My Opinion

Pakistan Air Force is conducting routine annual air exercise, but their Defence Minister has posted pictures of some of the fighter planes on Twitter. His intention was to convey to the people of Pakistan that his Air Force is ready for battle, and to convey to India that if attacked, PAF fighter planes can take off from highways to retaliate. But the minister,, Khawaja Asif has himself become the butt of ridicule in his own country because of this tweets. He forgot that the Indian armed forces are not so naive as to be frightened by routine air exercises. He forgot history – Pakistan attacked India thrice and bit the dust thrice.

The audiotape related to the speech of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar soon after the Uri attack, clearly shows that Pakistan has become a safe haven for terrorists, where they move around unhindered. In such a situation, nobody can trust Pakistan’s claim that it does not help terrorists. The truth is that the Pakistan government, the Pakistan army and the ISI – all three are aiding and abetting terrorists to launch attacks against India. The time has now come to take decisive action. As far as Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s remark, that Prime Minister Modi’s vow to avenge Uri attack will not remain just words, is concerned, there is no doubt that India will definitely retaliate, but not through knee-jerk action. Any action would be executed after proper planning. If that happens, the people of this nation will heave a sigh of relief.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been clearly betrayed by Nawaz Sharif. The manner in which the Pakistani Prime Minister attended Modi’s swearing-in ceremony and spoke of friendship, the way he further extended his hand of friendship by inviting Modi to Lahore, the promises that he made on jointly tackling terrorism — there was no reason on part of India not to disbelieve his gestures and promises. But, the moment the ground situation changed, with turbulence in Kashmir, Nawaz Sharif changed his tune. For India, it has now become difficult to talk peace with Nawaz Sharif any more. The situation has now come to a point where Prime Minister Modi may not be visiting the forthcoming SAARC Summit in Islamabad, and the summit is bound to fail with Bangladesh and Afghanistan indicating their desire not to attend. On the issue of isolating Pakistan after the Uri attack, there are three options before India – one, to isolate Pakistan diplomatically at world forums, the second option is to carry out a surgical strike on terrorist camps inside Pakistan, but to execute that, adequate intelligence inputs and planning are needed, and this may take time. The third option, according to experts, is to wage all-out war, but one should never forget that Pakistan, too, is a nuclear power, and India may suffer more losses in the event of a full-scale war, because a failed state like Pakistan has not much to lose.

In the present internecine war in Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family, the patriarch is doing an intricate balancing act. His decisions boil down to this: neither you win, nor I lose, it’s a win-win for both.

On Tuesday, Shivpal Singh Yadav looked cheerful after meeting his brother Mulayam Singh for three hours. My information is that Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had removed UP chief secretary Deepak Singhal on his father’s instructions.

He had also taken his father’s advice before dismissing two of his ministers. The confusion arose over taking away key portfolios from Shivpal Singh. When Mulayam Singh decided to make his brother Shivpal the chief of the UP unit of Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh took away seven out of ten portfolios that his uncle was handling.

On Tuesday, Mulayam Singh Yadav told his brother that one should understand, the party forms the government, the government does not form the party, so his stature would be greater than that of the Chief Minister.

That is why when Shivpal Singh Yadav came out, he claimed, he has been promoted and he was happy on being given a bigger post.

However, that does not mean that all is hunky-dory in the Samajwadi Party. There has only been a pause in the battle, the embers of fire are still there.

The Lt. Governor of Delhi is presently away in USA. It is also correct that the MCD did not do its work properly to get rid of mosquitoes. The one or two AAP ministers of Delhi government who have rushed back to the capital are however not speaking on the main issues like Dengue and Chikungunya. They are stressing more on why the media is highlighting the issue. The ministers are saying Prime Minister Modi’s government has taken away their power, the Lt. Gov did not allow them to work. In that case, these ministers should also say that there are impending elections in Punjab and Goa, and the party would first think about the people living there. It needs their votes. The party will think about the fever of Delhites later. The conditions in Delhi’s hospitals are too bad. Four patients are sleeping on a single bed. There are long queues of patients waiting for diagnosis, shelling out Rs 1500-Rs 2000. Each doctor is handling as many as 200 patients, but the Health Minister at the Centre thinks his work is over by sending advisories to the state government. It would have been better if he had visited the hospitals himself and found out the ground realities for himself. If the Delhi government is unable to take care of the patients, he should have at least ensured that the hospitals run by the Centre in Delhi worked satisfactorily.

Those indulging in arson and vandalism on the streets are neither helping Karnataka, nor Tamil Nadu. One can never achieve anything by setting fire to buses, trucks and other vehicles, and by beating up people from other states. People who are vandalizing are not many in number.

The governments in both states must detain such vandals and take stringent action against them. But in reality, governments in both the states are viewing them in terms of vote banks, and there seems to be little possibility of any strong action against rioters and vandals.

