N-talk shows up Sena; Modi needs to cut it to size

It is appalling that the Sena choose to assert itself with Narendra Modi by talking of exercising the nuclear option against Pakistan.

The comments, on the eve of the swearing of the Modi ministry, not only are inopportune but also shows up the shallowness of the Sena leadership on weighty matters affecting the nation. The Sena either has no knowledge of the cataclysmic consequences of the nuclear option, and the ability of Pakistan to survive a first strike and launch a devastating counter strike, or they lack the caliber to grasp such issues. Additionally, by talking like ruffians engaged in a street power game, they have shown themselves up as unable to provide leadership to the nation.

The very fact that the Sena, an important ally to the BJP and a key Hindutva party, was willing to think of an option that would send billions of living beings into oblivion, is even more worrying. Sena watchers may not be surprised at the statement but the callousness with which it was uttered makes it frightening to think the kind of leadership India is going to get.

Makes it all the more imperative for Narendra Modi to run a tight ship, and if need be, to press the eject button on allies like the Sena. The way the Sena has been carping about getting more cabinet berths shows it is more interested in power and pelf rather than good governance. Modi has made a good start by resisting those pressures. He should now slowly tighten the screws on the Sena and bring it in line -- he can do that; the Indian people have gifted him a majority for strengthening the nation.

Why Iran may not be behind the Israel embassy attack in India

The bomb attack of an Israeli embassy car has, predictably, led to accusations that Iran is the perpetrator.
For those accusing Iran for the attack, the link is very obvious: a bomb was found and defused in an Israel embassy car in Georgia around the same time; Iran's nuclear scientists have been killed recently in similar attacks suspected to be carried out by the Moss and and that country had threatened to hit back ...
A U.S. commentator said the attack shows how panicky the Iranian leadership is to have carried out the attack in a country that has now become its main oil customer.
Well, it is not so simple. None of this 'evidence' actually is fool-proof it you look at them impartially.
Granted, Iran has said it will hit back but that is not evidence that country carried out these particular attacks. Not even the fact that there were two coordinated attacks in two different countries at almost at the same time. At the most that just proves Israel was attacked in a coordinated manner -- it could have been any one. Iran is just an easy suspect.
Now to look at another aspect that is largely being ignored as Western media push the official line of American and European governments ranged against Iran over that country's nuclear weapons program.
If Iran wanted to strike at Israeli targets, why should it do that in India and try to sever its economic lifeline? Iran or its proxies could have done that in any other country, as they have proved many times before. The Iranian leadership may be in panic mode, but they are not fools.
They could as well have carried out such a strike in any western capital and proved their point much more forcefully. And if they carried out the Indian attacks, they could have done it much more effectively!
So who could have been behind the attacks? It is much more easy to suspect western intelligence agencies if you look at the circumstantial evidence. It is they who want to stir up things and rupture India-Iran relations . India is now that country's major oil customer and has resisted western efforts to cut down buying its oil. India has even worked out a payments system that is not impacted by the U.S.-sponsored sanctions.
Naturally it is in western interests to cut off this economic lifeline to Iran. And they would have calculated that such an attack would create a situation wherein the Indian government is forced to cut off its trade links to Iran.
So what about the coordinated attacks? The bomb in Tbilisi, Georgia, was only an attempt to ratchet up pressure and show a 'pattern.'
Well, both attacks failed. Could the western agencies have been so unprofessional? No, but the same applies to Iran; they may be technologically behind the west, but when it comes to such clandestine  attacks they have proved that they can strike at will, and effectively.
The failures just show that the brains behind the attack employed some ill-trained proxies. Why should that be Iran?