Narendra Modi slams Centre for delaying completion of Sardar Sarovar dam

Congress-ruled Maharashtra and BJP-ruled Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh had completed their part of the work but the Centre was refusing to do the needful, he alleged.

Narendra Modi

Saying that he was ready to give credit for Sardar Sarovar dam project to Congress, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today demanded that Centre allow to install gates on the dam so that water could reach farmers in the parched regions of the state.
Slamming Congress-led UPA government for "playing politics" on the issue, Modi said he did not want credit over the project. He was willing to give credit to Congress leaders if they feared that Modi would benefit (politically) if the permission was granted, he said.
"Please give us water and take the credit if you want. There cannot be any politics in this. This is for Gujarat," Modi said, addressing a gathering of farmers here.
Blaming Congress for delay in gate installation, Modi said that initial estimated cost of the project was Rs 5,000 crore, but now it had escalated to Rs 50,000 crore.
Saying that the gates to be installed were as high as six-storey building, he said, "It would take two to three years to build each gate. There are 40 such gates to be built but still the Centre has done nothing on the issue." "I have met the Prime Minister a dozen times regarding the issue, but while he kept saying it must be done, no action has been taken."
Congress-ruled Maharashtra and BJP-ruled Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh had completed their part of the work but the Centre was refusing to do the needful, he alleged.
Ruing `failure' of Congress to provide crop insurance to the Gujarat farmers in the face of bad monsoon last year, Modi asked "whether money for the crop insurance had met the same fate as 2G spectrum and coal reserves".
His government had taken steps such as waiver of 50 per cent of the power dues and grant of interest concessions to help the farmers deal with the drought, he said.

Vivekananda ShardShati Varsh : Inauguration of Vivekanand Pustakalay

 Vivekananda Pustakalay

Set up of New Library in hostel of HCTM on 9^th May 2013 on the occasion of Maharana Partap Jayanti & First struggle of Independence on 10^th May 1857, After doing the full preparation for the inauguration of the Library, We invited The Director of the College for the inauguration where congratulated for this noble work. In the Library there is a collection of books related to  biographies of Indian revolutionaries of Indian Freedom Struggle, Cultural Heritage, Bharatiya Itihas.  

"Mujhe Maut se nahi ,desh k liye kuch kiye bina marr jane se 

darr lagta hai.Gandhi Desh ko kamzoor bana raha tha isliye 

maine usse mara.."- NATHURAM GODSE 

Today is his Birth day.

Nathuram Vinayak Godse (19 May 1910 – 15 November 1949) was the sole assassin ofMahatma Gandhi, shooting Gandhi in the chest three times at point blank range on 30 January 1948 in New Delhi. Godse, a Hindu nationalist activist from Pune, Maharashtra who resented what he considered was Gandhi's partiality to India's Muslims, plotted the assassination with Narayan Apte and six others. After a trial that lasted over a year, Godse was sentenced to death on 8 November 1949. Although pleas for commutation were made by India's prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and by Gandhi's two sons on the grounds that a death sentence would dishonour the legacy of a man opposed to all forms of violence, Godse was hanged a week later.

Godse approached Gandhi on January 30, 1948 during the evening prayer. When he bowed, one of the girls flanking and supporting Gandhi, Abha Chattopadhyay, said to him, "Brother, Bapu is already late" and tried to put him off but he pushed her aside and shot Gandhi in the chest three times at point-blank range with a Beretta M 1934 semi-automatic pistol. Gandhi died almost immediately. Godse himself shouted 'POLICE' and surrendered himself.

