A Gudem

To Deploy Or Not To In Afghanistan

2009-12-10T23:12:00.009+05:30

There is a surprising revival of the idea of deploying Indian troops into Afghanistan to apparently help Afghans fight Islamic terrorists along side with US (and NATO) troops. It's a revival because former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee considered the issue when US was planning to invade Afghanistan, then under Taliban and al Qaeda control, post-9/11, and thought otherwise.

So what changed to make the revival possible with the situation in Afghanistan actually deteriorating, not improving. The only change seems to be change in US leadership, from Bush to Obama. It's strange that we would consider deployment of troops in Afghanistan to help Obama, even as Obama himself hasn't done much to improve relationship between US and India. Obama's Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, ignored coming to India during her Asia trip. Obama has again provided aid and comfort to Pakistan despite India's misgivings. There were no significant agreements during recent PM Manmohan Singh visit to US - no finalization of Nuclear Agreement, no anti-terror cooperation agreement, or no hi-tech transfer agreement. Beyond Obama having first state dinner of US for Manmohan, nothing of substance happened between the countries, since the change of guard in US. So the reconsideration of deployment of Indian troops to Afghanistan is surprising.

We commented on Nitin's Acorn blog as to why the idea of troop deployment in land locked Afghanistan is not a great idea unless the deployment on a semi-permanent, meaning on 10-20 year, basis. (Nitin twitted recently that there is wide agreement in India's strategic circle that India needs to deploy troops in Afghanistan!)

And then we will be dependent on US and more importantly, Iran, for deployment. What if one pulls out or other vetoes – do we still stay there or did we waste blood and treasure for nothing?

Given the state of our economic development, our people will simply not fund a semi-permanent force...

Unless Pakistan cleans up its own act, India’s best options are (a) covert ops in Afghanistan (and in Pakistan), and (b) hope for the state of Pakistan to collapse enabling US to it clean up, with our active help. But the latter won’t happen as long as US keeps providing the state of Pakistan with aid and comfort.

We are better off fighting the Islamic terrorists in Pakistan, by going from the eastern border of Pakistan, with US deployment in Afghanistan guarding the eastern Afghan border and Iran guarding its eastern border. That's the only way to squeeze the terrorists, and their infrastructure, in Pakistan. Any other action will be a fight of attrition and will take a long time - one or two decades - and will end in a stalemate, unless Pakistan acts to clean up its act.

The more fascinating question to us is why is there a revival of the debate about troop deployment in Afghanistan. Who started it and why, when nothing changed in India itself?

Proletariat Communists No More!

2009-12-03T20:57:00.001+05:30

Dogs of Beijing, China - For protection from Swine Flu after two dogs were found to have flu

No wonder various avatars of commies in India are actually supporting India in its border dispute with namesake commie China!

As Much An Anti-Indian as Anti-Taliban?

2009-12-01T23:03:00.000+05:30

US latest iteration of war in Afghanistan effort is being unrolled with lot of confusion as to what the goal will be, how many more troops will be sent, and how quickly US will leave Afghan. Manmohan Singh was just in DC with nothing to show for publicly for his long travel - no deals were signed, no promises about next steps made - nothing was achieved. B. Raman explains the lack of substance of this trip dismantling Manmohan Singh's media spin maestros on trip - nothing on counter terror partnership, nothing on wrapping up the nuclear deal, and nothing on economic issues. One wonder if Manmohan traveled half way across the globe just to attend the first state dinner of Obama - apparently the prawns served during dinner are an indication of the strong and stable strategic relationship.

How this relationship between US and India can be strategic partnership is a mystery. One hopes there were substantial talks on China and Pakistan. But there is no indication that Manmohan Singh pressed Obama on any issues related to China that we identified in our earlier post. On Pakistan, US seem to be sliding backwards from seriously understanding issues impacting us - sliding back to 80s, in fact, when Pakistan made demands and US obliged with serious implication to India's and world's security decades later.

Soon after Manmohan left D.C., reports of a secret offer by Obama to Pakistan, given about a month ago, to expand US patronage of Pakistan came to light. Obama offers more military and economic aid and support, meaning bribe, to apparently make Pakistan fight terrorists, with an 'or else' warning that US may take matters into its own hands.

President Obama has offered Pakistan an expanded strategic partnership, including additional military and economic cooperation, while warning with unusual bluntness that its use of insurgent groups to pursue policy goals "cannot continue."

The offer, including an effort to help reduce tensions between Pakistan and India, was contained in a two-page letter delivered to President Asif Ali Zardari this month by Obama national security adviser James L. Jones. It was accompanied by assurances from Jones that the United States will increase its military and civilian efforts in Afghanistan and that it plans no early withdrawal.

It is like watching a really bad movie being repeated again, but with real consequences to the security and well being of India (and Afghanistan.) Pakistan is very good at playing this game. It just got $6.5billion in aid with conditions that don't amount to much. Pakistan's president was reported to have to formally given the power over nuclear weapons to its prime minister, who is backed by Pakistan military, meaning, the president's formal powers are diminished significantly.

As if this bad movie repeating was not enough, Obama's Afghanistan plan seems to specifically aim to assuage Pakistan interests rather than actually fighting terrorists in Afghanistan. Obama's plan includes a surge of troops, followed by withdrawal of most troops, but continued long term presence in Afghanistan. The plan to stay in Afghanistan on a long term basis, it seems, has nothing to do with fighting the Taliban but to guarantee Pakistan's rite over Afghanistan policy to the determent of India.

Officials of one allied nation who have been extensively briefed on the president’s plan said, however, that Mr. Obama would describe how the American presence would be ratcheted back after the buildup, while making clear that a significant American presence in Afghanistan would remain for a long while. That is designed in part to signal to Pakistan that the United States will not abandon the region and to allay Pakistani fears that India will fill the vacuum created as America pulls back.

Did Obama brief Manmohan Singh on this specific issue? Did Obama provide contours of his Afghanistan war plans to Manmohan Singh during the his "first state dinner" visit? If so, what was Manmohan's response to the plans? If not, what is the nature of US-India relationship? It surely is not a strategic relationship - it doesn't even seem to be a rather friendly relationship.

Obama's Afghanistan war strategy seems to as much an anti-India strategy as an anti-Taliban strategy. India's military and intelligence better plan ahead of this US strategy to strengthen itself in Afghanistan and prepare for the blow back a decade or two from this rather recycled fallacious US policy, learning from American previous missteps.

Critical US Visit of Manmohan Singh

2009-11-23T23:36:00.010+05:30

The recent peak of India-US relationship was when during Bush's visit to India, he and Manmohan Singh were discussing the nuclear agreement with a group people and in response to a comment by AEC chief Anil Kakodkar he said something to the effect that as long as we can keep you happy to get (the nuclear) deal done. Meaning, he didn't want minor issues blocking progress of India-US relationship. The key driver to India's improving relationship with US was president Bush himself. Now the relationship is at critical tipping point. On the one hand, it could continue on the high trajectory and make US and India close strategic partners or it could start drifting sideways at the current level of engagement - excellent trade and commerce with some military to military contacts with occasional political interaction with no significant substance. Increasing, the later is becoming a high probability scenario with the former becoming a lower probable.

I was dismayed to see Manmohan's Singh interview with an US journalist - there was no substance at all to the current visit.

I also think that India and the United States could be partners in refocusing our attention on an equitable, balanced global order.

What does that mean?

We would like to strengthen energy cooperation with the United States -- [in] clean coal technology and in renewable energy resources. Similarly, there is concern for food security. We would like to have a second Green Revolution in our country -- therefore, cooperation in the field of agriculture, in science and technology, in health, and in dealing with pandemics.

It's typical small country talk with no case for enhanced strategic relationship. While, usually, India is not an agenda setter - it takes agenda given to it during multilateral forums - the utter lack of new agenda for this trip is disheartening. The nuclear issue was put on the top of US-India relationship agenda by Atal B. Vajpayee when George Bush was open for strengthening the relationship between the two countries. Manmohan Singh carried forward Vajpayee's agenda, but he has no new agenda of his own. And it's not like there is nothing going on around India that doesn't involve US.

For starters, India needs to understand the evolution of relationship between US and China. Is what China aggressive behavior towards India's entire border area, and how it impacts US relationship, on the agenda? Who would US support in diplomatic and strategic battles? Why did US say China had a role in India-Pakistan relationship when Obama was in Beijing recently, even as Chinese themselves said nothing about it?

There are increasing calls in US that somehow US should settle the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, presumably, favouring Pakistan so that it can take up US fight against Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This scenario is not inconceivable as Obama is having second thoughts about Afghanistan war being the good war. A quick way for US to exit this region would be to go back to the 1950s, when Pakistan was the sole pillar of US, and British, strategic interests in the subcontinent. While India will never be a vassal state of US, Pakistan can play the role very well, as long J&K can be settled favourably towards Pakistan - the favour that can milked by US for another 50 years.

It makes even more sense, if US thought working with China is in its long term economic interests as US becomes more focused on economic issues, towards becoming a Europe-lite. The current US political leadership is internal looking and clearly would be happy to concede strategic ground to China in return for economic benefits. China is already US financier. US economic growth prospects would improve if it aligns with China - an economy that is vastly bigger than India's and will continue to be so throughout the current century.

