Possible Indian Military Scenarios - Part I

Anand K
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Post by Anand K »

Good work YIP; its scary, stark and unsettling........ There have always been power centres and puppet masters and kingmakers in indian politics, but it seems your scenario points to a situation where a powerful cabal who isn't (may not be) answerable to ANY of the three branches of the state, runs the show. Moreover, the opposition (BJP/RSS etc) plans to use the crisis in B'Desh to forment a civil war , indirectly helping the enemy by opening a civil strife front.
I guffawed when Tom Clancy and his ghostwriter wrote about a cabal under a Def Min John Kabir :shock: planned a massive first strike on Pakistan in Op Centre: Line of Control.......However, I presume the real world/dark scenario you are building doesn't go Pitch Black "just for a horror" (as the wags back home put it). Hey, waittaminute! Can we use this a WORST case scenario, pleej? It would be interesting to see how it plays out.....

BTW, all characters bear no resemblance to any real person onlee :wink: , but who did u have in mind when u created Dighe? Beats me.
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Post by Abhijit »

A touch of Bernard Kerik there, I suppose. But Anand Dighe is a venerable name for a tower of a person (may he rest in peace) - best left untouched Sunilrao. Just my humble comment.
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Post by Sunil »

Ah... My mistake MTS named him Manoj Dighe. I got the names mixed up. See changed scripts. I have no idea what is the Kerik angle is I don't have kerik's bio so please tell me if there is a problem. I had made up the MHA's persona based on a composite of four major national politicians when I wrote up the Mina incident but didn't write it up. It will take me a few weeks to touch this up.

It should come as no surprise that the MHA is so evolved a politician - that is part of the job requirement. All other ministries are largely "economic" ministries - the MHA is the mother of all ministries.
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Post by Abhijit »

Kerik in the sense that a tough cop, (almost) turned politician in charge of 'homeland security' while making money on the side. But don't worry about the profile - Dighe saheb is coming along just fine.
YIP, hats off to you on that last piece - it is outstanding in too many respects to list here.
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Post by Y I Patel »

Shivnandan Singh Verma was content at the portfolio he had been assigned - Human Resources was a quiet but vital assignment, something that appealed to him. Shivji, as he as commonly called, came to politics the "old fashioned" way - he started out organizing sugar cooperatives in Eastern UP and built up a solid grass-roots base among the OBCs and Jat farmers; his last name gave him acceptability among higher caste Brahmins of Allahabad as well. His rise to power followed the time honored route for power brokers; in his mid-40s, he was the youngest Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. His political clout had not gone unnoticed, Indiraji intuited his potential and had taken the rare step of courting him rather than cutting him off at the knees as she had done to several other politicians. So Shivji had merged his party with Congress, and had quickly risen to national prominence. After her assasination, he was considered a major power centre and therefore a threat to Rajivji, and had been made a governor of Punjab to keep him occupied and safely out of Delhi. Shivji revelled, as usual, in acting as a behind the scenes broker, and was a major force behind the Rajiv-Longowal accord. Maybe it was his experience with the tumultuous politics of the eighties, maybe it was his sense of how things actually got done; somewhere along the line, that burning ambition evolved into something less easily compartmentalized... Shivji had been content to become the inner voice of his party, a grey eminence who moved behind the scenes and handled sensitive negotiations while others flaunted high profiles.

When Arora's party won the elections, there were several contenders for the top post. Dighe was always there, with his naked ambition. So was Sen, with all his secular connections. The party leader turned to Shivji, as she usually did; as her husband and mother in law had done before her. And he counselled her that the times called for a reformer, someone who could rise above political confines and set out a bold course of next-generation reforms. Arora had been great at that - the tragedy was that the times now called for an entirely different set of skills, and Arora was just not cut out for the ruthlessness that the circumstances called for. Arora's bureaucratic instincts made him adopt a presidential style, where decisions were made by picking up a phone can calling old buddies to get things done.... when the rumblings began in the party, and the boss started getting antsy, Shivji advised her to let Dighe have free rein. The old policeman had his uses, though he too was inclined to adopt unilateral approaches. So Sen had been included as a counterbalancing force - Sen, the old Naxal fighter, the Jadavpur don turned Socialist Fianance Minister, now rudely relegated to Defense Ministry in deference to the dictats of a new order in FinMin...

