THE MISSING GATE-KEEPERS.

  Campaigning is now almost over as we head inexorably for Result day on the 4th of June, and it is a prospect which fills me with dread. Never, ever, have we had an election so filled with hate, bigotry, despicable language, threats, complaints, lies and manipulation. Never have we had an election where the stakes were so high, especially for the demonised and intimidated 14% of our population pushed to the borders of citizenship. Never have we seen a Prime Minister so contemptuous of the law, conventions, canons of basic decency and language, basic humanity. Never have we seen a citizenry so divided by religious fault lines. Never have we been in a position where the survival of our very Constitution is under threat. For, regardless of  the results on the 4th of June, the country is headed for a dangerous period of instability, chaos and even more social conflict which may even threaten our very survival as a functioning democracy. How did we reach this point of almost no-return?

  We have reached this nadir of democracy because people who were entrusted with the responsibility- on oath- to defend the values of our republic have looked the other way, at best, or have colluded with the usurpers at worst. Without their indulgence, accommodation and hand holding of these inimical forces the country would not now be teetering on the edge of the precipice. They have been found to be missing in action when the country most needed them.

  The prevarication of the Judiciary, its inability or unwillingness to confront the Executive, is perhaps the single most important factor which has emboldened this regime to push the frontiers of the Constitutional envelope, to salami-slice it with impunity without having to amend it. Inordinate delays in deciding important cases have resulted in faits accompli which have invariably favoured the government. The jurisprudence of the "sealed cover" has made a mockery of the law, as we saw in the Rafale case. Court monitored inquiries- Pegasus, Hindenberg- have never reached any satisfactory closure, allowing the government to claim a "clean chit." Even when the actions of the ruling party have been held to be illegal- Ram Mandir, Electoral bonds- the perpetrators have been permitted to retain the proceeds of their crime, and to make use of them for electoral purposes.

  Decisions now appear to be based on the predilections of individual judges, not on established principles of law: the most glaring example of this is the universal refusal to grant bail, even as the police go around arresting people with gay abandon. NCRB data shows that about 55 lakh persons were arrested in 2022. Most of them are probably rotting in jail, which is why 75.80% of prisoners are undertrials. This suits the Executive just fine, because it enables it to detain persons-dissidents, opposition leaders, journalists- even without any evidence or trying them. Matters have predictably now come to a point where even Chief Ministers can be indefinitely imprisoned without conviction just on the eve of crucial national elections! Even as convicted rapists like Baba Ram Rahim can be repeatedly RELEASED on parole before elections ! What kind of justice system is this, the citizen is entitled to ask?

  The judiciary appears to have as much contempt for civil society and its representative organisations as does the government. A case in point is the recent dismissal of the pleas of ADR (Association for Democratic Reforms) and Common Cause, two of the finest voices of civil society, for reforms in the VVPAT counting process. The judgment did not take into account global practices, views of experts or the misgivings of the public. It was simply based on an abiding faith in a discredited ECI and technicalities which the court was ill equipped to analyse. Cross verification of the EVM/VVPAT count would have needed nothing more than a few additional hours but would have instilled a badly needed confidence in the electoral process. This judgment has only emboldened the ECI to ride roughshod over civil society and Opposition's concerns and reinforced its carapace of unaccountability. The judiciary's facade of independence has been further dented by the self-confessed revelations of two High Court judges that they are adherents of the BJP/RSS ideology: one of them is now contesting the elections on a BJP ticket.

  The ECI (Election Commission of India) is perhaps the most distrusted institution in India today, having expended all its previous glory on self-serving sycophancy of the current regime. It has consistently and unabashedly done everything in its power to create a pitch which favours the BJP-from its volte face on the Electoral bonds issue in court, to the long drawn out, six week schedule for the polling, its inaction on the many complaints of names of voters being deleted from voters' lists, of voters of a particular community not being allowed to vote in some booths, its steadfast opposition to cross verification of VVPAT counts, the unexplained delay in releasing the absolute number of votes polled,  the  unprecedented increase in polled votes in the final lists. This has led to wide-spread distrust of its motives, and apprehensions of its conduct during counting day. The Commissioners could have made an attempt to dispel these concerns by agreeing to meet the delegation of Opposition parties or to hold regular press conferences (both of which its predecessors had invariably done). But it has obstinately refused to do so, perhaps fortified by the Z+ security cover conferred on it recently!