Aligning with China and Pakistan makes eminent sense to US, especially for the current US left leaning leadership. I have argued in the past that the India-US relationship was primarily driven by George Bush. Changing the course of relationship of the two countries from Bush's era will not be difficult. That's why the current trip by Manmohan Singh is so crucial to US-India relationship and India's future. Will Manmohan Singh put India's future on the top of the agenda and get US leadership see our way or will he accept the agenda set by US, again, and realize the impact of US potential realignment too late, boxing India into a unfavourable strategic future?

US Base Shooting and Vande Mataram

2009-11-07T23:08:00.000+05:30

News of a Muslim US army Major shooting and killing his army colleagues randomly, at a US Army base in US, before he was taken down and revelations of his prior pro-Islamic jihadi attitude clarified to us what Vande Mataram debate should be about.

Few days ago, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind (Pan-Bharatiya Islamic Seminary) said it supported Deobandhi mullahs fatwa saying that Muslims should not sing Vande Mataram song:

A top Muslim body on Tuesday asked members of the community not to recite Vande Mataram and supported seminary Darul Uloom's edict that opposes any prayer involving the song.

"The fatwa of Darul Uloom (opposing the recitation of Vande Mataram) is correct," stated one of the 25 resolutions passed by the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind on Tuesday, at its 30th general session in Deoband, in the presence of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.

Darul Uloom's fatwa department had issued the edict in 2006, describing the recitation of Vande Mataram as anti-Islamic.

"The judgment of the Supreme Court also clearly states that nobody can be compelled to sing Vande Mataram," said the resolution, which was adopted by over 10,000 clerics from across the country. [Rediff]

In 2006, Daobhandi itself denied issuing that fatwa.

The Darul Uloom Deoband -- a leading centre of Islamic learning, categorically stated on Monday that it had not issued any fatwa on Vande Mataram. It added that it has not directed Muslim children to skip classes on September 7 to protest against its mandatory recitation in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states.

Accusing 'communal forces' of maligning the 130-year-old Islamic institution, Mohatamim Maulana Margoobur Rehman, the rector,said that it had neither issued any fatwa nor appealed on this issue after the Human Resource Development Ministry issued a directive to all schools to recite the national song on September 7 which marks the centenary of the song.

"The Darul Uloom is being unneccesarily dragged into the Vande Mataram controversy," he said, adding that Muslims are true patriots and there was no need to question their patriotism. [Rediff]

But anyone who follows Islamic and other forms of extremism and their supporters should know the games that are played by related institutions. If Daobhandhi itself hasn't an issued a fatwa, why would Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind support a non-existing fatwa?

The issue to us is not whether some people chose not to sing what most consider to be a patriotic song, with religious undertones to it. Individuals are free to chose and express as they like - in this case, expressing by not expressing. But, it is cause for major concern if they are doing so because of religious mullahs demands as though it is their religious duty.

A Muslim friend of mine said that, while he doesn't agree with Deobandi mullahs fatwa, the mullahs themselves have clarified that they love the country but don't worship it.

That's exactly my concern. What if worship takes precedence over love? The highest precedence should be for the nation and national security. What happens if a self-declared Muslim nation, say, Saudi Arabia, attacks India. Would religious duty, worship, take precedence over love for the country?

If a Major in the most professional army, egged on by global lefty media and various Islamic terror groups, can conclude that wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are wars against Islam, as evidence shows that Major Hasan believed, as though Saddam Hussein, Mullah Omar, and various terror groups that US is fighting are the only representatives of Islam, what would Muslims looking up to terror groups like SIMI do?

One would hope right thinking people would express outrage at what Deobandi mullahs, and their Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind supporters, have done beyond silly calls by some people asking mullahs supporters to move to Pakistan. UPA lead GOI should take a strong stand against Deobandhi mullahs fatwa, and their Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind supporters, that the nation and patriotism should take ultimate precedence and the religion should not mix with issues of nationhood.

On Chinese Economy

2009-10-25T19:49:00.000+05:30

China official growth rate was 7.7% in first half of 2009 - this when its main customer for goods, US, was down over 6% in first quarter of 2009 and had negative growth in second quarter of 2009. And Europe, the other main customer, was contracting too. So how did an export economy like China grow that much? Daniel Lynch of Far Eastern Economic Review thinks the Chinese are making up numbers:

Beijing's insistence that GDP grew by 7.1% in the first half of 2009 is highly doubtful given that coal consumption by Chinese power plants fell 8.9% and usage of petroleum products (including gasoline) dropped 2.6%. In previous years, energy consumption consistently grew at a 7% to 9% rate. Equally remarkable, aggregate tax revenues fell 6% in the first half of 2009 after increasing by 17% to 31% in preceding years. The drop in tax receipts occurred at the same time as energy use fell.

Some analysts say there is nothing anomalous about these figures, . . . [but] [a]lmost certainly, the Chinese economy contracted after the recession began. . . .

There are other signs that the Chinese economy is not living up to its testimonials. For example, the explosion of credit and money has not been accompanied by inflation. M2—currency in circulation plus savings deposits—is reported each month to be, on average, 25% higher than in the comparable month last year. And new bank loans doubled in the first half and continue to increase at high rates. Yet consumer prices are reportedly down 1% to 2% year-to-date, while producer prices are off 7% to 9%.

Economics 101 teaches that if prices fall when the money supply is rising, either production must be increasing at a higher rate than money supply or the velocity of money changing hands must be falling. In China, the only market in which prices are consistently rising is the property market . . .[Notable & Quotable - FECR]

Also there has been lot of talk of China becoming a consumer economy instead of continuing to be an export oriented economy, which in large part played a role in current global financial crisis - China had to keep buying US treasury bonds, using the dollars it acquired to keep yuan down to enable exports, which kept US interests down helping leveraging up and spending binge by the Americans. Lee Kuan Yew, one of the few global wise men, talking to Charlie Rose, explains why the Chinese economic transition to consumption based economy may not happen anytime soon. In this hour long interview, Lee Kuan also talks about what issues will be paramount in the next few decades. First part of interview is here:

Nehru, Not A Dove After All

2009-10-22T22:01:00.000+05:30

While paying homage to Sri Homi Bhaha's centennial birth anniversary, Sri K. Subrahmanyam writes about the apparent perceived wisdom - that Bhaha was nuclear hawk interested in weapons and Pandit Nehru was nuclear dove interested in global nuclear disarmament:

There is a view that Bhabha was the main driver behind India’s nuclear weapon ambitions and Jawaharlal Nehru was a dove totally committed to nuclear disarmament. The late historian, Sarvepalli Gopal, who had access to Bhabha’s papers, told me that in the wake of the First UN Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, over which he presided, Bhabha wrote to Nehru proposing that India should amend its constitution, renouncing nuclear weapons. Nehru replied, advising Bhabha to concentrate on development of the nuclear programme and to inform him when the stage was reached when India could make nuclear weapons. He asked Bhabha to leave political and strategic issues relating to nuclear energy in his hands. [Homi Bhabha - Scientist, visionary, dreamer; highlight by ed.]

Sri Subrahmanyam goes to say Bhabha turned to nuclear weaponization only after Chinese tested the weapon in 1964 and his death may not be the reason why India couldn't test weapon before the January 1st, 1967 deadline of NPT.

In Defense of Kalam

2009-09-13T19:03:00.005+05:30

In a post on failings of Kalam, Acorn tried to bring the veneration of former President Kalam down a notch. And other commentators piled on the failings to try to make the case stronger. While we agree with Acorn and others that raising the stature of Kalam in popular narrative to mythical levels is silly, the counter arguments showing the failings of Kalam doesn't hold much water.

Let's look at some of the criticisms. Well, there is really one core criticism in the post, which really boils down to Manoj Joshi's views on how Bharat should procure high value weapon systems. Acorn, nonetheless, endorses Joshi's view.

Because of (diversions caused by Kalam’s dogmatic insistence), India’s long-range missile deterrent has been delayed by about a decade...

He was not willfully dishonest, but his fixations and whims led to diversions and delays for which the country has paid a huge price. Perhaps his greatest, and in a sense forgivable, weakness was his obsession on “indigenous” development.

But the argument that India’s missiles are “indigenous” and Pakistan’s are based on Chinese, American, North Korean or someone else’s technology is a meaningless one. Military acquisitions are not about the “purity” of solutions, but time-urgent answers to a problem. [The Acorn]

While anyone who follows Sri Kalam's thoughts on weapons systems agree that he is a big proponent of developing weapon systems by ourselves, meaning designing and producing them "indigenously." Using that against Kalam is strange. One would think that was Kalam's career high point. Even if we ignore the struggles of Indian defence industry of not having an extensive and deep military-industrial base to produce high tech weapon systems, do critics really think India should buy critical weapons systems and be subjected to the whims and fancies of the provider nation? May be Joshi and Acorn forgot the trails and tribulations of making LCA take flight and sanctions regime on Kaveri engine, to take just one example. Even if we did buy, who will sell us an ICBM or an IRCBM? Did we forget MTCR.

