As a student of Organisational Behaviour and a novice in Politics I tend to look at Political events from the point of view of LEARNING about individual and group behaviour, Leadership issues, group dynamics and how systems, procedures and rules have an impact on individuals and on group behaviour.

So, from the point of view of Behaviour, the following aspects stand out.

One. In these elections BJP and its supporting organisations tried everything to polarise the voter—hijab controversy, azan restrictions, sponsored lynchings, love jihad controversy and used Tipu Sultan to achieve their objective. Even over confident PM also jumped into the fray and dragged Bajrang bali into politics, equating Goons of Bajrang dal with Bajrang Bali, an epitome of Loyalty, strength and courage. Yet the voters did not oblige. So, it appears that there is a limit to which Gods can be politicised and be exploited for electoral purposes. And secondly, the Leader must know its people, one cannot use God every time and Every where.

Two. However, Had the BJP done all this in North Indian states, it would have perhaps managed to polarise the Voters and decimated others, but all this did not work in South India. Therefore, there must be something that differentiates South Indians from North India. We the North Indians need to ponder what has made South Indian states successful. They are amongst the richest states of the country, provide millions of jobs to North Indians, they have carved a name for themselves in IT industry, Automobile sector, textiles and so on and not to forget -Most of our scientists are South Indians. Having served in South India, I can vouch for their simplicity and discipline. Besides this the people of South India are peace loving, they are staunch Hindus but perhaps they feared the direction in which BJP was trying to take them and so they rejected that Hinduism which is the hallmark of North Indians; Hooliganism.

Three. Mr Modi, as a Leader has finally exposed himself fully to the world. The manner in which he conducted himself during the elections and used religion none can be fooled now with his slogan SAB KA SAATH- SAB KA VISHWAS. Even the most naïve might now say that his Govt is - For the Hindus and By the Hindu (Fundamentalists). Usually, a Leader once exposed for his duplicity, he sooner or later gets trapped in a Catch 22 situation and has an ignominious end.

Four. The EC remained complacent and so the BJP Leadership used religion to create divide. When there is no one to monitor the powerful are likely to get away easily flouting them.

Five. It is not necessary that if a political party which  deliberately tries to shift the Goal post from Development to Religion, the people can also be herded in that direction. The people can have different priorities and have their own laundry list. And a leader must be aware of that or else it implies that the Leader is now either bereft of any new ideas or has lost touch with the ground realities.

Last but not the least, these elections remind me of a famous quote of Abraham Lincoln.

'You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time” .

This is a great quote because it also tells us Where each one of us stand.

When the Prime Minister inaugurated the latest upgraded version of Vande Bharat train recently, A senior railway official proudly briefed the reporters about the “superior” features of the train, which would provide passengers with an “aircraft-like travelling experience”, including reclining seats, automatic fire sensors, CCTV cameras, Wi-fi and claimed that India has made a huge leap into the future of mass transportation.

At the flagging-off ceremony, the Prime Minister even went on to say that ;

“People who are used to travelling on flights will prefer the Vande Bharat now”.

These are India’s first indigenous semi-high-speed trains under the ‘Make in India’ initiative and surely, we all must be proud of our engineers and technicians for this feat.

However, in our politically vitiated society where everything is seen from the prism of politics, we need to look at this achievement objectively.

Train Vis a Vis Flight.

One. Travelling by any train has some advantages over flying. Trains take you straight into the heart of the city. So, you reach home or the work place, very soon after getting down from the train. Whereas, the airports are far away and getting out of the airport, collecting the luggage itself consumes an hour almost.

Two. You don’t have to reach a train station hours before to check-in - drop off bags - clear security and wait in queue to board. So, there is surely a Time advantage.

Three. Trains are usually a lot cheaper.

These advantages have often been overlooked and people preferred flying because ;

  Alpha . the trains are slow and often run late. Usually, an Indian Express trains take anything from 8-12 hours to cover approx 700-800 kms of distance, whereas the flight would take less than two hours to cover the same distance.            

Bravo. The trains and railway stations are dirty, crowdy and there are poor amenities on board. An inter-city train such as, the Shatabdi Express was a hit because it ensured all this; cleanliness and better amenities and by and large they ran on time. But over a period of time, these Shatabdis seem to have deteriorated significantly and often run late, thereby compelling people to prefer flights over trains.

Although, the Indian Railways has seen somewhat of a turnaround in the past few years and there are quite a few achievements for which the current govt needs to be applauded, one, there are no unmanned crossings anymore. second, we have in last 4-5 years hardly any major accident. Lastly, the cleanliness at many railway stations has improved.

