lay his money bag – and hiding behind the tree was the master. As the rich man greedily grabbed his precious bag of money, the master peeped from behind a tree and asked, “Tell me how you feel now.” “I am happy, very happy—it’s the happiest moment in my life.” “So,” said the guru, “To experience real happiness, you have to go through the other extreme also.”

So, next time if you miss your wallet when you return home, don’t lose your tempers; it is an opportunity to be happy when you get it back!!

So we, Indians, may not be all that unhappy! Happiness is not in just numbers!

Credits

1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report

2. What Makes us Happy? Joshua Wolf Shenk on Happiness: https://psychcentral.com/blog/what-makes-us-happy-my-interview-with-joshua-wolf-shenk/

Rahul’s Dubious Deceit for Poverty alleviation

Rahul’s Rafale corruption gun not only misfired but gave birth to a deadly ‘chowkidhar‘ ammunition. He now mischievously wants to wheedle the voters with another one, NYAY. It is a poll promise which he expects would capture the imagination On the same lines as the farmers’ loan waiver scheme in the last state elections.

But Congress President Rahul Gandhi obliquely disclosed his devious plan that he got the idea of minimum income guarantee scheme of Rs 72,000 per year for 20 per cent poor families in the country from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “lie” of Rs 15 lakh for every Indian made during the run up to 2014 elections”. To give credence to the scheme he adds, “We consulted all big economists, without telling anyone without giving any speech. We were engaged in this work for six months.”  

On reading the fine print on what do these economists who were consulted say, the cat is out of the bag!

To start with, Noted Professor of Economics at MIT Abhijit Banerjee who gave this advice to Congress Party on the NYAY programme had suggested only a minimum income guarantee of Rs 2,500 per month, keeping in mind the fiscal discipline. With this, the scheme would have costed the exchequer a modest Rs 1.50 lakh crore. Congress, however, announced a more expansive Rs 6,000 a month with an outlay of Rs 3.60 lakh crore, to make it impressive and saleable.

Even for a modest Rs 2500 per month, Banerjee says “the fallout would be that the Centre will have to generate additional resources through higher taxes. Income tax rates will have to go up, wealth tax will need to be re-introduced and GST rates will have to rise”. In essence, to pay the Paul rob the peter! With a proposed raise in dole which is more than twice, the distortion to the economy would be mind boggling as predicted by the same economist, which is hidden from the voters’ knowledge!

Rahul Gandhi has quoted former RBI chief Raghuram Rajan was one of the people they had consulted. Rajan while interacting with students of the Indian School of Business, says, “Everyone wants packages but the question is can we afford to subsidise everything? If everybody wants things subsidised who is going to provide subsidy. Blanket farm loan waivers do not make sense because they go to the wrong people. Specific waivers in case of people who cannot pay, just like you do for industrial corporations, make sense. Now going to the issue of universal basic income for farmers, to the extent it substitutes for more distortionary subsidies, it may make sense. You have to taper it off so as to get to larger farmers”.

Given that Budget 2019-20 had already planned a subsidy outlay of Rs 3.34 lakh crore for existing schemes, NYAY’s potential outlay of Rs 3.6 lakh crore will balloon subsidy burden to Rs 6.94 lakh crore. Rajan said India’s Budget for 2019-20 cannot support a subsidy burden of approximately Rs 7 lakh crore. The NYAY scheme, for instance, alone would amount to nearly 13 per cent of India’s Budget expenditure of Rs 27.84 lakh crore. It would also be 1.92 per cent of India’s GDP. The available budgetary space and elimination of distortionary subsidies are the two things a government has to keep in mind as it goes ahead with any such cash-dole-out policies, he cautioned. One would easily understand that these are loaded statements against the dreaded scheme!

Still the Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala clarified that NYAY does not intend to subsume any of the existing schemes. Instead, it will be a benefit provided over and above the existing schemes in operation today! This has come as a huge surprise as most economists expected the NYAY scheme to absorb some of the existing subsidies to make it viable.