The 30 Billion Dollar Medical Seats Scam

On the 3^rd April 2013, the CNN-IBN admirable sting operation caught the following on camera in relation to “medical seats for sale”:-

• Medical colleges sell seats defying the Supreme Court order
• Officials demand Crores for Postgraduate medical  [PG] seats
• Money Trumps merit: Will Future Doctors be incompetent?
• Legitimate students paid lakhs to vacate PG seats
• How colleges hire docs to fudge medical inspections
• Find out why your child may not get admission to medical college
• Medical seats for sale: Are colleges producing dummy docs?
• CNN IBN uncovers black market for PG medical seats

India's medical fraternity have demanded that the government acts immediately over  this obvious corruption. One Indian doctor [ @DoctoAt Large] wrote

“You can't expect doctors paying 3 crores for PG seats to be ethical with patients. Start by eliminating corruption in admissions”

Following the sting operation, CNN-IBN submitted the film to the Medical Council of India [MCI]. Sadly, all authorities have been lethargic. The MCI's position on this issue is currently unknown.  There has been no robust statement of reassurance to the media or the public. This is entirely unacceptable. Despite this clear and present danger to the public, the MCI refused to have a plan or be pro-active in this issue. Are they out of their depth?

Indeed, the true extent of threat to public safety not yet known, considered or addressed. This is broadly an unacceptable and shocking situation. The government and the MCI appears relatively unconcerned about the potential threat to patient safety. Moreover, it is unknown how many doctors have “bought their way” through medical school. The true extent of medical incompetence is  also unknown. Moreover, this may have international implications as the number of doctors from this group may also be working abroad.

The current Health Minister appears relatively unconcerned about the potential for high mortality rate and threat to patient safety this may have led to or may indeed lead to. Moreover, this calls into question the number of competent students unlawfully rejected from medical school/post graduate education in favour of the elite who can pay their way through anything. The MCI and the current government' supine attitude to this serious problem raises the question as to whether they are implicated or complicit in these unlawful activities.

Buying a place in medical school is becoming a easy gateway to status, power and financial security. Long gone are ideas of patient safety and integrity. Clearly, the good doctors who have tirelessly worked hard against these serious obstacles will object to this unlawful behaviour that places the Indian medical fraternity under public scrutiny. How can the public now trust India's medical establishment with their lives? These activities will be causing an erosion in public confidence.

It is interesting that in April 2010, the President of the Medical Council of India [MCI] was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation for taking a Rs 2 crore bribe to recognise a medical college in Punjab. The CNN-IBN investigation had also demonstrated how a cartel led by this man flouted the normal procedures of the MCI with the intention of making money. Moreover, students lacking a background in science were given places on MBBS courses and colleges with no proper infrastructure were granted licenses. At that point, the government had apparently dissolved the MCI and replaced it with a board of governors, but the situation has not changed at all.

To demand some kind of accountability, CNN-IBN Live's Mr Rajdeep Sardesai swung into action from his usual cricket viewing and dog walking to take another bite at this story.  He  questioned former MoS Health Minister Dinesh Trivedi on this matter.

Mr Trivedi admitted that every year more than $30 billion was involved in “buying” medical seats. During the interview he claimed that 100 or so medical colleges were being controlled by politicians and were involved in selling their PG medical seats. “The “big money goes to 100 colleges”  Mr Trivedi said.

Trivedi blamed the conduct of the politicians saying

“It is the job of the government to create capacity whether in terms of hospitals or in terms of medical colleges, You just have many medical colleges, just like you've done for engineering colleges. Now there are no capitation fees. This is the gap that is created purposely kept”.

Former member of the Dental Council of India, Dr Usha Mohandas added

“It is a kind of well-established cartel. It is a beautiful network. The world can learn a lot from how strong this networking has been established for a wrong purpose. I would want the ministry to take absolute responsibility because the process of started and ending this is with the ministry, the other people in between are just via media. The ministry cannot wash its hands off and say that these are autonomous. If you ask the regulatory, they say we don't know anything you know, the minister asks us to do the same. This passing of the buck has to end.

All this is not new of of course. Over the last three years, CNN-IBN has been reporting on the corruption in the top most echelons of the Indian medical establishment with no action taken by the government.

