THE BUGLES ARE CALLING FOR WAR

The big question is finally being addressed: Who will be the opposition's prime minister candidate? It will be unrealistic of course to expect an answer at this stage. But the unexpected flexibility in the Congress's position tells its own tale. Two days after taking a stand firmly in favour of Rahul Gandhi, it said the party would be accommodative, that it saw itself as a facilitator of alliances, that it was ready to accept "any non-RSS candidate" as prime minister.

In a more sensational policy shift, Mamata Banerjee said that she would organise an opposition rally in Kolkata in January to which she would invite the CPM, a sworn enemy against which she had a fought a bitter war and won. She called for an "inclusive opposition". At the other end of the country, Mehbooba Mufti's People's Democratic Party rushed to compliment its long-time adversary, the National Conference, when NC leader Farooq Abdullah called for talks with Pakistan over Kashmir.

Chandrababu Naidu emphasised a critical factor when he said: "Strengthen the regional parties whether it is the party of Mamata, Mayawati, Akhilesh or Kumaraswamy, then India will have a better future". This is commonsense endorsed by history. The Congress was strongest when it functioned more or less as a syndicate of regional leaders such as Kamaraj, S.K.Patil, Atulya Ghosh, S.Nijalingappa and C.B.Gupta.

Men of that calibre are hard to come by these days and regional leaders are finding it difficult to achieve national stature. Mayawati has spent massively to field candidates in many states many time, scoring zero most of the time. Akhilesh Yadav similarly is unable to make any impact outside his home turf. Kumaraswamy has a party with an all-India sound, but is crippled by a father who is over-ambitious for an 85-year old and a brother in the cabinet whose authoritarianism is aggravated by his eccentricity; it was unbearable family politics that reduced the Karnataka chief minister to a pitiable weeping angel.

Mamata Banerjee is the only person in Naidu's list whose mass popularity at home has some echoes elsewhere as well. She certainly had a larger audience in mind than the one she faced in Kolkata last week when she said that "there is a crisis in India" because the ruling group had unleashed "Taliban Hindutva". She referred to hundreds of people being killed in UP in fake encounters, and 13,000 farmers committing suicide. She asked people to unite under the slogan BJP hatao, desh bachao.

Chandrababu Naidu said, intriguingly, that his TDP would play a national role. Does it mean oneupmanship with other regional leaders or helping a chosen one? Earlier Telangana's Chandrasekhar Rao had said, a bit too blatantly, "I am ready to enter national politics.....I will take the leadership at the national level, why not"? To mention just one reason: What credibility can he have when he is unable to work collaboratively even with the other Telugu state next door? The TDP member who introduced the no-confidence motion in Parliament faced the loudest interruptions from the Telangana members.

Actually that debate unveiled talent that could be of use to both Telugu states and beyond. Jayadeva Gulla, eloquent in polished English, was a forceful speaker, deserving the one hour he managed against the allotted 13 minutes. Eloquent in his own native style was Kesineni Srinivas who regaled the House with quotable quotes. Referring to the Prime Minister's speech, he said: "Wandraful oratory speech, madam. Wandraful. I felt I was watching blockbuster Bollywood movie. The best actor in the world, madam. No doubt, madam". Madam Speaker didn't want such things said and cut him short. Telangana MPs were happy.

Telugu is the only language, other than Hindi, that has more than one state in its name. That does not seems to be helping either the language or the states. Such inherent contradictions can stand in the way of opposition unity. How may leaders will have the maturity and the good sense to set aside personal ambitions for the common good? The shift to pragmatism announced by Trinamool and the Congress must set an example to others.

A warning implied in Rahul Gandhi's speech in Parliament suggests that unity may be a matter of life-and-death for opposition parties. He said: "The Prime Minister and the BJP president cannot afford to lose power. Because the moment they lose power, the other processes will start against them". Think that over. One thing is sure. It is not going to be a general election next year. It is going to be war.

THE RAKSHASA CULTURE LIVES ON

The relative smoothness of the no-confidence motion in Parliament, hug and all, was welcome. But it does not hide the ugly truth -- that civility in public discourse is disappearing in our country. Ministers use abusive language against opponents. Party spokesmen react with anger to legitimate criticism. Some leaders go to the extent of threatening to kill people they disapprove. These tendencies were unheard-of in the early years of independence. Discourtesy began with Emergency and has reached dangerous levels under the present dispensation.

Early this year Goa Minister Vinod Palyekar called Kannadigas "harami" and said the Karnataka Government consisted of "habitual liars". Of course he later said he was misquoted by journalists -- a typical escape route for irresponsible politicians. This man represented the little known Goa Forward Party. The big leader of the big party, BJP, recently described the opposition as "a bunch of mangoose, snakes and dogs caught together in a flood". Such attacks expose the low civilisational level of those who make them; their victims are not scarred at all.