However, despite all the actions taken including the bio toilets the majority trains after travelling few odd kms from the starting station become dirty, often unruly and are still in a habit of running late.

CAG Report.

The CAG report tabled in Parliament highlighted two very important aspects of Indian trains which bring to the fore that we are still far far behind achieving efficiency;

One. Indian Railways despite investing ₹ 2.5 lakh crore on track infrastructure during 2008- 19 have failed to improve on the mobility outcomes.

Two. "Mission Raftaar" introduced in 2016-17 targeted an average speed of 50 kmph for mail/express and 75 kmph for freight trains by 2021-22. The average observed speed of Mail/Express and freight trains until 2019-20 was, however, still around 50.6 Kmph and 23.6 Kmph, respectively. This implies that perhaps the money that was spent on upgrading the infrastructure has not been utlised properly and so it has failed to achieve the desired impact.

Three. Out of 478 superfast (SF) trains, the scheduled speed of 123 SF trains (26 per cent) was less than the specified speed of 55 Kmph. Indian Railways has no guaranteed delivery time for goods consignment.

Four. Implementation of Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) Project DFCCIL could not fully utilize the World Bank fund resulting in payment of avoidable commitment charges of ₹ 16 crore. No maintenance facility was created by the DFCCIL. Out of total 4,844 Route Km, only 2,346 Route Km (48 per cent) of feeder routes were upgraded till November 2020.

Examining Vande Bharat

In view of this report we need to critically examine the features of Vande Bharat ;

One. The average speed of the train, on various routes, as reported, has been approx. 81km per hour, implying it’s a waste of money because the tracks do not allow these trains to run at a speed for which they are designed. It’s like someone who is residing in Chandni chowk and has an office near Old railway station has bought a Ferrari to commute.

Two. In order to show that these trains are faster, the officials have tweaked with the stoppage times and number of stoppages. For instance, The Vande Bharat Express departs from Chandigarh at 3.30pm hrs and takes 2 hrs and 55 mins to reach New Delhi with Four stoppages whereas the Shatabadi Express covers the same distance in 3 hrs and 22 mins, a saving of mere 27 minutes.

We can safely assume that in few years’ time even the number of stoppages of these Vande bharat trains would increase like it happened with Shatabdi. For instance, Shatabdi running from Bhopal to New Delhi, in its initial days, barely had 3-4 stoppages whereas now it has almost nine.

In view of the above, therefore, the critics are not very wrong and they are justified in their criticism.

Conclusion.

Notwithstanding with what the critics say, I feel;

One. Construction of rail tracks is a long and tedious process and one can not wait for so long - to first develop the tracks and then bring in new technology trains, that can run faster on those newly laid tracks. This would take hell of a long time.

Two. So, in view of the above handicap, one can first roll out the high-speed trains and then gradually work on the track development.

Three. This would rather help the technicians to keep upgrading the technology and keep rolling out better coaches and engines so that when the high-speed tracks are made available, you will have better and faster trains readily available to make use of those tracks.

Four, someone travelling from Chandigarh to Delhi might skip the flight and prefer to board Vande Bharat but surely not for longer distances.

In order to draw an analogy, lets look at the automobile sector, What would we have preferred in 90s?

Continue driving fiat and ambassador till the improvement of roads and highways or switching over to faster and better technology Maruti Suzuki cars and wait for the roads to develop. The approach that we took in 90s, has helped us to upgrade the technology of the cars when better highways came up in due course of time.

Lastly, Lets accept that Vande Bharat is an upgraded version of Shatabdi Express which has been introduced, in all probability, with an aim, that Shatabdi dies its own natural death.

However, what will be interesting to see is ; The condition of these VANDE BHARATS , after a decade or so ? But the fact of the matter is Can we blame Madhav Rao Scindia and the then Govt for the plight of Shatabdis.

Note; You can also read this article on TOI Blogs. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/readersblog/indiaasiseeit/vande-bharat-53085/

Violence keeps erupting in the North Eastern States primarily due to lack of faith and confidence amongst the various tribes of the state.

This fear of the other, runs deep across the tribal communities in the Northeast and has proven to be the root of several inter-community violent clashes and agitations including the Bodo agitation and the students’ agitation of the 1980s in Assam.

We from the armed forces know from our experience that tribals are extremely sensitive to their traditional lands and therefore the root cause behind the violence in Manipur is the demographic situation and its exploitation by politicans.

Demography.

Although there are 16 districts in Manipur, but it is commonly divided into ‘Valley’ and ‘Hill’ districts.

In these hill areas, which comprise the 90% of Manipur’s geographical area, live 15 Naga tribes which are 40% of states population. This has been their traditional Land.