Shivji had quietly taken Sen aside after the meeting, and warned him that he did not have much time. Dighe was very good at getting things done, but he had a penchant for the unconventional. What was needed was an outlet for all the roiling anger that was building up in the heartland, some unifying event had to take place, something very visible that sent a message both to the home front as well as to the world.

Sunil - ab tak chappan wont do at national stage. it is all boring faceless committee stuff up there. no lone rangers - they get cut rapidly to size in India.
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Post by Sunil »

YIP... it isn't ab tak chappan. You have the right idea, I am going to flesh dighe out because of the cool factor.
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Post by Y I Patel »

Captain Shivinder Singh Randhava's world was being rocked to its foundations. Not because he had to hug the marble floored ground desperately; not because his soldiers were getting decimated in the murderous cross fire. His world was turning upside down beause he was a Captain in the Guards Regiment of the Indian Army, the Army that had just launched a full-fledged attack on the Golden Temple. Because he was leading an attack on a place that he had grown up visiting with utmost reverence, a place that was the centre of his spiritual life... and because he suspected that the devastating hail of fire was being directed by Jaspreet, volatile impressionable Jaspreet, Jaspreet of the thousand shared dips in the river, Jaspreet of bicycle races to the oficers mess for fruit cake, Jaspreet of whispered secrets and dirty stories.

The Vijayanta had just smashed into the parikrama, Shivi watched in numbed befuddlement as the turret turned and started blasting away at the Akal Takht. The soldier and the army had entered a long, dark night of the soul...

The night didn't end with the spooling of credits, as it does in Bolywood. Shivi had found Jaspreet's body in the rubble, he had to convey the news to his mausi that her only son was dead, shot by the Army Shivi served. The night didn't end for the army, which was rocked to its foundations when soldiers of the Shikh regiment mutinied...

For Shivinder Singh Randhawa to enter the army was not even a matter of thought - the Army was the only way of life for this third generation soldier, whose father had accompanied Maj Gen Nagra into Decca not so long ago... even joining the Guards was a foregone conclusion - where else would this sword of honor winner want to go, but to the Army's seniormost and most illustrious regiment? But now, Shivi was a torn man. He endured the glowering suspicion in the aftermath of the Indira Gandhi assasination, the gnawing self-doubts of serving in the Army that had smashed into the holiest of holies, the events that had caused the loss of his beloved cousin - and yet, he had seen for himself what was going in that revered place, and he certainly couldn't defend the morality of the people who had abused it...

Then, the generations of warrior upbringing asserted itself. Shivi faced his inner demons as only a warrior would - by confronting them head on, by fighting them with all his power. Gone was the arrogant swagger, the cocky self assurance of a Guards officer. The beard grew out, the turban came back. And he hit the books with a vengeance. History, religion, politics. The champion boxer, the polo olympian became the Nerd. He had burning questions, and he turned inwards in his pursuit of answers...

When the Sri Lanka fiasco started, Shivi had no inclination to get involved. He was a Major by then, and as one of the seniormost officers of his batch, had a range of plum posts. He chose to stay with a unit deployed at Pathankot. That almost turned out to be an out of the pan and into the fire kind of situation when Brass Tacks heated up, but that scare was defused, and Shivi went back to his inner turmoil... he often wondered what kept him in the Army through those long dark years. Perhaps it was the sense that being a fauji was his Dharma, perhaps it was the generations of ingrained loyalty to the institution and the country... but hang on he did.

In the early 90s came the posting as a Lt Col in a Guards Battalion that got deployed to a brigade commanded by RK Nanavatty. The brigade got tasked to a place called Baramulla, where it accomplished what two divisions of US Army could not do at Falluja. Quietly and with minimal fanfare, the brigade won back a major population centre that was in forested hilly terrain, barely tens of kilometers from LOC. The brigade did it with minimal causalties and publicity, and the Army had a new legend called Rustom Kaikhusru Nanavatty. Shivi saw how brigadiers, even Major Generals, like Nanvatty and Shekatkar led search and cordon operations from the front, to make sure the job got done and that there were no excesses committed... he saw how old General Krishna Rao stood unflinching as the bomb blasted barely meters away from him, how the army held firm in the fragile state when all seemed lost... and then he laid seige to a mosque called Hazrat Bal. He saw how the government played a game of starvation and biryani with the terrorists holed up inside the mosque, and he knew that in some quarters at least, the lessons of Blue Star had been learnt. Slowly, painfully slowly, in fighting an undeclared war for their beleagured country, the soldier and the army started regaining their bearings.