The TV channel wrote

“CNN-IBN has also been showing how medical education regulators have been approving sub-standard medical and dental colleges and allowing them to flourish. The apathy, however, is leading to production of dummy doctors in the country”

Other incidences include as follows - In 2009, the Times of India reported that MBBS seats were being sold for Rs12 lakhs-40 lakhs by two private colleges in Chennai. At the time, the price of the seats were Rs 2 crore in radiology while Rs 1.5 crore for cardiology, gynaecology and orthopaedics. The hike in price was due to the reduced number of places available that year for the 32,000 graduates from medical school.

Times of India  wrote

“Another senior expert, who has held prestigious posts at the national level, says he has urged the UGC to hold centralized examinations like JEE for admissions to both MBBS and PG courses. ``It's a national shame to commercialize education. Besides, death of merit affects the quality of medical education. When money is paid, these colleges ensure that the exit is definite. The students pass, qualified or not,''

By 2011, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested a doctor from Karnataka in the PGIMER  seat for sale scam. This was the sixth arrest at the time. The mastermind's main area of operation were Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryna -  where he along with his partners would text individuals for various examinations offering a seat for a certain price. The price of the seats ranged from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 80 lakh. Allegedly, seats were offered for AIIMS New Delhi as well.

In October 2011, Bangalore Police announced “A racket in sale of medical and dental seats for sums ranging from Rs 75 lakh to Rs 90 lakh has been busted in Karnataka with the arrest of 11 persons belonging to two gangs”. There were more complaints of medical seat fraud in Bhopal where a woman was arrested for allegedly taking money in exchange for medical seats.

By 2012, the CBI had been investigating more complicated allegations of medical school seat scam. This particular scam was elaborate involving a Tollywood producer.

The Indian Express wrote

“We are looking into the role of doctors in collusion with the accused and medical seat aspirants,’’ the sources said. Police suspect that the main accused collected huge amounts of money from the medical seat aspirants.  “With the tainted money the producer is planning to make more movies in the near future,’’ a source said.

Of course, these are the few stories that were reported. There must be thousands of incidents that have not made it to the public eye. It is clear that corruption is widespread in India's medical training system.  For now, we know that this is allegedly a $30 billion dollar scam, with the involvement of politicians who yet remain unnamed. While the current Health Minister passes the buck onto the MCI, it is interesting to note that he cleverly diverts the public gaze from the politicians who may well be ultimately responsible for this scandal. The MCI have no powers to hold politicians to account.  

Not only have they placed the public at risk but the government faces allegations of illegal discrimination on a mass scale.

We do not know how long this unlawful behaviour has been ongoing, nor do we know the extent of incompetent unqualified people who have been allowed into medical school and have been allowed to practise in India or abroad.

We do not know how many patients have died as a result, nor do we know the true scale of this scam. If individuals can “pay” their way into medical school, to what extent does this dishonesty extend? Is this dishonesty at dangerous levels now given the endless lists of health related scams in India. The current health minister had limply stated that there would be an audit on health related scams “We have to have audits in future to check health-related scams, including NRHM scam”.  So that would be the corrupt assessing the corrupt leading to a erroneous result then.

Lastly, how many innocent people are suffering because of the utterly shameful behaviour of the current government of India? The “Cash For Medical Seats” Scandal joins the endless list of Indian Scandals that the government has swept under the carpet by building a cosmetic façade of innocence.

The question is, how many people will die as a result?

INDIA : Scientific Spirituality

The universe comes out of the union of two fundamental forces: matter (jada, or ’that which gives shape’) and consciousness (chetan). These are also respectively known as prakrati (the manifested form) and purusha (the invisible enlivening spirit). Both have their own merits when considered in isolation; however, it is the union and co-operation of these two entities that works wonders. The human body is a very good example of this fact. Our body is made up of five basic elements -the panca tatvas.

