Virender Kapoor
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” ― Mike Lofgren (Mike Lofgren is an American author and a former Republican U.S. Congressional aide.)
In the last two decades or even less some very queer vocabulary of words, ideas and terminologies have popped up. Many people don’t even know what some of these are but just to be with crowds they use these terms blatantly. Woke, WOKEISM, DEHYPHENATION, conspiracy theory, fake news, post truth, jingoism, queer, LGBTQ and jumla are some off the cuff examples.
Deep state is a concept or a term USED in politics, debates and geopolitical lexicon quite often TODAY. Earlier people especially politicians used to refer to unexplainable string pulling as ‘foreign hand’. It is like the UFO, no one has seen but the whole world has seen it. It is a black hole kind of thing.
‘Samajhnewale samajh gaye- jo na samajhe wo anari hai’ is the look on the face of those who use it in a group discussing a serious subject and rest shake their heads in unison as if they know what it is and where it is.
Vikram Sood the former RAW chief on a podcast put this in very simple words. He said ‘deep state’ does not have an address per say.
These are people who are influential and some belong to the state machinery and many could be ‘dalals’ or power brokers or industrialists, retired judges, or even serving judges. The deep state is a state within a state- extra constitutional actors like non state actors. ‘You scratch my back and I scratch yours’ or quid pro quo is the basic thread of this invisible mega team which operates behind the curtains, shadows, smoke screens and pillars. Some call them a ‘cabal’ or in earlier days a syndicate. During mafia days it was a bit easier as you had dons having family faith and the biggest don was the Godfather. In that arrangement to bump off some one was easy – or even seek protection- as you knew whom to go to. Deep state is more dangerous and very mysterious like a ghost who walks, does not talk but is omni presence shrouded in mystery. This cabal is very rich and powerful as well as ruthless. Godfathers and Sicilian dons handled, alcohol, casinos, gambling, drugs or maximum prostitution aka flesh trade. They had political patronage to an extent and also got into a murder or two. Like deadly dreaded Russian mobs.
The deep state as a phrase was originally used to refer to power dynamics in foreign countries like the former Soviet Union and countries where employees of former authoritarian regimes try to undermine newly elected leaders in fragile democracies. They get into big game.
Deep state swings on big things not riff raff mobs. They work on regime changes, giving out or managing state secrets and arm twisting their own governments. If one takes the example of America, the cogs of DS- deep state would be everywhere- CIA, FBI, the Congress, Senate, attorneys, judges, white house staff and huge Industrial houses or homeland security. The art of manipulation has acquired strength, stealth and sophistication of unimaginable proportion. You will not know who pulled the strings, who moved the levers and who pushed the right buttons at what time and in what sequence even decades after something happens.
Other part of the game is if nothing can be pin pointed or nothing sticks- put the blame on deep state.
What is deep state?
Deep state is an ‘alleged’ secret network of especially nonelected government officials and sometimes private entities (as in the financial services, media and defence industries) operating extralegally to influence and enact government policy. They are influencers and even bureaucrats at all levels of the establishment.
They are like weeds in the grass and as dangerous as green snakes in the green grass.
The power of the deep state comes from experience, knowledge, relationships, insight, craft, special skills, traditions, and shared values. They ‘manage’ things for you- piece by piece.
‘Together, these purported attributes make nameless bureaucrats into a super-government that is accountable to no one. That is a scary prospect’. —David Rothkopf (an American foreign policy, national security and political affairs analyst and commentator)
Vikram Sood former Raw chief on a podcast said ‘these people keep moving within the system as they are well connected and today a chap is security advisor who will give contracts to the industry and let them make big profits and take his cut. When the government changes, he becomes the CEO of one such company at a hefty salary and largesse or a consultant to several companies on their board still getting them business through his network in the corridors of power.
Once the government again changes, he is back in the saddle. Someone said the US government has two departments- one department of destruction (military supplies and war) the second department of construction to rebuilt what the first destroyed. Ultimately everyone makes money.
John Eibner an American human rights activist who served as the CEO of Christian Solidarity International-USA. Says
‘That the archbishop suspected was a crime stage-managed by Turkey's "deep state"—an opaque underworld where powerful elements within the state, especially the military and security services, act in conjunction with violent extremist groups … as well as the apolitical criminal underworld, to undertake special, illegal operations in the political interest of the country's ruling elite.
Once bitten, twice shyWhen Donald Trump won presidential election in 2016 his close confidant and planner of his campaign Stephen Bannon was sceptical of the fact that the government machinery infested by deep state would try to create hurdles for the POTUS. Those on the far right did smell a rat that trump would face challenges during his first tenure.
