Thimphu diary

THE radio voice of captain crackles to inform that the snow capped peak to the far left is Everest. Little right of it is Kanchenjunga. As you soak in the sight excitedly, begins the most jaw dropping descent of one’s life. The plane goes into the clouds and then swings left and then right and then left. Both sides are mountains and the plane approaches the Paro valley through sharp turning ridges. The quaint mountain villages and perched monasteries greet with their dragon architecture. If the plane does not swerve the wing span might hit the hills. Or so it seems. The landing at Paro International Airport makes one say wow and aww in the same breath! Only eight pilots are trained to land here. Even the craft carrying Indian Prime Minister’s entourage is given a Druk Air co-pilot.

***

Mountains and myths go together, be it Alps or Himalayas. If it is the dragon legend of Mount Pilatus in Switzerland, Bhutan has its demons that had to be cowed down. One of the oldest monasteries, the Semtokha Dzong on the outskirts of Thimphu, was built in 1629 after a monk Zhabdrung Namgyal subdued dragons atop the mountain and laid the foundations for Thimphu. Then there is something about mountain architecture which connects the regions – from square homes with inclined roofs to the flower arrangements in the balconies. The dragon motifs are the only differentiators. The landscape ranges from breathtaking to out-of-this-world to spectacular. You can make your choice. With only cars on the roads, Thimphu has a very European feel.

***

The mountain kingdom is a young democracy. And a reluctant one at that. In a mock poll before actual elections in 2007, hundred per cent of the populace voted for the monarchy. The king is still loved. Sanctum-sanctorums of all temples have his picture along with the deities. The present king, 34 year old, India educated, Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuk has a commoner’s touch. People can approach him directly once a week; he mingles with them often, lives in a small house, and has married a commoner. His father the fourth king Jigme Singhe Wangchuk abdicated in favour of his son in 2008. The occasion was marked by both the transition to democracy and a special blend of coronation whisky, aptly called K5. Wangchuk senior has four wives and commoners believe this gives the king long life. Clearly kings are divine.

***

It’s a nation engrossed in prayers. You breathe holiness here – monasteries, monks, prayer flags, even a holy tap on the way to Dochsla pass that does not dry up even in snowy winters. Like in Hinduism, figure 108 is sacred. So you have 108 stupas at a monastery, 108 beads in the rosaries for the monks, 108 volumes of Buddha’s teachings, 108 prayer flags that dot the landscape. Monks and nuns constitute over ten per cent of Bhutan’s population. Frame your camera anywhere and one can not miss the red robe. That's why perhaps a monks-only washroom as well! And though Buddhism is the State religion, monks are not supposed to vote as a marker of separation of politics and religion. Bhutan is perhaps the only country in the world where while the population of men (and women) of religion is increasing, that of its defence forces is decreasing. At its peak in 2003 when the mountain kingdom assisted India in chasing out north-eastern insurgents from its forests, it had 5,000 men in uniform including army and police. It has now come down to four thousand.

***

Like the Himalayas, India looms large in Bhutan. It was an Indian Brahmin turned Buddhist monk Guru Padma Sambhava alias Guru Rinpoche who brought Buddhism to Bhutan in the 8^th century CE. He is revered next only to the Avalokiteshwara himself, and forms the huge Thangka backdrop at the reception of Prime Minister Narendra Modi inside Tashichho Dzong, the central government’s administrative headquarters. In the present, from the roads built by Border Roads Organization to the Hema Malini named bus riding on it – India can not be missed. Their new Supreme Court is through an Indian grant. We bank roll up to 60 per cent of their annual plan size, and yet somehow the results are better this side. May be the execution is more honest. It is an all weather friendship as high as the Himalayas (to borrow from the Pak-China cliché!) But it is no favor. China should be ready to flush Bhutan with funds and more the moment India tightens its purse strings, and that would be dangerous. So even if the relationship is not exactly bought, the money flow does keep it greased.

