RSS THINK TANK MEETS IN VARANASI

A three day meeting of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) is being held in Varanasi from February the 15^th. Top RSS functionaries are expected to be present in the meeting. The agenda is to steamline the coordination between the state BJP and the RSS. BJP party president Amit Shah, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath, and his two deputy chief ministers are expected to be present in the meeting.

The meet will also give thought to the 2019 election strategy and on ways to bolster the image of Modi government.

The RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will also address 21 thousand swamsevaks.

Mohan Bhagwat is being housed in Deen Dayal Upadhaya Trade Facilitation Centre, a building officialy being used for the promotion of interests of artisans.

This is being objected by the state Congress. The party is opposing the use of state institution building for political ends.

Clearly, RSS is putting its might behind the BJP to give it a push before the 2019 hustings.

With a  strong think tank and an army of dedicated workers RSS will give the necessary political push, and this is creating jitters in the opposition.

THEATRICS OF NARESH AGARWAL

The Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Aggarwal has stirred a hornet's nest by targetting prime minister Narender Modi by a casteist comment. In a function organized by The Vaishya Samaj in Lucknow the Samajwadi Party leader called Modi by his Teli caste. 

The mention of Modi by his caste name created a furore in the congregation. People hooted Aggarwal and asked to tender apology. However, Naresh Aggarwal was adamant, and held that caste is a reality in India and one can't avoid it.

Obviously, Aggarwal's comment is going to provide grist to the political wheel, and BJP is not going to waste any time in cashing in on the comment to rake up caste sentiments and make Modi a scapegoat.

Earlier during the Gujarat elections  Mani Shankar Aiyyer's comment on Modi had changed the discourse of the election campaigning. Aiyyer had referred to Modi as 'neech jati ka aadmi' and 'neech aadmi'. 

BJP then had gone full throttle to get as much miieage from the comment. It had put Congress in the dock, so much so, that Congress had to suspend Aiyyer from the party. 

It is strange that politicians are wont to issue such comments, knowing fully that it is going to be reaped politically by the other party. It is such apprehensions that is putting a question mark on the theatrics of such politicians.

MODI ON MISSION TRIPURA

Prime Minister Modi is on an election campaigning tour of Tripura. The north east state is going to polls on 18 th of February, and BJP has sets its sight on capturing this one more citadel. Modi will be addressing two rallies over here. In the district adjoining the Dhanpur constituency of four time chief minister Manik Sarkar, Modi will raise the campaign decibel.

So far the Modi juggernaut has been going all well in the north eastern region. The party has taken control of three states; namely Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur. Now its sight are set on Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.

Of the three,  the battle of Tripura has already begun. The state has been under the  Communist rule since the last 25 years, and the austere chief minister Manik Sarkar has been the favourite of masses for the last two decades. No doubt, dislodging such a well entrenched party will be some task. Anti incumbency doesn't seems to be a factor here.

Congress jitters has also come to the fore. Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi has said that that the  Congress’ chances of winning Tripura polls are bleak. The Congress leader claimed that the BJP is using black money to fund the election campaign.

On the other hand, the Sangh Parivar has already begun on its job of mobilizing the masses. A door to door campaign has been initiated. The focus is more on educating people about issues, than insisting on voter turnout. The voter turnout percentage is well around 90 percent.

As compared to other north east states the population is predominantly Hindu. The tribal populace is also Hindu, and the reach and penetration of Sangh is fairly good. Around 200 shakhas operate in the state with an attendance of around 10 people in each shakha.

BJP is aiming not at Hindutva issues, but development concerns will be highlighted.

Since coming to power the Modi government has aggresively pushed and pursued a look 'north-east' policy, which included infrastructural development and fund allocation for overall growth.  

Few days back, inaugurating the two-day ‘Global Investors Summit’ hosted by Assam, Modi had asserted that  India’s growth story will further pick up speed when there is an all-round development of the north-east.

Clearly, BJP will be going at the hustings with development as a plank.

The opinion polls have also been merciful to the saffron party.