The body is an integrated form of various organs, muscles, nerves, arteries, veins etc., and can be used to accomplish any desired work but is non-functional without consciousness. The consciousness part of man (termed "the soul") thinks, decides and directs organs towards a particular task. The separation of consciousness from matter results in death. A dead body is useless since it is not functional. In the absence of consciousness, it rapidly decays and its constituting elements eventually dissolve into their cosmic states.

In essence, it is the association of matter and consciousness that gives rise to functionality. Matter alone, otherwise, is unorganised and of very little use even though it is present in abundance in the universe. For example, water is plentiful in oceans but is too salty. The atmosphere is full of gases, electro-magnetic rays, X-rays etc. but these components are not useful on their own.

It is the human intervention, or alternatively the intervention of developed consciousness, that organises matter so as to make it useful. For example, man has developed methods to process water to make it fit for human consumption. Fire and electricity were present in the universe since times immemorial, but man's intelligence organised these entities in a utilisable form.

Thus, although the components of Nature are powerful in their own right, their usefulness has depended on the inventive skills of human consciousness.  

Science and spirituality: The discovery of the powers of Nature, their organisation and the skills that make them useful to man is called science. Science can thus be called the unison of matter and consciousness. Science has made possible the progress of the human civilisation. It should be noted that the knowledge of the use of matter is not enough; its righteous use should also be considered. The same criterion also applies to consciousness. In the absence of their righteous use, matter and consciousness are open to be abused.



The attraction of immediate gains is such that its long-term effects are not appreciated and this short-sighted judgement prompts man to misuse power. Ultimately, he creates a web in which he gets trapped, just like a fish caught in a net. This results in suffering, public anger and self-destruction, and yet it is a practice generally adopted by most people. The society and the government rarely succeed in preventing such practices..

Drama of Secularism in India

It has been almost 66 years; we celebrated freedom from the British. But how bad things still are, can be ascertained by the fact that, 95% of the Indian population still lives in Malaria endemic areas. The problem persists now in all seasons, for the mosquitoes have acclimatized themselves in extreme weather conditions. In the holy city of Haridwar, a billion strong swarm of mosquitoes started to wreck havoc on the local citizens. Large scale diseases such as Malaria, Dengue etc started to spread. The citizens were concerned about their health and deteriorating hygiene conditions in the city. A group of 5 self appointed people decided to meet CM Akhilesh Yadav as the Municipal Corporation had proved to be ineffective in dealing with the situation and seek a permanent solution to this menace. They hoped that the CM would provide them an apt solution, but instead he gifted them a Mosquito Spray (which had already proved ineffective) with pictures of CM and his father below the nozzle. CM also said that he had promised to work for the development of Minorities of the State, since the area of Haridwar which was mosquito affected, hardly had any minorities, the young CM wasn't too keen on addressing those issues.

The group then decided to meet PM Manmohan Singh, hoping for a solution. In order to fix a meeting, they took help of an online petition form, requesting the PM to allot his precious time for a meeting with the group. The online petition was signed by 1.5 million citizens of Haridwar. When this information came to Shashi Tharoor, he tweeted "There cannot be 1.5 million Indians whose blood would have been sucked. I am sure either that the people are fake or their blood is fake". After a lot of struggle the group was able to meet PM. There was a long discussion, where the group explained in lengths, the problems faced by them. The PM listened patiently without opening his mouth; then signalled the group to call on his mobile. When one of them called, the ringtone was a song with the words, "Hazaron Solutions se achhi hai meri khamoshi" The group hoped that now only God could help them and God did help them. Winter descended in Haridwar. Most of the mosquitoes died due to the chill, the remaining went to hibernation. Only 1 mosquito whose name was 'M' remained; M too migrated to Azamgarh, as Haridwar was too cold for it to survive.