 Things have come to such a pass that all results declared on the 4th of June could now come under a cloud in public perception; the sanctity of the election process (which was never doubted even in the critical 1977 election) has now been eroded. In a first of its kind various civil society organisations have issued appeals to Returning Officers, the uniformed forces and even the President to abide by their oath to the Constitution and ensure a free and fair result on counting day. This general distrust could have grave implications post the counting, only because the Election Commission was found wanting when it should have stood up to be counted.

  Whereas the above two institutions have facilitated the empowerment of the BJP's vicious brand of politics, the corporate media has done worse- it has brought the vitriol, bigotry and hate into the sitting rooms of people. By amplifying the ruling regime's lies and falsehoods, by not questioning them, by concentrating on divisive subjects rather than genuine news, it has managed to legitimise falsehood and  hatred on a scale even Goebbles would have marvelled at. This media has spread Islamophobia throughout the country and has helped elevate Mr. Modi to a Godly status, something which he now publicly claims himself. By constantly disseminating false or slanted news and not projecting the Opposition's points of views, it has denied authentic news to the public at large and violated the first principle of journalism. It has assisted the ECI in preparing a doctored pitch (at least in the perception of a large number of people) for the election.

  The institutions which were meant to ensure a free and fair election have not done their job, and the nation may end up paying a heavy price for it. They will not be judged gently by history, nor do they deserve to be. But for the moment we are entitled to ask of them: Where were you when the country needed you most?

   

PURANIKOTI DIARY - LEARNING SOME LESSONS FROM NATURE.

   One is never too old to learn a lesson or two about life. I found that out this month, the lesson being that you can try to run away from the effects of climate change, but you cannot hide from it : it will get you, sooner than you think. We ran away, as is our usual drill, from the heat, water shortages, power outages of the NCR to our place in Puranikoti in April end: amidst the dense forests, flowing nullahs and quiet of the village, we thought, we could put climate change behind us for a few months.

  How wrong I was! The forests are dry as tinder, afire in many places; the nullahs no longer flow; the sun beats down on us like a physical force. For the first time in 18 years, ever since I built my cottage here, I am having to buy water from water tankers! Even though we get water from a govt. scheme and I have a 25000 litre roof-top water harvesting tank. The problem is that the water sources of the former scheme have almost dried up, and there has been no rain for the last six weeks to fill the water harvesting tank. There has been hardly any winter snow here for the last two years and all the underground aquifers have been depleted, the rainfall pattern has also altered: earlier we used to get a locally induced shower every three or four days but now we are dependent, it would appear, on the north-westerly disturbances emanating from the Caspian sea. Whatever happened to our micro-climate, I wonder? 

                            

                                    [ Mountains on fire. Photo by Pankaj Khullar, IFS (Retd.)]

                               

      The lesson is writ large on the burning forests, the dried up streams and "kuhls", the unbelievable temperatures in Una and Hamirpur rivalling those of Chandigarh and Gurgaon. But, like a student with an attention- deficit disorder, our state govt. will just not learn it. It carries on with its business as usual policies, it continues to level the mountains and slaughter thousands of trees for airports which are not needed, build four-lane highways which devastate the mountains and whose muck chokes the rivers, approve more hydel projects which are environmentally disastrous.

                                 

                                  [ Forest fire near Solan. Photo by Pankaj Khullar, IFS (Retd.)]  

