The Security of Aam Aadmi by Col. RSN Singh (Ex-R&AW Officer)
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The political churnings of this era raise some important security sector questions. Today we have one of India's foremost security experts, Col RSN Singh, take a closer look at the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party and the potential implications for national security.
Preface : Proxy war by its very nature thrives on political instability. In India's Red Corridor, Kashmir and in the Northeast; investment, infrastructure and social development are becoming increasingly difficult due to the resistance of those very subverted segments. This segment has unleashed a reign of terror on the population in nearly 40 percent of Indian territory. Things have come to a pass wherein political parties have begun to transact vote-bank business with the perpetrators of terror. One ruling party of a particular state owes more than half its seats to the manipulation by maoists. Another politician, the speaker of a Legislative Assembly, owes his legislative position to maoists.
Similarly, there are enough reasons to believe that some politicians are being blackmailed by the ISI and Hafiz Saeed because of their hawala and other links. This was clearly evidenced when separatists in Kashmir met Sartaz Aziz, Nawaz Sharif's envoy in Delhi. It was in evidence also when Hafiz Saeed shared stage with Yasin Malik in Pakistan.
Politics and Stability
The main objective of the perpetrators of proxy war and agents of subversion is therefore to cause and perpetuate a state of instability in the target country. Any political outfit, which propagates instability for political reasons or as a matter of political faith is 'anti-national', because instability usually results in greater insecurity of the 'aam aadmi'.
India after careful and great deliberation chose the Westminster model of democracy. A hung parliament and assembly is not an unusual occurrence. Cobbling together is a compulsion that cannot only be dismissed as political opportunism. Indeed those who decry Indian democracy, which includes many NRIs should reflect on the bitter and fractious nature of politics in other so called matured democracies, such as Britain, the United States (US), Japan, Israel or Italy.
Now, the internal forces of instability in India are the jihadis and their proxies, the maoists and their over-ground activists, and external forces vying for influence in the country for economic and other reasons. The interface of these forces with the 'Aam Aadmi Party' (AAP) will be discussed in detail in the succeeding paras based on unimpeachable evidence.
The Sinister Design of Anti-national Activism
A very cogent anti-corruption movement was launched in India for bringing back Indian money lying in Swiss Bank accounts. This was not merely rhetoric but entirely achievable because many countries during the same period had been able to arm-twist Swiss authorities into recovering the illegitimate money. This was also a period when one mega-scam after another, each overtaking the other in magnitude, had hit the Indian mind and caused revulsion for the ruling dispensation. This movement had the potential to dislodge the government. Now the moot question is where was the need of another movement?
In the first week of April 2011, Anna Hazare sat on hunger strike at Jantar-Mantar demanding a Lokpal Bill. The 'aam aadmi' of the country till then and even now never contemplated this bill, but they definitely wanted the Swiss Bank money brought back to the country. The Lokpal Bill entailed a tortuous constitutional process but recovering Swiss Bank money, given the international environment then was far more convenient. It is not so any longer. The very aim of the Lokpal movement it seems was to kill the movement for Swiss Bank money. Anna Hazare was very-very feeble in raising his voice for this money. Who orchestrated this?
Though Indians were still figuring out the import of the Lokpal Bill, the movement had its ripples in London, Glasgow, New Jersey, Paris and Huston. But for this new movement by Anna, the government would have never dared to go for a mid-night crack-down on Baba Ramdev's vigil exactly two months later. Lokpal Bill had neutralized the 'movement' over black money in Swiss Banks, but not completely.
Anna Movement and US Factor
During the same period, i.e. in April 2011, the US lost out on the medium multirole aircraft (MMRCA) deal. The $12-15 billion contract was important for the US to generate jobs, as the country was going through an unprecedented downturn of its economy. The US felt that it was politically outmaneuvered by its less deserving rivals. The then US Ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer said that he was 'deeply disappointed' and resigned citing personal reasons. The grapevine in informed circles was that the Americans had decided to teach India a lesson through its 'Agency' in India. This is again a matter of conjecture but it is an established fact that when Ambassador Timothy left India, there was no replacement for a period of eight months, i.e. June 2011 to first week of February 2012. Mr Albert Peter Burleigh was Chargé d'affaires during that period. Never in the history of Indo-US relations had such a glaring diplomatic hiatus been witnessed, not even during 1971 War when the US openly sided with Pakistan. There have been 23 American Ambassadors to India since Independence. All of them barring Mr Burleigh carried the designation of 'Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary'.
Such long absence of an American ambassador in India was unthinkable because of India's geopolitical importance and geo-strategic location in South Asia and the Indian Ocean. This was also at a time when the so-called 'war against terrorism' had not abated in the strategic agenda of the US in which India was a declared partner.