Barack Obama's vice-president Joe Biden recently drew attention to what should be the norm in public life. He criticised fellow Democrats for routinely attacking Republicans. He called that "divisive partisan politics" and said: "It's mean-spirited. It's petty". His own stand was: "We should not look at Republicans as our enemy. They are our opposition. They are not our enemy".

That sounds as if he was talking about India, that he was cautioning Indian politicians against "divisive partisanship" and telling them that such politics was mean-spirited and petty. But if a generation of our politicians have decided that pettiness is the way to win elections, is there a way out?

Decencies of the kind Biden mentioned are ignored and violent partisanship promoted when the ruling regime is itself given to partisanship and mean-spiritedness. Childish was the way the BJP's national spokesman GVL Narasimha Rao reacted to the Tamil movie Mersal in which star actor Vijay had dialogue criticising GST and demonetisation. Rao, shamelessly, went on air to say that "film stars had very low IQ and very low general knowledge". Another spokesman said: "It's unfair to criticise the PM when he is working so hard". The net result was that the film got more box office draw, and the BJP's image went a notch down.

The way smalltime leaders of the BJP make statements that are actionable under law is a trend that deserves attention, the more so because no action is taken by anyone. Bihar's BJP leader Nityanand Rai told party workers last November: If anyone even raises eyebrows at the Prime Minister, break his hands and if necessary chop them off. The party's Madhya Pradesh MP Paresh Rawal tweeted: "Instead of tying stone pelters on army jeep, tie Arundhati Roy". When Afrazul Khan was set on fire by Shambu Lal on charges of love jihad last November, Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy said: While jihadis were killing thousands across the world, how could anyone ask about just one man being killed in Rajasthan? At a Hindu Aikyavedi meeting in Kochi, its president K.P.Sasikala asked secular writers to perform mrityunjaya homa at Shiva temples to save themselves from Gauri Lankesh's fate. Kundan Chandravat offered Rs 1 crore to anyone who beheaded Pinarayi Vijayan. These are violations of the Indian penal code. Those in power are duty-bound to take action against them. But action was taken only in one case. And what action? Kundan Chandravat was removed from all the posts he held in the RSS.

When law shuts its eye before crime, it only means that violators have the backing of those in power. This is not always an ideological game. Kerala police, headed by a comic figure, is split into factions that play political games; casual detainees in police stations are tortured to death in scandalously sadistic ways. In the Bastar region, both Congress leaders like P. Chidambaram and BJP leaders have been promoting police action for "clearing out Maoist-infested areas". The impact became evident when I.K.Elesela, SP of a district in Bastar, spoke as chief guest at a heavy vehicles launch last year. He said human rights activists should be crushed on the roads with heavy vehicles. A sick man with a sick mind. But his punishment was a mere transfer.

Bastar is in Dandakaranya. Today, despite nice debates in Parliament, all of India is Dandakaranya with asuras and rakshasas ruling the roost. There are Kharas and Dushanas around, but no Rama and Lakshmana to destroy the demons and protect the people.

MUCH ADO ABOUT 'HINDU PAKISTAN'

The furore over Shashi Tharoor's remarks over the possibilities of India becoming a "Hindu Pakistan" must have surprised his enemies and his friends in equal measure. It also reminds us, yet again, that we live in a politically surcharged atmosphere where battles can suddenly break out over a gesture, a phrase, a nudge or a wink. Communal emotions have become the sustenance of public life. They are the stuff of headlines and headlines are today the sum total of existence.

Shashi Tharoor has an unusual problem to begin with. Those who hate him are more articulate than those who don't. His quotable English creates more adversaries since angrez is quintessentially anti-national. He also ploughs a lonely furrow although he wears the badge of the Congress Party proudly on his Kurta. He went out of his way to write a whole book explaining why he was a Hindu. But the Hindus who matter in our polity don't believe a word of it.

That must be the reason why his "Hindu Pakistan" jibe kicked up so much dust so suddenly. On the face of it, the gist of what he said would be seen as unimpeachable in non-BJP circles. If the BJP were voted back to power, he said, it would re-write the Constitution "and that will enshrine the principle of Hindu Rashtra that will remove equality for the minorities and that will create a Hindu Pakistan".

That kind of speculation has been aired by others before. The idea of re-writing the Constitution has been publicly promoted by the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat himself. Addressing a lawyers' conclave last year, he called for changes in the Constitution "in line with our value system". He specifically demanded a legal system reflecting "Bharatiya ethos".

This is a fully accepted viewpoint from the RSS angle. If Bhagwat put it gently and in respectable phrases, the Hindu Janajagrati Samiti expanded on it in a different tone when it talked of making India a Hindu Rashtra by 2023. The choice of that year could not have been accidental. It actually said that Yogi Adityanath's rise to power in UP had indeed started the process of creating a Hindu Rashtra.

