THE whereabouts of Hitler`s charred remains are still a mystery. His spirit though has been reincarnated in numerous elected dictators, most recently in B.

Netanyahu and N. Modi. No two modern leaders have shown such a flagrant disregard for societal norms, religious precepts, and legal undertakings. They deserve a Nobel Prize for ethnic cleansing.

This analysis of Hitler fits both: `Hitler`s `trivial and bombastic rhetoric` was designed to distract from his calculated and calibrated manipulation of the moment [.] What made Hitler so dangerous was his bluster, behind which lay his intuition, lightning-fast ability to assess a situation.

In July 1932, before the general election that brought him to power, Hitler made an `Appeal to the German Nation`, `designed to reach beyond his fanatically loyal base and to embrace the general voting public`.

Hitler was wedded to Germany, Netanyahu and Modi are to their ideology. They have inverted Mao Zedong`s aphorism that `power grows out of the barrel of a gun`.

Their guns are balanced on ballot boxes.

The ceasefire of May 10 between India and Pakistan, like a pie crust, is waiting to be broken. Confrontation continues, but in other theatres. PM Modi is intent on reliving PM Indira Gandhi`s diplomatic blitzkrieg of foreign capitals in 1971, before she attacked East Pakistan the following month. Then, on Nov 5, speaking in Washington, she asserted disingenuously that `India has no desire to provoke war against Pakistan and has no territorial designs either on Pakistan` or on what she called `East Bengal`.

Today, PM Modi has extended his battle front into international waters. His military prowess having been tested and found wanting, he has fallen back on a cheaper war diplomacy. He has dispatched seven delegations abroad to justify India`s Pakibashing. They include 31 members from his government and 20 politicians from other parties. Some have opted out of his jamboree, but not the publicity ravenous Congressman Shashi Tharoor.

To counter India, Pakistan has fielded a strong team, headed by Bilawal BhuttoZardari. His grandfather Z.A. Bhutto had been given a similar task in December 1971, but with too little time to be effective.

Three countries the Pakistani team will not need to visit are Turkiye, Iran and Azerbaijan. They have already voiced their support for Pakistan. India retaliated by revoking the Turkish company Celebi`s security clearance at Indian airports.

Indians are being told to choose anywhere other than Turkiye as a tourist destination.

Turkiye will not mind. Out of $60 billionearned by Turkiye from tourism, Indians contribute only $400 million. Azerbaijan has forfeited Indian goodwill at no great loss. Iran off stage played a `constructive` and `effective` role in achieving a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.

To its chagrin, India finds itself isolated an unfriendly peninsula surrounded by disappointed neighbours. Its ambition to dominate the region has come to naught.

Not one Saarc member has come out in support of India.

Many thinking Indians must be disappointed at India`s vicious savagery towards its own. Take former BJP leader L.K.

Advani. He joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh at the age of 14 in 1941. (Modi had not even been born then.) He became a pracharak (full-time worker) in Karachi until 1947. In 2005, Advani, a cofounder of the BJP, incurred the wrath of the RSS when, while in Pakistan, he praised Mohammad Ali Jinnah as a `secular` personality. Advani like his hero Rama was exiled, to his own Dandakaranya.Take the late Jaswant Singh. An early member of the BJP, Jaswant Singh was one of India`s longest serving parliamentarians (1980-2014). He served his country as its minister of external affairs, defenee and finance. In 2010, he published a book on Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence. For hisin-tellectual impartiality, BJP expelled him from the party. He died an outcast.

Take the present Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri. He announced the Indo-Pak ceasefire on May 10 and then found himself and his innocent family vilified by his compatriots.

Take the Indian Army spokesperson Col Sofia Qureshi, a Muslim officer. She explained the ceasefire. A BJP MP (Vijay Singh) found this unacceptable. He called her `a sister of terrorists`.

Take the poet/lyricist Javed Akhtar. A frequent and welcome visitor to Pakistan, he now splashes vitriol on us to demonstrate his patriotism: `If I have a choice of going either to hell or to Pakistan, I would rather go to hell.` Javed Akhtar should read the sermon of the anti-Nazi pastor Martin Niemöller. Paraphrased, Niemöller warned: `First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out. Then, the trade unionists, the Jews ... and then they came for me.` Akhtar sahib should realise that his saffron India slyly devours its own. • The wnter is an author.

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