Why, Mr. Prime Minister ?

In May-2023, Manipur witnessed an unprecedented ethnic violence leading to injuries, killings, looting, vandalization and rapes. About 260 civilians as also armed forces personnel were killed. To shame the country no end, two hapless women were reportedly paraded naked and assaulted. The country was shocked. The Supreme Court of India too was constrained to term the situation as absolute breakdown of the constitutional machinery. After remaining silent for about three months, the Prime Minister spoke on the violence only in July-2023. To empathize with those affected, one had expected that he would be with them without loss of any time. But he chose to visit the violence-torn state only in September-2025, after a gap of over two years. Why?

An apology of a president, Donald Trump of the USA has been claiming that it was he who intervened to halt the Operation Sindoor on 10-May-2025. He kept repeating the falsehood despite India’s repeated denials. He didn’t stop even after an unequivocal denial of his involvement was placed in the Indian parliament in July-2025. Noticeably, Trump made this claim personally. But all denials of his role by India came from the spokespersons of either the armed forces or the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Even the statement in the parliament in July-2025 was made by the External Affairs Minister (EAM). One is yet to see a straight up denial of Trump’s involvement personally by the Prime Minister. Why?

There were press releases, briefings by the MEA, a statement by the EAM in the parliament, an address to the parliament by the Prime Minister and a major press briefing by the DGMOs. All these reassured the country that Pakistan didn’t go un-retributed for Pahalgam massacre. But the government left a lot to be desired in terms of a richer and firmer communication to the citizenry. People did get a lowdown on what our armed forces did during the offensive and subsequently to neutralize the Pakistani response. The canards spread by Pakistan about downing Raffael aircrafts, role of China & Türkiye, presence of American nuclear warheads in Pakistan, American Beechcraft hovering over Kirana Hills, an Egyptian aircraft carrying Boron landing at Murree in Pakistan, the diplomatese resorted to by MEA spokespersons. All this was too much of information overload for average Indians to draw a clearer narrative from. Conceding that some things need to be kept confidential, shouldn’t the government bring out a cohesive report, for public consumption, giving a fuller account of the Operation Sindoor ? Today, the world is heavily information-driven and no-frills information gives greater credibility. But the Prime Minister thinks otherwise. Why?

Twenty-six innocent tourists were killed in cold blood in Pahalgam in April-2025 by Islamist-jihadis from Pakistan. Countrywide, India has witnessed about 37 major incidents of terrorism since 1993, involving over 1,400 fatalities including 70 Bravehearts from our police and armed forces. All these terrorist acts carry inescapable Pakistan connections. Inventorying the sources of terrorism in India, can we have any connect with Pakistan, including sports. Remember, we are talking about a country which carries a nefarious agenda to bleed India with thousand cuts. Still the Indian team remorselessly played cricket with Pakistan in the Asia Cup in September-2025. The Prime Minister intriguingly kept mum on the issue. Why?

Indigo, a civil aviation monopolist, waged an indirect war on India in December-2025. The airline took the country to ransom by cancelling over 3,000 flights over four days and exposed serious chinks in the government’s armor. There was a total chaos everywhere. Thousands of passengers were stranded in almost all major airports / cities, facing harrowing times due to cancelled flights and missed domestic or international connections. This was unprecedented. The government (including DGCA, which is alleged to favor the airline) surrendered to the airline’s blackmail and refusal to carry out regulatory compliances in time. Not a word from the Prime Minister. Why?

Türkiye opposed India’s inclusion into the Nuclear Suppliers Group in the past. It continues to support Pakistan on the issue of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). The country openly condemned the Operation Sindoor. Not only did Türkiye supply thousands of drones to Pakistan but is also reported to have operated the same against India. In May-2025 the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) had revoked the security clearance of Celibi (a ground handler of Turkish parentage) in the interest of “national security”. Given the security concerns, why are Turkish Airlines and Corendon (another Turkish carrier) currently flying its aircraft in the Indian skies under the banner of Indigo and SpiceJet. To add to the intrigue, these Turkish airlines are also providing crew and maintenance services. Attributing global shortage following grounding of aircraft by Indigo, DGCA has permitted continued leasing of aircraft from Türkiye. Seriously? Don’t Turkish aircraft and crew pose similar threats to our “national security” as the Turkish ground-handler Celibi. What if one of their crew members turns a fedayeen. Will DGCA permit use of aircraft and crew from Pakistan and Bangladesh next time we face a similar shortage. The country hasn’t heard from the Prime Minister on this. Why?