Or, perhaps, Joshi and Acorn think we should have done what Pakistan and China have done - stealthy sell nuclear technology to rouge nations to acquire missile technology. Somehow I doubt Kalam's critics mean that. Or better yet, acquire the technology by espionage. I am all for espionage and stealing technology and manufacturing designs to speed up critical development process. But unless one believes the mythical status of Kalam to influence entire range of intelligence and political systems, the decision to conduct espionage would be made by political elites, not defence R&D project leaders.

Finally, who says India doesn't have the technology for producing the missile systems in the first place. What has ISRO being doing for the past few decades sending rockets to inner and outer space. Surely, Joshi and Acorn don't believe the myth that ISRO and DRDO are separated by an impenetrable wall!

That Kalam was the stumbling block for development of missile weapons systems doesn't hold water to reality. And that somehow we should use the delays in development and deployment of missiles to point out the failing of Kalam holds even less water. Those were purely political decisions. Kalam's call for indigenous development of missile weapon systems was the right call and it enhanced, rather than imperiled, national security. In fact, he prodded his scientists to think outside the conventional box such as, for example, thinking about reusable missiles.

As for other comments about his less than Victorian English to explain his vision for a strong developed India in a generation, we would take an Indian accent with simple English over apparently sophisticated arguments, in apparently sophisticated London or New York English accents, of some historians who are trying to make the case that India shouldn't even aspire to become a strong and rich nation! If Kalam can inspire enthusiastic and smart children, even better.

His conventional thoughts on getting infrastructure to people, where they live now, are just that - conventional. I simply do not know how people would be forced to migrate from their ancestral land to newly planned cities without economic incentives such as well paying jobs and good schools. But if there are well paying jobs, even without good schools, people migrate to urban centers as slums everywhere in big cities show. Until those economic incentives are in place, it's conventional to call for industry and government to provide basic, such water, electricity, and roads, and not so basic, such as internet, infrastructure to people where ever they live, even in remote villages.

We agree Kalam shouldn't be raised to a mythical status. But to say that Kalam abuses his mythical status is a myth. Surely that award goes to someone else.

Same Fact, Two Stories

2009-08-31T06:52:00.003+05:30

Here are two stories of the same fact about the sequence of Modi's offer to resign, and how he continued, after the self-serving coverage by p-sec media after Gujarat's post-Godhra-massacre riots in 2002.

First, Jaswant Singh recalling a conversation, on flight with Sri Atal Vajpayee, Advaniji, Shourie, and himself, about status of Narendra Modi seeming to implicate Advani blocking Vajpayee's decision on Modi. (It is just one in a series of attacks Jaswant lead on Advani in the interview and elsewhere. Apparently all of that won't have mattered if Jaswant's book was welcome by Advani and BJP!)

Shekhar Gupta: It’s come so tryue (sic) now
Jaswant Singh: After a few moments of silence he said, “Gujarat ka kya karna hein?” because the incidents in Gujarat were….

Shekhar Gupta: The riots were in fact were very fresh at that point
Jaswant Singh: They were burning in the hearts of the people

Shekhar Gupta: That’s right
Jaswant Singh: Both ways. The burning of the bogie, the killing of other citizens, the sectarianism of it, the communal nature of it. So there was silence for some time and when we said Gujarat ke bare mein sochna chaahiye. Atalji had a way of never directly, other than me, he often told me, aisa hoga. I would disagree ye teek nahin, aap galat kar rahe hein, aapko teek nahi laga, tho kyo kehte ho mujhe. Because what I am saying is right. He would agree. There was silence…

Shekhar Gupta: So he allowed you to disagree with him
Jaswant Singh: He always allowed me to disagree. Even in cabinet meetings, in cabinet committee on security, I don’t what to say those issues I disagreed on because that is a different matter altogether. But on this particular issue, then Advaniji went to the bathroom or something…

Shekhar Gupta: on the plane..
Jaswant Singh: yeah on the plane…

Shekhar Gupta: It’s a tiny 737
Jaswant Singh: It’s not very big. Atalji then said, poochiye kya karna which he implied I went and asked Advaniji. Advaniji said only one phrase bawaal kada ho jaayega

Shekhar Gupta: You mean there’ll be rebellion in the party if you sack Modi
Jaswant Singh: Bawaal means commotion. Bawaal kada ho jaayega party mein. But when we landed there was already a certain kind of atmosphere prevailing so this issue, on that occasion, did not get taken

Shekhar Gupta: So would it be correct to say that Mr Vajpayee would have been inclined to act on Modi but Mr Advani said if you act there would be commotion in the party which may be uncalled for so lets not do it
Jaswant Singh: Factually, factually, to the best of my recollection, yes, this was the conversation and this would be the interpretation

Shekhar Gupta: So Vajpayee would have liked to sack Narendra Modi as Chief Minister
Jaswant Singh: I might not use the word sack

Shekhar Gupta: to take action…
Jaswant Singh: But certainly for the party to reflect, take some corrective measure

Shekhar Gupta: But Mr Advani came to Narendra Modi’s defence
Jaswant Singh: I think that is correct, that is correct

Shekhar Gupta: Right
Jaswant Singh: That is correct

Second, Arun Shourie recalling the same incident indicating that Advani agreed, along with the other three, that Modi should be asked to resign during the same flight.

Shekhar Gupta: And that call would have been to do what?
Arun Shourie: That Modi should resign. Immediately after we came back we had to go to the meeting of the national executive in Goa and I was told you must be on the flight. I said, ‘No, that is not right. Only Advaniji and he (Vajpayee) should be there. They should thrash it out and finish it. Whatever they decide, whether Modi stays or go’. And frankly, I must say, I was more affected by Atalji’s pain than by what had happened in Gujarat. Maybe this is my inhumanity or something. I can’t claim that I was that great liberal. The second thing happened was that this person, who was saying that you have to go there, said ‘You don’t know, they will not talk. The two of them will just sit, two hours will go and they will not talk... So, Jaswant is going there. The two of you would be there and this subject must be brought up and concluded’. So we sat down but nobody would talk. After a while Atalji picked up a newspaper and opened it. Then Advaniji picked up a newspaper and opened it. So they are sitting like this (face-to-face) and each is holding a newspaper, shutting out the other. So I took the newspaper from Atalji. I said ‘Sir, please you have to decide this issue’. The conversation first went to Jana Krishnamurthy, who was the BJP president at that time, a very nice person... it was decided that Venkaiah (Naidu) would be the president.
Then second, ‘Modi ka kya karna hai?’. I think my recollection is more, what you would call, extended than Jaswant Singh’s. So, this was discussed and it was decided, it was definitely decided that when we get down, Advaniji will ring up Modi and say that in the meeting in the evening, offer to resign. Then the meeting starts, speeches start. Atalji, Advaniji and all are sitting on the stage and Modi got up and said, ‘Mujhe kuch kehna hai’, and he offered to resign. He said, ‘Main nahin chahta ki party should have any difficulties because of me’. And as if on cue, people from different parts of the hall started saying ‘absolutely no... koi galti nahin hai...’. I was sitting at the back... and I saw Atalji’s bewilderment because he thought this was a done deal. This was like an orchestrated coup against him.
So I got up and I said, ‘Narendra Modi ne abhi jo yeh kaha hai, it’s in pursuance of the decision which these senior leaders have taken in the flight... I was present’. There was consternation, but immediately again the chorus started and eventually somebody said, Atalji said or the president of the party said, ‘Abhi to public meeting ka time ho gaya hai, kal decide karenge. Logon ne kaha nahin nahin, nahin hoga’. So there is absolutely no doubt, and I can give you much more details of this, that Atalji was completely thwarted.

Shekhar Gupta: Thwarted? Everybody got together?
Arun Shourie: I am not sure that everybody got together simultaneously, but I must say that I was not all the time for this, that Modi has to go because of the killings, because in my view such things happen as a reaction, as happened in Delhi as a reaction to (Indira) Gandhi’s brutal killing. You can’t then prevent those things. Nobody can prevent those things.

Jaswant Loses His Mind

2009-08-26T18:14:00.004+05:30

May be this was sometime in the making. What else explains Jaswant Singh praise for Jinnah and derision for INC during the curial years before 1947. We were willing to grand some space to Jaswant as an intellectual and thinker. Today he proved he's neither.

Why had he been unceremoniously expelled from the party a week ago, the former External Affairs Minister was asked.

"Please don't ask me. I am outside the magic circle of advisers or thinkers. Because, I am not from the RSS, is that why? So are we a political party? Is the BJP becoming some kind of an Indian version of Ku Klux Klan?" he shot back during an interview to PTI here. KKK, widely known as The Klan, is the name of several past and present hate group organisations in the US, whose aim was to protect and further the rights of white Americans by intimidation.

Asked what he meant by reference to KKK, he said, "You know what the Klan means. You don't ask me about this." [IE]

May be he forgot to take his tablets, but he most certainly has lost his mind. Apparently one doesn't learn anything about an organization by working for it for 30 years.

It obviously is a path to join SP in the next few days. Also, may be now he can sell more of his fictional book in Pakistan and win praise from psecs in the country.

Farming or Gardening

2009-08-25T21:23:00.003+05:30

Women irrigating vegetable field in Sangli [IE].
One hopes it rains soon.

