Said: “We have not been successful in warding off terror”
Meant: “It is impossible to do this without upsetting our electoral calculations and hurting our muslim votebanks”
Said: “Terrorists could attempt to destabilise the electoral process”
Meant:”Its all finally left to chance, we can do only so much and will only do so little.”
Said:”Though we have made every effort to deal with it, we have to do more to strengthen intellligence, state police system and also our ability to minimise the fallout of terror sttacks”.
Meant:”Lets learn to be tolerant of terror, lets take cosmetic measures which make it seem like we are doing something about it, we do not want to piss off our votebanks by taking strong measures which address the real root causes”.
Said:”The US could take draconan measures to ensure no terror attacks after 9/11 which we cannot. We are a country of 1 billion people”
Meant:”We do not want to be seen as being rude to terrrorists, do we? We also have a 200 million muslim segment to constantly appease”
Said:”Taliban is a threat, dialogue with Pakistan is important”
Meant:”I agree with the Pakistani leaders, Pakistan itself is a victim of terror, as I had said before in Cuba. It is India’s duty to make sure that Pakistan becomes strong enough so that they can refocus their energy on cleaning out the remaining few Pandits in Kashmir.”
Said:”Dreaded terrorists were released and taken to Kandahar by NDA leaders, we did not negotiate with the Mumbai terrorists, we sent our trained commandos instead”.
Meant:”Lets forget that to begin with, our home minister changed his clothes thrice before our commandos could get into action. Lets also forget that despite a dozen attacks prior to that, we were ill prepared to handle any terror related emergencies”
Said:”Due to our diplomatic initiative, Pakistan for the first time admitted that its territory was being used to provoke terror against India”
Meant:”Lets forget that under severe NDA pressure, Musharraf went on national Pakistan National Television and swore to not allowing Pakistani territory being used as a launchpad for terror against India”.
Said:”I have great regard for the Left leaders”
Meant:”After all I shared their communist command-control ideology for the most of my career, including as chairman of the Planning Commission and RBI governor. Both the Congress and the Communists are in perfect synergy in their belief that Muslims are a votebank that needs careful nurturing. Nevermind that occasionally we let them be butchered like in Nandigram. Both us in the Congress and the left also strongly oppose nasty things which respectable societies possess like say a Uniform Civil Code. Also the Congress and the left firmly believe that Muslims have the first right over national resources. We both agree that the biggest enemy of the country are the communal Hindus. With all this synergy we are but natural bed fellows, we may sleep with others when needed but those are ignorable details”
Said:”The Indo-US nuclear deal was my biggest achievement. We negotiated with the US for three years and if it did not get signed after that it would have been bad for India’s reputation. I staked my reputation for India’s honor”
Meant: “Throwing gunny bags of cash at legislators and buying their support needed a lot of skill. It was a watershed moment which actually marked my coming out as a seasoned politician. It helped me break away from the image of simply being Sonia’s water bearer. Also as I have said before when I was at Cambridge University, India is currently what it is only because we were civilized by the whites, and consequently its also India’s rightful place to be a pliant satellite of the west, so what if our hard built nuclear sovereignty has been signed away. You see my ability and very reputation to faithfully serve the west was at stake, and so once negotiations started it was only imperative that it be hurriedly signed in whatever form it was before my term ended, never mind that the deal was loaded against the Indians. Also minor things like say that the terms of the deal had significantly deviated from what GW Bush had promised at the outset of the deal matter very little.”
Said:”I am not contesting polls because of my heart surgery”
Meant:”Why bother about minor details like seeking the peoples mandate when there is an assured way of weaselling my way in as a Rajya Sabha member? This is an assured time tested way as the party’s nominee as chief-clerk and will ensure that our plans not be hindered by unplanned events like an election loss”.