On promotion to Colonel, Shivi shamelessly used his family connections to secure an all volunteer posting. It was on the southern part of the Saltoro Range, as the CO of a battalion deployed under the 122 Indep Brigade. Observers from Shivi's battalion were reporting unusual activity in the PA forward posts, and the brigade commander VK Jaitley ordered a quiet massing of artillery as a precaution. This massing was part of the revised doctrine adopted by the IA for defending its extended positions on the glacier... Shivi himself acted as the forward oberserver in a chain of observers who were often hidden from each other! One of them observed where the shot fell, another observer out of direct line of sight had to report enemy responses, a third had to coordinate fires! The innovative adaptation for directing fires, combined with the lethal accuracy and firepower of the Bofors gun, smashed the forming Pakistani attack into simithereens... Brig Vijay Kumar Jaitley got the UYSM for that little piece of action, and Shivi a commendation from the COAS.

Army regulations mandate a rest posting after a stint to Siachen, and Shivi expected a quiet tenure as Colonel GS with the 21st Inf Division in Ranchi. Instead, Kargil erupted, and Shivi had to coordinate the redeployment of his entire division - this they did, by traveling across the lenght of the country, through the trecherous Rohtang Pass, and into Ladakh. The division was preparing for a full-scale assult across the LoC into PONA, when Nawaz Sharif buckled in and announced the PA withdrawals.

By then, Shivi was a senior Colonel with an impressive record of service. His next posting was as a CO of a Guards battalion that had converted to a scout /recon role, and he was stationed at the mecca of armoured officers - Ambala cantonment, home of India's sword arm, the Kharga Corps. Even for a grizzled veteran like him, those momentous days of late 2001 were of an entirely unique nature. He remembered vividly those unbelievable summons to race to the border - that mad dash in the specially commandeered train to Bikaner, the smashing through the bunds on Indira Gandhi Nahar.... and then, the crushing anticlimax as his unit was ordered to stand down barely kilometers from the IB and in plain sight of cowering PA units....

And so, Brigader Shivinder Singh Randhawa, GOC of the 14 (Independent) Armoured Brigade, part of the newly formed and still secret Integrated Battle Group 606, sat with his staff officers and went over the plans one more time...
Last edited by Y I Patel on 16 Dec 2004 20:00, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Yerna »

aaah... ek se bad kar ek.
Sunil S, I am still waiting for you to post the second part of Sameer and Co. story.
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Post by daulat »

YIP saar, awaiting next installment intently onlee...
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Post by Anoop »

Slowly, painfully slowly, in fighting an undeclared war for their beleagured country, the soldier and the army started regaining their bearings.
Call me soft, but that sentence brought a lump to my throat. The preceding narrative of personal hell sets the context for this redemption beautifully. When all has been said and done, Brig. Randhawa's story must be an integral part of the story line, along with the other colorful, but cynical characters like Manojrao and John Abraham.

YIP, Brig. Randhawa seems to have been on a super-fast promotion track - from Captain to Lt. Col. usually takes 26 years (13 in the rank of Captain and 10 in the rank of Major). Randhawa seems to have become a Col., commanded a unit and held a staff position in that rank in 18 years!
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Post by Sunil »

Hi,

If we assume that Shivi made Major just after 1984, I think the timetable works out.

YIP,

The thing is beginning to look a little skewed so this should bump it up.

***

The party chief was now beginning to have second thoughts, she called Shivji over for dinner that night and over a plate of prawn curry, told him about her worries. Shivji could now see the cause of her concerns. On her urging he called on Arora late at night. The next morning Usman had miraculously recovered from his "fever" and returned from "sick leave" to his desk at 6:30 in the morning. By 7:00 he was working the phones calling up numbers in Delhi.