Nobody in Charge at BJP

2009-08-25T17:55:00.004+05:30

BJP's Rajnath Singh is shrinking the party. While we think there is merit to what BJP did to Jaswant Singh, the way it was done is having a blow back. Arun Shourie is challenging BJP to reform itself, quite publicly. BJP wants Sri Shourie to say whatever he wants to the party away from the media. But BJP has itself to blame for the thamasa. Sudheeran Kulkarni's leaving BJP is not such a big event in itself. He was probably at the door, right behind Sri Advani. He used the Jaswant's episode well to his advantage. What is bit more ominous is the resignation of Kiren Rijiju of Arunachal Pradesh. His action does not bode well for the party.

With Sri Rijiju leaving, that would be four active and thinking senior members of BJP leaving within a week. Rajnath Singh may be running the train, but it's Sri Advani who is apparently still in charge. Lot of this internal tussle would have probably happened anyway had Advaniji retired soon after election lose. Now, Advaniji is still the head but apparently not in-charge. He has to leave BJP for the party to remake itself. Atalji has already shown how to do it skillfully.

Transition of leadership is any institution messy business. The thing to note on the turmoil in BJP is its members are fighting back on the dictatorial tendency of its leadership. This happened in Congress I many times, most recently when Sonia Gandhi took charge when Sharad Pawar, P.A. Sagma, and Tariq Anwar quit. As a result of the transitional tussle, Congress I increased the dictatorial style of party governance, in line with its history. One hopes, contrary to what happened to Congress I, this period will allow BJP to become more democratic as an institution - that is the only way to bring new blood into leadership every election cycle, and that BJP will come out stronger the other side of this mess.

Why BJP is Right and Jaswant Singh Wrong

2009-08-21T06:50:00.005+05:30

On of the face it, it seems silly for BJP to throw anyone out of the party for writing a book, least of all Jaswant Singh who worked for the party for 30 years and was an effective and prominent minister, handling key portfolios, during NDA rule under Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. A case can be made that he was one of the most effective foreign minister (and probably an effective finance minister as well, with Vijay Kelkar on his side ) because of the way he maneuvered US when it was breathing down Bharat's neck to role back nuclear weaponization, join NPT, and sign up for CTBT. Lesser mortals could have succumbed. In fact, NDA government almost did.

The way to look at this is not from Jaswant Singh's side, but from BJP point of view. BJP is political entity. It is based on political ideology and, at least ideally, sticks to that ideology when competing for political power at state and central levels. And its ideology is apparently based on nationalism and on historic Bharatiya cultural continuity, the so called Hindutva ideology. The entire debate after the recent BJP election loss was trying to identify what Hindutva actual meant. BJP and its support organization, RSS, would like the definition of Hindutva to be cultural nationalism rather than nationalism based on Hindu religion .

Even before the debate about Hindutva is settled, Sri Singh writes Jinnah — India, Partition and Independence, that, at its core, absolves Muhammad Ali Jinnah as being the central force for break up the Bharatiya subcontinent and lays the blame for it centrally on Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He goes even further to say that Indian Muslims may not be comfortable with current democratic setup, meaning they have a legitimate claim to grievance of the current majority-based democratic framework.

It's one thing to write a book that re-looks at the roles Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel played leading up to partition. It's entirely another thing to make Muhammad Jinnah as the focal point of his book and downplay his role in partition. Does Jaswant Singh really believe a three-tired structure with semi-independent provinces work for India? If he does, why oppose the current status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It's ironic, and besides the point for this current debate, that Nehru dismisses Jinnah's interest in semi-independent provices for a strong centre, a prerequisite for his Fabian socialist agenda, but agrees to the same structure for Jammu and Kashmir soon after. In fact, early on, Nehru was okay with even a very loose federal structure for Jammu and Kashmir which Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, the creator of Jan Sangh, BJP's prior political form, gave his life fighting against.

What Sri Singh did in his book on Jinnah and partition was to undermine the core ideology of his own party. As an individual and a historian, it is perfectly reasonable for Jaswant Singh to write this book. But he cannot write a book that attacks the central ideology of BJP, that too as a senior leader of the same party.

It would have been better for both Jaswant Singh and BJP had Sri Singh resigned from BJP to write this book. The book itself may prove to be an important book on partition. But BJP had every right to fire a person who was working against its own political ideology. We just would have hoped they could have explained the action a little better.

As for the state of Gujarat's ban on Jaswant's book, suffice it to say that Sardar Patel would have probably disapproved the action. We would go further to say that Sardar Patel cannot be brought down by one book. If not, Marxist historians would have done it a long time ago to keep their apparent secular icon Nehru on an even higher pedestal.

What Wasn't Said about Offending Hindus

2009-08-02T11:00:00.000+05:30

Rohit Pradhan has an extremely fair review of Salil Tripathi's short book Offense: Hindu Case in Pragati, an online based magazine. While I'll let you read Sri Pradhan's review here, I am curious about wasn't said in the book. Sri Tripathi regurgitate the usual apparent intolerance of Hindus with stories of Gujarat's apparent anti-Muslim riot, sorry, "pogrom", M.F. Hussein obnoxious paintings of Lakshmi Devi, and others. What was missing was Hindus intolerance towards other Hindus. Even if one ignores the societal discrimination based on jati, Sri Tripathi seems to miss cases of Hindu Marxists intolerance on what Hinduism standards for or of Hindu secularists disdain towards practising Hindus. Aren't they Hindu offenders?

One thing that took me aback was the photo in Pragati of some guy with a tilak and painting and colour on his face with red angry eyes wearing collared t-shirt. What was the point this picture? Was it from Sri Tripathi's book? Is this how an offending Hindu looks like?

One hopes Sri Tripathi can collate a Defense: Hindu Case about how practising Hindus look upon people of other faith as equal, not inferior, to them - a key fundamental difference between other religious practitioners and practising Hindus. But then one has to be a practising Hindu to understand that.

Clinton's Nuclear Sites

2009-06-27T09:48:00.005+05:30

Few days ago we weren't sure what role Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, would have when it comes to future India-US relationship. We proposed it would be restricted to trade issues.

And with all generals from Pacific command and heads of CIA making their presence in Delhi, Hillary Clinton presumably cares only about trade and people-to-people issues.

It seems we made the right call. Now things are coming into more focus. With Gen. James Jones, US NSA, visit talking exclusively about terrorism and Afghan-Paki region with Bharatiya establishment, Hillary Clinton apparently will be talking about where the nuclear power plants will be built by US companies, meaning trade and commerce issues. Smt. Clinton seems to be scoring with the WTO deal few weeks ago, when Anand Sharma gave up what Kamal Nath fought for for years, and now this.

India is likely to announce locations for two nuclear power plants, which would be made available to the American companies, during US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to New Delhi next month, a top Obama Administration has said.

Who in US establishment would Bharat engage to talk about China, when China is becoming openly aggresive, and about other areas of concern? Are those issues even on the menu?

Summery of Tussle

2009-06-25T08:46:00.003+05:30

Jeff Smith of American Foreign Policy Council summarizes the ongoing tussle between India and China on China's apparent claim on Arunachal Pradesh in WSJ. He forgets to bring up the promise China made to PM Atal Vajpayee during his official to China on solving the border issue peacefully even as China was digging in with its troops and weapons systems on their side of Arunachal border.

He however posits what Washington's position should be.

What is Washington's role in this Asian rivalry? In the short term, a priority must be to tamp down friction over the border. In the longer term, Washington should leverage its friendly relations with both capitals to promote bilateral dialogue and act as an honest broker where invited. But it should also continue to build upon the strategic partnership with India initiated by former president George W. Bush, and support its ally, as it did at the Nuclear Suppliers group and the ADB, where necessary. Washington must also make clear that it considers the established, decades-old border between the two to be permanent.

Most importantly, though, the Sino-Indian border dispute should be viewed as a test for proponents of China's "peaceful rise" theory. If China becomes adventurous enough to challenge India's sovereignty or cross well-defined red lines, Washington must be willing to recognize the signal and respond appropriately.

Missing Word is Strategic

2009-06-18T19:39:00.003+05:30

It's hard to know how much influence current US Secretary of State has on US president. Even if one ignores the election battle they went through, Sri Obama has an alternative point man for Afghan-Paki, and presumably for India, region for all security and terror related issues. And with all generals from Pacific command and heads of CIA making their presence in Delhi, Hillary Clinton presumably cares only about trade and people-to-people issues.

Bibek Debroy says one reason why Kamal Nath was not re-appointed commerce minister was because he gave US trade representative hell when negotiating the next round of WTO agreement - meaning, he was fighting for India's cause. Apparently the new commerce minister, Anand Sharma, already obliged his US counter part by making concessions. This implies Clinton apparently already influenced Indian PM decision making.

Hillary Clinton, it seems, has more influence in New Delhi than in Washington. So her speech at USIBC, the text of which I could not find on USIBC site, may not be a comprehensive take on relations between India and US.

However, putting the speech next to her take on the future path of US-China and US-Russian relationships makes us wonder where India falls in the scheme of things in Washington. References to 'Upgrade of Relationship' and 'Version 3.0' in her speech are fine but beyond commerce and trade, there is nothing substantive in her speech that indicates a new level of relationship. More than what was said, we find what was unsaid more interesting.

