1984 AND COMPULSIVE CONTRARIANS

It's now two months since the Union Government issued orders that turned India into a surveillance state. Ten investigative agencies were authorised to "intercept, monitor and decrypt" all computer material kept by all citizens. The authorities justified it by saying that the rules were framed by the Congress-led UPA Government. That is a flop explanation because one iniquity does not justify another.

The scariest picture of a surveillance state was sketched in George Orwell's classic novel "1984" written in 1949. Looking 35 years ahead at that time was, for Orwell, like looking into a completely re-configured world because the war had just ended and Soviet Communism seemed poised to gobble a sizable chunk of the world. Orwell saw The Party, led by Big Brother and the Thought Police using media manipulation and advanced technology to control populations. Doublethink was common and Newspeak emerged as the lingua franca. Oceania, the country that emerged when the US devoured the British Commonwealth, Eurasia constituted by the Soviet absorption of continental Europe, and Eastasia that controlled all of the Far East were in perpetual war.

What Orwell feared didn't quite work out that way except that the superpowers got into perpetual war. But a more comprehensive version of the Orwellian nightmare took shape, quite unexpectedly, in India. Advanced technology has been at work for a while. Media manipulation and Thought Vigilantes became facts of life after 2014. Doublethink became a mark of nationalism, Newspeak the way to success. And now Big Brother has officially declared that he is watching. A group of filmmakers in Mumbai said at a closed-door meeting that they feared being branded anti-national. Amol Palekar was stopped by on-stage officials of the National Gallery of Modern Art when he started to criticise some official policy decisions on art. An Ahmedabad college cancelled its scheduled speech by Jignesh Mevani, a former student, because of ABVP threats. The principal resigned in protest, realising no doubt that he had no role when The Thought Police thought all permitted thoughts.

It must have surprised Orwell that Stalinism, the hatred of which was the provocation for his novel, did not become the horror he feared. Stalin was repudiated by his successors and then forgotten. Strangely, the Big Brother concepts took shape in the very country with which Orwell was umbilically connected. (He was born in Motihari, Bihar, where his father was a British civil servant).

Did Orwell pick the year 1984 on a whim? British speculation centred around a Jack London novel in which a political movement comes to power in 1984 and a G.K.Chesterton story set in 1984. But the choice of the year proved portentous for the country he had probably forgotten by then, some calling it the year that changed India. Early that year Indira Gandhi ordered the ill-advised military assault on the Golden Temple in Amritsar where Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale had sought refuge to escape from arrest. In October Indira Gandhi was shot dead by her own Sikh guards. This was followed by anti-Sikh riots that killed an estimated 10,000 people. The year closed with one of the worst industrial disasters in history when poisonous gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, killing 4000 people outright and another 16000 later. Did Orwell have some kind of a premonition about India when he picked 1984? Was some evil eye at work unseen?

The world Orwell conjured up might have been maniacal. But it was fictional. The India that emerges from the Home Ministry's surveillance order is all too real. It gives agencies like IB, RAW, CBI and even the Delhi Police Commissioner a blanket licence to access electronic information. A full week would pass for any restraint order to come if at all. This makes a mockery of the Supreme Court order that the right to privacy is integral to the fundamental right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. Why is the Government so jittery?

In an ideal world where people identify themselves with their government, the security of the state and the security of its people would be one and the same. Since the world is not an ideal one, some security systems are necessary. But no democracy has introduced an omnibus spying system of the kind India has put in place. What Delhi has revealed in the process is a "them and us" separation between the people and the Government. Why have the people of India become such compulsive contrarians, to use the phrase coined by Arun Jaitley, our impulsive disciplinarian.

BEFORE TERRORISTS, WE ARE ALONE

Prime Minister Modi had, and will continue to have, the backing
of all of India in his stand against the terrorists who "made a big
mistake" in attacking jawans in Pulwame. The attack must have given
the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and its protectors in Pakistan a cheap
thrill of achievement as they managed to kill 40 CRPF men in one go.
But it was a big mistake because it made India unite against the
assassins. Enemies have been shown that they cannot take advantage of
India's noisy democracy and create divisions in the name of religion.

Nevertheless, the latest JeM strike is an opportunity for us to
examine our record, our resolve and our capabilities more closely than
before. The unity of purpose that binds India together in crises is
different from the ability to stop terrorists in their track. The
record shows that JeM's ability to strike has in no way been curbed
over the years. They attacked India's Parliament in 2001 and the IAF
base in Pathankot in early 2016. Later that year four terrorists near
Uri town were able to stage "the deadliest attack on security forces
in Kashmir in two decades." In retaliation to the Uri attack, India
said it made a surgical strike. The people know precious little
about it, except that it has not weakened JeM in any way. Within a
year and half they struck at Pulwame.