Paradoxically, there is no consensus on what exactly is the definition of Hindu Rashtra. The term has liberal interpretations as well as communal ones. The RSS's communications chief Aniruddha Deshpande saw Hindu Rashtra as a concept based on inclusiveness, which emphasises one's duties to the nation rather than to the Hindu religion. Asserting that religion is a Western concept, he said: "Someone who is born a Hindu but is working against the country's interests is not a Hindu for us. On the contrary, a non-Hindu dedicated to the country's progress is a Hindu to us".

This is as broad-minded a viewpoint as possible, considering that Hindu is a term derived from the Sindhu river and therefore geographical in nature. The spiritual side was covered by Sanatana Dharma, a non-religious term denoting, simply, a concept of Eternal Values.

Unfortunately, Deshpande's generous definition of Hindu Rashtra is not supported by many of his ideological colleagues. An RSS-backed Think Tank in Mumbai recently organised a talk session with a group of authors, columnists and thinkers known for their anti-RSS stance. Many RSS stalwarts objected to this, calling it "appeasement of enemies". One said: "In today's time, those who see the Sangh as enemy should feel isolated, not honoured".

What did he mean by "in today's time?". Clearly hardline Hindutva groups feel that this is their time with a government that promotes their objectives. If these groups get another five years of power, it would be dumb to expect them to waste it. In a country where public debate is not only possible but is the norm, it is legitimate to raise such issues for people to think about.

Shashi Tharoor's point therefore was valid, but perhaps he made a phraseological mistake linking Hinduism with Pakistan, which helped attackers to open fire from multiple angles. Most of the shots were farcical -- that the phrase showed denigration of Indian democracy, that India was being equated with Pakistan, that Islam was being promoted.

All that happened was another reminder that we are a democracy where an extremist ideology using religion as a tool is finding it hard to gain control.That is because the majority of Hindus in this Hindu-majority country vote not as Hindus, but as Indians. In their hands our country and our Constitution and our Sanatana Dharma are safe and will remain safe.

WHY ISRO 'SPY CASE' IS IMPORTANT

India's biggest achievement since independence is its march to leadership ranks in space technology. In June last year the national space organisation ISRO put into space a rocket as heavy as 200 fully grown elephants, making it a major player in the satellite launch industry alongside the US, France and Russia.

The pioneers who prepared the ground for this great leap forward were Homi Babha and Vikram Sarabhai, men of impeccable scientific credentials. Bhabha pioneered nuclear research while Sarabhai focussed on space and rocketry. Both had the nuclear bomb at the back of their minds, according to Ready to Fire, the important and moving book by Nambi Narayanan, the ISRO scientist who pioneered cryogenic technology in India at great personal cost.

Sarabhai had developed close contacts, says Nambi, with Dadieu, the German rocket engineer. (Germany's V-2 rocket, symbol of its space technology leadership, had stunned Britain in World War II). He also knew Itokawa, specialist on Japan's pencil rocket. Nambi writes: "With faith in the Japanese wisdom on onboard-control systems and the German mastery over fabrication, both not allowed by the US to be put to use by those countries, Sarabhai was trying to forge a deadly brotherhood. The US was ostensibly unhappy".

Then, at 56 Bhabha died in an aircrash in Switzerland in 1966. At 52 Sarabhai died in a hotel room in Trivandrum in 1971 for no apparent reason. In 1994, when ISRO was close to mastering cryogenic technology on its own after having been obstructed by the US, Nambi Narayanan and Sasikumar were arrested, tortured and virtually destroyed by Kerala police in the notorious ISRO spy case. Nambi, a man of almost superhuman willpower, went through it for four years before he could go to the Supreme Court which declared him and others as innocent.

It all started with a Kerala police inspector eyeing a six-foot Maldivian woman. Spurned by her, he set out to get her tied up in legal knots, then found an opportunity to file spying charges against her. The case quickly became a cause celebre used by multiple agencies for multiple purposes. The end result, as summed up by Kumar Chellappan in a 2013 article, was that the case "not only finished the careers of India's two exceptionally brilliant space scientists, but also put the country's cryogenic engine development on hold for more than 19 years".

Nambi Narayanan's account of the drama, subtitled How India and I survived the ISRO spy case, fills us with equal parts of pride and shame. Sarabhai's vision and the dedication of his team of scientists make up an inspiring episode of recent history. It makes us feel that we are a people who can achieve anything if only the dreamers are given a free hand. The next moment, though, reality makes us feel ashamed -- the reality that we will never do well because of the dishonesty and crookedness of those who are in positions of power.

Kerala police, known for its love of third-degree methods and the selfishness of some of its officers, played a dastardly role in the spy case.The CBI itself rejected all its findings and case diaries which "reflect adversely on the methods and intentions of the investigating officers of the Kerala Police".

