Wartime propaganda springs on the debris of rationale and humility. But American President Donald Trump has invented a bewildering language that drags the world beyond the realm of absurdity. His creativity, or nonsense, merrily rests in the grave of intelligence.In his much-awaited address to the nation a few days ago, Trump said, “We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks; we’re going to bring them back to the stone ages, where they belong.” The world will see what happens to Iran but Trump has already shown us pre-civilisation, stone-age buffoonery. Trump’s words verbalise his illusions and prejudices. The perception that Iran belongs to stone-age doesn’t need a human response; this falsehood has been effectively contradicted by the piercing missiles that smashed the most advanced defence systems The US and Israel can boast of. The cowardly attacks on Iranian scientists, universities, research centres, hospitals and nuclear sites provide further evidence of Iran’s rise despite the unjust and cruel sanctions by the developed world over the last few decades. The silly presumption that Islamic nations belong in the stone-age probably shaped the world’s most powerful leader’s assessment that Iran could be tamed within a few days. Being powerful doesn’t mean being virtuous. Trump didn’t know that his desire for domination can’t be fulfilled through bluff and bluster. He thought the American President’s swagger is enough to undermine a smaller nation’s self-esteem. The roar and the mew intermingled in his communication sparked titillation among the gullible but failed to break Iran’s resolve. Trump’s empty rhetoric slowly turned into frustration; with his conceit barely managing to conceal his fears. He deployed bizarre tactics – threatening total obliteration while referring to dialogue and peace. As Iran demonstrated exceptional unity and fought courageously, the US’s traditional alliances crumbled and massive protests started against Trump. One Iranian scholar’s response to Trump’s address to the nation summed up the farce: “We were terribly disappointed. We looked forward to some fresh entertainment. But there was old stuff, not even good enough for memes!” The leader of the world’s greatest power is sadly crucified by his inanities. Iran might have suffered incalculable damages in terms of infrastructure and human lives but Trump squandered American pride. His illogical blabbering diminished American wisdom. The US has invaded countries and assassinated leaders in the past but this was the most inexplicable misadventure. What can be a bigger shame than suffering the ignominy of the dominant opinion that Trump was coerced into this illegal war by Israel because of Epstein files? How can anybody justify ravaging a nation to divert attention from the sickening charges of sexually exploiting underage girls? Neither the intelligentsia nor the ordinary citizens of the US have found any valid reason for attacking Iran at this juncture. As if that was not bad enough, Trump added a clownish oddity to post-truth mendacity by his weird communication style. The US will have to salvage its pride and refurbish its language. After all, its president said they sank a ship killing over 100 young cadets “for fun”. Fun? War is a tragedy. No matter who wins. What neutrality?Any country proclaiming neutrality in this conflict needs serious introspection. As it is either amoral or cowardice. Is this really a war between two sides? Or is it a case of unilateral invasion by the US and Israel, forcing Iran, which was into serious negotiation and making compromises, to defend itself? If that’s true, how is it a war? It is an unjust and illegal act to destroy a great country. Can Israel’s desire for local hegemony and the subsequent need for weakening Iran be a legitimate cause of war? Can the civilized world allow the US to use military power for sub-contracting its business interests in West Asia to the local goon?These are valid questions creating unease across nations. Many traditional US allies have unambiguously dissociated themselves with the sinister project. “This is not our war,” many NATO members – including Spain, Britain, France and Italy – rejected Trump’s desperate appeals for help. How can India hide behind the excuse of neutrality? Prime Minister Narendra Modi has himself delegitimised the “neutrality” stance by his multiple indiscretions – visiting Israel just before the planned attack, refusing to condemn the murder of Iran’s supreme leader and by questioning the attack on Gulf countries which offered their bases to the US – instead of expressing outrage at the violation of Iran’s sovereignty. Modi also ignored Iran’s call for an early meeting of BRICS, which India is heading now. Modi, who is making rounds of election-bound states to vilify political opponents and consolidate his party, should have taken the lead to raise an anti-war campaign from the very outset. But he knew that he discarded India’s moral authority by aligning with the Trump-Netanyahu nexus at a time when the military partners of the US were charting a different course. The shift in India’s position didn’t come all of a sudden. The alignment with Netanyahu was proudly advertised. There was no war in Gaza but Israel brutally murdered women and children despite an official ceasefire. Did Modi utter a word of condemnation? Did he object to the abduction of the Venezuelan President? Why was Lebanon attacked by Israel? To grab land for creating a buffer zone? Is that a legitimate quest? India should have articulated her concerns boldly. The neutrality excuse is dead under these explosive circumstances. Union external affairs minister S. Jaishankar talks of multilateralism without explaining how that can be attained through an amoral surrender to the US? A multipolar world has to be created; the US-Israel scheming has bolstered the need for the same. It is a tragedy that Modi chose to align with the US when Trump is getting increasingly isolated on the world stage. Foreign policy requires foresight and gravitas. Modi sought to replace those virtues with theatrics and spectacle. He thought that personal warmth carried greater weight in diplomacy than strategic vision. Modi will go sooner or later. India’s strategic interests will live forever. Future prime ministers should avoid treating diplomatic engagements as personal acrobatics. ‘Ghuspaithiya’If the nation believes Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, then ghuspaithiye (infiltrators) are the biggest problem of the country, at least in eastern India. They sang the ghuspaithiya tune in Jharkhand and Bihar and now the same is being repeated in West Bengal and Assam. While these two are also talking about Mamata Banerjee’s governance failures in Bengal, Assam is all about ghuspaithiye. The argument that the responsibility for keeping a check on infiltration lies with the Union government, which has been under Modi for the last 12 years, and that Assam has had a BJP government for the last 10 years, has not overcome the brute power of propaganda. The BJP stuck with the ghuspaithiya theme in Assam when it didn’t have a single seat there and the same strategy works even today, after almost three decades.Modi said in Assam a few days ago, “Congress has now openly come out in support of ghuspaithiya.” How? Has Rahul Gandhi written an invitation letter to infiltrators to invade India? Modi has accused the Congress of supporting “Urban Naxals”. Are they cousins of rural or jungle Naxals?. He has also accused the Congress of supporting Pakistan, terrorists and anti-nationals. Can any political party be in support of Pakistan, terrorists and anti-nationals? India expects better from its prime minister. The home minister hypes the ghuspaithiya theme with similar fanfare. He said at a meeting, “Kaziranga rhinos can draw tourists from around the world. But Congress handed Kaziranga a ghuspaithiyas.” Post-truth counterfactual deception?The gullible masses will think that infiltrators indeed are the greatest concern for Assam and Bengal, as they were for Bihar and Jharkhand. The media will lap it up, creating an impression that the electoral discourse is dominated by this. But it couldn’t be further from the truth. Other parties haven’t touched this issue, not even blaming the BJP-led Union government for doing little to check infiltrators. Gandhi focused on corruption in Assam, telling the people how huge tracts of land were allotted to three crony capitalists – Adani, Ambani and Ramdev. He called Himanta Biswa Sarma the most corrupt chief minister of India. Gandhi also spoke of Modi’s surrender before Trump, unfair trade deal with the US and Epstein Files. Priyanka Gandhi has attacked Modi for India’s cowardly diplomatic strategy and dwelled on problems like price rise, unemployment and gas cylinder crisis. She pointed out that the BJP leaders are deliberately not discussing the real problems. Do you understand why ghuspaithiya is needed in every election?