At 10:30 AM, at an otherwise unremarkable corner of a place called Rajghat - a meeting took place, and they all came as they always had, unseen and unheard - in unmarked GoI's white ambassador cars. The deliberations began almost immediately, the Party Chief was subject to stinging criticism by the eldest member of the meeting. It was fortunate that she was not present - otherwise she would not have liked the tone of the tone of the "why didn't she consult us first?" comments. The older men were all vehement, this couldn't be allowed to happen. After a few rounds of debate and consternation, the man who had recently retired spoke in a calm voice about matters that were heretofore in the back of everyone's minds. Rather than express anger or consternation, the others nodded, they all knew it, and they all had carried that terrible burden on their shoulders for its utility in matters of extreme stress... with that discussion - a policy was made.

Inspector Rajat Shah of the Special Protection Group could not hear what the men we speaking. He could barely make out the murmers and the few exclamations that were uttered but he wondered what these old dodgers were upto. He had cause to be concerned, after all this was no random morning prayer meeting for retirees at Rajghat, this was a meeting of the secretive Council of Former Prime Ministers. Something was in the air... Rajat knew it probably had to do with recent events but what exactly, his mind was going through the motions when he heard a scooter engine backfire and turned instinctively to his job.

When Arora returned to his office at lunch time, Shivji and Usman were waiting for him. Throughout the lunch, Arora said nothing, Shivji probed but got no response. After lunch Usman delivered a one line note to Shivji's PA as he left. Shivji was not pleased, and he was sure that the party chief would have a hard time with this, but she would have to accept this - the "ousted" Prime Minister Arora had just staged a most unbelievable comeback. The Dighe-Sen committee would have to report directly to Arora... there simply was no choice.
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Post by Y I Patel »

Sunil no messing with the coup, please. Note that there is a political council envisaged by India's doctrine, and that the dispensation sketched out here would be totally consistent with it. India has moved on from the days when one PM whispered Gayatri Mantra into the ear of another. Let's move on too...

Anoop it should work out okay, if you make Shivi a senior Captain at the time of bluestar. Suppose, for e.g., that he was commissioned in 1976.
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Post by Kakkaji »

Guys:

Lately some of you seem to be focussing a lot on political intrigue within GOI. IMHO, while it happens a lot during normal times, AFAIK it has rarely happened during times of war. Our history after independence shows that party politics, communalism etc. take a back seat, and the nation comes together during times of war or national emergencies. I do not remember any communal riots etc. during any of our past wars.

The parliament, the political parties, and the cabinet also all come together during a war. Cabinet jockeying etc. also goes into recess. Let me illustrate with a few examples:

1. During the 1962 war with the Chinese, despite the defeat, nobody asked for Nehru's head while the war was on.

2. Lal bahadur Shahstri was considered a weak Prime Minister going into 1965. The momentum for war built throuhout 1965. Yet, despite the earlier setbacks in the Rann of Kutch, the cabinet stayed united behind LBS through the war. There were quite a few stalwarts at that time such as Morarji, Jagjivan Ram, Chavan etc., but they did not challenge or sideline him.

3. The preparations for 1971 war went on for 8 months after March. Indira Gandhi was yet an untested 'bachchi' compared to some of the senior members of her cabinet. Yet the cabinet, the media, the opposition in Parliament, and the general public all backed her through the difficult months leading to war.

Some of the scenarios of intrigue you guys are painting, make India in wartime appear more like Pakistan. Maybe you guys are too young to have seen how India comes together when faced with such a crisis.

IMHO, by this time in the scenario, there would be unity and support rallies on the streets of India, and expressions of support by the opposition in the Parliament. If word were to leak out of cabinet ministers conspiring to stab the PM in the back and grab power, their houses would have been 'gheraoed' by the people.

Come on guys, India is not one of those banana republics that most of these western military fiction writers build the backdrops of their novels about. At least not yet.

Or am I totally out of touch with today's India? :-?

Just my two cents, and I invite your comments please.
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Post by Y I Patel »

Rajeev, my "soft coup" scenario has some fairly intricate layers, and it would be a great injustice to the scenario to paint it as political manoevering at time of war. The scenario was brewing in my mind for a while now for several reasons, but it came out mainly because of some fairly flimsy portrayals of the political process over here - for example, the posts talk about a PM ordering his officials around, thinking superficially about foreign reactions, picking up the phone to start James Bond type stuff... where is the part where the Indian leadership is actually shown talking about the Indian public? Quite honestly, politics in India is very consensual, and plays extremely, obsessively close attntion to the mood of the general populace. That never came out in any of the posts before mine, hence the digression into politics.