The Chief Minister has announced that he wants to double tourist arrivals, from 20 million a year to 50 million! Is he smoking Malana hash, I wonder? Our infrastructure and natural landscapes are already crumbling under the onslaught of the existing 20 million tourists; one cannot even visualise the devastation that will be necessary to accommodate another 30 million- just their potable water requirements will amount to 3 billion litres per day! A June 2021 report, quoting the HP police states that 18370 tourist vehicles enter the state every day; even these numbers have made a mess of the traffic in every single town of the state. The Atal tunnel near Manali recorded 20000 vehicles a day passing through it this year. Can one imagine the state of affairs if all these numbers were to be doubled, which is the Chief Minister's fond wish ?

                              

                                         [ Typical summer vacation? Traffic jam at Manali ]

  The fate of Himalayan states can be seen, even as I write this, in what is happening to the Char Dham yatra: the lakhs of people stranded for days on the Gangotri-Yamunotri-Kedarnath routes: the mountains just cannot bear these numbers any longer. The blame has to be shared by an ecocidal government ramming through the four-lane Char Dham highway in a fragile mountain system, as well as by the brain-washed urbanites, riding high on an SUV-driven religiosity, unmindful of the consequences to nature. Himachal should learn from all this, before it's too late.

  Smell the smoke of the forest fires, sir, and the stench from the dry nullahs filled with plastic waste and human refuse. Learn from countries who are putting the health of their natural landscapes and ecology over tourist dollars. Stop the felling of trees, the cutting of mountains, the unnecessary building of roads, airports, not-so-smart cities, the damming up of rivers and streams. The cumulative effect of all these hare-brained policies is what is imparting a local impact to the global phenomenon of climate change. Do a course correction while you still can. Concentrate instead on protecting your forests, implement water harvesting schemes on a war scale in both urban areas and the forests, limit the tourist numbers to a sustainable level, bring back the micro climate which nurtured the state, climate proof the sustainability of your eco-systems. Show some vision beyond defeating Kangana Ranaut in the elections. Make your money by protecting your natural ecology and assets, not by destroying them.

Or be prepared to be taught a lesson by Nature. The classes have already begun.

THE FOURTH OF JUNE - AND THE DAY AFTER.

   I sincerely hope the Hon'ble Lordships who dismissed the petitions for mandatory counting of VVPAT slips (with wholly unwarranted aspersions on the petitioner, the Association for Democratic Reforms) are able to sleep soundly these days. I also hope they have by now realised how misplaced their touching faith in the current Election Commissioners was.  For every round of polling brings fresh disturbing news of malfunctioning of EVMs, of only the BJP symbol being displayed no matter which key one presses, of EVMs being "captured" by ruling party goons with the connivance of the police, of Muslim voters not being allowed to vote, of a BJP candidate (who has no business being inside a polling booth except to cast her vote) forcibly lifting the burkhas of Muslim women to verify their ID, of CCTV cameras in strong-rooms being rendered ineffective by electricity "failure", of en mass deletion of names of voters of a particular community. All accompanied by the sepulchral silence of the Election Commission.

  In one of the laziest judgments delivered in recent times, the Hon'ble judges premised their order on a complete faith in the Election Commission and its impartiality. How wrong they were is being proved on a daily basis. For the present Election Commission is the most deplorable, partisan and incompetent one we have had since 1947. It is as transparent as a block of granite, as communicative as a trappist monk with a vow of silence, and as straight as a corkscrew. It takes no action on hate speeches, allows a communal video to be shown for four days before taking it down just hours before polling, it is petrified of even taking the Prime Minister's name, let alone calling him out for persistent anti-Muslim baiting, its "notices" are targeted mainly at the Opposition parties, it changes, without any explanation, the practice of revealing polling numbers instead of just percentages: it takes days to reveal even this information in the age of "digital India"! And, in order to leave no doubt as to which corner of the ring it is in, it castigates the President of the country's largest opposition party for raising just this issue in a letter! The credibility of this Commission has hit rock bottom but it continues to dig deeper every day. All of us knew this, but apparently the Hon'ble judges did not.

  I fear the nation may pay a huge price for this indefensible misjudgment of the Commission's character and intentions. The real mischief will happen on counting day.