Ms. Clinton said while pursuing an "enhanced bilateral partnership" the two countries should recognise that their official ties "are past due for an upgrade" as compared to other metrics of cooperation. "We need bilateral cooperation between our governments to catch up with our people-to-people and economic ties".

If Bush administration's "strategic partnership" was version 2.0, we think "enhanced bilateral partnership" is a downgrade to the relationship that existed during the last the few years of Bush years. This may, quite possibly, be an indication of Clinton's influence in Obama's government. There will be more clarity when Obama himself has something significant to say about the relationship. For now, the trajectory of the relationship seems to be pointing downwards.

Humour: Should the Code be Transparent Too?

2009-06-17T21:31:00.004+05:30

Martin Demello writes in IE:

The 2005 Right to Information Act was a significant milestone for India, a firm commitment to openness and transparency. The UPA’s promises of a public data project has only strengthened that commitment, promising to sweep away the nation’s dusty piles of secrecy and bureaucracy. But with increasing computerisation comes a related, but often overlooked imperative — that all government software be open source.

Just wondering if the open source code needs to be written in transparent font so one can see through it also. What's more baffling is this column was published at all!

Note: Have been away from blogging while dealing with family issues. Plenty of things happened in the past six months including BJP's failure to win general elections and return of the failed UPA back in power and the rise of left in the US. One nugget that can be taken away from the general and, especially, state elections in AP is people complain about corruption all the time, but they don't care about it. Corruption as a political issue is a non-issue for voters.

Fouad Ajami Remembers Samuel Huntington, Dead at Age 81

2008-12-30T12:05:00.003+05:30

I had plenty of things say regarding Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations - a book I brought promptly as soon as I came across it and read it cover to cover (unlike few other books I buy or borrow). Suffice it say much of his thesis regarding the clash between Christian west and Islamic lands has borne out.

Unfortunately Sri Huntington didn't know much about India, so he had little to say about the clash that was already underway between Islamists, and their apologist pseudo-secularists, and the reviving Hinduism nationalism, even if in fits and starts. At best he could come up with an interaction of civilizational clash in the lands of subcontinent. But Islamists and jihadists take him seriously because they know exactly what they are trying to revive - the pre-ideological battles that were routine in the world before Marxism, Communism, and Capitalism came along. And they know Islam (along with Christianity) was at the forefront of all those battles. It's unfinished business for the jihadists.

And the people, such as Amartya Sen, who deride Sri Huntington ignore the Islamic jihadists and are blinded by their own superiority of intellect, despite ample proof - the latest being Mumbai Islamic terror massacres. But the Islamic terror and jihad will not go away by intellectual arguments. The secularists will surely succumb, as they are wont to, as evident in Europe. Will other civilizations fight back?

Here is one thinker of Islamic lands and people who crossed over to Sri Huntington's side after being the first to stand against him. Fouad Ajami's obituary of Sri Huntington.

In an article first published in Foreign Affairs in 1993 (then expanded into a book), Huntington foresaw the shape of the post-Cold War world. The war of ideologies would yield to a civilizational struggle of soil and blood. It would be the West versus the eight civilizations dividing the rest -- Latin American, African, Islamic, Sinic, Hindu, Orthodox, Buddhist and Japanese.
In this civilizational struggle, Islam would emerge as the principal challenge to the West. "The relations between Islam and Christianity, both orthodox and Western, have often been stormy. Each has been the other's Other. The 20th-century conflict between liberal democracy and Marxist-Leninism is only a fleeting and superficial historical phenomenon compared to the continuing and deeply conflictual relation between Islam and Christianity."
If I may be permitted a personal narrative: In 1993, I had written the lead critique in Foreign Affairs of his thesis. I admired his work but was unconvinced. My faith was invested in the order of states that the West itself built. The ways of the West had become the ways of the world, I argued, and the modernist consensus would hold in key Third-World countries like Egypt, India and Turkey. Fifteen years later, I was given a chance in the pages of The New York Times Book Review to acknowledge that I had erred and that Huntington had been correct all along...

He had been a source of great wisdom, an exemplar, and it had been an honor to write of him, and to know him in the regrettably small way I did.
We don't have his likes in the academy today. Political science, the field he devoted his working life to, has been in the main commandeered by a new generation. They are "rational choice" people who work with models and numbers and write arid, impenetrable jargon.

More importantly, nowadays in the academy and beyond, the patriotism that marked Samuel Huntington's life and work is derided, and the American Creed he upheld is thought to be the ideology of rubes and simpletons, the affliction of people clinging to old ways. The Davos men have perhaps won. No wonder the sorrow and the concern that ran through the work of Huntington's final years.

Bhishmapitamaha is 85

2008-12-25T21:12:00.003+05:30

Atal Bihari Vajpayee is 85 today

Purple Pig-Nose Frog

2008-12-25T12:11:00.003+05:30

Nasikabatrachus sahyadrenis

Does batrachus stand for pig? At 8 cm and 142 gm, it's decent size. I wonder why it's so hard to find.

A purple frog with a pig-like snout, thought to be near-extinct, has been found alive in a field close to the Kerala Forest Research Institute at Peechi near Thrissur town in Kerala.
First reported in India eight years ago, the rare frog species is closely linked to a similar frog found only in the island group of the Seychelles — suggesting the affinity between the Western Ghats and the Indian Ocean archipelago. Just over 8 cm in length and weighing 142 gm, the frog, which lives mostly under soil was found by a farm worker planting tuber crops. The KFRI researchers brought the frog to their campus and identified it as the species Nasikabatrachus sahyadrenis, never before reported in the district.

Only Nine More to Go!

2008-12-25T10:23:00.003+05:30

When Bush attacked Iraq, his main justifications was apparent Iraqi WMD and UN resolutions that Iraq had been flouting since 1991, when the first Gulf war was waged. There were a total of 17 resolutions that Iraq ignored or didn't act on before US decided to act. Even then the Europeans and everyone else who matter didn't go along with Bush. Now Americans themselves think the war is illegal!

Now we hear that Manmohan Singh is creating a dossier of UN resolutions that Pakistan ignored. Apparently are eight resolutions. So only nine more to go!

New Delhi: Not satisfied with Islamabad’s “token action” on the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), India has prepared a “detailed dossier” of Pakistan’s “violations” of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions. The violations, on at least eight counts, range from non-extradition of the Terror outfit’s leaders to non-prosecution of the group and its members.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said outside Parliament on Tuesday, “We would like an objective effort from Pakistan to dismantle the terror machine. The Government of Pakistan knows what it implies. We expect them, as a member of the United Nations, to comply with the resolutions passed over the years, not just ‘1267’. We want the international community to use its power of persuasion to persuade Pakistan to comply with these resolutions.”

This is not quite what chacha Nehru did when Pakistan send jihadis to take over the Kingdom of Kashmir in 1947. Instead of evicting the jihadis and Pakistan regulars, Nehru went to UN to mediate the so-called "dispute" thanks to the British advisor Mountbatten. The British and Americans then ate Nehru naivete for lunch. Manmohan is getting there, it seems. But first a dossier is made. I am sure the world will be with Bharat if and when it wants to pursue action against Pakistan, just like it was with US and Bush in 2003 when he enforced UN resolutions in Iraq.

Nonsense About Terrorist State Stability

2008-12-23T06:15:00.002+05:30

For years I have argued that stability of Pakistan and territorial integrity - the epicenter of global Islamic jihad and Islamic terrorism against Bharat - is not in our interest. Bharat Verma takes the same stand forcefully while talking of the danger of Pakiland Islamic jihad on Bharatiya democracy and secular majority.

Another falsehood perpetuated by the eternally helpless breed of Indians is that a stable Pakistan is in India's interest. It is not, stable or otherwise. Pakistan is a failed State. It is on the brink of disintegration. It simply needs to be helped to remove itself and the map redrawn. Otherwise, the cost to India will keep increasing disproportionately.

To take this war to the enemy, New Delhi needs a deliberate, graded and escalating response with a clear political and military objective to help Islamabad disintegrate:

Snap diplomatic relations immediately.
Declare Pakistan a terrorist State.
Discontinue all trains and bus services as well as trade and business transactions.
Announce renegotiations of the Indus Water Treaty as the terms unduly favour Pakistan.
Begin a process to regulate the water supplies and build new mechanisms to activate water flow controls.
Cancel permissions for over flights.
Seal the Nepal and Bangladesh borders on a priority basis.
Build a grand alliance of democracies by increasing their stakes in the burgeoning economic pie of India, to leverage their support against authoritarian regimes on our border including Pakistan.
Increase immediately FDI in the defence sector from 26 percent to 49 percent. This will help India to emerge as the most modern technology driven defence industry hub in Asia while making it profitable for Western companies to invest.

Five Years of Congress I Misrule - From an Insider

2008-12-23T06:00:00.000+05:30

We already know how corrupt Congress I politicians have been and continue to be. Until now there were no major corruption scandals exposed because the ministers in Manmohan's cabinet scratch each others back while donating a small cut to Sonia/Rahul duo and the party coffers.

Here is an IAS officer disgusted with the corrupt and incompetent Manmohan's government laying it all out in an open letter to PM after the recent Mumbai Islamic terror massacres.

