The Mumbai Terror Apologists

Why India needs Narendra Modi?
Suhel Seth
(from Financial Express, India)

Let me begin with a set of disclosures: I have perhaps written more articles against Modi and his handling of the post-Godhra scenario than most people have; I have called him a modern-day Hitler and have always said that Godhra shall remain an enduring blemish not just on him but on India’s political class. I still believe that what happened in Gujarat during the Godhra riots is something we as a nation will pay a heavy price for. But the fact is that time has moved on. As has Narendra Modi. He is not the only politician in India who has been accused of communalism. It is strange that the whole country venerates the Congress Party as the secular messiah but it was that party that presided over the riots in 1984 in which over 3,500 Sikhs died: thrice the number killed in Gujarat.

The fact of the matter is that there is no better performer than Narendra Modi in India’s political structure. Three weeks ago, I had gone to Ahmedabad to address the YPO and I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up with Modi. I called him the evening before and I was given an appointment for the very day I was getting into Ahmedabad. And it was not some official meeting but instead one at his house. As frugal as the man Modi is.

And this is something that the Gandhis and Mayawatis need to learn from Modi. There were no fawning staff members; no secretaries running around; no hangers on…just the two of us with one servant who was there serving tea. And what was most impressive was the passion which Modi exuded. The passion for development; the passion for an invigorated Gujarat; the passion for the uplifting the living standards of the people in his state and the joy with which he recounted simple yet memorable data-points. For instance, almost all of the milk consumed in Singapore is supplied by Gujarat; or for that matter all the tomatoes that are eaten in Afghanistan are produced in Gujarat or the potatoes that Canadians gorge on are all farmed in Gujarat. But it was industry that was equally close to

his heart.

It was almost like a child, that he rushed and got a coffee table book on GIFT: the proposed Gujarat Industrial City that will come up on the banks of the Sabarmarti: something that will put the Dubais and the Hong Kongs of this world to shame. And while on the Sabarmati, it is Modi who has created the inter-linking of rivers so that now the Sabarmati is no longer dry.

He then spoke about how he was very keen that Ratan Tata sets up the Nano plant in Gujarat: he told me how he had related the story of the Parsi Navsari priests to Ratan and how touched Ratan was: the story is, when the Navsari priests, (the first Parsis) landed in Gujarat, the ruler of Gujarat sent them a glass of milk, full to the brim and said, there was no place for them: the priests added some sugar to the milk and sent it back saying that they would integrate beautifully with the locals and would only add value to the state.

Narendra Modi is clearly a man in a hurry and he has every reason to be. There is no question in any one’s mind that he is the trump card for the BJP after Advani and Modi realises that. People like Rajnath Singh are simply weak irritants I would imagine. He also believes that the country has no apolitical strategy to counter terrorism and in fact he told me how he had alerted the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the NSA about the impending bomb blasts in Delhi and they did not take him seriously. And then the September 13 blasts happened! It was this resolve of Modi’s that I found very admirable. There is a clear intolerance of terrorism and terrorists which is evident in the way the man functions; now there are many cynics who call it minority-bashing but the truth of the matter is that Modi genuinely means business as far as law and order is concerned.

I left Modi’s house deeply impressed with the man as Chief Minister: he was clearly passionate and what’s more deeply committed. When I sat in the car, I asked my driver what he thought of Modi and his simple reply was Modi is God. Before him, there was nothing. No roads, no power, no infrastructure. Today, Gujarat is a power surplus state. Today, Gujarat attracts more industry than all the states put together. Today, Gujarat is the preferred investment destination for almost every multi-national and what’s more, there is an integrity that is missing in other states.

After I finished talking to theYPO (Young President’s Organisation) members, I asked some of them very casually, what they thought of Modi. Strangely, this was one area there was no class differential on. They too said he was God.

But what they also added very quickly was if India has just five Narendra Modis, we would be a great country. I don’t know if this was typical Gujarati exaggeration or a reflection of the kind of leadership India now needs! There is however, no question in my mind, that his flaws apart, Narendra Modi today, is truly a transformational leader! And we need many more like him!

The writer is Managing Partner, Counselage...

Re: # 504; simply61

you are one sensible addition to chowk .. welcome!

Simply61, the battle would be in the open then, instead of having to fight with one hand behind our backs, so as not to endanger a "civilian" government.

Re: # 501 publius, the,gun is not empty.That much is sure....but yes Pakistan is also equally responsible for the creation of the monster now devouring its north west.....the nation's past leaders (and present ones too ,maybe) have a lot to explain to the Pakistani citizen.