'M' was hungry for days as it had spent days without food (blood) and water on its way to Azamgarh. Once it reached Azamgarh, it started feasting upon the local populace. It also started breeding and once again the population of Mosquitoes started increasing. The 'majority' of the population in Azamgarh was 'Minority'. The mosquito started gaining popularity for its seemingly immortal life, as it never died of anything and just kept feasting on people's blood. Famous news anchor Sagarika Ghose wanted to cover the story, but was too scared of 'M'. Hence she let her cameraman go there alone and record the video of 'M' biting people and upload it on YouTube. Ms. Ghose used internet to see the video of 'M' on YouTube and gave 'M' a new name, 'Internet Mosquito'. Thanks to the intense media coverage, the news spread across the country like a wildfire and also reached Delhi & Hyderabad. Home Minister Shinde felt that this mosquito had been bred in RSS terror camps, as it left Haridwar and started sucking the blood of people in Azamgarh. He called the mosquito a 'Saffron mosquito'. Although he could not do anything to get that mosquito eliminated. Down south in Hyderabad, MIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi was furious on Home Minister Shinde's inaction. He called upon the 150 Crore Muslims across the world and asked them to spare '15 minutes' each, so that this enemy could be eliminated.

Digvijay Singh and famous Bollywood film director Mahesh Bhatt, called it an RSS conspiracy and demanded elimination of mosquito by using Nuclear Bomb. Amaresh Mishra tweeted that, the mosquito was a rapist and a murderer as it had sucked the blood of many innocent women and must be eliminated. Meanwhile, CM Akhilesh Yadav, upon instructions of his father created a special task force to end the nemesis of 'M'. Laloo Yadav advised him to use a poisoned 'fodder' as a bait, but 'M' consumed only blood, so it would mean poisoning someone's blood, leaving him dead. Hence this option was ruled out. NDTV reporter Barkha Dutt saw unimaginable things. She saw the mosquito getting inside human bodies. "The mosquito also sucked the blood of an unborn foetus by getting inside the mother's womb", she reported. Student activists in JNU started protesting against this. They started a 'Mosquito elimination' campaign in New Delhi. They went on streets of Delhi to kill the Delhi mosquitoes as UP mosquito 'M' was beyond their reach. Suddenly one of the Comrades crushed a fat mosquito and red blood spilled out. They got confused seeing the 'Red' colour and abandoned their campaign midway. A day later, there was a sensational leak from cable Wiki leaks. It said that Congress PM aspirant Rahul Gandhi considered the threat of 'M' in India to be bigger than any form of terror, law & order, healthcare, defense, internal security and the worsening economic situation of the country. After a lot of efforts, 'M' was captured and was to be presented before a Court of Law, for spilling so much Blood. Years went by but Police was yet to file a charge sheet and present 'M' before a court of law.

All the news channels prime time were devoted to 'M' and lots of discussion went by to suggest what should be done with 'M', so that such an act is never committed in future. Mamta Bannerjee demanded passing a special law in the Parliament, which would block the entry of Mosquitoes in 'Special Minority Zones'. While all the intellectuals of the country were busy thinking an apt punishment for the mosquito 'M', there was a sudden turn of events. Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, issued a Fatwa, saying that the mosquito 'M' had drank a lot of Muslim blood and hence more muslim blood flew in his veins than any other and therefore, should be considered one among the Minority. Leader of Opposition, Ms. Sushma Swaraj said that mosquito had no colour. It was neither saffron, nor green, it was just black and she cursed Home Minister Shinde for painting the issue with any particular colour. Home Minister Shinde was looking for corners, and retaliated that it was Manishankar Aiyer who filled his mind with that crap. He regretted his statement of 'saffron mosquito' and by mistake, instead of saying black, said that the mosquito was 'red' in colour. Upon hearing this, the Communists started raising Anti Shinde Slogan. A confused and apologetic Shinde didn't realize what just happened. So the parliament got adjourned for 1 week. Justice Katju wept a lot and wrote an emotional letter to the President of India. In his letter, he requested the President to pardon the mosquito as it had suffered a lot in prison. Further it had a family and 'M' was immature so it should be pardoned. Social Activist Arundhati Roy suddenly woke up from her slumber and started protesting over violation of 'Mosquito Rights' of 'M'.