I sincerely appeal to all sections of people in both the states to maintain peace and abide by the law.

Reports that are filtering in from the valley reveal that most of the youths who have taken to the streets have been instigated in the name of Islam, and that too, of the Wahabi kind. Kashmir valley used to be famous across the world because of its Sufi tradition of Islam, an all-inclusive synthesis of different religions, but now, the conservative Wahabi tradition is dominating. Girls are being forced to wear burqa and hijab. Boys have been asked to keep beards, and all these are visible on the ground. Today Syed Ali Shah Geelani issued a statement exhorting people to keep their shops closed in the name of jihad. He is telling people that to think of opening shops and going for jobs at the time of jihad is against Islamic tenets, rather people should be prepared for sacrifices in the name of jihad. However, the truth is that the same leader who is exhorting people to stay away from jobs and business is himself allowing his children to stay and study in foreign lands. He never asked his children to offer sacrifice. The Centre has now decided that it will show no sympathy towards separatists and the battle will be fought on an ideological level. The government cannot allow people to be instigated in the name of extremism and Islam.

It was Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti who had said that the people of India always welcome and help youths from Kashmir whenever they go to other states for education and jobs. People of the rest of India do have love and affection for the youths of Kashmir. Students from Kashmir, who had met the Home Minister Rajnath Singh and HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday also said the same thing. These students can become the brand ambassadors for other Kashmiri youths. They can be the role models for youths in the Valley who should realize that stonethrowing at security forces or staging violent protests will lead to nowhere. The youths of Valley should have computers, not stones in their hands. This will be the best best for Kashmir’s future.

Enough of meetings, too much efforts have been made to initiate dialogue, now is the time for strong and intensive action: against those who are indulging in violence in the valley, attacking security personnel, against those separatist leaders who are thriving on support from Pakistan, their channels of funds need to be plugged, they should be thrown into jail.

The people of India now expect Prime Minister Narendra Modi to show to the world what his government can do to tackle separatism in the valley. Those showing flags of Pakistan on Indian soil need to be taught a lesson.

Two things have now become clear after the all-party delegation’s visit to Jammu and Kashmir. One, the Centre is trying its utmost to bring back normalcy in the valley, and the opposition parties are with the government, Two, separatist leaders of Hurriyat Conference do not want normalcy to be restored. The question now is: what do the Hurriyat Conference leaders want? They may have been dissatisfied with the Centre, but why did they refuse to even speak to the all-party delegation? The answer was given by Abdul Ghani Bhat. Hurriyat leaders want India to start unconditional talks with Pakistan. But the stance taken by Hurriyat leaders on not even speaking to Indian political leaders, raises question about their credibility. One can understand if they speak for the people of Kashmir, but to advocate for Pakistan? Nobody can accept.

There is not an iota of doubt that Navjot Singh Sidhu is popular in his home state, he is dynamic, he is considered a good orator, and if he contests the elections, he can affect the Punjab poll results. Because of this, the BJP leadership had nominated him to the Rajya Sabha, but he decided to quit. The Aam Aadmi Party then tried to woo him, but Sidhu refused to accept its terms and conditions. The Congress, too, tried to ensnare him, but Sidhu refused to accept Amarinder Singh as his captain. Now if Sidhu sets up a front, he can cause headache to all the parties that had sought his support. Meanwhile, the other factor is Suchha Singh Chotepur, who set up and groomed the AAP in Punjab, but was hounded out by Arvind Kejriwal. If Chotepur gives a fight to Kejriwal and start revealing the true colours of Kejriwal to the voters of Punjab, it will definitely affect the preferences of voters in Punjab. And the most significant part is that if Sidhu’s front joins hands with Chotepur’s party, then they can really become a force to reckon with in Punjab.

If one listens carefully to what Arvind Kejriwal, his ex-party leader Prashant Bhushan and his dismissed minister Sandeep Kumar are saying, one thing becomes clear: Kejriwal and his colleagues are paying only lip service to probity, morality and sincerity in public life. Whenever Kejriwal has to win elections, he looks at the candidate’s winnability instead of honesty, and purposefully ignores the candidate’s character, corruption and background. When Kejriwal’s ministers get caught, they either say I’m a Dalit, or I’m a Muslim, but, in reality, all of them are in the same league. Kejriwal still lives under the illusion that he can mislead the public by claiming that he took quick action, but there’s an old Bollywood song ‘yeh public hai, sab jaanti hai’. Kejriwal taught his volunteers how to carry out a sting, but the traps they had dug are snaring their own ‘diamonds’ who are now turning as black as a coal. But, Kejriwal is yet to realise his mistake. He is busy carrying out stings against his own party leaders, one glaring example of this is Suchha Singh Chotepur of Punjab.