One bows in awe before Nambi Narayanan who withstood the cruelties of the sadistic police which Sasikumar could not. The first blow landed when they asked him to give the name of a Muslim friend and he, quite honestly, gave the name of his colleague A.P.J.Abdul Kalam. For more than 30 hours he was made to stand, answering questions, taking beatings. When he asked for water, the answer was: "You third-rate criminal, you want water?".

This astonishing man gathered strength by telling himself "I cannot let down Sarabhai, my father, my gurus and myself". As he puts it: "I took deep breaths and stood my ground. I spoke. 'You guys are committing a big crime, and you will be punished for this' ".

It is sickening to learn that a scientist working on a nationally important project became a victim of cunning politicians (Congress leader Oommen Chandy used the ISRO case to get rid of the then Congress chief minister), and scheming police officers (a DGP used the case to malign another officer who stood in the way of his promotion). Nambi Narayanan lost his career, but recovered his honour. May his tribe increase and may he succeed in getting just dessert for those police tormentors found guilty by the CBI itself.

WHEN THE BEST AMONG US FALTER

Arun Jaitley and Piyush Goyal are the two most qualified -- shall we say civilised -- men in the Narendra Modi cabinet. Both have distinguished educational background and are recognised as well-informed intellectuals. Their public careers have been impeccable. They fit naturally into refined social circles and are respected for that. Under the influence of politics, however, even such mature minds sometimes get carried away -- and that is disturbing.

Was it necessary for Arun Jaitley, for example, to go to the extent he did in comparing Indira Gandhi with Hitler? Indians need no new messiah to convince them about the tyranny of the Emergency, about the unacceptability of the dynastic system that Indira imposed on the country, about her bid to destroy the judiciary. The people are still punishing her for the evils that she did. This is clear from the Congress becoming a mere also-ran in virtually every state, and Rahul Gandhi, despite his best efforts, being unable to free himself of the dynastic tag.

A nation so unambiguous about Indira's sins knows that she was like Hitler in some ways. But when a political oppositionist like Jaitley says that she imprisoned opponents as Hitler did, he must also accept that she did not kill minorities as Hitler did with the Jews -- and as some in Jaitley's own camp are advocating now. When BJP legislator Lal Singh threatened journalists with the fate of Shujaat Bukhari who was shot dead in Kashmir, he was not compared even to Pramod Muthalik, let alone Hitler.

It all boils down to intolerance of dissent. How Arun Jaitley, a campaigner for the right to dissent during his ABVP days, went to the other extreme as minister is a topic historians must dissect. The change was evident when he became the principal strategist in the 2002 and 2007 Gujarat elections. It was Jaitley who stopped Vajpayee from exercising Raj Dharma in Gujarat following the 2002 riots. Jaitley was the first to propose Modi as BJP's prime ministerial candidate in 2014. In the circumstances Jaitley will probably be thinking that he has a special responsibility to defend the style and substance of the Government in which he is second only to the Prime Minister.

Given the heights he occupies, Arun Jaitley dislikes criticism. When BJP's elder statesman Yashwant Sinha criticised the Government, Jaitley called him a "job applicant at 80". When his policies allowed no scope for peer review, specialist advisers such as Arvind Panagariya and Aravind Subramanyam quit. Even the Reserve Bank of India had to re-define autonomy to fit into the Finance Minister's definition of it.

Irony peaked when Jaitley attacked Indira Gandhi's suppression of dissent and said: "If you curb free speech and allow only propaganda, you become the first victim of propaganda". How true even today! An institutionalised fear complex has curbed free speech and promoted propaganda under the current dispensation of which Arun Jaitley is a principal architect.

Piyush Goyal is a pillar of the same dispensation. To understand the enchanting human side of this accomplished gentleman, you only have to see/hear his keynote address at an event in his beloved alma mater, the Don Bosco school in Matunga, Bombay, in 2014. Recalling the discipline he learned and the values he developed under the stern but loving supervision of the Fathers in Don Bosco, Goyal went into sobs and tears as he said that "the heart and soul" he developed in school "will always be in my DNA". He even recited the Lord's Prayer. Such a cultivated liberal not only ended up in a camp where being liberal is equivalent to being anti-national, but also developed an ability to be ungraceful.

Referring to a coach factory project lying dormant in Kerala for 12 years, Goyal's ministry clarified that the plan was virtually abandoned as existing coach factories were enough to meet the requirements of the railways. The Minister could have left it at that. But he added brashly that "railway tracks cannot be built on air". This, after the state government had acquired 439 acres of land six years ago. The comment was out of character. We must infer that both Arun Jaitley and Piyush Goyal have become victims of power and of the consequent assumption that the government of which they are a part is the best thing that has ever happened, or can happen, to India. That conviction makes them feel contemptuous of those who think differently. Why does that remind us of Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Sakshi Maharaj?