Secondly, you talk about Indians drawing together in war. Absolutely correct. But where is the war? So far, all we have read about is one neat air combat action, some talk on redeployment, and a lot of subterran cloak and dagger stuff. What would the public make of that? Do you think Gujjubhai Shah from Khadia would pick up his morning paper, read about Assam CM being murdered in a terrorist attack, and go back to his morning cup of Chai? In reality, all that stuff about diplomatic analysis etc comes AFTER you have decided on what you are going to tell junta, and how you are going to tell it. And any actions taken have to be loud and clear, so that the local paanwaala gets it and can mull it over. Where is that type of action, when are we going to see it?

What I am saying, in other words, is that there was a reason why Parakram was mounted so rapidly and publicly... that was a watershed event in our diplomacy and strategic thinking, and here are all these politicians and generals who seem to be moving around blissfully as if nothing of that nature happened... hence Sudhir Govil, hence the coup, hence the stage being set up for Shivinder Singh Randhawa... unless Gen Singha steps in mighty quickly with some dhin chaak action :)
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Post by Marcos »

Sorry????

I'm not very familiar with BRF.....
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Post by Sunil »

YIP,

The "coup" is merely a vehicle for a new conflict resolution strategy that departs from the low key style that Arora represents and offers room for political maneuver, so it will remain in place. But the leader of government is still Arora and so the authority that entails will remain with him. To suggest otherwise is prone to all manner of complications.

I agree ultimately everyone has to come to a consensus but the "coup" has changed the climate for that kind of thing.

Thodi aana taani toh hogi but nothing will change. You get my point?

More offline.

RajeevT,

Pata nahi Sir, yeh sab toh hote rahta hain.

We have been at "War" for the past twenty something years with Pakistan. That has changed attitudes.

I don't know about old - but I am old enough to remember a man by the name of A. S. Atwal and the circumstances of his death and then I most certainly remember Sri Lanka. That leaves an indelible impression, so things have changed.

It isn't simply political jockying, no one is doing it for petty political gain, there is clear divergence on how a crisis should be responded to and how much maneuver room it should allow. As YIP says, the country is heavily networked by comparison to the past - news travels fast. This creates all sorts of political response time frame issues.

Ultimately we have to discuss the domestic political angle to the crisis lest those reading it assume that there will be a "political copout" somewhere along the way. India is home to a very very sophisticated political machinery, and it is important for the people reading this thread to appreciate that.
Last edited by Sunil on 16 Dec 2004 23:24, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by mody »

Hi guys, YIP and sunil and I'm sorry to say that the slew of current posts seem to be totaly agaist the grain of the story as was being narrated by GD.

I mean we started off initially with PM aurora and the entire CCS and all the armed forces chief agreeing on a plan of action. The PM delagated the tasks to all conerned and then we have a massive mobilisation followed by a few interesting engagements with the enemy both within our borders as well as over theirs. The PM is shown to be a shrewd man grasping the sitaution quite well.
Now all of a sudden we have the CDS being marginalised, the PM being marginalised in a soft coup and the whole operation not going anywhere because of the poilitical intrigues and brinkmanship.
I mean the premise that parts of the country would go on a communal riot because of terrorist attacks in the NE is just completely untrue. Unless offcourse one assumes that the media and the country know fully well that its the ISI and BD illegal immigrants involved with the bomb blasts and not some NE-rebel group. In which case again if the media and the people know that a nuclear blast has taken place in BD and a small nuclear device has ben recovered by killing a ISI cell in guahati, then also a so called "pracharak" type threatening country wide communal riots is just unthinkable. At most some one like that would demand that India give up is No First Use policy and launch a nuclear strike against TSP pronto. I'm sure the Indian public is smart enough to understand the gravity of the situation to realise that when a nuclear device has been recovered from a terrorist cell within the country and the armed forces are in the highest state of alert, its not a time to go and riot.

