By Manmohan Dhar

In the yesteryears of Bihar’s political scenario,Lallu Prasad yadav was the ultimate boss.

Lallu played a vital role in the central politics and at times he emerged as the kingmaker and even dictated terms to his political rivals.

Lallu attracted attention of millions of people in and around India, by his unique style of talking and reacting to questions put to him by the fellow politicians and even media.

Lallu Prasad yadav was once considered to be the chanakya of management ethos. As railway Minister of the country Lallu was able to bring the otherwise shattered  and most miserably hit Indian railways on the tracks of progress, reform and profitability.

And this was no less than a miracle. How he did it, is still a million dollar question. But anyways this surprised many and also put him ahead of all other management gurus of the country and abroad.

He once addressed the management students of universities like wharton and Harvard business school in the US and apprised them as to how he scripted his success story of Indian loss making railways.

During his tenure as railway Minister of the country in UPA regime, Lallu became very popular and was respected even by his political rivals.

But, who could have thought that Lallu is yet to script a story, but this time not a success story but a story of disaster, debacle and decimation of his political career. And, ironically he can blame none but himself for that.

Nitish’s parting ways in the coalition Government was the final nail in the coffin.

Lallu’s reverse counting in Bihar politics started with the “Fodder scam”.

The Fodder scam was a corruption scandal that involved embezzlement of about ₹9.4 billion from the government Treasury of Bihar. Among those implicated in the theft and arrested were then  Chief Minister of Bihar, Lallu Prasad yadav as well as former Chief Minister, Jagannath Mishra. The scandal led to the end of Lalu’s reign as Chief Minister. 

Lallu’s reputation in Bihar received a big jolt on account of his involvement in corruption and misappropriation of state exchequer.

In a state of insecurity and fear that he may lose Bihar in the 2015 elections, Lallu played a big political game when he joined hands with Nitish Kumar. The bluff worked with the Bihar voter and Lallu somehow was able to do some face saving and the coalition came into being.

Though Nitish and Lallu are poles apart, in so far as the Bihar politics is concerned, but it was Nitish’s political compulsion that made him to join hands with Lallu, simply because he didn’t want BJP to come in power in Bihar.

And now the biggest and the ugliest family corruption tangle which involves almost every family member of Lallu’s family, has undoubtedly put Lallu in a soup. It has hit him very bad politically as well as socially.His younger son, Deputy chief minister,Tejashwi Yadav,  not only lost the chair but Lallu’s RJD also got thrown out of power by Nitish Kumar, joining hands with BJP to form a new Government,Tejashwi is named in an alleged case of land-for-hotels scandal. The CBI raided the residence of Lalu, also named in the case, and other properties in five cities, including Ranchi and Delhi. So all is not well in Lallu’s camp.

In fact the Bihar voter made Lallu  politically arrogant. And this arrogance and over confidence led to Lallu’s political decimation. 

And, perhaps in the years to come Lallu may have to pay a much bigger price for the political sins committed by him under the patronage of some of his very close  aides, who had a very bad reputation in the political circles of Bihar.

Lallu’s ties with criminals, his psedosecular image, his corruption and political high-handedness are some of the very strong reasons for his debacle.

Lallu’ s political career,  I am afraid, has perhaps finally,  been put to rest.

By Manmohan Dhar

Bofors is going to haunt Congress and particularly the Gandhi family for quite a long now. Because, what was thought to be laid to rest has been brought to life by the incumbent government at the center.

The Bofors scandal was a major political scandal of a very big magnitude. The parties involved in the scandal were India and Sweden. 

Congress party politicians, and various other members of the Indian and Swedish governments were accused of receiving kickbacks from Bofors, an arms and ammunition company of Sweden through a bank.

 The scandal relates to illegal kickbacks paid in a US$1.4 billion deal between the Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors with India for the sale of 410  howitzer field guns, and a supply contract which would be fulfilled in future and which was almost twice that amount. 

It was the biggest arms deal ever in Sweden.The Swedish company paid ₹640 million (US$9.9 million) in kickbacks to top Indian politicians and key defence officials.

A deal which was made by compromising the country’s image and interest, was struck with the help of an Italian middleman Ottavio Quattrocchi, who was very close to the Gandhi family and played a pivital role in sealing the deal with the Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors.

After the scandal got revealed, Bofors got blacklisted by the Indian Government in the year 1987. Which meant that no further arms deal could be entered into, with Bofors. 