Rajan has also reiterated that he did not favour excessive subsidies in all areas and instead batted for creating an enabling environment for people to grow and prosper in.

Quoting that leading economists have approved the NYAY proposal that is ‘distorted’ deliberately, is nothing but a blatant lie in the highly charged election arena. But isn’t it true that ‘A lie told only once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth’?

Credits:

1. https://indianexpress.com/elections/rahul-gandhi-in-haryana-got-idea-of-minimum-income-guarantee-scheme-from-modis-rs-15-lakh-promise-5649219/

2. https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/raghuram-rajan-skeptical-rahul-gandhi-nyay-funding-no-fiscal-space-for-rs-7-lakh-crore-subsidy/story/331251.html

3.https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/mit-professor-abhijit-banerjee-suggested-minimum-income-rs-2500-per-month-congress-taxes-rise-fund-nyay/story/331823.html

Laughter is the best medicine, even in serious politics!

Quick wit responses are invariably the trait of successful leaders world across. There were quite a few occasions in a parliamentary democracy where this broke the ice sending the whole house on laughter during serious debates.

A B Vajpayee, the orator par excellence, during one of his stints in the opposition bench, when sparks were flying in a debate in parliament, uttered ‘half of the congress party men are fools!‘. The speaker promptly pulled him up and demanded him to withdraw the statement. He immediately responded ‘sorry, I modify the wrong statement, ‘ half of the congress party men are not fools!’. The whole house ruptured into a laughter.

On one occasion, when Acharya Kripalani was criticizing the Congress, a member pointed out to him that his wife Sucheta was with the Congress. Kripalani replied: “So far, I thought Congressmen were fools. Now I know they are gangsters too, running away with other people’s wives.”

The debates in English legislatures also has several parallels. During a debate in the House of Commons, Lady Astor, the first woman MP in the House, furious with Churchill, shouted at him, “if you were my husband, I’d put poison in your tea”, To which Churchill coolly replied, “Madam, if I were your husband…I’d drink it”

There are quite a few anecdotes of Winston Churchil that will make everyone admire his wisdom and sharp presence of mind.

Once, it so happened that President Roosevelt was trundling into Churchill’s room in his wheelchair to see his guest, and being startled to catch a naked Churchill just stepping out of his bath. He hurriedly set about reversing his wheelchair but was stopped by Churchill: ‘The Prime Minister has nothing to hide from the President of the United States.’

Churchill’s humour is stupendous: On his eightieth birthday, in 1954, a young man was sent to take his photograph. Full of awe, he breathed, ‘Sir Winston, it is wonderful to take your photograph on your eightieth birthday and I do look forward to taking it again on your hundredth birthday.’ Churchill giggled and replied, ‘Young man, you appear to me to be in good health and sound in wind and limb. So I see no reason why you should not.’

Though being successful as a politician, he didn’t mince words while talking about politics. He once remarked, “A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to also have the ability to explain why it didn’t happen afterwards!”

The trait of Successful politicians is indeed the sense of humour!

White collar crimes – who is accountable: Bureaucracy or Executive?

These politicians never understand that economic offences are committed by businessmen in collusion with corrupt bankers under the able advice of ‘financial and legal wizards’ and politics doesn’t have much of a role. Though sometimes bankers listen to their ‘advices‘. The system should be cable of early detection of misuse and diversion. Politicians come to play only when there is wilful default and the looter scoots: that is when ‘horse has bolted the stable’. It is a well known fact that they run out of the country ‘with their blessings’ before the scam breaks out in the open.

Thus the politicians should be held responsible only when ‘the law doesn’t take its own course’. Look at the bedlam unveiled when Mallya and Nirav ran out of the country. The whole opposition mischievously ganged up to blame the present regime though the scams date back to the earlier dispensation. The opposition could probably succeed in convincing the public that the present regime has not only a role in the scam but also responsible for the letting them out of the country. The later part might well be answered by the ‘systems and procedures in place!’