Also basically the whole grain of the story so far was that India is suddenly faced with a threat from the east and that too a combined threat from the pakis chicoms and islamists in BD. The world isn't doing much about this. The story was progressing such that one would expect a cohesive and massive millitary response from India using all the latest weapons at its disposal in 2007 and compltely destroying the enemy in BDland with an unexpectedly strong "shock and awe" response to this provocation. The PM had also assured of not buckling under foreign pressure, so for once we wouldn't have 10 day window to fight a war and do whatever could be achieved in that time but take the whole thing to a logical comclusion. This was supposed to be a story in which India finally rises as a global power with a response to such a grave provocation to its security with the words DON'T MESS WITH INDIA.

Instead of this the last few series of posts have completely changed the way the things were. Once again we have the three service chiefs wanting to fight their own wars (I hope thats not the case in 2007). Once again we have a political leadership not willing to go the whole mile or is mired in idealism(like the PM being shown as being too much of an acdemic not being able to take all the steps necessary to prevail in such a scenario).

Please do not take these comments in the wrong way. In fact the writing and the scenarios built up are excellent. Just that I feel its totaly going against basic the premise of the story, that a strong and self confident India asserting itself with a suberb military operation and strong political will in face of grave danger initially to itself and then finally also to the whole world, when the world remained silent
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Post by Sridhar K »

Modyji,

Did u miss Rajpa's post in the previous page about the blast in a technology park, which introduced a wildcard just before YIP's post , taking the scenario from a local NE problem to an attack on the Indian economic hinterland.
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Post by Sunil »

Hi,

I beg to differ with Mody.

The posts are very much in the grain of the story. A war isn't all about troop movements and flankers - at its heart, every war is about a political struggle - which occurs at several planes.

Most people see India's polity as weak and fractious. This is the view of a "Lazy intellect" to borrow YIP's words. There are extremely complicated and subtle mechanisms inside the machinery of politics that can reinforce it in times of need. That is all that present posting line is pointing out. MTS himself led the way with the strategic communication plan that he proposed in the first post whereby the government would deliberately sustain the image of a bumbling incompetent in the press. This is the next logical step - internal political consolidation and equilibriation.

Note very carefully we have not placed a time on any of this. The mobilization has a time frame which people can make educated guesses at - but this other stuff has no time frame in the story.

That part about the "pracharak" types making threats, that is very close to reality. In times of war everyone (big people and little people) comes and conveys their concerns about the handling of the affair, some do it in the lay press and others in private. Aroraji's response is exactly what was somewhat more poetically said by Prime Minister Vajpayee to a very very aggressive line of questioning by Sri. Natwar Singh during the Parakram crisis.

And btw.. per the scenario, the Indian public does not know about the exact event at Fatasil Ambari. They only know about the assasination of the Assam CM by terrorists of the ISI. Please read the scenario carefully to catch all the nuances.

Marcos,

I am not familiar with you either Sir, so I'd appreciate it if you could be more transparent in what you are saying.
Last edited by Sunil on 16 Dec 2004 23:26, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Anoop »

Just to reinforce the point, coalition governments will be a fact of life in India for some time to come - something that wasn't the case in earlier wars except Kargil. The political pressures on a loosely cobbled coalition govt. are far more than on a Congress government of the past.

As for sections of the population not rioting when the nation is facing an external challenge, have the events of Feb/March 2002 faded so quickly? Sections of the populace will riot, if they can, when they believe they are being shortchanged - the larger picture be damned. The challenge for a govt. is to balance the need for visible response (even as a deterrent to breakdown of law and order) vs. the ability to sustain that course of action for suficiently long to reap its benefits. I thought the recent posts paint a much more sober picture of exactly what a govt. is up against in times of crisis. If we can't accept that level of complexity in a work of fiction, pity the govt. when the real thing happens.
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Post by Anand K »

How about a thread on Internal socio-political dynamics in the event of war or something like that? We can talk about the political jockeying, sectarian problems and stuff like that there..... Lets say, something triggers off large scale violence in parts of India, coupled with rumblings at the border. I suggest we use this thread for the "lighter" picture. This thread isn't getting derailed, but things are getting too complex and scenarios/possiblities diverge ....Heck,and I thought Leila-I was a bit trying! :)

My 2 cents....Cheers.
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Re: Guru and Farid

Post by karan »

rajpa wrote: Later, Farid married Afsana Obaid from Rohtak
Raj Boss,
Just a suggestion, If you had used Moradabad instead of Rohtak, you were right on track.
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Post by karan »

I like this Dhakka Mukki going. So many Stories, So Little Time.
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Post by kgoan »

Folks,

It's a little understood fact that the social construct that binds the politics of the country together is the consensual nature of decision making. It's a uniquely Indian cultural artifact, evolving from our own history, that permeats the entire political/babu decision making spectrum.