And in the valley districts of Imphal which comprise barely 10% of states land reside the Hindu Meiteis, which are approx. 53% of states population. The Valley includes East Imphal, Imphal West, Thoubal, Bishnupur, and Kakching.

The Meitis being the majority community are certainly better placed in terms of social, political, educational and economic parameters in the state than other tribes. The State Govt is also predominantly Hindu Meitis.

However, the fear amongst all of them , the Tribals as well as the Meiteis, is of losing their traditional lands.

History in Brief.

There is very little known about Manipur due to the absence of written records and also None of the texts are yet subjected to serious critical scrutiny by historians. Manipur’s history is intricately linked to the History of Eastern Kingdoms ; Ahoms, Nagas, other tribes of North East India and even Burma.

However, as per the chronicle of records of kings, maintained by Meiteis, Pakhangpa, a primordial dragon god in Meitei mythology, is credited for having established the Meitei rule by subjugating the local tribes. Meitei being one of the migrant clans, originally named Ningthouja, who gained rulership of certain area and then gradually expanded. During this expansion process they had to fight numerous wars with other tribes. During the reign of King Senbi Kiyamba(1467–1507) the ancient Meitei faith ; SANAMAHISM began to collapse. It was during his reign that the Brahmins started migrating to the kingdom and the worship of the Pheiya (sacred stone from Pong kingdom) commenced as the Hindu God Vishnu. That’s how the Meitei Vaishnavism started. The Kingdom of Pong was an ethnically Tai state that controlled several smaller states along the frontier of what is now Myanmar and Assam.

During the reign of Emperor Pamheiba, the Meiteis were converted(forcibly) from SANAMAHISM into Hinduism. In 1729, the sacred scriptures of Sanamahism were burnt and this event is annually commemorated.

The invaders from further East kept coming particularly from Burma and the Meitei kingdom had to fight numerous wars which resulted into severe losses at times. The Burmese occupied Manipur from 1819 to 1826.

The expansion of Burma under the Konbaung Dynasty brought its frontiers closer to the British East India Company and as a result the British fought three wars with the Burmese empire. In the First Anglo- Burmese war , the British helped prince of Meiti Kingdom to regain his kingdom from the clutches of the Burmese. In this war Burma lost territory that it had captured in Assam, Manipur and Arakans.

Subsequently, the Meitei kingdom became a British protectorate with a British Political agent stationed there.

In the year 1891, due to internal disturbances caused by the family feud for successorship, the historic Anglo-Manipuri war (Manipur's National Liberation Struggle) took place , it resulted in the British victory and so finally Manipur was annexed by British.

During the course of history, Manipur was known by different names, such as, Tilli-Koktong, Poirei-Lam, Sanna-Leipak, Mitei-Leipak, Meitrabak. Even the neighbouring kingdoms called them by different names; The Pong called the area Cassay, the Burmese called them Kathe, and the Assamese Meklee. In the first treaty, signed in 1762, between the British  and  the king of Meiti kingdom, the kingdom was recorded as Meckley. Bhagyachandra, the then King and his successors issued coins engraved with the title of Manipureshwar, or lord of Manipur and the name Meckley was discarded. The name Manipur means “land of gems”.

After the accession of Manipur to India in 1947, Manipur became a Union territory in 1949 and in 1972 became one of the states.

So, when we dig deeper into the history and geography of this region we find that these hundreds of tribes spill over the borders of these states as the borders of tribal regions could never be clearly demarcated. For instance ; there are numerous Naga tribes residing in Manipur and they had a bloody violent exchange with Kukis in Manipur. Similarly last year the violence erupted between the villagers of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh due to an old border dispute, Bodos of Assam had similarly fought for years to safe guard their traditional lands within Assam. The hilly tracts of Nagaland were captured after a series of expeditions(ten) , undertaken by British army from 1832 onwards till 1922 and even then could not control the warring tribes.

So, it is quite natural that the hilly tribal areas outside the Imphal valley, were never a part of the Meitei kingdom that was based in Valley and those areas were brought into under one administrative unit by the Britishers once they captured the whole region(although the Meiteis would deny that).

Recent Developments.

Because of this fear the govt actions, which is predominantly made up of Meitis are always viewed suspiciously by tribals who make up to almost 40 % of population and live on hills surrounding the valley.

As a result of this fear and lack of faith amongst the tribes the majority Hindu Meiteis have been demanding for ;

One. Grant of Schedule Tribe status so that they are able to maintain their predominance.

