It is no surprise to see opposition parties and obsessed "activists" always blaming Modi for something that happened way back in 2002 - on which not a shred of proof has been found to link him with leading a mass killing spree. Even if we believe that there was his involvement at some level, then the same villification campaign should be unleashed against communist thugs of West Bengal and Kerala. Mainly in the latter, whose cadres are now dominating the national politburo and the results are expectedly disastrous for the party. Why not go after all of them? Why single out Modi?

The argument given in favour of that is he as a chief minister became a mass murderer. Idiots like Mallika Sarabhai, who was dancing away as the state's development went haywire under Modi's predecessor, or Teesta Seetalvad, whose only claim to fame is the Godhra riots case, are nothing more than brazen troublemakers intent to salvage some claim to intellect. For Sarabhai this is the last option - respect for her was as much as you would respect a fly. Now, she can say she fought elections, without mentioning that she lost with a unheard of record margin. She can claim to be so much interested in Gujarat, which is like an exercise in buffoonery, given that the state has prospered and developed like never before under perhaps their best CM in recent times.

Now take a look at the other bunch of thugs, again communist, but this time a motley bunch of tribals who think they are the gods of the forests. Mining for minerals is needed - for long we have studied how the lack of mining has kept Bihar underdeveloped, and the same argument holds true for Orissa. Granted that legitimate processes have to be followed while giving out licenses, and that the tribals have every right to oppose if they feel betrayed, it is not fair to listen to every noise they make just because a motley bunch is firing away from WW-I era guns. Those Maoists need to be trapped through proper intelligence gathering and eliminated. The tribals live in the forests - that does not mean they can stop legitimate mining just coz their expanse of land is lost. Now we see a general disagreement against any relocation - even if the new land given to them to settle is fine.

Aiding them again, are people like Sarabhai and Teesta, only this time with names like Roy and others. And again this craving to step up against the state, and to appear like a hero to uneducated and violent tribals, is what drives them. Roy has no business writing stuff she just discovered out of the blue - she was nowhere near to being an activist till she won the Booker, and till the trophy shone. Once that was done, and she began to be forgotten by the media, she decided to launch a crazy, and brazen, series of articles.

There are people in the media, the leftist and worse, the communist types, who would support such antics and thankfully they are heard less and less. The need is not for anti-establishment troublemakers, but of intellectuals. This is where you needed the superb intelligensia of Bengal as witnessed in the original, and the only true, Naxal movement way back in the sixties. Those Naxalites were not not a bunch of illiterate and crazy tribals led by the most aggressive of them all, but educated ones who fought against landlordism and all other social inequalities and corruption. It was brutally suppressed, which it should not have been. But these Maoist gangs are not them, and it would be fine to do away with this current bunch of hooligans.

The Maoists are not interested in development. They are a gang who want land. They are fighting for themselves becoming dons, rather than anything else. So they will not kill criminals, or rogue politicians, or corrupt civil servants - they will not even touch them. They will kill some local constable or kidnap some policeman here and there, blow up railway tracks. They are fighting to grab land. Not save it.

And so we come back to those who defend anything that stops development, if you notice. So the likes of Roy, and Sarabhai etc will go against Modi, and will keep chanting his name whatever good he does for the state. The same type of egoist people, hungry to be always called intellectuals, will also fight for the Maoists. Supported by equally desperate Communists, who are either down and out everywhere you can look, or are rogues in a suit, like Chavez. Some Maoists follow Che Guevara's example. They surely deserve to end just like he did - chased and shot in a Bolivian forest. And their so called "activist" sympathisers, already sidelined, should be further ostracised.

This is my second post from Varanasi.

The last talked about the animal life. Many of you liked it, and thanks for the feedback!

There are so many things noticeable about here, but the most popular stuff to eat are those which you can get other places, but not with the modifications, the secret touches, that make is so yummy.

Take milk for example. Now would you call Hot milk a popular item? Surely, in our homes most of us have it like everyday. What is the big deal? Nothing except that hoardes of people crowd around shops in Lanka, which is adjacent to the Banaras Hindu University, Asia's largest residential campus. Now why is the crowd willing to wait around 10 mins to have that milk?

The secret is quite simple. The milk is just more concentrated, putting it midway between normal hot milk and kheer. In a huge khadhai, the milk is constantly stirred, letting it concentrate while it boils, and malai forms over it. You can choose your order size, that is a small or a large earthen cup, and he will pour the milk straight out of the kadhai, add the malai to it, and serve piping hot. I am tellng you, if you haven't tasted it, you have missed something.