That's what gives us our "soft state" image, but it's also the invisible steel thread that binds the country together, especially in a crisis, because all stakeholders *know* that they get a say.

i.e. It seems to me that the political events shown here have a greater sense of reality than our politicians acting like Tom Clancy type US politicos speaking with a Desi accent.
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Post by Y I Patel »

I hope little Radhika's asthma is not acting up again, Sadanand Reddy thought, all the dust and smoke in Mumbai is no good for her delicate lungs... maybe I should write to Nalini and ask both of them to move to Raipur while I deal with this business...

"This business" was lying submerged in the mangrove swamps in a wet suit, breathing through a snorkel, and taking the occasional peek to make sure that the freighter had not started unloading. Commander Adhikari's insturctions had been crystal clear: no dramabaazi, no fireworks, no heroics. Stay out of sight, observe, and report. Then repeat all of the above till relieved. The Chinese freighter had docked in the afternoon, but apart from a few personnel disembarking, no activity was taking place... three days ago, Sadanand had seen the same pattern with the other boat; he knew what to expect. So he lay motionless all day, feasted in the dark on a handful of shakarparas, and went back to his vigil...

What does one think when submerged within shooting distance of 2000 Chinese and Bangla sailors armed to the teeth, who would shoot first and ask later? To crouch in water without food, shivering of cold, no one to talk to, certain death if discovered? Well, if one is Marine Commando Sadanand Reddy, one whiles away the hours mentally logging the cargo being unloaded, swimming out with the tide for the brust transmission, then back to hidey hole to continue vigil... and to keep oneself awake, one thinks of one's precious first born and worries about her fragile health...

When not worrying about Radhika, Sadanand also thought about how lucky he was to have been selected in the Navy, to escape the grinding poverty and hunger of Telangana... four years ago, the Navy recruiter had seen a dark, 5' 6", scrawny kid standing before him, clutching a certificate testifying that Sadanand Sambashiva Reddy had passed the Higher Secondary Certificate examination of the State of Andhra Pradesh in the second class, on his first attempt... and the recruiter had seen the natural fighter who had triumphed over poverty, hunger and adversity to complete the local equivalent of a Harvard JD... so the recruiter had fudged on the weight a bit, and Sadanand went home to a joyous celebration as the proud pioneer of Raipur, the first from his village to escape the hardscrabble existence of a Telengana farmer... his employment was a godsend to his extended family as well - on the strength of his job, his sister had found an eligible match from their own caste three tehsils away, whose family had their own borewell! Even the patwari had relented on his father's loans and had extended the repayment period - anything for a son who served Bharathi Sena!

It was nighttime now, a dark new moon night. A crane drew up to the freighter. Now that's interesting, Sadanand thought. Looks like we are going to have a heavy load! All thoughts of Radhika receeded into background, and the short dark Telengana farmer's full attention turned to mentally logging the numbers and rough dimensions of crates that were being unloaded...
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Post by ChetanP »

I totally agree with Modi, that the context of the original scenario has changed, it's like " Too many cooks spoil the broth". Also the "soft coup" scenario is not palpable in times of national emergencies as Modi said earlier. The thread has totally veered off to tangent of "cheap delhi politics" , rather than a show of political cohesiveness and resultant military action.
I hope MTS posts his scenarios so that we can get back on track.
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Post by VikramS »

Y I Patel wrote:the short dark Telengana farmer's full
YIP, you forgot "rice-eating".
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Post by chola »

Where's Rudra?
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Post by vishnua »

rudra is back in india settling down. give him a break ..
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Post by Aditya_M »

"Every Indian politician worth his (or famously, her) salt knows"

YIP - love your writing style, the above line in particular stands out :)

Kudos!
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Post by Sunil »

> i totally agree with modi..