Ram Vilas Paswan, who last won any kind of election over 2 decades ago backed Katju and went a step further ahead. He gave an interview to Dainik Jagran and said that his party LJP, which had zero MPs in parliament and zero MLAs in Bihar Legislative Assembly would support that party which fielded 'M' as the Prime Ministerial Candidate in the coming Lok Sabha elections. Laloo Yadav who once had devised a plot to eliminate 'M', now welcomed Paswan's statement and said that the next PM should be someone with Secular credentials. Nitish Kumar, opposed him on naming 'M' as the next PM candidate, but supported that the PM must have Secular credentials. Later on he gave conditional support to 'M' saying that if 'M', provided a special status for backward state Bihar, his party would support his PM candidature. Mulayam Singh Yadav neither supported, nor opposed 'M'. He just said that the next PM would be from Uttar Pradesh (Interestingly both 'M' and Mulayam are from Uttar Pradesh). His son, CM Akhilesh Yadav, released all the mosquitoes who were captured by the UP police earlier, as a mark of respect to 'M'. Mayawati wanted to hoist the Indian flag from Red Fort, but sacrificed her pursuit for power and supported 'M' under the conditions that, 'M' would appoint a 'Dalit' as his deputy PM and that he would carve an elephant statue made of pure marble and bigger than the Taj Mahal in the city of Agra. TDP chief and former Andhra CM Chandra Babu Naidu, started joining forces with various regional parties to form a 'Third Front' with 'M' as its PM face. No sooner did he start the process than his dreams were deflated by Digvijay Singh, who said that in past and in future, no Third Front can stand without Congress support.

Arvind Kejriwal conducted a press conference and exposed seventy thousand politicians who were corrupt. He then said that 'M' was innocent and his party workers would do an indefinite fast in Jantar Mantar to protest M's arrest and name him the unanimous PM without any elections. His party colleague, Prashant Bhushan voiced similar opinions and blamed intelligence agency RAW for maligning 'M' which was innocent. Sagarika Ghose was sweating in a TV program and was quite nervous, if 'M' became PM, he might trouble her as she had once named him 'Internet Mosquito'. Well known 'Historian' Ramchanda Guha fully supported 'M' to be the PM candidate. He said that there was only one criterion which he wanted to see in a PM was; "He must neither be from the Gandhi family nor Narendra Modi". Social Activist Arundhati Roy too supported 'M' for the top job but she had a long list of demands. She wanted that as soon as 'M' becomes the PM, he must give away; Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and Rajasthan to Pakistan; Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand to China; entire North East to Myanmar; West Bengal to Bangladesh; Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka and Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh as a separate country to the Naxalites. Whatever remained could be considered as the territory of India. When we last heard from Rahul Gandhi, he was practicing to develop some wings on his body. Someone told him that a bee could become a PM, a mosquito could become a PM but he could not. He thought both bee and mosquito had 1 feature in common, 'wings', hence this urgency to develop wings on his body. 'M' was slowly and steadily gaining popularity and was on course to become India's next PM; While he continued to suck the blood of Hindus and Muslims alike, no one seemed to have a problem with this.

Dragon's incursion over Tiger : Rahul Baba busy in election campaining

The nation is currently agitated over the inability of the UPA Government to force the Chinese Army to retreat from Daulat Baig Oldie, a remote advanced landing ground (ALG) and old unused air strip which was recently reactivated. The ALGs are generally constructed where a land route is difficult to build and maintain and all-weather operations are not feasible.

ALGs provide an air-maintained multipurpose station for a range of activities from air surveillance to troop maintenance and long range patrol base (peace time); during crisis they facilitate quick consolidation of forces and assets. The Ladakh ALG was reactivated to ensure the safety of our territory in that area as Chinese activities in the Gilgit area had increased in the past decade or so.