In the third week of August 2011, Anna Hazare again launched his Lokpal Bill movement from Ramlila Ground. It was during the same period when the Arab Spring had hit one country after another, i.e. Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, Morocco and Syria. Most of these had similar signatures, which many analysts allegedly attribute to the Americans. The same method of wielding flags, the same use of musical groups, the same mobilization techniques by internet and similar methods of logistics was clearly discernable. There were allegations that the key figures of these protests including in Tahrir Square in Egypt were trained in Western countries or by their embassies. It may be mentioned that the second largest US Embassy with some 400 personnel in the world is in Cairo.
Forces of Destabilization
The two most vicious proxies of external forces of destabilization in India are the Jihadis and the Maoists. The Jihadis are the proxy soldiers of Pakistan who feed on religious fundamentalism. The Maoists are not only proxy soldiers of Chinese interests as is generally understood, they also draw their sustenance from some Missionary organizations and the Western world. In 2008, the killing of social worker Laxminanda Saraswati was allegedly engineered by a certain missionary organizations through Maoists. In March 2012, again in Odisha, two Italian tourists, Bousco Paolo and Claudio Colangelo, in a poorly staged drama got themselves abducted, to be used as bargaining chips for the release of other maoist leaders. Later in April 2012, a group of ten French tourists were deported from Bihar for their collusion with the Maoists. In November 2012 an International Conference in 'Support of Peoples War' in India was held at Hamburg in Germany and was attended by delegates of more than two dozen countries. Members of the European Commission swooped in on Chhattisgarh to watch the trial of Binayak Sen. It was a blatant insult to India, but such is the level of blackmail and influence of Western organizations that the Indian establishment did not even whimper.
The congruency of the respective agendas of Jihadis, Maoists and their international benefactors, has impelled them to collaborate. Elements in the West have been using all these leverages to destabilize countries to further their strategic and economic interests. The US till very recently supported the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Al-Qaeda in Syria (Al Nusra) and Iraq. It has been using ultra-leftist groups to destabilize target countries in Latin America and South America. The umbrella organization of ultra-leftist groups, 'International Revolutionary Movement', is headquartered in Chicago.
The overwhelming presence and influence of maoists and their over- ground activists in Team Anna was palpable. Later these elements drifted to AAP. The US imprint on AAP has already been discussed. To arrive at a proper assessment it is imperative that the views of AAP on other destabilizing forces like Jihadis, Separatists, Pakistan, Terrorism and Islamic Fundamentalists are also considered.
On Batla House encounter Kejriwal categorically says that it was fake and questions the sacrifice of security forces only to tone it down later. To hear his belief click on the links below:
Batla Encounter was a fake - Arvind Kejriwal (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7-xxVqAppE)
Prashant Bhushan's pro-Maoist proclivities and posturing has been witnessed many times on television. At the peak of the Anna agitation the views expressed by him on Kashmir on television were shocking. Subsequently he tried to mitigate his statement which had no takers. His clarification was unconvincing and can be heard by clicking on the link below:
Kashmir Issue Clarification by Prashant Bhushan (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3rg7VZFC_M)
Members of AAP have never responded to questions on Maoism, Jihadi Terror and Pakistan. Insinuations have been made about their links with jihadi outfits in Pakistan and Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt through fundamentalist groups in India. Arvind Kejriwal in fact took umbrage when queried about his approach on Pakistan and terror. His hostility to the queries on security of India can be heard by clicking on the link below:
Inspirational opinion of Shri Arvind Kejriwal on Pakistan. (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbam0bT7Jas)
Kejriwal has been hobnobbing with Islamic Fundamentalists to further his political career. His political transaction with a rabid Islamic Fundamentalist, Tauqeer Raza Khan, accused of spreading communal hostility, can be gleaned by clicking on the link below:
ArvindKejriwal met TauqeerRaza Khan (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DANJSYTvfTo)
Very recently, a power intoxicated AAP leader Gopal Rai and former leader of the student wing of 'parliamentary revolutionaries' a.ka CPI(ML), the All India Students Association (AISA), insulted a former Army Chief. To watch this violent streak in the AAP leader click on the link below:
Former Army Chief insulted by AAP Leader (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO-tK4Arcnc)
Conclusion
Whatever the actual conduct, at the core of a domestic political party has to be a nationalist ideology, which is accepted or rejected by the people during elections, depending on the manner in which it translates into governance. A political party which does not divulge its foreign policy and security agenda will obviously raise a lot of questions.
Any political party which relies on the country's instability for growth is anarchist and anti-national. Activism per se can be national and anti-national, creative and destructive. Negative and anti-national activism destroys concepts of hard work, production and progress. It creates cynicism amongst the populace and negates demographic dividends. This is what the inimical forces are doing to India through their proxies which include terrorist outfits, NGOs and political parties. If the agenda of AAP was purely nationalistic it would come clean on where it stands on key issues.
To know the consequences of instability and anarchy caused by subverted extremists one has to look only at Nepal wherein the forces of destabilization were the same as in India. The people realized the anti-national agenda of the maoists and have thrown them out in the recent elections. The disaffection caused by the maoists, nevertheless, continues to cost something as basic as the constitution in Nepal.