Dil Chahta Hai, Dil Chahta Hai
Dil Chahta Hai, Kabhi Na Beete Chamkeele Din
Dil Chahta Hai, Hum Na Rahein Kabhi Yaaron Ke Bin
Din Din Bhar Ho Pyaari Baatein


YIP Janaab, bacche log chocolate maang rahe hain... kya karen hum?

Hum yahan isharon hi isharon mey baat kar rahe hain... par woh inkey sar key upar sey ja raha hain...

Aap lead karo, hum cover fire dete hain.
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Post by Anoop »

Sunil, YIP, there are bound to be fans and detractors of every writing style. It'd be a pity if the plot's development is stunted to play to the gallery. In any case, what's the problem with having multiple strands? Let the audience pick and choose whichever reality suits them. The writers should do justice to their own storylines. Hope to see that continue on this thread.
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Post by Denis »

Dear Authors,
I agree with Anoop. Why should we restrict ourselves to one outcome only? Sunil can continue the strand as if the mutiny was nipped in the bud. YIP can continue with the succesful mutiny. Similarly, Katrina could reddem herself in the eyes of Daulat, but Sunil can continue with the Wanchoo line.

More than one scenarios would obviously lead to different outcome, which may not be a bad idea as it may give a wider perspective to all of us.

However to save it from being a never ending story(ies), I humbly suggest that we can have a 1 month kind of deadline for all the scenarios to culminate in an outcome. (Some Fiat like come 15th Jan 2005, the thread will be closed).

Additional suggestion that all posts not related to scenarios (like complements, cribs, requests, suggestions, comments) including this one can be deleted by the admins for better readability of the thread.

JMT
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Post by Sribabu »

I am still waiting for the update to original stream from Rudra.
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Post by ramana »

I want the comments to stay for it shows reader reaction as the stories develop. Sunil and YIP more power to your minds. Keep on writing. This is better than Leila-I.
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Post by Y I Patel »

It would be very unnatural to post on an Indian forum and not have aggresive feedback! I wouldn't even want it any other way!!! Bouqets or brickbats, keep them coming folks! That's how this writer decides where to push :D
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Post by Sribabu »

Y I Patel wrote:Bouqets or brickbats, keep them coming folks! :D
Which one do you prefer? We can give you whatever you need to keep you going. :wink:
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Post by Sunil »

When MTS returns he will close the story as best he sees it. I will follow YIP's lead till then. I sense public wants to see a big fight - which is not my style - but YIP has that covered so I will support his storyline with side bars.

I can reconcile the story lines placed here but I am baffled as to what to say when someone says "I like to hear Ramayan more than I like the Mahabharat because Mahabharat is too scary and too complicated..."

If people here on BR can't understand the complexity of what goes on in an Indian political system when it is placed under grave stress... as Anoop says... what will you do when the real government faces a problem? how will you deal with that? ... and on BRF you can't do it - then what will those people who can't have access to places like BRF do?

Bhai log - this Bangladesh thing isn't MTS's imagination - those are very real possibilities. Think about it. As soon as 2001 ended, every Pakistani oped talked about the problems of running a Kashmir Jihad and how it was necessary to "open a second front" in "India's troubled North East" from Bangladesh. The Pakistanis have been at work subverting Bangladesh for the better part of 20 years now... this is not entirely a make-believe world we live in on the forum.

We on BRF may be idiots compared to the real people of New Delhi, but even we understand that there is a serious problem with Bangladesh. There is lack of responsiveness in the Bangladeshi polity to the needs of the post-Sept 11 world. People think Bangladesh is some "small nation" that a "big country" like India can "take care of" and so these jingos on BR are jacking off to the idea of beating up "poor Bangladesh"... that is NOT what is going on here. The problems go far deeper than that.

I find it deeply dissatisfying that people on a place like BR still feel the need to percieve a black&white world with clearly delineated "War" and "Peace" spaces. This simply does not happen in reality!

In deference to the peoples' wishes to see a "unified India" in "a time of war" etc... (though I personally think that notion is unsustainable) ... I will not pursue the line of the story which would have led to the examination communal rioting and the underlying factors and its connections to national security. The branch of the storyline which leads us into Juhapura-Vejalpur is now closed. I am no longer confident that the audience can handle that.

I will go where YIP sahab leads us.
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