It appears he must have faced issues and hurdles in his last tenure, because now he has created a new department called ‘DOGE’ department of government efficiency with two of his trusted confidants Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. They may get extra potent powers to deal with the extra potent deep state! Hope DODGE can dodge the deep state along with its charter of making administration leaner and meaner.
Deep state in our unfriendly neighbour hood In case of Pakistan, the army, the Military Inc., which has been touted as the largest political party that is always in power and does not have to fight any election to be in power, is often regarded by observers as the ‘deep state’. It has nothing but contempt for the democratically elected political leadership, and because of intermittent military rules it feels has a legitimate right to intervene in decision making, whenever it thinks its own ‘institutional’ interests are in jeopardy. The army is by default the king maker and controls the king thereafter.
Ironically, successive elected governments have timidly allowed their authority to be compromised in the face of increasing assertion of the military. Any political leader who has sought to challenge military's preponderance has found it difficult to survive politically because of an entrenched tendency on the part of ambitious political parties and leaders to be coopted by the military to dance to its tune.
In Pakistan they- the ‘deep state’ is in your face and it is an open secret that they do it with full force without caring what the world has to say.
So much so, that an ex-prime minister went to the extent of saying that it was 'a state above the state'!
Bangladesh upheaval Bangladesh appears to have shot itself in the foot. Actually, here it is “More than what meets the eye”. The suddenness of the entire upheaval is a suspect. While ‘who did it to Bangladesh’ is still being debated there could be no doubt that it was ‘engineered ‘by some dark forces. Otherwise, a country sailing smoothly with a good economy could not get into such a mess on its own.
In deep state operation, the team, modus operandi and the tool kit is created as if tailor made ‘for the job’. Once all hands are on deck the balloon goes up. This was clearly visible in case of Bangladesh- internal players were visible but who paradropped a nonpolitical entity like Mohammad Yunus as in-charge of the nation with being a nobody.
Students on the rampage were targeting Hindus and other non-Muslims and murdering raping and beating people as if there was no law and order. The Elected PM Sheikh Hasina was bundled into a helicopter and whisked away out of the country- only being given refuge in India. All this happened in minutes and hours. This is a plot for a Bollywood movie- ‘Hasina maan jayegi, Ya nahi?’
Everything seemed preplanned and, in this case, it couldn’t have been done without a third party- a black hole’ that was located partly outside the nation. So, it appears to be a pretty heady shake of several ingredients ‘a cocktail’ or a rum punch. An inside outside Bangladesh job- a hit job at that where a nation was hit.
Many think this was a regime change operation where the internal government machinery, military, incited students were made to get aligned through an ‘external hand’ which can be deep state from the US. These are conjectures and need to be established when things stabilize which may be months away if not a few years.
India story
India is chugging along at a very high speed with progressive nationalist government taking the nation on an upward spiral like never before. The west which had firm hold on the East does not like this- there could be several western countries headed by US the Godfather.
India has to safeguard against any such designs and a majority Hindu state needs to ready for any eventuality or misadventure by western hegemony. The opposition is also looking for opportunities and the left liberals are also tagging along – they are loyal to dollars alone and care two hoots for the nation.
In such cases universities and intellectuals are the softest people to fall for a trap- they think they know everything but are unaware of the actual dangers which is ‘woke’ culture. They feel they have now woken up and hence enlightened as buddha but that is a false illusion.
While addressing Dussehra celebration on occasion of Vijayadashami, RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat spoke of Anti-India and Anti-Hindu forces in the world and appealed Hindu society to unite and work of their own upliftment in an organised manner. He clearly talked about 'Deep state, wokeism, Marxism.’ A negative narrative is being built up he warns.
India needs to remain alert especially the majority Hindus to stand united and defending yourself is your right.
In his speech, he also mentioned recent violence against Hindus in Bangladesh. He said, “We have such a big and diverse society - to create that diversity as a division, or to divide even when there is no diversity but to make them think that we are diverse and hence we are aloof - giving such narration - to agitate people, to create an environment when the society loses faith and starts disrespecting government, law & order, administration - it helps in establishing supremacy over the country by remaining abroad.
Today's war is not like what we used to have earlier. In such conditions, they knowingly and unknowingly get friends within the country as we are a democratic country and different political parties are here with some friction. They run these things through alternate politics, taking sides of one without being there on the ground - when political parties keep their interest above society and the unity of the country. It's not mere conspiracies that I am telling... What is happening all over India, especially in the bordering states, “we all can see it.”
“In effect, sanctions take another country’s civilian population hostage in order to get its leaders to acquiesce.”
― Mike Lofgren