***

Only one moment worth quoting from the official part of the visit. Prime Minister Tsering Tobgay interacts with a delegation of Indian journalists. I introduce myself as representative of Times Now. His eyes dilate as he comments he would be scared of us like every politician should be. That’s some complement to my Editor-in-Chief. Only question is why a Bhutanese Prime Minister should worry about an Indian anti-establishment channel. Next is Doordarshan journalist who adds he should be safe as he is from the national broadcaster. Tobgay is in good mood so rebuts by saying not if its the Bhutanese television. Nevertheless. Now I can claim to have shaken hands with at least two Prime Ministers of the world.

***

Youth in their national dress – the Gho – play dart game Khuru in the meadows. Every hit of the Bull’s eye is a cause for celebration with singing and dancing. People walk a lot. They also laugh a lot. They even age slowly. They are really happy. Just one marker of how they do it – no one is allowed to buy more than 3,500 shares in any incorporated company, so that wealth is equitably distributed. Bhutan markets itself as a place called happiness. In reality it’s even subtler than idyll. From the graceful innocence of monks to the joviality of its people, the world can learn a lot from this little mountain kingdom. Shangri-La after all is no fiction.

Me Modi, Not Hindutva

WOULD it not make breaking news if Narendra Modi gave a sound bite saying he felt like an outsider in the RSS? That he failed to connect with them intellectually? That he had nothing to do with the Ram temple movement? Well, he did that in this campaign, and we missed it!

As journalists and editors, many times our self-absorbed opinion making is self-serving too. So the only point that made news out of British author Andy Marino’s political biography of Modi was his sadness on 2002 riots. Political observers did not bother to look beyond that in the book.

“Most of the time I found that they could not understand me,” says Modi of his disconnect with the RSS on page sixty-two. During brainstorming sessions, “I would always sit on the last bench, preferring to listen than to participate,” is another quote.

Marino builds a narrative – with Modi’s due sanction it seems – where the BJP's Prime Ministerial nominee is at odds with the Sangh Parivar on both legs of its ideological moorings: economic and religious.

In this part of the book Marino is writing of a time when Modi was yet to arrive in the BJP, so if he, with his economic thought, felt like a misfit, clearly it must have been with the Sangh. Here’s what Marino writes: “…the solution was to produce more wealth…that would entail an alternative economic model…a free market economy…that this put him in opposition to Congress was obvious, but this placed him in opposition to his own colleagues in the RSS whose outlook was equally conventional...Modi’s economic thinking in this phase gave him a career full of friction with his colleagues it seems, whom he attempted to persuade to accept new ideas.” This is backed by a Modi quote: “Not a single proposal, not a single initiative was appreciated…always there was resistance, always there were questions.” The author adds Modi’s experience in the parivar, because of his alternative views, his own way of looking at and approaching problems, was that of an outsider.

On the other leg of the ideological diad – Hindutva and the Ayodhya movement, Modi’s distancing is even more dramatic. When the Advani led BJP was busy in the Ram temple movement, Modi on a sabbatical was setting up his co-ed model school – Sanskardham – on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Marino pleads that an objective and balanced assessment of Modi’s life must take note of this. As ironies go, the book underscores that while Modi remained a mere spectator, his arch rival and now Congress’ top leader in Gujarat, Shankarsinh Vaghela was present in Ayodhya and is one of the 68 people indicted by the Liberhan Commission.

Now why is this narrative important? Of whatever I know about Marino’s book, it is by all accounts a sanitized biography. The kind of access the author has been given is incomparable and decidedly deliberate. What can be safely concluded is that contents of the book have clear sanction from the Modi team. The narrative is what Modi wants to be known.

So this is the picture of his that Modi wants the world to know: Yes, he is a product of the RSS, but he does not carry the baggage of Sangh’s thinking on two of its most important moorings. On economics he is going to be a free-marketeer, not a Swadeshi wonk. Comparison is drawn with Margaret Thatcher on page 235. Page 193 mentions how Manmohanomics has impressed Modi, despite the jibes the two have shared in the campaign. And on Ayodhya it’s an arms length. The lesson Modi drew from Ayodhya was that India could be governed from the centre…not the extremes. It is clear someone in Modi team told the author this. On page 211, Marino says as much. Modi’s right wing route was by now a reference not to chauvinistic Hindutva – distant, irrelevant – but to the idea of the free market and innovative governance.

If in a week’s time Narendra Modi is India’s next Prime Minister, this is how he would want himself to be seen. India's Thatcher. Period.