A reality that has to be faced is that this is a war India has
to fight alone because, at the international level, India really has
no friends. This isolation is linked to a series of strategic
blunders beginning from the time of independence. When Pakistan
rushed tribal fighters from the Northwest Frontier to capture Srinagar
in 1947, Sardar Patel was quick to rush troops there and save the
situation. If the soldiers were given a few more days they could have
thrown the tribals out of Kashmir and brought the whole state under
Indian control. But Viceroy Mountbatten played the friendship card
with Jawaharlal Nehru and managed to get a ceasefire ordered,
permanently dividing the state between India and Pakistan. Nehru
went on to make blunders by allowing the UN a role in the dispute and
by pledging to hold a plebiscite in the state. Britain, a world power
in those days, was unfriendly to India and manipulated the UN in
Pakistan's favour.

India's next round of blunders occurred under Prime Minister A.
B. Vajpaye. The hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight in 1999 was
handled with great incompetence. The pilot had cleverly pleaded fuel
crisis and got permission from the hijackers to land in Amritsar.
This was an opportunity for India to take control of the situation.
But in Amritsar, as a member of Vajpaye's staff put it later, "airport
officials ran around like so many headless chicken, totally clueless
about what was to be done." A team of special commandos could not
reach the airport because of traffic problems in the city.

The flight finally landed in Kandahar in Afghanistan. The
Government, still clueless, not only agreed to all the demands of the
hijackers, but Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh personally went to
Kandahar in a special plane along with terrorists released from Indian
prisons (and bundles of currency notes, as some reports said).

The main terrorist released by India to satisfy the hijackers
was Masoon Azhar who had been in Indian prisons for five years.
Accorded a hero"s reception in Pakistan, the man went on to found the
JeM and become the world's most strongly motivated terrorist.

What India needs to realise is the futility of depending on others
to come to its aid. Pleading for UN intervention is useless because
China has veto power there and China is as openly hostile to India as
it is friendly to Pakistan.US will give verbal support to India but
nothing more, especially now when it is planning to withdraw from
Afghanistan with Pakistan's cooperation. Saudi Arabia under Mohammed
bin Salman? Forget it.

Look beyond and we see another approach. US special commandos
found out a secret hide-out in Pakistan, staged a lightning operation
there and killed Osama bin Laden before anyone knew what was
happening. In 1976 when an Air France flight was hijacked by a
Palestinian faction demanding the release of militants imprisoned by
Israel, a completely unexpected 90-minute night operation by Israel in
Uganda's Entebbe airport rescued 102 of the 106 hostages there.

Examples exist. So does expertise. All that is needed is a
shared, non-negotiable, politically unpolluted pride in one's nation.

VADRA, A TIMELY WEAPON FOR BJP

Unlike father Rajiv Gandhi and brother Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi has to wear two crosses -- the Gandhi dynastic cross and the Vadra controversies cross.The second hurts more. The haste with which the Government has opened the Vadra can of worms points to the viciousness of today's politics. But the worms cannot be wished away.

We have a tradition of leaders allowing family and friends to influence policy. It began with Jawaharlal Nehru himself whose private secretary, M.O.Mathai, was the source of much evil. Prime Minister Morarji Desai, considered a paragon of virtue, allowed son Kanti to sit in the PMO and influence decisions. P.V.Narasimha Rao hit a new low lending his ears to the international fraudster Chandraswamy. A.B.Vajpayee was supposed to usher in a new era, but he had a "foster son-in-law" who enjoyed official protocol status even when the Prime Minister went on foreign visits. There are sons and relatives getting special status under the present BJP rulers as well.

The problem therefore is not confined to one party or one leader. It looks like an implant in the DNA of the Indian politician. K.Chandrasekhar Rao and N.Chandrababu Naidu, sworn enemies, have both installed their sons as key cabinet ministers. Deve Gowda, with a son as chief minister, is grooming a grandson for prime ministership. Even "singles" like Mayawati and Mamata Bannerji have nephews throwing their weight around. For us politics is a blood thickener.

In such a situation, it is perhaps unfair to single out Robert Vadra for special mention as an offender. Besides, the present Government's hypocrisy is too blatant to be missed. Accusations against Vadra were publicly aired during the BJP's election campaign back in 2014. Though the party came to power, they took no follow-up action against Vadra for five years. Suddenly, the day Priyanka took charge as Congress secretary, the Government got into action. What explains the coincidence? The people know even if the ruling party thinks that the people are dumb.

And, pray, who is looking into the misdeeds of Vadra? The Enforcement Directorate, one of the many supposedly independent agencies that have lost their credibility in toto. This of course is not a new development; all parties in power have made a mockery of all agencies. But no one has done it with the rascality, the sinfulness and the in-your-face arrogance of the present regime. Things have reached a stage where an investigation by RAW, IB, CBI, ED etc spreads the impression that the citizen investigated is innocent and is merely being harassed for political purposes.

This would be ironic in Vadra's case. Transgressions attributed to him stretch from family affairs (his father was "disowned" by him and a few years later was found dead in what was first described as a heart attack and later as a suicide) to his posturings as a political leader. He led a farcical motorcycle rally in Rae Bareli in 2004 and declared, even more farcically, "if people want, I can join politics". On the day Priyanka went to take charge at the Congress office, a poster appeared there featuring him with her. It was quickly removed by an embarrassed Congress.