Two. In order to safe guard their land they had also demanded Inner Line Permit to put a control on migrant population in the valley. This was granted by the Modi government. This implied that Meiteis Hindus did not want their ancestral lands to be occupied by their own state citizens. Ostensibly this further fuelled the suspicion amongst the tribal population.

Three. The government’s clampdown on reserved and protected forests in the State’s hill areas in the guise of war against drugs has also antagonised the tribes as they feel that they are being persecuted. Despite tribal people’s protests against Govt action the Govt remains unfazed and defiant.

Four. As population is increasing both in tribal as well as in Valley, the land has become important. The tribals tend to spread out into surrounding forest areas, which they consider their historical and ancestral right. This is contested by the government. Similarly, due to the growing population Meiteis, who live in the valleys, are also feeling the pressure because they are not allowed to settle or buy land in the hill(tribal) areas, while tribal people can buy land in the valleys. Interestingly, neither the state govt nor the central govt has any real policy as to how to go about it, as there is lack of transparency and cohesion.

Five. Reportedly, there is also anger within the tribes over the decision of the CM to withdraw the suspension of operations agreement with their armed outfits, like Kuki National Organisation (KNO).

It implies that the state government is no more the part of the ongoing tripartite peace talks between these armed groups. These talks were initiated by the Central Govt prior to the elections of 2017, perhaps to mobilise the support of tribals in its favour and defeat the Congress government in the state. The Kuki-Zo communities as a result felt that  they would get some form of self-governance like what the Bodo community was granted within Assam. So, now the message that has been conveyed to the tribal groups by withdrawing from the talks - the majority Meitei community (the chief minister is a Meitei) is opposed to granting any self-governance to the Kuki tribes.

But the final outburst came after the Manipur high court gave a nod to the demand by the majority community(Hindu Meiteis) to be granted the ST Status . The simmering anger within the tribal communities busted out in open due to the fear of losing their constitutional safeguards to the Meiteis.

Not only that, the High Court pulled up the All Tribal Students Union of Manipur (ATSUM) and the Chairman of the Hill Areas Committee (HAC) of the state assembly for criticising its order. The tribal leaders and student body heads perhaps felt that the HC notices are an indication of; the court’s support to the Meiteis.

The Protest turned Violent.

As a result of this fear and frustration brewing up for some years now because of the reasons enunciated above, the ATSUM had organised the tribal solidarity march in all hill districts of the state on May 3. As the tempers were running high the protest turned violent, vehicles, houses, churches, schools were burnt and almost 54 people lost their lives and 14000 people reportedly, have been rescued and moved to safe zones.

In short the tribals are attacking the Meiteis in Hills and the Meiteis are attacking tribals in Valley.

As the violence escalated, the Centre invoked Article 355 of the Constitution. Army has done a flag march in affected areas, and other para military forces have been moved into the affected areas.

Conclusion.

The peace in this region has come the hard way. The gallant soldiers of the Indian army fought against the militants of these tribes in these rugged mountains and dense jungles for decades, the Central Govt must not let it go waste just for the sake of power politics.

The endeavour of the Govts should be to minimise the discord in the society and avoid creating a huge force of disgruntled elements in the society. At the times of crisis all these disgruntled elements may unite and the whole edifice created by our forefathers can fall like a pack of cards.

Watch out! Our adversaries are observing us

The erstwhile Governor of Kashmir Mr Satya Pal Malik’s recent disclosure about Pulwama has not come to me as a surprise, not because there is some truth in it, but because, our politicians have been traditionally exploiting the soldiers for their own vested political interests. 

Stephen Cohen, a renowned strategic expert on South Asian Affairs, while discussing about the Indian military traditions wrote in his book - The Indian Army

“There are particularly two different sets of attitude towards military in India. Modern militarism and traditional militarism”. The modern militarism, he said, was the outcome of the realization that the Army is the symbol of state power and was an expression of national will which demanded equalitarian recruitment. This sentiment was more prominent in Bengal and Western India and thereafter grew in other regions. Whereas, the Traditional Militarism was confined to specific regions and castes. He further added that, “As a result of agitation both in England and India the strength of Indians in ICS increased to the 5% of the total within a span of 15-20 years whereas during the same period although the lower ranks of Indian Army were mainly Indians but there representation in the officer cadre was much below 5% and it was not till late 20th century that there was some pressure from urban India”.

This implies that Army was never a lucrative career for urbanite and educated Indian youth(except in some regions).