It is ironic that Mamta retorts from the roof top that the credit for the attest of the fugitive jeweller Nirav modi should go to the daily Telegraph reporter and NOT TO BJP? The other joker and the ‘family’ stooge Gulam Nabi Azad declares that the fugitive will be returned back to London ‘after the elections’.

Mamta reacted almost in the same way when Balakot retaliation took place: congratulated specifically ‘IAF’! Hilarious, isn’t it? With the queuing up many extraditions such as of Michel and the likes, they fear that the ‘chowkidhar’ status to Modi might well sell. If the fugitives flee the country, Narendra Modi is responsible but when they are extradited it is due to Scotland Yard! Obviously, the opposition leaders are extremely nervous of getting ‘decimated’.

But, apart from Nirav’s arrest being a clear sign that this is not the same India which will allow economic offenders to loot the country & evade the long arm of law, Some questions linger in the minds:

How for almost a year or so he was able to conduct business incognito and also travel in out of UK inspite of Interpol’s ‘red alert notice’?

Even after days of his being spotted in busy London street by a news reporter, why was he not arrested?

When the likes of Mallya could get easily bail even without a day of life in jail, why he couldn’t?

It is very difficult to understand not only who is accountable for the white collar crimes but also when to arrest the culprits. With Nirav not getting the bail and spending ‘Holi‘ day at prison, It is even more difficult to predict who would jump the bail!

Slay the dragon by choking its access to Indian markets

Azar, the 50-year-old ISI’s angel of death, is the in the China’s wealth creator and facilitator of its strategic and business interests in Pakistan. China recognised Azhar’s influence over radicalised elements and used him to safeguard its own strategic and economic interests in the region. Azhar thrives as a the caretaker of China’s investments in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that spans the terror-infested Af-Pak border terrain. Once completed, it will provide an alternative route for Chinese exports to the Middle East and Europe. It is estimated that 5,00,000 Chinese nationals will be living in the Gwadar port city by 2022. China is courting Azhar to secure the CPEC and the Chinese living in Pakistan. In simpler terms, Azhar is a blackmailer of China’s economic interests. It is foolish to believe that United Nations Security Council (UNSC) would designate Azhar as a “global terrorist” in the near future with China lifting its veto.

So is there any other way of stopping the international funding and access to the arms market for this organisation? How to nudge China out of its temerity of protection to this dreaded terrorist! It is no secret that China is funding these terror outfits directly or indirectly. Is there a way to hit them below their belt? Yes… TRADE….

In 2018, India-China trade was worth around $84.44 billion and there is no sign of shrinking of $50 billion trade deficit! Look at the trade between the two countries! The Indian taxation system has only allowed the indiscriminate dumping of cheap and inferior consumer goods in the country, causing myriad indigenous units to close. Indian consumers spent over 50,000 crore in 2018— twice the amount they spent in 2017—on smartphones manufactured by the top four Chinese brands. Chinese smartphone brands that account for more than 50 per cent of our market include Honor, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, Infinix, Lenovo-Motorola and One-Plus. China has exploited the price sensitive-Indian mindset by dumping cheaper household goods ranging from assembly line homes to toys.

Indian corporate world have been infiltrated by pro-China elements, which ignore the national interest and allow Sino-centric trade to flourish here. This policy generosity allows the Chinese to earn dollars in India while funding its pet terror lords in Pakistan. Isn’t it stupid?

Our governments have all along been soft to China since the days of independence for reasons best known to them. Today, when Rahul criticises Modi for not being aggressive against China, BJP promptly rummages the closet of skeletons and pulls out Nehru’s self-sacrificial naïveté allowing China a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. This has empowered China with its VETO power! The party tweeted, “China wouldn’t be in UNSC had your great grandfather not ‘gifted’ it to them at India’s cost. India is undoing all mistakes of your family. Be assured that India will win the fight against terror. Leave it to PM Modi while you keep cosying up with the Chinese envoys secretly.”