All over India, people like Bengali sweets, so named because all the sweets made out of paneer have originally, and without any doubts, come from Bengal. With a large population of Bengalis here, you can get superb sweets in Banaras. But what interests me also is an item called Laongalata. Strangely named, but it is actually named after clove. It is a simple preparation again, but you get the heating wrong, or the filling less sweet, and you just make it worthless.

And well the samosas are something you can get all over India, but wherever you live, the tastiest ones are made by people from UP. That is because in any city or town or village, the recipe lives on passed on by generations. There is just that bit masala extra here, a little less there, and that makes all the difference in the filling.

Coming from the south to the north is always stepping one level up as far as cuisine goes. You can talk of chettinad and all that, but those are nothing but more spicy cuisine. Same for Hyderabad, its just that the spices are different from those used in Chennai. The cooks are not satisfied unless you are panting for breath after having their biryani. However, the Nawabi biryani, found in Lucknow and also parts of Benaras, is just superb, and you do not need to hide behind overtly spicing it up. The taste is not to make you reach for a glass of water after every morsel, but rather, for you to wish you could eat more. Bangalore on the other hand, has no cuisine of its own except for some rudimentary attempts at it.

Coming back to Benaras, you are not done here till you have the lassi. You thought the Punjabis make it the best, which they well might, but here its no less. It is just the right sugar here.

And now let me tell you the most popular breakfast time here. What would be your guess? IF you are a journalist like me maybe you get up after 7, unless you are in TV and are in some strange shift. Others among you might wake up at 6. How about having a breakfast at 6? If you are from Benaras or surrounding areas, that is no surprise at all. Stalls of Kachauri-sabzi and Jalebis open at 5.30 in the morning in many areas, and you can spot groups of people having them heartily as you jog through the area. I have never understood the reason though. I mean if you have breakfast at 6, you might be having lunch at like 11? And dinner by 3? That's ridiculous. Even in London, it gets dark by 3.30 pm in the winter, people do not have dinner just then. So I assume people have certain snacks in between. Samosas are welcome always aren't they?

There is something about Banaras that puts your mind at rest. This is, apart from the fact that it is home.

Now the thing is why should this be the case? It is so because of the atmosphere. Just as a fast paced office grows on you, so does a laid-back city. People have time to get around and get their work done. There is usually little to hurry about, and you have time to not just talk, but just let your mind wander on its flights of fantasy while sitting on the riverbank.

There are certain things unique about this city, the most prominent one being the availability of grass. It is so easily available that you are surprised to hear that it's a banned substance. You needn't get it surreptitiously like in Bangalore or Delhi. You can get it free, and openly on the ghats.

Another feature is the wide availability of moving cattle. They own the streets, and they park themselves wherever they want. If you wonder how the people handle such encroachments on public roads, you needn't worry. The people are as used to seeing them on the roads as people.

The other day there was this donkey which ran amok while I was driving to the serene BHU campus, where I spent five years getting educated. Or pretended to. The donkey made straight for a sweet shop. People sitting there first gaped at it, thought it would stop, and then ran the hell out of there and stopped a short distance away to see what the crazy donkey was upto. The donkey just stopped as if its batteries ran out, and stood that way. The people gradually came around, someone poked it with a stick, but hell it would just not budge. Feeling secure, the people sat down, and started chatting over warm milk as before. The donkey started braying all of a sudden, which again sent people outta the shop, chairs flying and all.

Such entertainment is not confined to poor donkeys. Monkeys are often funnier, and are usually to be found sitting on rooftops and scratching themselves. Quite a few of them regularly invade homes and try to rob the fridge. In my locality they try to spoil the garden, and have previously made off with flower pots, after yanking the poor plant out. The pot is then dumped on some other house. In one case the owner ducked just in time as a small flower pot went flying over his head.

Usually incidents are far less dangerous though. The other day a monkey ran off with an entire clothesline of a guy who then gave chase with an airgun. Several shots were fired and some clothes recovered, which were spread across atleast a dozen houses by the retreating, but vindictive monkey. I remember before the advent of DTH and stuff, the TV antenna would usually be turned upside down by the monkeys. They come on groups of 10-20, and can be chased most effectively by an airgun or slingshots. U can stand and wave a stick at them and all they would do is scratch their back, looking supremely bored.

Dogs are cooler, and far less dangerous than their cousins in Bangalore, who are known to kill little kids. In fact all over North India, the dogs, who grow up being kicked around, are far friendlier. Not that I support this - I am just stating a fact. Earlier they used to chase monkeys in their spare time, but now they just have learnt to accept them. Quite like the tigers at Bannerghatta National Park near Bangalore, who are quite bored at seeing humans come and gape at them. They don't even feel like celebs even after being clicked so many times.

And so my holiday, which has just begun, after a week of working at the Delhi office of ET, continues. More later. Have fun and be good. And ya, for some grass n booze, do drop in.

Cheers