*                                          *                                           *                                    *                                  *

  It appears that some of Mr. Modi's divinity has rubbed off on me too: these days, perched in my mountain home at 7000 feet, I feel like Moses on Mount Sinai, surveying the frenetic goings-on far below with cynical disapproval. Things haven't changed much since the days of Moses either- what he beheld was worship of the golden calf, what I see now is hysteria about the saffron cow (speaking metaphorically, of course). To provide a non-Abrahamic analogy, I feel a bit like Jamlu Devta of Malana village on the heights of Chandrakhani Pass, observing  the other inferior devtas of Kullu conducting their road shows (it IS election time, after all!), each trying to impress the voter- sorry, devotee- to be declared the numero uno. ( Incidentally, Jamlu Devta is not to be confused with Jumla Devta, the other reigning deity in Delhi).

  And what I see is that, notwithstanding the indulgence (if not worse) of the Election Commission, the misuse of the official apparatus and the thousands of crores of bribes as electoral bonds being allowed to be retained, the BJP is going to fall short of a simple majority by at least 30-40 seats. The rag-tag NDA allies may garner another 30 or so seats, but it is unlikely that they will bail the BJP out: as Parakala Prabhakar explained to Karan Thapar in a recent interview, these parties are "contextual" not "ideological" allies of the BJP, and when the context changes they will jump ship like the proverbial rats. And that is when the fun begins, or the shit hits the ceiling. It is something we all should be discussing and worrying about, because this moment will put to the test every single institution, conventions and laws we have so painstakingly created over the years.

  Mr. Modi has been in power continuously for the last 22 years, and has made no secret of the fact that he loves it so much that he is not likely to hand it over to any one else, election or no election. He has, after all, been ordained to rule by God himself. Moreover, he has much to lose and fear if he has to relinquish power. His atrocities and excesses have made him many enemies; having lived by the sword he can expect no quarter from them. His imperious decisions will be called into question and investigated- Rafael, demonetisation, PM Cares fund, Electoral bonds, Pegasus, the Panama and Pandora papers, the Hindenberg expose on Adani, the award of contracts, ports, airports, mines, railways to cronies. Cadavers from the past will be exhumed to point their gory fingers at him- the Gujarat riots of 2002, the NE Delhi riots of 2021, Judge Loya, the Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi encounters, the killings in Manipur, the imprisonment of Sanjiv Bhat and human rights activists: many more may emerge once the repressive lid is lifted off a citizenry and media muzzled for the last ten years.

  He will not, however, be without powerful allies who have been his accomplices in his megalomaniac excesses- bureaucrats, the police and defense forces, institutions like the Election Commission, Reserve Bank of India, Banks, SEBI and other regulatory bodies, even the judiciary. Just about every organ of government has, in the last ten years, been infiltrated by right wing sympathisers if not outright "bhakts", and for all of them this will be a moment that will endanger not only the continuance of Mr. Modi but  their own survival. They will provide the pushback to, and try to prevent, any change of regime, and, since they will continue to occupy positions of power in the system, they will constitute a potent challenge.

  With the kind of resources he will still have, and the strength of the backing from within the governmental structure, Mr. Modi can be expected to move heaven and earth to stay on in power. There will be no repeat of 1977 when Mrs. Gandhi handed over power peacefully, and for good reasons: our institutions and systems of checks and balances have been thoroughly eroded over the last decade, an independent media no longer exists, the character of our politicians has plumbed unimagined depths, and the very fabric of society has been torn and shredded. The engineering of large scale violence on the pattern of the January 6th violence in Washington cannot be ruled out, giving the present regime the perfect excuse to declare an Emergency, suspend all rights and call out the uniformed forces who have shown that they are not at all adverse to a touch of high handedness and have their own take on how best to preserve the "sovereignty of the nation". The fate of the nation will then depend on the President and the Supreme Court; somehow, however, I cannot muster up much confidence or hope in either.