Neither the government is tough against imports of cheap and substandard Chinese goods, nor our citizens patriotic enough to shun them in the interests of nation. The solution to combat this shadow boxing using terror outfits for massacre and going scot free, lies in slaying the dragon by choking its access to the Indian markets apart from instilling a fear in those minds that nurture terrorists, of ‘Do you want a Repeat of Balakot?’

It is heartening to note that there is a surge of protest against the import of Chinese goods and passionate request by some section of the patriotic Indian public to boycott them, in the social media.

A paper, which is affiliated to China’s ruling Communist Party, said that its the “forces inside India” is hampering the country’s reform process. It quotes Rahul Gandhi, to emphasise the point that Indian politicians should not use China to solicit voters! Kudos to Rahul, for the pat from our ‘friend’ China!

The papers goes on to add, “And it would be dangerous if candidates in the general election use the “China threat theory” to hype nationalism and gain popularity. Sensationalizing China affairs may help Indian politicians’ political careers, but it will not help improve India’s economy, manufacturing or people’s livelihoods,” it warned.

So, if you boycott Chinese goods, only indian economy would be in trouble! The paper further advised Indian politicians to improve real strength rather than shouting slogans on Twitter.

Yes there seems to be another side for the coin! There might be some credence to this also: With country going on installing large scale solar power plants we need the help of china. China hold about 70% of world share in solar cell production or its raw materials. Banning would hit our economy harder than theirs.

The country has to take call while the civilised world take their own sweet time…….

Credits:

1. http://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/columns/2019/mar/17/slay-dragon-terror-by-choking-access-to-indian-markets-1952166.html

2.ET:Like it or not, you can’t avoid our products: Chinese media to India http://www.ecoti.in/LW84oa

Yes, Minister: Modi’s style

There was a lot of hue and cry from the opposition when this complex tax reform, GST, was introduced a couple of years back. While one would not be puzzled with immature RaGa ridiculing it as Gabbar Singh Tax and promising its repeal (if at all congress comes back to power), but MMS, among other ‘think tanks’ of the party, was critical and derided the faulty execution and the disruption it would cause to the economy. Any novice, leave alone an economist worth the salt, would be positively aware that the task would be of Himalayan proportion. It is bound to have hurdles in a country that has not only several complex federal tax system but also poor tax data communication infrastructure. But the government, alive to the immense advantages of a single tax system across this vast country, took up the task as there is no point in sulking over the difficulties. After all one has to take the plunge to cross a river without being worried about getting drenched!

The government, Modi in particular, deserves accolades for receiving the award from the same noted economist MMS, who scoffed at it when it was implemented!

Modi definitely merits a pat in the back (for his having a tough 56” in the front), to have successfully overcome the hassles of the teething troubles! Perfect timing of implementation: middle of the term with buffering for the dust to settle down and bad memories to fade away, bringing the fruition of goodwill in time on the eve of elections!

I am reminded of the reply from one of my very senior friends, who is a bureaucrat, on being asked when the new govt took over in 2014, about what difference would we see in governance? He said all politicians have good policies and programs but find it difficult to implement (Yes, Minister syndrome!), but of course not Modi! Very very true!!!

Should commercial interests supersede passenger safety?

The crash Sunday morning of a jetliner in Ethiopia bears unmistakable similarities to the Oct. 29 tragedy off the coast of Indonesia involving the same model, prompting questions about whether a design issue that arose during the earlier accident could be to blame. It is the second fatal crash of a Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in six months.

Experts urged caution about drawing conclusions too quickly, although details of the crashes – shortly after takeoff, at relatively low altitudes with erratic flight patterns – seem similar, the data are insufficient to conclude that the same systems were at fault.