Recent polls indicate that BJP and its ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura will corner 31 to 37 seats while CPI (M) will  win 23 to 29 seats.

In the coming days BJP is going to step up the campaigning. Fourty senior BJP leaders', including Home Minister Rajnath Singh,  Defense Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath will be pushed in action.

Clearly, BJP is going to strain its might to seize the Red Fort of Tripura.

MALDIVES MALADY

In crisis ridden Maldives the unfolding political drama took yet another twist late Wednesday night. The Maldives Supreme court revoked its own order to release nine high profile political prisoners . This came hours after the former president Md. Nasheed made a plea to India for  military intervention.

In a late night development three judges of the Supreme Court passed an order quashing the terrorism charges against the nine main opposition leaders.

Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and another judge, Ali Hameed, were arrested after President Yameen declared a state of emergency  on Monday.

“On behalf of Maldivian people we humbly request India to send envoy, backed by its military, to release judges and political  detainees. We request a physical presence,” Nasheed, who is currently in Colombo, said in a Twitter post. He also urged the US to block financial transactions of Yameen’s government.

Reacting to these developments, the United States said it was troubled and disappointed by the declaration of a state of emergency by Yameen and asked him to comply with the rule of law and implement the Supreme Court ruling.

The Ministry of External Affairs showed its concern . In a statement in New Delhi the Government said : "We are disturbed by the declaration of a State of Emergency in the Maldives following the refusal of the government to abide by the unanimous ruling of the full bench of the Supreme Court on February 1, and also by the suspension of constitutional rights of the people of Maldives,"

However, Indian stand was non committal over the plea for military intervention in the trouble torn nation.

GAMEPLAN PAKISTAN

Intransigence from across the border has reached a new high. Pakistan is showing no signs of mending its ways. Attacks and cross border firing has been continuing unabated since the last one month.

On Monday an army camp in south Kashmir’s Kakapora area was attacked by militants. The militants lobbed grenades towards the army  camp. Though there has been no casualities the district administration has closed down all the 84 schools in the area. The army is on alert.

The attack on the army camp comes a day after four soldiers were killed in a cross-border firing by Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC) in Tarkundi and Sunderbani areas of Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Vice-Chief of the Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Sarath Chand said that the Army will give a befitting reply to Pakistan’s actions.

Pakistan has seemed to stepped up its attack from across the border. In the past 35 days, there were 240 incidents on the LoC and the International Boundary together, higher than the 228 for the entire 2016.

Apparently there is a strategic shift in Pakistan’s strategy. Till some time back the cross border firing were resorted to in an  intermittent manner. More stress was on low-key attacks by terrorist outfits and stand alone desperadoes. In this low intensity warfare, guerrilla tactics were employed and damage to strategic areas and unto the armed personnel were aimed at.

A case in the point is the way in October 2016  militants had attacked an Indian army camp in Baramulla , Kashmir with gunfire and grenades, killing one border guard and wounding another.

Such attacks kept happening at regular intervals. This served the Pakistani strategy of low intensity warfare well. The cross border attacks made heavy force deployment by the Indian Army alongside  the border a necessity.

However, Pakistan could well spread its army thin across the border and use the additional manpower in troubled areas alongside the Afghan border and in interior hotspots.

However, with India resorting to surgical strikes into the Pakistani side the war strategy got changed. First it was denial of any such surgical attacks by Pakistan. But when confronted by regular surgical attacks by India which were then buttressed by video and other proofs, Pakistan had to change it’s strategy.

It  went into a more manifest attacking mode, and the frequency of attack has  kept on increasing.

Furthermore, in a deliberate attempt to malign India it has stepped up its anti –India propaganda.

Recently ,  Pakistan’s Interior Ministry has informed Gilgit-Baltistan  government in the disputed PoK territory that India has made a plan to attack the installations of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to sabotage the multi-billion project.

This  is an clear attempt to raise the India bogey in Pakistan.

The Pakistani establishment, especially the Army, is under pressure from the United States to mend its ways in its policy of nurturing terror groups. There has been a fund squeeze from the side of America. Trump had tweeted his displeasure against Pakistan providing safe haven to terrorists,and  of foolishly providing  $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years.