  If, in spite of the election results (or because of manipulated results), Mr. Modi and the BJP/NDA  manage to retain power for the next five years, India will cease to exist as a genuine democracy. But then, as Satan said, for some it is better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven.

WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE ARE MANY WAYS

   April is the cruelest month, and not only for the reasons given by T.S.Eliot: it is also that dreaded month when we have to turn our minds to filing our income tax returns for the benefit of the lady-who-doesn't- have-money- to- fight-elections but, like Oliver Twist, is always asking for more. But this year April has been harsher than usual because of the introduction of two surprise imponderables: Inheritance tax and Covishield. The two, my CA tells me, should induce all of us to do a bit of "estate planning" and think of life after death.

  It is now undeniable that AstraZeneca's Covishield vaccine had very serious side effects, and that they were actually bedside effects, i.e. they laid you out flat on your bed, never to rise again, not even in Jerusalem or Golgotha. After the emergence of damning evidence in a London court, it has been reported on the 7th of March that the vaccine has been withdrawn globally. That is cold comfort to the millions who might now be living under a death sentence. The possibility of an Inheritance tax has now been mooted by an emigre but influential Congressman, and Mr. Modi himself has explained it in his usual simple, crass language-namely, that if you have two buffaloes the Congress will take one away. He has not, however, explained what will happen if you have two wives. My well- informed CA tells me that that will depend on whether wives are regarded as assets or liabilities.

  Be that as it may, these developments have led me to seriously consider executing my will, since the afore mentioned bedside effect can come into play at any time and fell me in one fell swoop (I had taken two of the ruddy shots). Mr. Modi, I'm told, has already disappeared from the digital vaccination certificates and may soon disappear also from 7, Lok Kalyan Marg; as the poet said: If Modi goes, can Shukla be far behind? Which is why I'm now seriously considering the redistribution of my poverty (in the absence of any wealth), among my progeny and Neerja.

 The first obstacle you run up against when registering a Will is to prove that you are of "sound mind". The magistrate, having read some of my blogs, had serious reservations about that in my case. I patiently explained to him that soundness of my mind is a relative thing, has its ups and downs (as the Duke told the Duchess one unsuccessful night), and has to be seen in its context. I referred him to Mr. Modi's speeches about buffaloes and mangalsutras, Mr. Amit Shah's statement about a five trillion tonne economy, Surjit Bhalla's claim that the Modi govt. has ushered in true secularism, Jaishankar's boast that India was the leader of the global south-and then slipped in the knife: if these jokers could be considered sane enough to decide the fate of the nation, was I not sane enough to decide what to do with the accumulated fruits of my labours? His Honour, being of sound mind himself, immediately agreed and signed off with an RO+AC.

  For the record, I don't really have much to bequeath to my next-of-kin. The bank deposits and FDs will disappear soon at the current rate of inflation and taxation; whatever little is left will probably go to cyber fraudsters. The cottage in Purani Koti will probably have to be sold to pay off the inheritance tax. The car belongs to Mr. Gadkari anyway, what with fuel prices, the highway robbery legalised as toll fees, and the rule that requires it to be scrapped after ten years. But to be honest, I don't give a shit, as the honey badger confided to his mate: my family will probably live a better life without me lurking in the shadows. And, in any case, I would like to believe that these baubles do not constitute my real wealth and legacy.

  For, of all my possessions the ones I am most proud of, and which give me most happiness, are the trees I've planted on my land in Purani Koti, near Mashobra. I, along with my sister-in-law Anjali, had bought about 6 bighas (little more than an acre) of land there in the early 2000's and I decided to convert it into a little green oasis before the village was taken over by hotels and guest houses. The latter has happened but so has the oasis! I had the full backing of Anjali, who was keen to compensate for her otherwise Delhi based (carbon) footprint, which is slightly bigger than Godzilla's footprint.