A smart ED will leave him alone so that he can continue embarrassing his wife and her party. Evidently this guy is an untamed horse. The first rule about wild horses is that one must approach them with caution. The texts say: "Ritual posturing and snorts often resolve a confrontation, but fighting does occur". By interfering, the agencies of a spiteful government can achieve nothing and lose much.

Perhaps the Government's strategists think that a Vadra hullabaloo will divert public attention from issues that matter, such as rising joblessness, farmers' distress, destruction of small business through demonetisation, the rise of fringe elements with freedom to lynch and so on. This may be true up to a point. But the desperation with which such tactics are resorted to also suggests that the ruling dispensation will stop at nothing. The suspicions over voting machines, for example, may not be out of place. In the 2014 elections the present Prime Minister had acknowledged the importance of the Election Commission. "With full responsibility", he told a rally in UP then, "I am accusing India's Election Commission of discrimination". The rest of India has been making the accusation from the opposite side of the ring this time. Hullabaloo about Vadra's vagaries and Priyanka's looks is a way to outshout others. Clearly this is going to be an anything-is-possible election. Politics has never been this dirty in India.

WHY NORTHEAST CITIZENS REBEL

Imagine all South Indian states uniting on a platform of ethnic difference from the north, as C.N.Annadurai briefly contemplated once upon a time. Something similar is happening in the northeast. Ethnically, culturally and historically, the northeastern states have been different from the rest of India. Northeasterners often talked about going to the "mainland" when they meant going to India. The mainlanders for their part often referred to northeasterners in terms and tones of racial superiority.

Elections last February signalled what looked like a seachange in this scenario. The Congress was unseated and so was the Communist Party that had ruled Tripura under one leader for 20 years. A triumphant BJP formed a one-party government in Tripura while it formed alliances with other parties to take control of the remaining states. It was a clean sweep for the BJP which has had no presence in the northeast till then. In political terms, it was the equivalent of a coup d'etat.

But suddenly last week, the gears slipped into reverse. An ideology-driven initiative by the BJP ignited resentment among its allies across the region. Protestors have taken to the street with mass demonstrations, burning of effigies, and hunger strikes. Six of the region's seven chief ministers have suspended their BJP links and formed a united front to fight the BJP-sponsored move to enforce the new legislation in the region and across the country.

What is the BJP move that has provoked so much resentment? Outwardly it looks noble: Promoting a citizenship amendment bill that will give "persecuted minorities" in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan the right to become Indian citizens. The phrase "persecuted minorities" does not mean what it means linguistically. Shias and Ahmediyas, Islamic minorities routinely persecuted in Pakistan, qualify to be covered by the phrase, but that must be farthest from the minds of BJP strategists. Everyone knows that the BJP is referring only to the Hindu minorities in neighbouring countries. The proposed amendment means that Hindus in Bangladesh who migrate even illegally to the northeastern states and to West Bengal will get citizenship rights. Such migration/citizenship will alter the demographics of the northeastern states -- a consummation the BJP wants and the local people don't.

The powerful student organisations of Assam and the Assam Gana Parishad were the first to rise in protest. One leader put it bluntly: "Assamese and other indigenous peoples feel betrayed by the Modi Government which seems hellbent on making Assam a dumping ground for foreigners thereby threatening our existence". The Gana Parishad has ended its two-year alliance with the BJP. Meghalaya's chief minister has warned that the northeast will seek support from across the country including the Congress. Thirteen local parties have said they would pull out of the BJP-led NDA if the amendment bill is taken up in the Rajya Sabha (it is already passed in the Lok Sabha).

Actually, there are issues involved here that concern the whole country. The existing laws do not take religion or ethnicity into account in determining citizenship. The "right of birth" is the accepted norm. If this is enlarged to include the "right of blood", it will mean the acceptance of religion as a determining factor. That is precisely the BJP's aim as its lead strategist in the region, Hemant Biswas Sarma, made clear when he said: "We have to decide who our enemy is -- the 1.5 lakh people or the 55 lakh people". (That is, Bengali Hindu illegals or Bengali Muslim illegals in Assam). Note also that the 55 lakh are automatically considered enemy.

Make no mistake, ethnic cleansing is the idea. China is paying heavily for its cleansing drive in Xinjiang, its vast autonomous province with 12 million Turkic-speaking Muslims. This region has more in common with Turkmenistan and the people of central Asia than with the Chinese which term, in the lexicon of Beijing, principally means the Han people. Beijing's policy of "integrating" Xinjiang has been relentless. Military repression, re-education camps, Sinicization of religion and officially sponsored re-location of thousands of Han Chinese families from the eastern heartland have not yet succeeded in changing the face and demography of Xinjiang.

India does not even have China's luxury of a one-party dictatorship. Worse, it has a Constitution, a Parliament, a judiciary with its own mind and a media that defies discipline. But there may be a way out. China used the camouflage "socialism with Chinese characteristics" to grow into a capitalist success story. If BJP goes for "Hindutva with Indian characteristics", perhaps it may yet help India grow into a modern state.