Trump didn’t stop here. On January 24, this year he ordered a drone attack on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and wiped out two Haqqani network commanders and two terrorists.

Clearly it was revist of the Osama Bin Laden type of attack where the territorial sovereignity of Pakistan was compromised, leaving it humiliated.

The surgical strikes by India and direct intervention by the United States had left Pakistan with no option but to go on an offensive against India. If for nothing else, then to salvage its pride.

Thus with building up of pressure from the United States on both the strategic and diplomatic level, it is wont that the Pakistani Army is going for diversionary tactics, and indulging in India baiting.

The time tested tactics of anti-India tirade will make the Pakistani Army and the Establishment buy time, before new game plans are devised.

MAYAN CITY DISCOVERED

It's a discovery on which science fiction  and Hollywood movies thrive. 

The dense jungles of Guatemala has finally revealed its innermost secrets to the nosy and arrogant mankind. 

Beneath the thick,impenetrable canopy of lush green trees ruins of an intricately build Mayan urban civilization has been revealed.

A cluster of cities, fortifications, farms and highways have been laid bare. The ruins clearly show that a highly developed society flourished some 1200 years ago. A mysterious Mayan dynasty named Snake Kings ruled the community.

Some 60,000 previously unknown structures, including a seven-story pyramid has been uncovered by the laser technology.

Using a technology called LiDAR, scientists were able to strip away the tree canopy from aerial images and reveal the ancient civilisation underneath.

The technique uses pulses of laser light to create 3D representations of targets.

Historically, archaeologists have assumed that Maya cities were isolated and self-sufficient, but this discovery provides evidence for a complex, interconnected society flourishing deep in the jungle.

The population estimate of the community have been upgraded from 2 million to 20 million.

The team mapped a 810sq-mile area around the ancient city of Tikal, a popular tourist destination located in the heart of the Guatemalan rainforest.

The civilization flourished in cities and was connected by a network of highways. The site was four times larger than previously assumed.

There was also irrigation and terracing systems suggesting farming and food production systems to feed its millions. 

So far, the scientists have only mapped a fraction of the archaeological area and they think there is a lot more to be discovered. 

Scientists had used a similar scans to unearth a network of ancient cities in Angkor, in Cambodia that includes the famed Angkor Wat.

DGP COMES OUT OF THE CLOSET

What colour is Khaki ? This question inadvertently got raised in Uttar Pradesh when an Indian Police Service officer of the rank of Director General of Police openly championed the cause of Ram Mandir construction in Ayodhya. Surya Kumar Shukla is posted as a DG , homeguard in the state. 

In a event organized on Ram Mandir at the Lucknow University the DG took a pledge to get the Ram Mandir constructed at the earliest. The video of this pledge has gone viral ever since.

Many people took the oath alongside him and riased the slogan of Jai Shri Ram . 

The viral video shows the 1982 batch IPS officer taking the pledge. 

Shukla, however, has stuck to his guns and has maintained that his comment were edited off and shown in bits that were out of context. 

The DG  held that his comment was more related to creating an conducive environment for the construction of Ram Temple, rather than building the temple itself.

He also hinted that he was being targetted and people were creating a controversy where there is non.

Espousal of a religious cause and display of partisan stand by a serving officer is a clear violation of service rules. It goes against the grain of impartiality and neutrality which is binded as a norm for a officer of the government. 

The DG's stand, his clarification, notwithstanding, has brought him in the direct line of fire of the opposition parties. 

Shukla is due to retire in August. Opposition is insinuating that he is working towards making his post-retirement period rosy by cosying up with the state's BJP government. 

This is not the first time in recent times that bureaucray has worn its leaning and political colours on its sleeve.

Recently, on the eve of violence in Kasgang, the district magistrate of Barielly  Raghvender Vikram Singh, had made headlines by posting religiously loaded comment on his facebook.

The Yogi government has now asked the DG to explain his stand. However, it remains to be seen what action will follow. If tackled leniently, this trend can make more bureaucrats come out the closet and show their political colours