                                            

                                                            [ A grove of robinia trees]

                                                                  [ Weeping willows]

  I did an enumeration of the trees on our lands yesterday and counted a total of 209 trees, of both the forest and fruit varieties. An examination of old photographs reveals that there were only about 15 fruit trees when we acquired the land, so we have added almost 200 trees, and they are all doing well, the fruit trees are all organic. The forest varieties comprise deodar, blue pine, robinia, horse chestnut, oak, weeping willows and chinar; the fruit variety are apple, pear (nashpati), cherry, plum. I have no sense of guilt in admitting that I have begged, bought, borrowed and stolen to get these plants from all corners of the state !- from the Jalori pass, Tirthan valley, Manali. The greenery is now a haven for birds of more species than I can recognize, and we even have visiting species like parakeets, swallows, Himalayan magpies, pheasants and barbets at different times of the year. The bulbuls are permanent residents and have bed-tea with Neerja and I on our terrace every morning (see photo).

                                                                   [ Horse chestnut ]

                                                   [ Our regular morning tea companion]

                                                               [ Cheer pheasant chicks]

                                                               [All photos by the author]

  This then is the possession I really value, my own creation without any embedded advantage of birth, education or inherited wealth, something I can be proud of. I would like to consider this my real legacy, not only for my family but for mother earth. It feels good to leave one tiny part of this planet a better place than one found it. And it needs no Will- just a dream!

THIS IS NOT JOURNALISM, Ms. SHARMA, IT'S COMPLICITY.

   I don't know what brain supplement Palki Sharma has been taking of late, some kind of Patanjali churan probably, but I would advise her to discontinue it immediately. It is detaching her from reality, causing her to hallucinate and making her colour blind to all hues except saffron. Till now, I had regarded her as an articulate journalist and presenter, who did immaculate research on her subjects, and made her points convincingly. No more, not after her sacerdotal (to the Supreme Leader) speech at the Oxford Union debate. With this one speech she has brought herself down to the level of those despicable prime time anchors of Republic TV, Times Now, Aaj Tak and News 18.

  In the year old video which has surfaced again and made to go viral, she proclaims that she is proud of being an Indian in Modi's India, recounted his "achievements" on the economy, defense, social cohesion, federalism, freedom of speech, religion, dissent, independence of institutions and the press etc., and was duly applauded by the Prime Minister himself, who usually reserves such plaudits for lynch mobs, rapists, bigots, and other assorted scoundrels. I hope she is comfortable in such company, because I would certainly not be. All that she said was a leaf from Mr. Amit Malviya's Book of Lies, and it is tragic that someone like her was taken in so easily by these untruths and half truths.

  No, Ms Palki Sharma, I am not proud to be an Indian in Modi's India. Of my 73 years the first 63 were spent holding my head high as an Indian because, for all our poverty and other shortcomings, we were at least one united nation. We revelled in our diversity (notwithstanding the occasional riot or two) and our Ganga-Jamuna "tehzeeb"; we held fast to our principles and values, we respected the values and aspirations enshrined in our constitution, and we did make steady progress up the economic ladder. We were a nation respected globally, not because we were just a big market or a counter-point to China, but because we were a genuine democracy which provided a moral compass and hope to the rest of the world. The last ten years of Mr. Modi have undone all this good, painstaking work, just because a vain, semi-literate, narcissistic demagogue thinks he is bigger than all his predecessors put together; indeed, bigger than the nation. I have reason enough not to be proud of being an Indian these days. Because the proof of the pudding lies in the eating, and Ms Palki Sharma's pudding is nauseating and poisonous.

  It is difficult, if not impossible, to be proud of a Prime Minister whose bat-like vision does not extend beyond hate for minorities, contempt for science and reason, malice towards the opposition, and whose only goal in life is to stay in office. One cannot be proud of a man utterly lacking in compassion, whose every second word is a lie, who makes a virtue of his profound ignorance and, in the best traditions of all fake God-men with which this country abounds, considers himself a messenger of God. The summum bonum of his life is contained in just one letter- M: Muslim, Mutton, Macchli and Mangalsutra. His language has plumbed depths never seen before of any leader, let alone a Prime Minister. Any civilized society would be ashamed of having a leader like him.

