This is a work of fiction. Although it may appear closer to reality than fiction for some.In the inner-most sanctum of the power vertical, there is a deep sense of satisfaction that in this hour of crisis, the Vishwaguru’s friends outside India are offering practical advice on how to deal with the Jantar Mantar challenge. The most ‘actionable’ suggestion has just arrived from a highly placed friend in Israel.The Israeli friend forwarded a “for eyes only” memo received from a Haifa-based security-consultant firm that has more than 20 years of experience advising governments and corporations on how to defuse ‘resistance.’ In its unauthorized website, the Haifa firm claims to have developed a tool-kit, based on deep insights, ranging from Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent to Tiananmen Square.The most relevant—and, blunt—paragraph in the Haifa Memo states:“Prime Minister Modi is being guided by a tired and exhausted security establishment, with lessons and insights gained more than two decades ago; whereas the ‘enemy’ ranks are being swelled with those born less than 20 years back. The prime minister has to choose between dialogue and danda – the metaphor the Indians themselves use for raw police power. We are not equipped to deal with the political dialogue dynamic; in case the danda is the preferred idiom of control, however, we have one simple suggestion. Having studied the details of the Jantar Mantar site, the most effective strategy will be the use of agents provocateurs, of course, with ‘Indian characteristics’.”Without revealing the source of this advice, the Vishwaguru insisted on immediate implementation of the recommended strategy. Accordingly, a ‘notice’ was put out to a handful of trusted service providers via a cut-out entity:CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTERESTWe are an Indore-based security group, with many years experience implementing custom solutions for governments in the security and surveillance space. We would like to receive sealed/confidential proposals for the supply of [an as now unspecified number] ‘national security facilitators’. Our mandate is to make available a detachment of well-built men and women, to assist the security forces assigned to dealing with the Jantar Mantar agitation, which has now emerged as a threat to national security.The successful bidder should be an entity with a proven track record in coercion-entrepreneurship and a clear understanding of creative – and deniable – methods of goading unarmed crowds into violence. Preference will be given to outfits headed and staffed by retired military or police or intelligence agency personnel. If not every “contractors” but at least the “lead contractor(s)” must have a certain familiarity with multiple methods of manufacturing ‘evidence’ that could then be used in a court to law to sustain the charge of ‘conspiracy’ and even that of a ‘foreign conspiracy’. Some of our leaders have already begun preparing the public for this allegation. The police forces, we want to emphasise, work within the four walls of the law; though, sometimes it is said that both the walls and the law can be expanded or shrunk as per the exigencies of the political masters.The colonial powers used the term ‘agent provocateurs’ to describe the function of these contractors but in atmanirbhar Bharat, where a conscious effort is being made to decolonialise our thinking, the term we are using for the purposes of this contract is ‘national security facilitators’.In the immediate context of the Jantar Mantar challenge, the successful bidder must be able to provide young ‘hands’, well-versed in the use of mobile technology. We can provide [or rather the security establishment will supply] untraceable SIM cards as well as some satellite phone handsets so that communication is not hampered by the shutting down of mobile networks. Authentic ID cards with names of persons from a particular community can also be provided. The ‘national security facilitators’ should be able to mingle with the crowd at Jantar Mantar, and create/manufacture ‘evidence’ of digital conversations (eg WhatsApp group chats) that can be used as part of a followup prolonged legal strategy against the protestors, once they have been dispersed.By way of background, we shall be happy to provide our own internal report into how the Delhi Police went about establishing a ‘conspiracy’ in the East Delhi anti-Muslim violence a few years ago, which has been used to put protestors belonging to a certain community behind bars for years without them even going to trial. Similar insights are also available from the manner in which the Maharashtra police and intelligence sleuths infiltrated and concocted ‘evidence’ against prominent Urban Naxals.The recruited ‘hands’ should be able to creatively provoke fisticuffs, stage ugly mock fights which will play well on ‘godi media’ channels, and deliberately misbehave with females in order to drive away women sympathisers of the CJP movement. In particular, our brief is that the National Security Facilitators hands should shout threatening slogans against the national leadership, which would be appropriately captured on camera by the official security personnel.Though we have been give no hard and fast guarantees, we are assured that if any of our contractors get nailed by an (unaware) policeman, there will be no follow-up action. In other words, these national security facilitators will enjoy blanket immunity.This message will disappear in 12 hours.Atmanirbhar is the pen-name of an aspiring satirist, who irregularly contributes a column, From the Vishwaguru Archives, and believes that ridicule and humour are central to freedom to speech and expression.