Economic reforms stopped long ago, for your allies didn’t want them; there are many ministers in your cabinet who have perfected Wal-Mart’s cash-and-carry model and you can’t do a damn about it. You have failed on all counts as a leader. So, at least now, when India is under attack on its own soil, please act. And if you can’t act, please get out of the way and allow someone more effective to run the country....

You have personally demonstrated integrity, but what use is that alone, when almost every key minister in your cabinet is treating every file as an opportunity for cash flows? Are you telling us you don’t know that your telecom, environment and shipping ministries are the home of organized mafias looting the exchequer?

We know from The Pioneer expose that the telecom minister, A. Raja, and his wife, M.A. Parameswari, made 755 crores in one year - that's an average of 2 crores per day! We are told Central Vigilance Commission (sic), TRAI, finance ministry, and others could not stop the corruption of the humble dalit from Tamil Nadu!! Of course, the apparently clean prime minister does not act.

Apparently there are no checks in the great Indian democracy.

We haven't heard anything about the environment ministry - but one can only guess, with the growing economy and expanding industrial sector, how the environment minister could wave the world class environment protection laws on the books, which are never implemented anyway, to stuff his pockets.

Also, I am curious about the former underworld dealer from Bombay, the current minority affairs minister, A. R. Antulay's recent dupliticity on Mumbai Islamic terror massacres and the murders of top ATS officials including chief Hemant Karkare.

Antulay, who was present in the Lok Sabha, was seen smiling at the opposition members, gesturing them to continue with their protest. At one point, he even displayed the 'thumbs up' sign.

Apparently the rest of the psec media and liberals/progressives didn't get his memo because they appear confused and wondering why Antulay is doing what he is doing.

But not the Congress I party. Why? Because they know who Antulay is before Sonia, the queen, made him minister in Manmohan's cabinet. He was part of Bombay underworld providing services to the likes of Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Menon and probably continues to be a conduit for Dawood's money funneling into Congress I party funds. So Antuley can provide cover for Dawood revenge killers, who ended up, I think by luck, killing Karkare and the rest of top ATS officials, with impunity. It took Antuley about three weeks to get in touch with his former mentors in Pakistan and come up with a story to create outrage and plausibility of alternative narrative and, of course, Hindu -Zionist conspiracy which for some reason plenty of, otherwise sane, desi Muslims seem to gobble up. He is doing his work well for terrorist supporters in Pakiland and India. Congress I is playing along with the probable top fund raiser and possibly to get political mileage from anti-Hindu vote bank politics.

So all the tough talk from Manmohan, Sonia, and Pranab Mukherjee is a show because they can't even fire a lowly minister who has contacts with terror supporters across the border. Of course more and more Muslims jumping on Antulay's band wagon makes their show easier.

It is classic Congress I party that Nehru built which is now even deeper in the sewer.

Sucking Up to The Clintons

2008-12-20T08:32:00.000+05:30

Lakshmi Mittal made the news in most headlines on Clinton donors by giving over $1millon. Of course Amar Singh, who bought the opposition MPs to keep the incompetent Manmohan government floating for few more months and of course exonirated by self-proclaimed august body of parliment, gave more than a $1millon. One remembers the high profile visit that Bill Clinton made to UP with Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh at his flank. There are a few more. Entire list is here.

There is a stronger-than-expected Indian presence in the donor list. In the $1 million to $5 million category --- specific amounts are not mentioned in the list --- three Indian names appear: steel tycoon Laksmi Mittal, wind power company Suzlon Energy and Samajwadi Party politician Amar Singh.

The Confederation of Indian Industry has given between half a million and a million dollars. Ajit Gulabchand of Hindustan Construction and the late hotelier Lalit Suri wrote Clinton cheques of between $250,000 and $500,000 each. Vinod Gupta, NRI businessmen and an old "Friend of Bill" did likewise.

Between $100,000 and $250,000 was the contribution of at least three Indian companies --- Ranbaxy, Reliance Europe and the India Today Group. Also in this category are Lata Krishnan, a California-based technology fund manager and member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), and Mike Patel, former chairman of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association.

Having given the Clinton Foundation between $50,000 and $100,000 are the Hinduja Foundation and New York-based lawyer Bal G Das, who was active in Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) politics in the early 1990s.

How Taking Back of PoK Was Thwarted, At Least Once

2008-12-19T23:12:00.004+05:30

Anuj Dhar's new book goes into the background of 1971 war of liberation of East Pakistan. It throws additional light on what was already suspected for a long time - that Indira's cabinet was penetrated by CIA operative. One still does know who it is. FISD reviewed CIA’s Eye on South Asia, published by Delhi-based Manas Publications, that Sri Dhar wrote using CIA's archival material that opened up in the past few years.

Records and telecons declassified recently - but not properly explained up till now - show that a dramatic turnaround came on December 6 when a CIA operative, whom Dhar pins down as a minister of the Indira Cabinet, leaked out India’s “war objectives” to the agency. Prime Minister Gandhi told Union Cabinet that apart from liberating Bangladesh, India intended to take over a strategically important part of the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and go for the total annihilation of Pakistan’s armed forces so that Pakistan “never attempts to challenge India in the future.”...
The CIA went on assess that fulfillment of India’s “war objectives” might lead to “the emergence of centrifugal forces which could shatter West Pakistan into as many as three or four separate countries.”

As a direct result of the operative’s information, the Nixon administration went on an overdrive to save West Pakistan from a massive Indian assault. Because the President felt that “international morality will be finished - the United Nations will be finished - if you adopt the principle that because a country is democratic and big it can do what the hell it pleases.”

Nixon personally threatened the USSR with a “major confrontation” between the superpowers should the Soviets failed to stop the Indians from going into West Pakistan. Kissinger secretly met Chinese Permanent Representative at the UN to apprise him of the CIA operative’s report and rub in that what India was planning to do with Pakistan with the Soviet backing could turn out to be a “dress rehearsal” of what they might do to China.

Dhar quotes in the book the official records showing that USSR’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Kuznetsov visited Delhi after Nixon’s threat and told the “Indians to confine their objectives to East Pakistan” and “not to try and take any part of West Pakistan, including Azad Kashmir” as “Moscow was concerned about the possibility of a great power confrontation over the subcontinent.” Kuznetsov also extracted a guarantee from Prime Minister Gandhi that India will not attack West Pakistan. This decision was promptly conveyed to Nixon. On 16 December 1971 when Nixon was told that India had declared a ceasefire, he exulted: “We have made it… it’s the Russians working for us.” Kissinger congratulated him for saving West Pakistan - India’s main target, as per the operative’s report to the CIA.

Dhar repudiates recent assertion by a former Indian Navy chief that showing up of America’s biggest nuclear powered carrier into the Bay of Bengal during the war had something to do with the accidental destruction of a US plane in Dhaka during an Indian strafing. “Declassified records make it unambiguously clear that the month-long show of strength by the USS Enterprise and accompanying flotilla was a byproduct of the CIA operative’s reports,” he writes, reproducing chunks from official records detailing how Nixon ordered a naval task force towards the subcontinent to “scare off” India from attacking West Pakistan.
In subsequent years, former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, and two deputy PMs - Jagjivan Ram and Y B Chavan - were alleged to be the CIA operative active during the 1971 war. However, all such charges lacked any substantiation because there was no confirmation whether or not such an operative ever existed....

More pertinently, Dhar quotes from the declassified record of a 5 October 1972 meeting between Indian Foreign Minister Swaran Singh and US Secretary of State William Rogers. During the meeting, Singh asserted that “CIA has been in contact with people in India in ‘abnormal ways.’” and that India had information that “proceedings of Congress Working Committee were known to US officials within two hours of meetings”.

Beyond a listening device in the cabinet room, I suspect it was Morarji Desi because he followed the peculiar tradition of moral equivalency of M.K. Gandhi. It would have been for him, with this peculiar intellectual demeanour, to think that Indira's plan to take back PoJ&K by force and destroying LoP army was morally wrong. Of course, I have nothing to back my suspicion.

US Buying Weapons - A Win-Win Proposition

2008-12-16T23:04:00.005+05:30

Bret Stephens, of WSJ, thinks US should buy Pakistan's nuclear weapons while providing an umbrella to the country against Bharat.

This is the deal I have in mind. The government of Pakistan would verifiably eliminate its entire nuclear stockpile and the industrial base that sustains it. In exchange, the U.S. and other Western donors would agree to a $100 billion economic package, administered by an independent authority and disbursed over 10 years, on condition that Pakistan remain a democratic and secular state (no military rulers; no Sharia law). It would supplement that package with military aid similar to what the U.S. provides Israel: F-35 fighters, M-1 tanks, Apache helicopters. The U.S. would also extend its nuclear umbrella to Pakistan, just as Hillary Clinton now proposes to do for Israel.

Nitin, at Acorn, thinks it won't happen because Pakiland is milking the weapons for all their worth, monetarily and geopolitically.

Because it can get the same money by keeping the nuclear weapons—by playing up the risk of these weapons falling into the hands of rogues and terrorists in case of widespread turmoil. So why sell the goose that lays the golden eggs? And we are not even talking about whether the ordinary and the elite would accede to a trade-in deal.

At first glance one would probably agree with Nitin and wonder what was Sri Stephens thinking. But more one thinks about it, it is actually a great deal - for Pakiland and its elites.