The Indonesian Lion Air Plane air crash report found that a sensor measuring the plane’s “angle of attack” fed erroneous data into the plane’s flight control system, at which point an automatic feature kicked in, sending the plane into a nose dive. The problem lies with “angle of attack” sensors that measure the wind speed over an aircraft’s wings, according to the Boeing notification. Their measurements are meant to detect if a plane is moving too slowly, which can cause it to lose control. The Lion Air plane lost altitude dozens of times before it crashed as the jet’s computers, thinking it was in danger of losing control, continually tried to push down its nose. The pilots countermanded the aircraft’s software over and over, pulling it back into climbs, until they failed to do so and it crashed.

The report stopped short of assigning blame for the crash. However, multiple pilots organizations in the United States criticized Boeing after it disclosed that it had made certain changes to the MAX’s autopilot software – it added a new flight-control feature, the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). The updated software was meant to account for design changes to the 737 MAX, and was supposed to make the plane operate as closely as possible to older 737 models despite having larger engines placed farther forward on the plane’s wings. While the MCAS system was ostensibly added to make the plane safer, pilot unions in the United States said they had been left “in the dark” about the software update and criticised Boeing for failing to cover the new system in training sessions.

If the results of an inspection turn up significant design flaws in the 737 MAX, planes could be grounded worldwide. Six Boeing 737 Maxs are in use in India —five by Jet Airways and one by SpiceJet. The two airlines have also placed orders for over 200. Following Boeing’s circular, India’s civil aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked Jet Airways and SpiceJet to address any issues with their 737 Max aircraft.

After the Ethiopian crash, Only China has so far grounded similar aircrafts: China’s aviation regulator had ordered Chinese airlines, which has 96 737 MAX jets in service, to suspend the operations.

The 737 MAX 8, which was expected to significantly improve the fuel efficiency, has been a major profit driver for Boeing since it was introduced in 2017, and it is critical to Boeing’s broader international ambitions as it competes with Airbus, its European rival in the commercial airline business. Boeing has delivered 354 of the jets globally and has another 2,912 on order. The jet that crashed Sunday was one of five 737 MAX 8 planes operated by Ethiopian Airlines, which has 25 more on order. In the United States, Southwest Airlines and American Airlines have 59 between their two fleets, with 304 on order.

Why should the regulators and the designers soft pedal the Lion Air crash analysis that could have led to a ‘repeat’ incident? Whether commercial interests camouflage the passenger safety?

Modi should go – and then what?

The opposition is in total disarray more than it appeared before 26th Feb:

The explicit immediate reactions of the prime ministerial aspirants, Mamta and Rahul, were one of despair. They lauded the IAF attack without a mention of Modi. Do they think that IAF would have crossed the border without his direction?

There have been times of crisis before when Congress prime ministers have been at the helm and no one questioned their character, their patriotism or their intentions. But why should they suspect Modi’s patriotism?

By the end of last week our opposition leaders have done so much damage to India’s image that even Pakistani media, leave alone indian NDTV, believes that the Pulwama suicide bomber could have done what he did at the behest of Mod! Crazy it may sound….In a vibrant democracy like India, is it possible for a political leader to kill 40 of his own soldiers and expect this to remain a secret?

The rainbow opposition leaders have wasted so much time attacking Modi that they have come up with neither policies nor strategies that go beyond asserting that Modi has to go. But why should he go? And, then beyond that what?

Credits:

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/balakot-air-strike-congress-air-force-pakistan-imran-khan-jaish-e-mohammad-a-suicidal-opposition-5618716/

China, a dangerous ally with deadly tentacles?

Once, USA was accused of spreading its capitalist hegemony over its allies, but now it is the turn of communist China. The list of countries brought under its ‘bear hug‘ of close friendships is very long.

Sri Lanka was forced to hand over the Hambantota port to China when it wasn’t able to repay $1 billion. Kenya — according to its Auditor General’s latest report — will soon lose Mombasa port to China if it defaults on Chinese loans. People and politicians in Nepal have raised concerns over hefty Chinese debts for infrastructure projects. Laos’ debt has reached 68% of its GDP, and now, economists worry about how the country will repay the Chinese $6-billion loan for a railway project. The list is quite long — the Maldives, Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Montenegro, Fiji, Ethiopia, Thailand. It goes on and on and on.