An estimated 20 million illegal immigrants from Bangladesh had crossed borders till 2016.  Speaking of illegal Rohingya immigrants, an estimated 40,000 of them are in India as per the affidavit submitted by the Govt. of India to the Supreme Court in August-2017 though non-government estimate suggests this figure as one million. Besides being a drain on India’s resources, these illegal immigrants also unfairly tilt the compass of electoral politics in many districts in favor of certain, empathetic political parties. That many of these illegal immigrants are involved in crimes like smuggling, theft, robbery, drug-peddling and prostitution is something Indians have learnt to live with. What worries us most is that many of them subscribe to Jihadi-Islamist ideology and have been found actively involved in inter-religion conflicts and anti-India activities. An otherwise incompetent Donald Trump was able to identify and deport around 16,000 Indians illegally staying in the USA in just about a year. Contrast this with about 5,000 illegal Bangladeshis deported by India in the last ten years (2015-25). To recap, the issue of illegal immigration finds a distinct mention in BJP’s election manifesto for the General Elections in 2014, and the country expected some substantive delivery on this issue. Only 5,000 deportations in ten years. Why?

Engaging nearly 55% of our population, agriculture & allied sector contributes only 20% to the country’s GDP. This is despite the fact that the sector is heavily cushioned by way of subsidies (on fertilizer, irrigation, seeds, insurance, farm-credit etc.) and price support. Additionally, the agricultural income is, by and large, tax free. Though India recorded a trade surplus in agriculture in 2024-25, its imports stood at worrying USD 39 billion. Given the current state, agriculture can never be a seriously remunerative proposition for India to continue to engage majority of its population in. Also, it is not financially viable for the country to continue to provide subsidies and price-support open-endedly. There is one more factor which is incrementally assuming seriousness. India has steadfastly denied entry of other countries to its agriculture sector. This may make a good political sense today but can have very serious implications as we seek a bigger role in the global trade to take our economy to the next level. The country needs big-ticket reforms which the earlier political dispensations have fought shy of. Bruised by the Farm Bills fiasco in 2020, serious reforms in the agriculture sector appear to have been totally abandoned. Why?

Though in the realm of a farcical possibility, let’s think of a what-if scenario. What if the foreign search engines (e.g., Google) exit India. Or, the foreign IT companies (e.g., Microsoft) disable their operating systems on all devices used by Indians. Or, email (e.g., Gmail) is made unavailable to all Indians. Or, the satellites powering the GPS (e.g., Google Maps) skip India completely. Or, all foreign apps of public interest deny interfaces with other Indian software platforms. It will be a doomsday. India has come a long way in terms of use of technology that faces public. The width and the depth of interventions of public-facing technology in banking, insurance, travel, hospitality, e-commerce, q-commerce, payment platforms, etc., is humongous. But dig deeper, you will find profound reasons for a doomsday scenario. Aside from a few greenfield initiatives (e.g., Aadhar, UPI), we have either replicated or adapted foreign solutions / platforms. Though we are acknowledged worldwide for IT services, we have nothing to showcase when it comes to products. Given the current trend of weaponizing resources, capabilities and businesses, we need some next-level collaborations between the government and private enterprises to domestically develop high-end OS, search engines, GPS, etc. But we haven’t seen serious initiatives (piecing together big capital, high-end skills and rich experience) to de-risk the public-facing technology to avoid a doomsday possibility. Why?

Famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had said “All I insist on, and nothing else, is that you should show the whole world that you are not afraid. Be silent, if you choose; but when it is necessary, speak – and speak in such a way that people will remember it”.