As basic finance says, a rupee is worth more now than a rupee next week, why doesn't Pakiland hand over the weapons to America for $100billion (may be haggle for a few free items - a dozen fighter jets and a few tanks to keep the talking heads on their side) and then start rebuilding the weapon system over a decade or so with Chinese help, as they did the first time. This way the elites can divide the monies now. Who knows where Zardari or Kalyani will be in 5-6 years from now to continue drawing the trickle that keeps coming from Washington or Beijing.

Of course, the Chinese will have to play long, which I am sure they will as they always have. Meanwhile, Pakiland will have a guaranteed American umbrella (come to think of it, Pakiland bombs may apparently be newer then America's) against Bharat and they can continue with their Islamic terror and death and destruction.

I think the proposition is a win-win for Pakiland.

Giving it to Beebs, For What It's Worth

2008-12-15T11:40:00.003+05:30

M.J. Akbar has apparently expressed outrage at the ultra-lefty beebs coverage of Mumbai Islamic terror massacre. I am not sure where Sri Akbar has been over the, say, past decade when Beebs has been sliding the down the path quite openly. But maybe it's worth a try to poke at lefty media. Europe has been following beebs path when it comes to issues related to Islam and its aggressive practioners. Just don't expect any change in behaviour from beebs or, as matter of fact, the rest of Europe.

Incredible: We Are Fighting By Doing Nothing, Seriously, Says PM

2008-12-15T10:18:00.005+05:30

Even as western news agencies provide cover for Pakistani's inaction,

India pressed to share Mumbai evidence with rival
By SAM DOLNICK, Associated Press Writer

India demanded that Pakistan crack down on militants, shutter charities linked to extremists and jail suspected plotters.

With a flurry of raids, Pakistan took many of those steps this week. Now it's up to India to do what it likes least: share intelligence with its archrival about what it knows and how it knows it.

Keeping the alleged plotters in jail will require unprecedented investigative cooperation across a border mined with distrust and suspicion, and the onus has shifted to India.

Pakistani authorities say they will prosecute in their own courts anyone linked to the three-day siege in Mumbai that left 164 dead — they just need the proof.

India names Pakistani masterminds, date plot to 07
By SAM DOLNICK, Associated Press Writer

NEW DELHI – A Pakistani militant group apparently used an Indian operative as far back as 2007 to scout targets for the elaborate plot against India's financial capital, authorities said Thursday, a blow to Indian officials who have blamed the deadly attacks entirely on Pakistani extremists.

the tough talking Pranab Mukherjee is giving interviews to TV stations saying we may act but closes options on coercive actions,

Mukherjee asserted that the government will take all steps to protect the territorial integrity of the country but ruled out war as a solution to the problem.
(Did we miss something? Mumbai Islamic terrorists or any number of terrorists acts, in the past few years, were about separating Mumbai or other cities from Bharat? Is that what these acts of Islamic terrorism are about?)

and the nice talking Manmohan says he wants peace with the country the trained, armed, and funded the Mumbai massacre.

“It has always been my view that both countries (India and Pakistan) need to build their relationship together through mutual understanding. We want to make our relations normal with Pakistan,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan is playing its role as tough-to-get - on the one hand it claims to the victim and on the other letting go of perpetrators of terrorism, that it just put in "house arrest" - meaning free to travel to TV stations to give interviews.

The fault is not the pressure from US or UK, or presence of nuclear weapons in Pakistan, or even the Islamic terrorists who openly roam in that country, it is us and the so-called government in charge. Apparently recently held state elections gave the signal, to the psec media and Congress I lead government, that terror is not an issue any more, just days after Mumbai massacres, with the electorate. The inaction is probably the result of the presiding queen hasn't approved any action against the Land of Pure. I am sure there is a way to deal with enemy nations and enemy actors, but this is not it.

So it is back to business as usual as far as Manmohan and his apparent government is concerned.

Hope Next $1000 Will Be Much Faster

2008-12-10T11:41:00.004+05:30

I hadn't looked at Bharatiya macro economic data in a long time. I knew the GDP crossed a $1 trillion sometime last year. But here is some data, I think, that should be celebrated, except for population growth rate.

Annual data 2007(a)
Population (m) 1,130
GDP(US$bn; market exchange rate) 1,132(b)
GDP(US$bn; purchasing power parity) 3,094(b)
GDP per head (US$; market exchange rate) 1,000
GDP per head (US$; purchasing power parity) 2,740
Population growth (5-year average) 1.7

(a) Economist Intelligence Unit estimates. (b) Actual.
Source: Economist.com Country Briefings

Sure there is a long way to go before poverty is controlled under a manageable 5-10% of population. One hopes the next $1000 GDP per capita will be achieved much much faster, say, in 7 years, if we can hit the real Hindu Rate of Growth of 10%.

I also worry about population growth rate of 1.7 because it is below 2.1 replacement level. To be sure, I don't consider India's populations to be excessive. Silly people (and politicians who get nothing done) blame population for the sins of bad governance and non-management of urban and rural living spaces. If low population was only key to development, African nations with much smaller populations would be highly developed and Japan with a population density larger than Bharat would be poorer. The answer to degraded infrastructure and scare resources is better governance and better management of both, not shrinkage of population. I think the huge land of Bharat can easily sustain a 100 or 150 crore (1-1.5 billion) people. So population growth should be at least at a replacement level to make the country productive and balanced for the foreseeable future.

How Islamic Terror is Linked to Islam, as a Religion

2008-12-07T11:52:00.007+05:30

It's true vast majority of Muslims don't practice violence - they are like regular non-Muslims people. They see right and wrong. They enjoy beauty and art. They worry about their loved ones and care for humanity. But Islam as a religion provides authority to the nuts within Muslims to terrorize people of other religions. And, more importantly, regular Muslims generally haven't being fighting Muslim terrorists. Unless and until regular Muslims fight back their terrorizing coreligionists, the whole think will get really dicey, across the globe.

So when one says Muslims are by and large peace loving, it's true. Also when one says Islam is religion that sanctions terror, it's true. Both statements are true at the same. It doesn't mean Islam as religion has exclusivity over terror. Surely secular religions such as Communism and Fascism have a claim to terror. And it is surely true historically Christians also terrorized other religions and non-true Christians. But Christian religious terror has by and large ceased to exist (although non-christian soul harvesting continues full pace). Also, Hinduism doesn't do terror. It doesn't mean there is no evil amongst Hindus, but Hinduism as religion doesn't sponsor terrorizing non-Hindus for any purpose.

Here is an excellent scholarly video that explains why Islam as a religion can officially be used to terrorize non-Muslims. It's from a western perspective and is about hour and half (see around 53-54 minutes why September 11 is an important date; around 55-56 minutes to references to Hindu Holocaust that our pseudo-secular historians have tried to cover up or pass it off as recent divide and rule policy of British colonialism; the last 7-10 minutes shows the challenge India, and the non-Muslim world, faces) and is very informative.

Why Pakistan Behaves the Way it Does

2008-12-07T10:41:00.003+05:30

Two articles give a somewhat different perspective on why Pakistan does not behave like a normal country - that is, taking care of its own people and having a defensive posture rather than playing too smart for its own good without a care for its people. Both go back to the Two Nation Theory that was used by Islamists and Muslims elites to create the Land of Pure in the first place.

K. Subrahmanyam writes for the Reuters in terms of LoP's obsession with military parity with Bharat.

A section of Pakistani establishment had always claimed parity with India going back to the British colonial days when the British in pursuance of the Divide and Rule policy equated the two parties -- the Congress and the Muslim League.
Sections of Pakistani establishment therefore desired parity militarily, in nuclear arsenal and missiles. For such elements in Pakistan the Indian unity was artificial and they did not expect India with its enormous diversities to survive as a united nation. They have talked about bleeding India through a thousand cuts....
Long before Professor Samuel Huntington formulated his 'clash of civilisations' thesis Mohammed Ali Jinnah and his followers had formulated the two-nation theory and argued that Hindus and Muslims could not coexist in a nation and therefore the Muslims must have a separate nation of their own.

Elaborating this to the US media in 2002, the Delhi-born General Pervez Musharraf pointed out that while the Hindus venerated the cows the Muslims ate them. While Hindus worshipped thousands of gods the Muslims worshipped only one God. Therefore he argued they belonged to different civilisations.

It is the same argument which make Pakistanis believe that Kashmir should have gone to them though it was Jinnah, the constitutional lawyer who insisted that with lapse of British paramountcy each princely ruler was entitled to accede to the dominion of his choice or become sovereign.

This clarification is necessary to explain that there are significant elements in Pakistan which subscribe to the 'clash of civilisations' thesis and for them it is natural to accept that the westerners (the crusaders), the Zionists (Israelis) and the Hindus are the enemies.

M.J. Akbar writes in the Times of India about the origins of Two Nation theory and links it to the then impending post-independence Nehru socialism. Sri Akbar is true in that jagirdari is still the bane of ordinary Pakistanis. (Apparently positions in Agriculture Department are the most sort after for officers from Pakistani Army because they can get their hands on land.) One of few things that Indira did during her long tenure as prime minister that I approve of was the dismantling of the jagirdari system in Bharat although her motivation was not altruistic. Sri Akbar also talks about J&K troubles and relates it back to current Mumbai Islamic massacers.