United against the wrong enemy
Dec 18th 2008 | MURIDKE
From The Economist print edition


Pakistan has made a modest start against the likely culprits of the Mumbai killings. But fulminating against India is more fun

IF PAKISTAN’S leaders had ever united against Islamist militancy as they have against India over the past three weeks, their country would not be the violent mess that it is. Ever since India alleged, with subsequent corroboration from America and Britain, that Pakistani terrorists carried out last month’s mass murder in Mumbai, the country’s politicians, generals and fire-breathing journalists have been declaring themselves ready for war—if that’s what India chooses.

India’s government, despite huge pressure from its own bellicose media, has been more restrained. It has said it does not intend to attack its neighbour. But it has demanded that Pakistan dismantle an anti-Indian militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), that has carried out numerous atrocities in India, apparently including the outrage on Mumbai. It has so far relied on diplomacy, particularly through America and Britain, to make this point.

But India is frustrated. Pakistan has taken some steps against Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD), an Islamist charity that is a front for LET, which was formally banned by Pakistan, under American pressure, in 2002. But it is not clear at this stage how far they go. On December 11th, a day after the UN Security Council banned JUD, Pakistan said it had also banned it. It has since arrested the group’s leaders, including Hafiz Saeed, a professor of engineering, who founded LET and JUD in the 1980s. It has also arrested many JUD activists, sealed scores of the charity’s offices and stopped publication of at least six JUD newspapers.

Initially, it also said it would take over the group’s many hospitals and schools—allegedly including over 170 schools in Punjab province alone. But it has since seemed to backtrack on this. According to one minister, the government will set up a new charity to run these services. According to a senior official in Punjab, some of JUD’s facilities may be left in the same Islamist hands.

They may include a vast jihadist citadel that JUD operates in Muridke, a town close to the Indian border (its entrance is shown in our picture). It contains two schools, for 1,000 children, an Islamic college and a hospital that sees 100 outpatients a day. The campus’s manager, a courteous Islamist called Abu Ehsan, said 66 local villages depend on the services it provides, and he trusted that the government would not disrupt them. Shortly after JUD was banned, local police turned up on the campus. But they soon left and Mr Ehsan said he had heard no more from them.

So, for now at least, the schools at Muridke remain free to teach what Mr Saeed has preached for two decades: jihad against Hindu India, especially to drive it from the contested region of Kashmir. It was for this purpose that LET was founded, with support from the army’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI). For two decades, as the army’s proxy, it has waged an insurgency in Indian-held Kashmir that has cost over 40,000 lives. Though the ISI appears to have cut back its ties to LET since it was banned, its armouries and military training camps in Pakistan-held Kashmir have remained in place.

The bearded and purposeful men who patrol the campus in Muridke with pyjama trousers hitched halfway up their shins might be graduates of these camps. They have an imposing bearing not usually acquired during teacher training. On the campus, a 12-year-old boarding student, Hamza Nazir, says he likes his school, “because we get Islamic education and we learn how to deal with our enemies.� Asked to elucidate, he offers an Urdu proverb: “A hint’s enough for a wise man.�

Foolishly, then, many Pakistanis, including some of the country’s most senior officials, are claiming that JUD is being victimised. “No JUD office is recruiting people for jihad,� says one of those responsible for closing the group down. Many also say they fear a violent backlash. Others fret that it will be difficult to make a case against JUD’s detained leaders, even if India supplies Pakistan with the evidence of their responsibility for the Mumbai attacks that it claims to have. These are legitimate worries. Yet, especially to Indian ears, they are starting to sound like familiar excuses.

In the current spirit of nationalism, it is hard to avoid an impression that many Pakistanis are relieved to be unified against the one enemy they can all agree on, India. By contrast, many remain deeply sceptical about their need to tackle terrorism and a Taliban insurgency at home, despite over 50 suicide bomb blasts in Pakistan last year. To explain these conflicts—though it is a stretch—it has become increasingly fashionable in Pakistan to blame them on India. The army seems convinced that India is supporting the Taliban. This makes Pakistanis especially loth to crack down on LET, historically at least their trustiest weapon against India.

This is worrying. So far, Pakistan should consider itself fortunate to have received such gentle handling after Mumbai. In the event of another catastrophic attack, India might be less cautious. Even as it is, great damage has been done. Pakistan really cannot afford anything less than peace with its neighbour. Facing a long war on its north-western border, it cannot keep up its decades-old readiness on the eastern one. Moreover for its moribund economy to grow, it needs urgently to improve trade and investment relations with India.

Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s commercially minded president, seemed to recognise this. He had been trying to coax life back into the once successful but now stagnant diplomatic effort to normalise relations between the two countries. But on December 14th India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, suggested that so long as Pakistan’s vicious sometime proxies remain unchecked, this will be impossible.

#501
I second Publius' opinion.
The gun is empty. Sure it is.
---------------------
Only the US barrels have bullets and bombs, right Publius?

"taliban ke saath border share karne mein bhi koi scene nahin hai eklavya. "

simply ji, you should consider the idea that the "trouble" is ,at least partly, just the appearance of trouble, created to fool the west, and the Pakistan pratcises a unique form of moral blackmail of holding a gun to it's own head.

That gun is empty ,simply ji, and there is no serious threat of Taliban taking over Pakistan.

Re: # 499 Apna goal nahin tha but taliban ke saath border share karne mein bhi koi scene nahin hai eklavya.

.the thing to discuss is how to get Pakistan out of the trouble it is in at the moment..

Huh? When did that become India's national goal?

Indians and Pakistanis can cry and fight,accuse and counter accuse till the cows come home..........the thing to discuss is how to get Pakistan out of the trouble it is in at the moment......how do we help them while ensuring that we will not be taken for a ride again by the pakistani army,ISI combine?

Nostradamus onm pakistan 2009.

It will be continuation of 2008 for pakistan. When ten pakistanis are killed by a lone predator, the educated of pakistan will lament the loss of paki sovereignity. When hundreds are killed every week in bomb blasts, the educated will treat that as sectarian killings, another word for jihadic killings, and accept them as religious rituals.

More areas of nwfp will be vacated, like swat valley. The alquida and taliban will entrench themselves there. pak afghan border will be rid of paki soldiers. Durand line will vanish. New borders for pakistan will be created.

nato raids in nwfp will increase. Taliban will bomb more of paki cities in response.

Pakistan will be faced with food shortages, more that what it witnessed in 2008.

More power cuts, black outs will reach ten hours in paki cities.

pakistan will need more of imf assistance.

paki army will again take control as western world further drives a wedge with focus on isi.

ach volume of Gandhi’s collected works can be bought for as little as Rs25 (free online), while each volume of Jinnah’s is between Rs2,500 and Rs4,750. It is surprising the Pakistan government does not subsidise the publications of its founder, as India does the publications of its early leaders.

Pakistanis who trawl through the Jinnah Papers will not find much illumination: Jinnah wrote little about his view of Islam, or its history or Pakistan’s future or form of government. His letters are about everyday life: motor car repairs, travel plans, statements of accounts, granting of appointments, telling people not to name their companies after him, accepting or declining invitations, a series of very brief exchanges with Liaquat, a rejection of Bombay Bar Association’s decision to honour his 50 years at the Bar in 1947, saying that the vote was carried narrowly.

//////////////
The above is from jang of today.

Just imagine the priorities of the man who coined TNT.

The fact is that TNT is simply another word, political operationalisation of jihad. That is the reason jinnah never had to explain anything and that is why pakistan has less than one percent non muslims today.

TNT and jihad are identical concepts and that is why the jihadis are controlling pakistan.

To carry out a military strike when pakistan expects it is the most stupid thing. Now the action should be focussed on creating teh right world opinion. Cut the water supply, cut all forms of trade to deny any foreign exchange earnings, the country is in the IMF trap, target paki exports as india has done in banning paki sea food exports to teh EU.

P)aki8 forces are on teh run in nwfp, in another few months yanks can call in the B52s hopefully by that time most of the civilians and paki army would have fled nwfp.

AS it happened in afghanistan, the taliban will move to paki cities. That si when joint india nato action is required ro resize pakistan.

Re: # 476

The plight of pakistanis.

Every week, leaders from teh west are coming to pakistan to lecture their leaders. Then the military men are coming to order the paki army. the sovereign pakistan cannot refuse any of them.

Thenm on chowk indians are lecturing to the pakis. Every where pakistanis are treated as terrorists, kuwait does not allow any pakistani to come, most of teh visa offices in pakistan have been closed. no wester airlines flies to pakistan.

It must be a terrible to be a pakistani.

HP: "I have never supported Pak army's control of Pakistan. In fact, I am totally against it for a long time."
----

I know that. in fact thats what I was attributing to you in my post.

Read the sentence where I mentioned your name again and see if I am saying "Pak in army control" or "that will help democracy in Pakistan and help keep pak army in control". Since you can't have democracy as well as full control of the army, complete context of this sentence is pak army under control of democratic government. that should have been "under" not "in". but context makes it clear.

ps: I will ignore your patronizing behavior as it has become your habit and you use it on everyone not just me.

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