Recently Malaysia extricated from China: the newly elected Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad canceled the Chinese-funded $20 billion East Coast Rail Link project and a natural gas pipeline project in Sabah. He had even ‘sarcastically‘ remarked while calling off the projects, “I believe China itself does not want to see Malaysia becoming a bankrupt country”.

But it appears that it’s ‘all-weather ally‘, Pakistan is blind to the staring realities: ‘Higher than the highest debt, deeper than the deepest trap’, is China’s sinister objective behind the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Xi Jinping is lending Pakistan billions of dollars for infrastructure — not free of cost — at high interest rates. Pakistan then imports equipment, raw materials and labour from China, using the same dollars. So, what comes from China goes back to China — with huge interest! Pakistan will have to return all of the $40 billion (which is likely to escalate to a whopping 60 billion at least, when the projects are completed) to China in a period of 20 years! By 2037-38, the deadline to repay CPEC loans and pay dividends, Pakistan may find itself short of dollar reserves and will possibly default on repayments and dividend payments.

Furthermore, as far as power projects are concerned, which form the larger portion of the entire debt-trap, Chinese state-owned banks are providing billions of dollars in loans to Chinese investors, which then invest these dollars in Pakistan’s energy sector, and in return, they get share from the profit in dollars (dividend). Also, the government of Pakistan is legally obliged to ensure the availability of dollars for these Chinese investors so that they can pay back the loans they took from China’s state-owned banks.

Thus, what comes from China goes back to China — with everything else. The details of collaterals which China will seize if Pakistan defaults on the obligations are not available. It does not require an intelligent economist to foretell the doom, the country is facing!

Socrates, once said, “No man undertakes a trade he has not learned, even the meanest, yet everyone thinks himself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trade, that of government.” A sportsman turned a statesman Imran Khan, has persuaded the masses, especially the young voters, of the same thing, reassuring them that he has the sufficient qualifications to cure almost every major disease that is affecting our state today, including corruption, lack of jobs, clean water and power, governing difficulties and an underdeveloped economy. Could he be the saviour of the persecuted terror torn country from the perils of an economic disaster waiting to engulf?

Credits:

https://www.dailyo.in/politics/china-debt-trap-pakistan-cpec-imf-imran-khan/story/1/28759.html

Is Modi lucky?

The present regime in Delhi should be credited for taking the political decision of penetrating the Pakistan air space and giving clearance to the defence forces to bomb a structure. Especially when there is a threat of the conflict escalating into war with a possibility of nuclear arsenals being deployed. After all they have to manage the evolving international diplomatic pressures. A failure in any of the fronts would doom the political future of Modi leave alone that of BJP!

Any failure in the mission, be it missing of the targets, lesser than expected casualties would only discredit the armed forces and not the political regime! One can even conclude that the apparatuses at their disposal were outdated due to the mismanagement of procurement strategies of the earlier regimes!

Calling for proof only shows that we are so foolish to feign ignorance of the demarcation in the responsibilities of the control and command structures of armed forces?

But One thing is for sure, all this shows the BJP’s real face – led by Modi, it makes real threats, carries out its real political will to go after terrorists, and does not fear when it decides to take action. All kudos to the IAF and the military to react to this real face in a very real way!

The grand finale of the drama was the killing of a F16 by the wing commander, his capture and the mute release within 60 hrs, without any harm, unheard of in Pakistan’s barbaric POW history. Enjoy the post-mortem by the Trump administration of violation of the contractual obligations and the impact on its future acquisitions! All these are bonuses of course. Has Pakistan messed up and ending in such an embarrassing and inextricable fiasco?

To the extreme discomfort of the rainbow opposition, the sequence of events blossomed into a picture perfect arena for BJP, at the dawn of a fierce election battle!

Modi may have scored more than a point or two for now in his battle of tackling the adversaries from both outside and ‘inside’, hands down!

Isn’t it true that the Goddess of fortune favours success only to those who strive hard and perspire?