The Governements as a result have been using armed forces as a mere symbol of national power and also to hype up nationalism during or just prior to elections without showing any genuine concern for the soldier, who is otherwise treated with disdain by the society and by the politicians.  Ours is one country whose Govt is engaged in litigations with its own armed forces. Pan Singh Tomar turned into a dacoit because he was illtreated by the civic society and the recent incident of a soldier beaten to death by a politician are few such examples that convey as to how a soldier is treated in our society.

As a result our soldiers have often been thrown into action as cannon fodder, without anyone questioning the policy makers. 

Remember the Hindi movie “Baby” in which the secretary of the Raksha Mantri was slapped by Akshay Kumar when the Secretary spoke with indifference about the soldier’s casualties ;

“ unka kaam to marna hi hai” .

This is exactly what Hajendra Baweja in her book ; The Soldier’s Diary while blaming the entire set up for the Kargil war said ;

‘Maybe this diary will expose those responsible. But who will pay the price? My overwhelming fear is that the sacrifices of so many brave soldiers will have been in vain”.

None asked the Govt and the authorities concerned that ;

Why did we suffer so many casualties ; 527 killed and 1300 wounded ?

Did we fight the Kargil war in the manner it should have been fought ?

Could there have been a better way or Was the Govt in a hurry as the elections were to be held soon so they pushed the army into action ?

Could we have not got behind the enemy?

Could we have not enlarged the battle field like we did in 1965?.

Hoowever, Sam Manekshaw , offcourse as a retired soldier had asked very pertinent questions on the issue of Induction of Indian army in Srilanka, with little preparations . He wrote ;

“ Where was the hurry? Was our territorial integrity endangered” ?

Why go so far , Lets discuss about recent incidents . Did anyone BOTHER TO ASK ;

Why did Mr Modi compell the Corps Commander, a Lt Gen, to apologise publicly just prior to the Assembly elections in Kashmir, when the troops had fired on a Maruti van which had not stopped at the Barrier ?

On top of that , why did Mr Modi boast about that apology by a General in a public rally ; " Yeh Modi Raj mey mumkin hai", he had said?

Under whose order that crucial Check Barrier was removed?

Had that barrier been there, could the casualties been avoided?

Why did we lose 20 men at Galwan ?

Why did they go unarmed to examine whether the Chinese who had intruded into our territory have gone back or not?

Why did the Commanding Officer go to the site leading not even a platoon size force , what were his Company Commanders and Young Captains doing? Or

Was the Commanding Officer scared that if he sends a young Officer , the situation may heat up?

So why was he so concerned about the situation not flaring up despite the fact that Enemy had entered India’s territory?

Who was in that case issuing instructions to the Commanding Officer?

What kind of an Army are we creating ? An army which is at the beck and call of politicians and wags its tail in front of the enemy?

Sadly, once again no one is asking questions and in the guise of Nationalism the politicians are using soldiers as sacrificial lamb and are getting away lightly.

Politicians divide the country into warring vote banks and place one community against another. They campaign on slogans that appeal to community fears and suspicions rather than create any national consensus or harmony. They hold power based upon blame and hatred

The following should remind us once again what we have turned into and where are we heading to ;

Alberuni, a noted historian who came to India with Mahmud Ghazni who conducted numerous raids and looted temples in India with impunity and with little challenge, rightly described the temper of the then Indians in his book. Alberuni said ;

“ Indians are haughty, foolishly vain, self contained and stolid(stupid), and they believe that there is no country like theirs, no king like theirs and no science like theirs.” Aren’t we, the natives of this land still the same as our ancestors were in 11th century.

In 1192, just within hundred years of Alberuni’s description, finally because of our own stupidity, we lost our Political freedom and for next almost 800 years we suffered and were humiliated.

Thereafter, Even Shri C Rajgopalachari a renowned freedom fighter had mentioned in his prison diary in 1922 -

“ Elections and their corruption, injustice and the power and tyranny of wealth and inefficiency of administration will make hell of life as soon as freedom is given to us. Men will look regretfully back to the old regime ( British Rule) of comparative justice and efficient, peaceful more or less honest administration. The only thing gained from independence will be that as a race we will be saved from dishonor and subordination”.

Even Churchil on the eve India’s Independence had warned us ;

"Power will go to rascals, rogues, freebooters. . . . All leaders will be of low caliber & men of straw. . . They'll have sweet tongues & silly hearts. . . They will fight amongst themselves for power & the two countries will be lost in political squabbles. . . . A day would come when even air & water will be taxed”.

All these years we have been working incredibly hard to prove them right ; that we are divided, we are corrupt, we are dishonest to our own gallant soldiers, that we have no integrity, we can even stoop down low to exploit the dead soldiers for our own vested political interests.

I know Pathological Modi Bhakts will still find a reason to support him and not the soldiers.