Phase II: Media PsyOps in progress

(click on images for a larger version)

Nov 26, 2008: At 9:30 PM the operation started. By midnight, the damage control was already well underway.....

They were out there in large numbers. The secular barbies of prime time TV. The attacks were so sudden that there was no clear directive from the control centers. They ran helter skelter, camera crew in tow. They showed the carnage. From all possible angles.

Pretty soon the enormity of the situation became evident. This was much bigger than anyone would have contemplated in their wildest dreams. Meanwhile news of the ATS chief's death came in.

Don't politicize terror attacks:

The media stumbled upon a stop gap solution while the headquarters started figuring out a strategy. The secular party has expensive PR agencies at its disposal. So do the media houses. Within 24 hours, the political strategy was already in place. The media strategy was more difficult - the end points were known but it is a tough straight line to draw from the burning Taj hotel to the ultimate recipient of the blame.

Visit politics:

Day II provided an easy exit for the media. Narendra Modi visited the sites on his own. L K Advani soon followed. These events were played way up while the media hosts lamented how these "politicians" were exploiting the situation. Media managed to find onlookers who expressed disgust. By this time the branding of the incident was complete. It was India's 9/11, all cops who had died at the event were total martyrs (unlike Mohan Chand Sharma who died an ignominious death in Delhi - more on that later). People must rise above politics. It was India's tragedy. For a blow by blow account of what really happened, please read this account. As a side note, the media also attempted an Indian version of 9/11 widows. The talking heads claimed that Karkare's widow had turned down compensation from Narendra Modi, this turned out to be untrue.

By this time the marine commandos and NSGs were fully engaged and the media had lot of grounds to cover.

Diffuse:

The enormous potential political price must have sent the media honchos into a frenzy as it would have sent the strategic heads of the secular party. An operation of this scale requires meticulous planning.

The first thing to remember in asymmetric warfare is not to take direct blows. By day III, the operations were happening in contained zones. By this time, the political strategy had been fully worked out. Since that forms the basic of media strategy, the talking heads were much more composed by this time.

The secular barbies were thronging the sites now and letting people vent. Within a few hours, a new enemy was created - "politicians". Suddenly public forgot that they had been electing these politicians for six decades. People expressed their anger - some articulate, the others not. Those who were not, spit more on the microphone.

Scapegoats:

Before we come to the scapegoats, we must dwell upon the objective a little bit. The objective of any warfare is to save the most precious assets. First you send out the infantry. When they go down, you launch artillery. Then you send tank batallions. But you must never ever endanger the queen.

Public wrath demanded scapegoats. They wanted names and faces on the newly created enemy - the politician.

The easy scapegoat was of course Shivraj Patil. A relic of the past with little political leverage, he was thrown out of his office without much fanfare. Public demanded more. An obvious choice is Maharashtra CM Deshmukh. Unfortunately the dude has strong local support. So they focused on his deputy R R Patil. They twisted an unguarded remark by Patil and played it repeatedly. But Patil wouldn't budge - strong local support. It is highly possible that this is a red herring, but we are not sure.

Then comes the highly comical part. Deshmukh went to visit the busted up Taj hotel, with his actor son in tow. Now, anyone who has even the slightest knowledge about Indian politics knows that Ritesh is one of the well behaved political scions (contrast with Lalu's kids - eve teasers, D P Yadav's kid - murderer or H D Kumaraswamy's high school dropout spoilt brat). Now, the film director Ram Gopal Verma happened to be with the party when it went to Taj. Notice in the picture above, how media has not only managed to find Ram Gopal Verma but put a red circle around his head.

The media wouldn't stop talking about it. It creates pressure on Deshmukh. The entire thing may have been designed to deflect attention. Remember, you must not let any stray bullet hit the queen. Launch decoys.

All Party Meet:

Now we come to the hypnosis phase. The queen safeguarded, it is time to go on the offensive.

By now the secular party announced the bogey of an "All party meet". Now, an all party meet makes sense when you need to reach a consensus across party lines. The only point of contention here is the POTA, which the UPA will never agree to and which the BJP leaders will strongly insist upon. At this stage of lame duck Government, whose legislature met on only 32 occasions so far this year (out of which 3 were spent on the cash for votes scam), only now announces an "all party meet".

A bit of background: last year, L K Advani happened to meet Rahul Gandhi at an airport. He gushed about it to reporters. The junior Gandhi gave him the royal snub. L K Advani does not realize that he is not dealing with gentlemen. The rules of engagement are very different here.

Anyway, so the all party meeting was convened and Advani and Rajnath Singh were not present. This is being treated as an unpardonable sin by the media. The media is insinuating that they are playing politics and missing such an event of national importance for the sake of attending political campaigns.

It is hard to come across such straightfaced lie and vile propaganda. Given the back story with the prince, it is likely that the said all party meet was convened at a time it was not possible for Advani to attend it. Here is the real story:

NEW DELHI: BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani and party chief Rajnath Singh skipped the all-party meeting convened by the Prime Minister on Sunday to discuss the terror attacks in Mumbai, as they were campaigning for the assembly polls in Rajasthan. Expressing his inability to attend the meeting, Advani called up the Prime Minister to say he was busy campaigning in Rajasthan and would meet him on the issue soon after returning to Delhi, BJP sources said. BJP's Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha V K Malhotra and Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh represented the party at the meeting. [link]

The message is being reinforced with images of the queen (see above, a special frame totally distinct from other politicians) and ticker messages. The idea is that the queen is really above politics and Advani is the bad dude here. So finally we have a name and a face for the bad politician the public must direct his anger at.

So, what really happened at the "all party" meet? Well, the PM announced a Federal agency to tackle terror, four NSG units in place of the only one right now and better maritime security. Details are here. As to the highly original and daring plan of a federal agency to tackle terror, this is the background:

The proposal [to set up a federal agency] has been in the pipeline since 2000 when former Home Minister L K Advani, asked the K Padmanabhaiah Committee on Police Reforms to examine the feasibility of declaring certain crimes as federal offences "to enable a central agency to undertake investigation, without any loss of time."

The Padmanabhaiah Committee then opposed the creation of such a body, warning that it could affect federal balance.

The proposal was once again taken up in 2003 when the Justice V S Malimath Committee recommended that the time had come for setting up a ''federal investigating agency with an India charter.''

In a bid to soothe federal sensitivities of states, the Malimath Committee said the proposed agency should have ''concurrent jurisdiction'' over federal crimes.

Home Minister Advani could not push through the federal agency proposal and his successor Shivraj Patil was confronted with an adverse recommendation from the Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Congress leader Veerappa Moily. The Moily-led commission then recommended that crimes of a federal nature could be investigated by a specialized wing of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). [link]