Random Thoughts - Pattabhi Sitaraman

The Mitrokhin Archives that was brought out as a book by Christopher Andrew is a revelation about many things that are unknown to many Indians. Let us take a look at the way things shaped up in the last seventy odd years since independence.  The government of India that came into being in 1947 since country's independence from the British had been plagued by infiltration by many foreign intelligence agencies.  In the early years of the country as an independent nation, the most feared intelligence agency of USSR was slowly cultivating the people   from the top  in various levels of administration.  The diplomats and others who were posted to the Kremlin Embassy of India from that time were compromised using the age old trick of honey traps, bribes and un-manageable debts.  KGB managed to get the cipher codes and the books for decrypting the messages.  There was not a single message from the Indian embassy in Kremlin that went without the knowledge of...

In the 1970s, USA and Canada tested the practice of Universal Basic Income (UBI) and found that there was still a large gap between the requirements of a decent living and the availability of resources.  The UBI or Basic Income Guarantee (BIG as it was known in US and Canada) was aimed at elderly and disabled and not for all.  But by the end of the decade and the beginning of the new decade, the BIG was more or less forgotten and now it is almost done and dusted.   The UBI found some traction in many European nations in the early 1980s.  There were clamour for the UBI in many countries from unemployed outside of political parties and spectrum.  Groups were formed forcing some social changes in respect of the laws of the country to introduce UBI. Some of the nations were thrilled by the famed economist Milton Friedman's proposal for a negative income tax.  However, not many nations joined the bandwagon to start the experiment in their nations, tho...

The attack by the Islamists on the Greater Indian Subcontinent happened in the early part of the common era when Mahmud of Gazni and Ghori made repeated attacks and plundered the riches of the country spread from the present day Afghanistan in the west to Myanmar in the east.  The attacks left an indelible mark on the psyche of the people who were very pious and followers of the Sanathana Dharma and the off shoots like Budhism and Jainism.  The richness of the gangetic plains attracted hordes of marauders from the central Asian plateau into the country through the Khyber and Bolan mountain passes.  This  and the later day invasion by the Moghuls who started ruling the country from Delhi both directly and through their agents in different parts of the country  have been covered extensive ly by very many historians.  The vacation of power by the British and the Indian National Congress stand on the self rule resulted in the country getting partitio...

India had, in vain, attempted to bring the focus of the world on to terrorism for decades. Most of the times the western countries looked at the cross border terrorism in India as only a border skirmishes between the neighbors and nothing more.  No credence was given to the Indian voice against terrorism.  But the September 11, 2001 attack on the world trade center in New York and later the November 26, 2008 attack on Mumbai shook the world out of its comfortable denial of terrorism.  Despite the USA's actions against terrorism in Afghanistan and supporting Pakistan to combat terrorism, nothing concrete came out of it. Pakistan played its double role very well in the global theater and promised the western world that it was fighting the terrorists as they themselves are a victim of terrorism.   As the new government took over in New Delhi in May 2014, the prime minister Narendra Modi made it a point to visit as many countries as possible in as li...

The elections to the national parliament had been announced by the Election Commission of India.  Once again, after a five year gap, the world is going to witness a large democratic exercise underway from around 1st week of April till third week of May this year.  From a place which cannot be found even in a detailed map of the country to the largest and most populous metropolis in the country every place is going to hum with the din of the election canvassing and the parties trying to woo the electorate.  Some of the parties have already stitched an alliance with local and national parties; but some of the major parties have not yet come to an understanding to form an alliance to fight the election.  Most of the opposition parties' only common denominator seems to be to defeat the incumbent prime minister Modi and his party BJP in the hustings.  Other than that there is no commonality among any of these parties who are aligned against the present government....

While the terror attack on the CRPF convoy at Pulwama raised lot of global condemnation, there was absolutely no voice of protest over the air-strike on the terror camps both in POK and inside Pakistan.   On the other hand, there were voices supporting for a retaliatory strike and saying that India has a right to avenge the terror strike.   This has been one of the best diplomatic victories of the Modi government.  The Pak PM made a grand declaration to the world that the pilot of the ill fated MiG21 was being released as a peace gesture. While the world in general and India in particular were waiting for the actual release of the pilot, there were cross border attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.  Though two terrorists were neutralised, five security personnel were martyred.  The Pak PM's claim of peace gesture fell flat on these developments. In the long wait for the release of the pilot the Pak army as usual tried to use the pilot for its own nefario...

In part 1, I had written about the internal ramifications of the Pulwama attack.  Let us take a look at what are the options before the government of India to retaliate the dastardly terror attack on the CRPF convoy; likely scenario in the backdrop of the Pakistan's prime minister Imran Khan's stated position that they will retaliate if there is any offensive from Indian side. The options before the government of India is very limited.  It is going towards a general election hardly in about two months. The election commission may declare election to the parliament any time within the next thirty days.  The government of the day will only be a care-taker government.  How this will impact the necessary retaliation to the terror attack on the convoy is to be seen.   Delaying the retaliatory strike further will reduce the impact and the foreign governments who had sort of pledged their support for the country to retaliate may rethink their stated position...