  Our economy too, which Palki Sharma extols to high heavens, is nothing to be proud of. Sure, it's growing, but what else would you expect of the most populous nation on earth? Even if our entire population was starving at two dollars a day (like our 220 million BPL families) we would still be a one trillion dollar economy. Every figure released by the govt. regarding the GDP is fudged, surveys which would say otherwise are either not conducted or kept under wraps. The real state of our economy is reflected, not in the GDP or even per capita income, but in other indicators: that 800 million people have to be given free rations, that 83% of our youth are unemployed, that even IITs and IIMs are unable to place 50% of their graduates, that bank deposits are falling and personal loans/debts have shown an increase of 66% since 2021, that more than 250000 MSMEs have had to shut down, that almost 240000 rich and educated Indians have surrendered their citizenship in the last eight years alone, that private investment has been falling every year, that 60 million people have had to return to agriculture because there are no jobs for them, that the share of manufacturing in the economy has declined to an all time low of 13% of GDP, that 1% of the population own 40% of the country's wealth and 10% own 70%, leaving only 6% for the bottom 50%, making India one of the most inequitable countries in the world. In the words of Parakala Prabhakar, Mr. Modi's economic ideology is a simple one: give five kgs of free rice to the people and five airports to his favoured cronies.

  GDP growth under Modi, which most respected economists put at about 6.2% and not the 7.4% touted by the govt., continues to lag behind the achievement of both UPA I and UPA II, and is driven, not by the private sector, but by massive state expenditure on infrastructure and capital intensive projects. This too has been on the back of unsustainable borrowings- our external debt has now crossed 150 lakh crores, three times what it was in 2014. The only beneficiaries of this model of economics have been the billionaires and millionaires whose tribe continues to multiply manifold. There is little to be proud of here.

  It is no surprise that, in her cloying veneration for the Modi era, Ms Sharma fails to notice the state of our institutions, their steady degeneration to camp followers of the ruling regime. They have become instrumentalities, not of the state, but of the BJP. One had never expected to see the three monkeys of the Mahatma resurrected in this modern era, but they have been reborn again: the CAG is blind to the loot of the exchequer going on all around him, the Election Commission never speaks, the judiciary is deaf to the entreaties of civil society and citizens. One can list out the instances where their silence, biases and helpful interpretations of the law have contributed to the hollowing out of our democracy, but that would require a whole book by itself. As Kapil Sibal has pointed out, history will judge them some day, but by then it may be too late.

  The lady is at her absurd best (worst?) when she claims that India is the leader of the global south even as we are completely isolated on the issue of Palestine-Israel conflict; that the world comes to us for advice whereas the fact is that we are a perpetual fence-sitter at the United Nations, never committing our selves to any principles or position; that we have forged close ties with our neighbours, even as in the Modi years we have lost Nepal. Srilanka, the Maldives and now even Bhutan to China; that Kashmir has never been so peaceful as after the abrogation of Article 370, whereas militant related deaths (of citizens, security forces and terrorists) have GONE UP since then. Even our strategic "friends"- the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany- have now begun to have doubts over both the internal repression in India and our gun-for-hire foreign policy. But Palki Sharma will not tell her audience about these uncomfortable home truths.

  Every single encomium handed out by her to the Modi govt. is contradicted by global surveys and indexes- Hunger Index, Press Freedom Index, Religious Freedom Index, Inequality Index, Environment Protection Index, Gender Equality Index, Electoral Democracy Index, Human Capital Index; and in all of them we have slid down the rankings since 2014. But Ms Sharma deliberately ignores them in a speech which is more a propaganda handout by the BJP's IT Cell than an address by a hitherto respected journalist. 

  I doubt if any advice would make Palki Sharma change her mind, but she would do well to remember, in the slightly adapted words of George Orwell, that journalists who support politicians, impostors, thieves and traitors are not victims...but accomplices. They too shall be judged one day.