Though the Swedish government was taken into confidence in solving the Mistry of the scandal to find out as to who were the main culprits who received kickbacks from the Swedish arms manufacturer. But unfortunately the Bofors scandal which hurt every citizen of the country, got hushed up, by the subsequent Congress Governments at the center. And whatever less time was there for the non Congress Governments, was not sufficient to get to the facts of the case, as there was another country involved in the process of investigations.

“Why now”, is the question most of the Congress top brass politicians are raising and they are also ridiculing the Government’s move to revisit Bofors. Rahul Gandhi who is not in a mood to talk about Bofors after 30 years, as he put it, termed it to be yet another futile exercise for another 30 years. Because, perhaps according to him, the investigations which have been intiated by the Modi Government, are baseless. And the manner in which he seems to be reacting to all this, speaks of his political inability to behave like a true citizen of a great country.  Evenhis mother and the Congress party president,zaroor Sonia Gandhi also wants that Bofors should no longer be talked about now.

Anyways it may be recalled that Indian government, in collaboration with the Swedish government, which has agreed to furnish all concerning documents and details, in support of fact finding of Bofors, has made it amply clear that whosoever has received kickbacks and has betrayed the country and has misused  the highest Temple of democracy, the Parliament, to cover the biggest arms deal scandal, will be brought to book and punished, howsoever long it may take. Authorities have very rightly said that no one is going to be pardoned, even if he would have been holding the highest post of even a prime minister for that matter, at that point in time.

It has been the biggest betrayal with the countrymen and country had to pay a big price and has also suffered the most, just because some influencial politicians, bureaucrats and army personnel took the advantage of their positions simply to make huge assets for themselves and even for their subsequent generations, at the cost of country’s image, integrity and above all the national security.

How can one do it to his own country.

How Ugly….

And they plead…….”Why now”

They should be ashamed of themselves.

A true nationalist would be proud of what the Government is doing in it’s persuit to bring the culprits to book. 

But why they say “Why”

Well!! Everybody knows,” Why”.

By Manmohan Dhar

In the year 1962 during the months of October and November, when China left no option for India than to enter into a conflict across the Sino Indian border, it would have been a win win situation for India, had the then prime minister Pt.Jawahar Lal Nehru, not committed the mistake of not using the Indian air Force in the war.

Anyways, that is history now. And mistakes made then, can not be rectified now.

And India also is not the same as it was in the year 1962. After 55 years of a war which could have been won but for one mistake, India is now in a position of dictating terms to China.

China has already stabbed India in the back, in 1962, when their army cunningly floated the distorting slogan like,”Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai”, and made forceful advances into the Indian territory. Though we had already captured some important posts of the Chinese army, but we had to withdraw .

Indian Army holds the unique distinction of being one of the world’s best in defending its country’s borders. However, the Indo-China war of 1962 goes down in our history books as a blot on the reputation of our forces and the country. Other than that debacle, there is no black spot on the face of our armed forces. The reason for defeat wasn’t the lack of courage of our soldiers but was the myopic policies and spineless attitude of our political leaders of the time.

Now China has developed a complex. A fear syndrome. It dreads the Indian military might. And this fear  has prompted China to maliciously intrude into the Indian territory of donglong. China is  asking India to withdraw its troops from the Donglong area in Sikkim sector as a precondition for a “meaningful dialogue” to settle the boundary issue, warning that the Indian Army should learn “historical lessons”, in an oblique reference to the 1962 war.

China needs to be told that yes India has taken historical lessons and we will never repeat the mistake we committed in 1962 war, which we would have won.

In fact China’s frustration is  logical. It cannot see India’s economy growing so fast and despite the international instability in the Economic corridors, India has been able to maintain its GDP. The gross domestic product (GDP) is one of the primary indicators used to gauge the health of a country’s economy. It represents the total dollar value of all goods and services produced over a specific time period; you can think of it as the size of the economy.

China’s growth has been badly hit because of its reliance on external demand. A closer analysis reveals that India was indeed less dependent on global demand than China at the beginning of the global financial crisis, exporting just 20% of its goods and services, compared with China’s 40%. Indeed, part of the decline in China’s growth reflects a deliberate attempt to change its risky growth model by rebalancing its economy away from external demand and investment towards consumption.

With the global economy in search of a new engine of growth, and with India emerging as the fastest growing major economy, there is some speculation that India might take over China’s role. China’s share in the global economy at one time was less than what India’s is today. According to the IMF World Economic Outlook database October 2015, China’s share of the global economy measured in current dollars was just 3.4% at market exchange rates, and 4.5% at purchasing power parity (PPP) in 1999. In comparison, India’s present (2015) share at market exchange rates is 4.8%, and 7.1 % at PPP.

