From Vivekananda to PMO stars: Modi’s Fav Think Tank

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By Soumitra Bose/Mukesh Kumar Sinha

STOP PRESS, MOVE OVER MEDIA :  FlashBack – Barely a month in office and three big appointments in the Prime Minister’s Office – National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra and Additional Principal Secretary PK Mishra – picked from a little-known (was it heard of at all?) Delhi think tank, Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF).

(On its website, the organisation, located in Delhi’s diplomatic enclave of Chanakyapuri, describes itself as an independent, non-partisan institution, but it is a project of the Vivekanada Kendra, an organisation set up by RSS idealogue Eknath Ranade. At the foyer of VIF hangs a portrait of Ranade.)

The Kendra describes itself as “an initiative for inter-civilisational harmony through dialogue and understanding for building international understanding through Indian wisdom, thereby promoting the Indian cause at the international level.”

One part of this initiative is the VIF, “a think tank set up with the collaborative efforts of India’s leading security experts, diplomats, industrialists and philanthropists.”

The Kendra website further describes VIF as an organisation whose objective is “to become a centre of excellence to kick start innovative ideas and thoughts that can lead to a stronger, secure and prosperous India playing its destined role in global affairs.”

The foundation is the brainchild of NSA Doval, arguably one of India’s best spies, who founded it in 2009. It however, gained prominence in 2011, when it conducted a seminar on black money and corruption, where then prominent Team Anna reportedly met yoga guru Baba Ramdev.

While it has been widely reported that a media baron close to the BJP and RSS had initially funded the organisation, its editor KG Suresh denies any such links. “We have nothing to do with the RSS or the BJP. We supported the UPA government during the Khobragade episode as well as the Bangladesh land issue,” he told.Elsewhere, KG Suresh is quoted as saying that the organisation has been wrongly’tagged’:“KG Suresh, editor of VIF, states that being a strategic think-tank that works in the space of national security, diplomacy, governance, the vision of a strong and prosperous India, ‘we have got tagged with the BJP and RSS, but our studies are open’. VIF, he adds, does not get any funding from them. ‘Of course, at the top level, they do take input from us on diplomacy and international relations. Even Congress leaders attend our seminars.’ “

Suresh is further quoted as saying, “Is it a crime to be a nationalist? We are affiliated only to the Vivekananda Kendra and Rock Memorial and we neither support nor are against any other organisation.”

Prime Minister Modi is not the first to recruit a top official from a think tank organisation. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh hand-picked his principal secretary TKA Nair from the Chandigarh-based think tank, Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development.

(Interestingly, the first book that Modi released as Prime Minister, ‘Getting India Back on Track’, was by Bibek Debroy, who incidentally is the dean of the Centre for Economic Studies at VIF.  At the launch of Debroy’s book, Modi :“The input of intellectual think tanks” should be substantially enhanced for better policy frameworks.)

Modi, who has reportedly been following the organisation closely, could recruit more top intellectuals from the Foundation. According to a recent article, among those waiting for possible appointments are former RAW chief CD Sahay, former urban development secretary Anil Baijal, former ambassador to Russia Prabhat Shukla and former vice chief of air staff, Air Marshal (retd) SG Inamdar.

Interestingly, this is not the first time a BJP government has associated with a think-tank with links to the RSS. In Goa, BJP Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who heads a BJP government, announced his government’s plans to appoint Forum for Integrated National Security (FINS) to operate a defence studies academy.

Defence Minister Parrrikar said: “Sometimes you wonder whether we seriously understand our security problem. Shortly, I am announcing the setting up of an academy which FINS can operate,” during the state’s budget session in February this year.  “The state government will set it up. It can be a college of security or school or whatever word you want to use,” he had said.

FINS, an RSS-backed defence organisation, has the organisation’s idealogue Indresh Kumar as its chief patron. Interestingly, when Parrikar made the announcement, former home secretary RK Singh and former Intelligence Bureau secretary Ajit Doval were present. Singh is now a BJP MP from Arrah, while Doval is the NSA.

 

FOCUS : Above initiative of Prime Minister has set the ball rolling. Now it is THINK TANK CRAZE in INDIA -Since the 2002 Gujarat elections, the well-oiled election campaign machinery of then chief minister Narendra Modi swings into action as soon as the poll bugle is sounded in the state.

This time is  no different, with trusted and discreet men of the BJP strongman handling crucial aspects of the election campaign to ensure that Modi wins the national mood for an unprecedented win. While the national BJP headquarters in New Delhi may be the hub of election activity, trusted colleagues and lieutenants of Modi tend to work behind the scenes unless their jobs demand engaging the media and public.

The headquarters is more of a control room where election speeches of the opposition Congress are monitored. It is this unit that picked up Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s “maut ka saudagar” remark against Modi during the last election, which helped propel the BJP back to power.

 

Although political handling of 1.25 billion citizens is a humongous task, Modi implicitly trusts his close friend Arun Jaitley, leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, his former junior home minister Amit Shah, presently on bail in the Sohrabbuddin fake encounter case. The 12-member Committee to which Modi was appointed as chairperson in Goa last month will also have other senior leaders including M Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, besides Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan ( Madhya Pradesh),Raman Singh ( Chhattisgarh) and Manohar Parrikar (Goa).
This committee will be assisted by 20 sub-committees which concentrates on various aspects of electioneering including rallies, publicity, manifesto, reaching out to the youth through social media, courting first time voters, “crowd sourcing”, and preparing a vision document of its programmes and a “chargesheet” against the UPA rule. The media is handled by Jaitley’s close team.
Publicity and advertisement campaign is supervised by Jaitley along with Sushil Pandit and Kaku Bhai’s son Maulik Bhagat. Pandit is a veteran of Modi campaigns while Maulik, married to Jaitley’s niece, is the man behind Modi’s 3D campaign. Modi also uses power minister Saurabh Patel for political management.
Party insiders say despite keeping a back-breaking schedule, Modi micro-manages the elections and his key confidantes are used to getting his calls after he returns from campaigning near midnight.
A BJP leader said Modi himself fine-tunes and calibrates the political response to the Congress. Among the “innovative” efforts at wooing voters is BJP’s special focus on the “emerging population”- the first time and new voters who form 20 per cent of the electorate. Amit Shah, Poonam Mahajan, Sidhu and Trivendra Rawat handles this.
BJP planed to organise over 100 rallies, in the run-up to the elections. These rallies have been planned and executed by Ananth Kumar and general secretary Varun Gandhi.
The party’s attempts to mobilise support among different communities like weavers, farmers, peasants and labourers, fishermen and so on through targeted conferences will be organised by general secretary Murlidhar Rao. Vinay Katiyar, Shyam Jaju, and Vijay Sonkar Shastri assists him.

 

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