According to the latest information available in the public domain, the Chinese have intruded almost 19 kms within Indian Territory, though they claim that their troops are within their own territory. There is not much one can do about this as our Central Government is not ready to up the ante. Maintaining the status quo as a virtue is the ‘principled position’ of this most non-performing government in the history of India.

The Chinese understand this pretty well and have done this to insult India, a wannabe global power; they will continue to insult us in the same fashion in future as well. India as a nation should be ready for many more such insults. We simply have no answer to these tactics (as long as we have this regime and this attitude).

Still, we may ask, what is new in this incidence? Has this happened for the first time?  Why is a section of Indian society so perplexed with the Government’s decision (inability to respond)?

This is not the first regime to this passive and docile stand against intruders in Kashmir. What is happening in Daulat Baig Oldie is an old script being played again by our neighbours, and as per their expectations, the Indian State has reacted in exactly the same old manner. Neither our enemies have changed their modus operandi nor have we changed our reaction. But the question is: why are things the way they are?

The answer lies in India’s policy and its perception of its neighbours and their motives. Our neighbours perceive things differently. The basis of our perception of our neighbours is based on a political-bureaucratic philosophy rather than on an understanding of their regional or global outlook. We have always failed to understand our enemy’s motives. On the other hand, India does not have any objective to be achieved in a given time frame. It’s a paradox. India follows either status quo-ism or ad-hoc in response to a crisis. In the period between crises’ we go into hibernation. We fail to exploit the period of peace and this happens only because there are no stated national objectives.

Experts give the lack of infrastructure and military hardware as one reason for India’s inability to react to this situation with honour. But this is a myopic view. Let us accept one fact – that China has surrounded us with its infrastructure all along the borders and also in the Indian Ocean. Whatever we do now will be nothing but a response to them and something China would have anticipated. Therefore the element of surprise would not be there.

Secondly, we must remember that Beijing’s existing infrastructure is just a beginning; it will be followed by more infrastructure and institutional and political support to make them far more potent than they appear at present. Our experts have nothing to say on this subject. We have to open our minds to new ideas. We will have to foresee what would be the Chinese plan in the next 20 yrs.

Our response must factor in the basic fact that China’s goals are framed in a time-frame of three decades. We have already lost the first decade to them. They have captured physical areas which we simply can’t regain in the immediate future. The whole of central Asia is within their reach. They are in a position from where they can dictate terms and they will never allow us to gain any ground there.

Our diplomats failed in central Asia. We have been talking big about the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation etc, but we have gained nothing. So also in the case of Afghanistan. All across the Indian Ocean they have entrenched themselves well. As of today, we simply do not have the means to match them in infrastructure or military hardware. We will have to either take risks and call their bluff or allow status quo to continue. With the kind of polity we have, only the status quo will prevail.

The Chinese strategy is not based on immediate requirements. What we are seeing today was planned long back. One can see how incrementally they are building up their technical and scientific capability. Similarly their diplomacy is working according to long-term economic needs. To ensure their economic lines are secure they are building their military might. So first they start with scouting natural resources in far off countries, then they build infrastructure and then to secure infrastructure they deploy force.

India can’t do this, not because of physical incapability, but because we can’t plan and execute with similar dedication. To have a particular military hardware ten years from now requires work to start ten years ago; so Beijing must have planned thirty years back. It takes around ten years to bring together all required know-hows to start developing a cutting edge product. India has been busy outsourcing its defence purchases for kickbacks; what strategic planning can it do?

What we are seeing today is the plan envisaged by Chinese in the 1980s. The aggressive posturing by China, whether in the Sea of Japan or Ladakh, is to put pressure on the nations which have started to stand up to China and may join hands against it.

One must not forget that the new Chinese government with a new generation of leaders will make moves to consolidate its position, and the People’s Liberation Army which of late has become very powerful, will like to deter the new leaders from encroaching on its political space.

China is doing everything to achieve its stated national goals. India lacks a national perspective and objective, so it can’t plan a strategy to achieve it. This is why it will continue to react to situations with shameful impotence.