So it is quite evident that China is not all that happy with India’s global show down in the economic field and it’s rapidly growing potential to cater to the needs of it’s friendly neighborhood and that of the world at large.

Now coming to the recently escalated tension in doklam. China wants to show it’s military supremacy in the region and wants India to  back off from doklam.Doklam in fact is a narrow plateau lying in the tri-junction of Bhutan, China and India. It is a disputed territory claimed by both Bhutan and China. It is situated roughly 15 kilometers from the  Nathu La  pass that separates India and China. Doklam is part of the Chumbithat valley, that lies primarily in Tibet. Doka La is a pass connecting the Indian state of  Sikkim with  Tibet  in China. China and Bhutan have agreed via written agreements of 1988 and 1998 that both countries will agree to maintain peace and the status quo in the region.

So the question of China’s forcible intrusion can not be acceptable in the interest of our friendly neighbors and for  peace in the region.

Repeated warnings from Chinese army have so far been ignored by the Indian side. But if China unnecessarily creates a state of unrest in the doklam area, then India too can not remain as a silent spectator. 

Therefore, it is now a known reality that China can never be a trustworthy friend, and we need to learn it from our past history. And, with Pakistan becoming more and more aggressive in perpetuating terrorism and unnecessarily poking it’s nose in the internal matters of India and now even trying to meddle in the recent doklam embargo, China will, as it has been doing in the past, use Pakistan to aggrivate the situation, to which Pakistan will never say “NO”.

So, friends Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai…..is now for you to decide.

By Manmohan Dhar

It seems media houses across the country are slowly but alarmingly losing grip on journalism,in true sense of the term.

Journalism precisely speaking means presentation of facts characterized by description of events without an attempt at interpretation.

But, if we watch TV channels carrying news about the nation in particular and that of the world in general, we very seldom come across any reasonable journalistic approach being adopted by these media channels. What we see on a routine basis, is the rush for TRPs.

Every media house is in sort of a race, to show the other media house down.

And in doing so, they go to any extent.

Be it yelling, and not allowing others to express their point of view.

Be it inviting people from across the border, and listening to their most unrealistic, false and fabricated anti India propaganda.why? Do they want to listen to the facts direct from the horse’s mouth, or they just want to  sensationalize the discussion.I suppose it is the later.How can they expect Pakistani panelists speak the truth about what is happening in India on account of fundamentalist terrorism unleashed by the Pakistan army through their stooge terrorist organisations, when they very well know that these army trained spokespersons, can never speak something that is not in line with the anti India stance taken by their army.

Anyways, they go on inviting them time and again. Sometimes some very hard cores, who leave no stone unturned in abusing and mud puddling our own country, and we listen to them.We may at times try to reprimand, but that always looks pretentious rather than anger and dissent.

Nowadays, it is a common trend among the media channels to exibit the percentage of their viewership vis a vis their competitors. They think journalism for the sake of journalism is a waste of time, and journalism for the sake of TRPs is the actual journalism. Now if this happens to be state of affairs, then for God sake where is the journalism.

Boosting of showing the news first, can be one of the examples of how these media channels make fool of their viewers.

Sometimes very important on the national front happens, and some media channel carries the story. And as if nothing has happened, other media channels will stick to Bollywood gossip and TV entertainment. Well, this really exposes them so very deeply.

Viewer is intelligent. He knows the magnitude of importance of a particular happening. And, when these media channels go on sensationalizing such news, they are doing nothing but a disservice to the cause of journalism. They think they have befooled the viewer, and the viewer knows, they are up to shaping their TRPs.

It is high time these media channels, realise and understand the mood of their viewers and start opening up New horizons of true journalism. Start giving space to legitimate and we’ll researched news instead of eye catching headlines with bright colors and bold layouts. Also they have to give up exaggerations, scandal mongering and nevertheless sensationalism.  Self promotion and parade of false learning from so called experts is another feather these media channels feel pride in adding to their crown.All  this will have to be shunned once and for all. Otherwise the day is not far when media houses will lose their credibility and their anchors will have to go from Piller to post to regain what they must have lost, and lost irreparably, in propagating yellow journalism.

Media houses hold their allegiance to corporate houses, but anchors don’t.

Anchors are the journalists and they should work for the cause of journalism and for patronage.

They should enter with a strong resolve to serve the nation not the boss. And, if they are strong enough to resist the pressure, they can be