HAVE YOU COME ACROSS A MIND SICKER THAN THIS?
B.RAMAN
During my long years with the Research &
Analysis Wing (R&AW), I had , inter alia, handled the external aspects of
the tribal insurgency in the North-East, the Khalistani terrorism, the Jihadi terrorism
and the external aspects of the physical security of the Prime Minister of India.
2. In June 1985,Rajiv Gandhi undertook his first travel abroad as the Prime Minister of India. He
visited France, Algeria, the USA and Switzerland. He went back to India and
came out again in October to visit the then USSR and Holland.
3.His June visits coincided with the first
anniversary of Operation Blue Star in the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Khalistani
elements based in Pakistan, West Europe and the US took a vow to have him
assassinated before he returned to India. I was asked to help the SPG, which is
responsible for the protection of the Prime Minister, during his visits to
France, Switzerland and Holland.
4. That was the first time I came into contact with
Rajiv, Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka. Rahul and Priyanka were young kids at that
time. I had an opportunity of interacting with the kids, particularly in Paris.
I have not met them after October,1985, but have maintained a distant interest
in their welfare and progress in life.
5.I have been worried, like many of our
fellow-citizens, over the declining and depressing state of affairs in the
country. I have written a number of articles critical of the way Prime Minister
Dr.Manmohan Singh has been handling the situation. Some of the articles were
mildly critical, some very hard-hitting. I had also suggested that the time had
come for the Congress to go for mid-term elections to remove the political gloom.
6. I believed that Shri Narendra Modi, the Chief
Minister of Gujarat, was the man for the occasion and it was time for him to
enter the political arena and take over as the PM after winning the elections. Between
2000 and till recently, I was a strong supporter of the BJP, the RSS and Modi.
7. Last year, I started visiting the Twitter site
regularly in the hope of keeping myself
in touch with what was being discussed in the Twitter world. That was the
beginning of my interactions with the online followers of Modi. I was shocked
by their uncouth manners, foul language and extremist mind-set. Whenever I
tweeted anything positive about Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka, the followers of Namo
came down on me like a ton of bricks and subjected me to vile abuse.
8. I was called an old man who had become senile
and developed Alzheimer’s disease. It was claimed that my cancer had spread to
my brain etc. By nature, I am a pleasant and polite person. I was shocked by
the kind of language used and threats uttered by the online followers of NaMo. Twice
I quit Twitter in disgust and then I came back because of my curiosity.
9. I wrote articles drawing attention to the
Stormtrooper like methods of the online followers of NaMo and the kind of abuse
and character assassination being directed at me. I sincerely believed NaMo was
not aware of the obnoxious behaviour of his online followers. I wrote and
tweeted a number of times suggesting that he should openly condemn their
methods and dissociate himself from them. There was no response. I couldn’t
help believing that his followers were indulging in such methods with his
knowledge and approval. That was the beginning of my disillusionment with NaMo.
My writings and Tweets became increasingly critical of of NaMo’s followers whom
I started calling the NaMo Brigade and NaMo himself.
10. That was also the time when I started taking
fresh interest in the personalities, policies and activities of the Congress. I
did have hopes that Rahul could turn around matters, but my hopes were belied.
I started thinking that the time had come for Priyanka to enter the political
scene to set matters right with the support of the GenNext of the party. Rahul
had not been able to enthuse the younger elements in the party and the country.
It was important that Priyanka tried her hand at this.
11. In the beginning of June, I wrote my first
article suggesting that Sonia should induct Priyanka into active politics. I
was surprised by the initial condemnation of my articles by friends and foes
alike. The NaMo Brigade stepped up its attacks on me. I was insulted. I was
ridiculed. My sanity was called into question. I decided to go into a mode of
watching silence.
12.To my surprise, after about three weeks, others
too started discussing Priyanka as a possible political aspirant--- Shri
Virendra Kapoor in Rediff, the Sunday Guardian and some other columnists and
papers. Last week, NDTV had a series of political discussions on the likelihood
of a mid-term poll. One of the questions polled and debated was the chances of
Priyanka.
13. I drew the attention of my Twitter followers to
this and tweeted once again why I had suggested the name of Priyanka.I tweeted
in two consecutive tweets: “As
yesterday's developments in Gujarat show, NaMo will not be able to shake off
his dark shadow. Namo is darkness at noon. Priyanka is brightness at night.” My
reference was to the shadow over NaMo after the conviction of 31 of the accused
in the Naroda Patiya case of massacre of
over 90 Muslims by a mob egged on by some Hindutva Top Guns. My allusion was to Arthur Koestler’s novel of the last century
based on life under Stalin. I was buried in an avalanche of abusive tweets from
NaMo’s followers. Some of them even accused me of giving a powerful political
slogan to the Congress for the next elections.
14.A couple of days later, one of my followers drew
my attention to a defamatory, calumnious blog post twisting the meaning of my
Tweets. The post deleted my reference to the conviction of the accused in the
Naroda Pitiya massacre case and carried only my characterisations of NaMo as
Darkness and Priyanka as Brightness. The post alleged that this old man used to
send love Tweets to Barkha Dutt of NDTV, now he has started sending love Tweets
to Priyanka.
15.His rage over my suggesting Priyanka as a
possible future leader was obvious, but he was unable to counter me logically.
So he indulged in character assassination.I have not come across a more sickening mind. It was the reaction
of the lowliest of the lowlies.
16.Previously,whenever I used to protest online
against the abuses and character assassination directed against me by NaMo’s
supporters, my well-wishers in the BJP and the RSS used to ask me to ignore
them. They used to claim these were not well-educated people capable of
politeness.
17.But the man who has attacked my personal honour
and projected me as a decrepit old man with a hunger for attractive women is
not an uneducated person. I understand he is a graduate of one of the
prestigious IITs of India. After having lived in Mumbai for some years, he is
now reportedly based in the US and has allegedly been co-ordinating the online
Blitzkrieg of NaMo from his safe sanctuary in the US.
18. If this is the kind of people who are the
brains of the NaMo For PM campaign, would it be in the interest of the country
for NaMo to become the PM? Everyman is known by the company he keeps. This is
the kind of company NaMo keeps.( 2-9-12)
(The writer
is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi,
and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate
of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com Twitter @SORBONNE75)