Neither history nor theology could have sustained such a slogan, but Muslim elites in British India, particularly landlords and capitalists, manipulated the incipient ideology of the Muslim League, and fuelled it with incendiary sentiment in order to create a state where they could protect their vested interests. They were not really afraid of "Hindu Raj"; they were terrified of land reform and socialism - however pale a version it might be - that the Congress would enforce. It is no accident that till today there has been no serious land reform in Pakistan. Gandhi's honest faith in Hinduism was maliciously exploited to spread the perfidy that India would never offer an equal place to Muslims.

The idea of Islam being in danger was particularly attractive to a section of the ulema - but not to all of them; the Jamaat-e-Ulema- e-Hind (now led by Maulana Mahmood Madni), unlike the Jamaat-e-Islami, was very clear-headed about the potential pitfalls and opposed the creation of Pakistan. The pro-partition ulema, however, discovered a unique opportunity for power. If Islam was going be the raison d'etre of the new nation, then who else could be its true guardians? The elites took control of the economy and politics; the upper middle classes dominated the administration; and the two shared authority in the armed forces. The clergy gradually took control of educational and legal space.....

Kashmir became the implicit sanction for the emergence, under Zia's beneficial watch, of terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, or the Army of the Pure. Zia's successors, starting with Benazir Bhutto, did little to contain these terrorists. When India protested, Pakistani diplomats were polite across the table, and probably had a good laugh behind Delhi's back. Since Zia's time Pakistan has been asking for "evidence" or proof, and encouraging skepticism or conspiracy theories (dutifully lapped up by sections of the Indian media). Well, this time there is a canary singing in custody, and a satellite phone abandoned by terrorists with five logged calls to members of the Lashkar. Just in case you did not know, it is the declared intention of the Pure Army to fly the Pakistani flag on top of the Red Fort. Its plans are not secret. They are on its website. Its leader, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, certainly gets a wink if not a nod from the Pak establishment.

Mumbai Islamic Terror In Drawing

2008-12-05T08:14:00.006+05:30

Some of the best political cartoons (of US politics) I have ever seen are done by Ramirez of New York Post. The message of the cartoon is concise, but more than that, the colours are vivid and the cartoon is elaborate. Here is Ramirez on Novermber 29, 2008.

Warning and Execution

2008-12-04T10:53:00.003+05:30

Few days ago, I said ATS (and everyone else in law enforcement) had adequate warning about the terror group but failed to prepare for the onslaught.

In the email, the IM stated, "You ( the ATS) should know that your acts are not at all unnoticed; we are keeping an eye on you and just waiting for the right time to execute bloodshed. We are aware of your recent raids at Ansarnagar, Mograpada in Andheri and the harassment and trouble you created for the Muslims."

Now Maverick thinks, ATS top tier seems to have been deliberately targeted by the two terrorists, Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman, captured, and, Mohammad Ismail, killed, with the help of satellite phones, live TV and internet inputs on ATS top tier coordinates (and the make and model of their vehicle).

A rough sketch is that Ajmal Qasab and Mohd. Ismail were on the roof. They shot Addl. CP Date on the way down the staircase and then repositioned to ambush the Qualis. Why did they reposition to intercept the Qualis?

Were they instructed to do that? or were they simply pursuing an evasion strategy. The grenades changed the balance in the stairwell - that is what led to Addl. CP Date's position being exposed, but then there is a gap between there and the point that Qasab and Ismail were ready to ambush the Qualis.

TimesNow has Sri. Karkare on camera as he leaves CST. You can see him get a few words with DCP Korgaonkar and other Railway Police officials. I imagine there are media people who knew where he was going and while no footage of Cama Hospital is available - there is no reason to believe that there was no media presence there.

We understand very little about Qasab and Ismail's path. Why did they choose to wander in that way? - who were they in contact with while they were walking? were they directed to move in a particular way?

They were intercepted just short of teen batti - if you take a left at teen batti - you end up on Walkeshwar road - straight towards Governor's house - so where were these two going?

An employee of the J&K government has been picked for questioning because he was phoned by an LeT operative in Muzzafarabad and asked to watch local TV channels. There were continous updates of the situation via Twitter and Pakistani led blogs and fora in UK.

Admiral's Disgust With Media

2008-12-04T10:04:00.004+05:30

On Navy Day, Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, expresses his disgust with the media coverage of Islamic death cult Mumbai terror attacks and the recent INS Tabar destruction of pirate mother ship. He also talks of how media endangered soldiers lives during Kargil war. Of course, here the media are English language TV channels - the silly media.

The competition among news channels to score brownie points reminded him of the “famous shot” during the Kargil War that led to the destruction of an ultra-powerful artillery gun of the Army. Three soldiers died and the Colonel, who yielded to a woman reporter’s entreaty to fire the gun for the camera’s benefit was dismissed from service...

Admiral Mehta said he was disturbed by the “extra heavy reporting” on the attacks. “When operations are taking place, you are reporting that two commandos are going inside. They [terrorists] were in live contact with their masters, who were telling them what the channels were reporting. I think it requires a certain amount of restraint in ongoing operations. Do you really have to give minute-by-minute coverage? Media is an enabling instrument. Today it is a disenabling instrument.”...

For the media, more “eye catching” was the owner’s claim that was unquestionably accepted.
“The Thai vessel was a pirated trawler. The ship was operating there for a long time. The ship was doing what it should not be doing. You went to his house to interview him. Those reports are now floating worldwide. The media should have asked what the trawler was transporting between Yemen and Oman for such a long time. What cargo was it carrying? If it was low on fuel, how come the fireball was so bright? It was because of all the ammunition that was lying on the ship. There is nothing wrong your Navy has done,” asserted Admiral Mehta...

The silly media in this case is CITV - Congress I TV, meaning CNN-IBN, and the so-called journalist that ended up causing the death of three soldiers is the famous psec talking head Barkha Dutt that works for another CITV.

Back to Old Script, And the Movie Replays

2008-12-03T22:08:00.003+05:30

One thing to understand is US doesn't care about any nation other than US. Even if it does, it has to matter to US at least in a secondary way.

So US Secretary of State Condi Rice makes her way to India to pacify the already pacifist Nandi prime minister Manmohan. A day before, the recent presidential candidate John McCain stopped by New Delhi, because he was in Bangladesh on an unrelated matter, to pacify the establishment, "India and Paki are in this together," he says - whatever that means.

Also Shiv Shanker Menon, Foreign secretary, is in US to talk to the new US president Obama and his team, and get access to better intelligence that NSA and CIA may have. I am almost positive he's getting the run around in Washington, because evidence that US provides to India will only bolster India's case, which the Americans do not want to do. Because they have a different, and to them - a more important role, for Pakistan. The Americans cannot have Pakistan stop doing what ever little they are doing on the western border fighting the Taliban and al qaeda types.

Reading the tea leaves, Pakistan PM Zardari backs off from any encouraging statements he made earlier of sending ISI chief to Delhi to answer questions or of joint investigation, and goes back to an old Pakistani script.

Zadari also suggested no one found to be involved would be turned over to India.

"If we had the proof, we would try them in our courts, we would try them in our land and we would sentence them," he said.

So India falls for the Americans again, looking for its approval in doing things it should be doing on its own.

It's an old movie which keeps on playing.

Do Something About Live Advantage to Terrorists

2008-12-03T21:28:00.003+05:30

Like most people I was appalled at the live intrusive TV coverage of the Mumbai Islamic death cult murderous rampage. One never knows, but it is likely a few people lost their lives because their whereabouts were broadcast to the Islamic terrorists live. And I am sure the various counter-terrorists operations were impacted by the live broadcast.

Composer Vishal Dadlani of the Vishal-Shekhar duo is trying to do something about.

...he believes will protect the lives of the security forces during anti-terrorism operations.

He has taken a stand against the live telecast by news television channels, which he says, exposed the plans of the military and National Security Guard as they tried to overwhelm the terrorists and rescue hostages.

Please sign his petition.

Calling It Everything Except Terrorism!

2008-12-02T09:59:00.003+05:30

Here is an excellent op-ed in European Wall Street Journal, taking European media to task on why they won't call terrorism by its name. Even a casual observer would know what's going on with the so-called secular media by now. But it bears repeating. One already knows the conservatives in Europe are more leftists then left in US and Asia. Unfortunately they seem to be even when it comes to terrorism and religion of death cult. Of course the less said about ultra-lefty nutcase media like BBC, an Islamic death cult apologist funded by British tax payers, broadcasted through out the world.

Here is the entire article.

If this Isn't Terrorism, What Is?
By TOM GROSS | From today's Wall Street Journal Europe
Last week in Mumbai we witnessed as clear a case of carefully planned mass terrorism as we are ever likely to see.

The seven-venue atrocity was coordinated in a highly sophisticated way. The terrorists used BlackBerrys to stay in touch with each other during their three-and-half-day rampage, outwitting the authorities by monitoring international reaction to the attacks on British, Urdu and Arabic Web sites. It was a meticulously organized operation aimed exclusively at civilian targets: two hospitals, a train station, two hotels, a leading tourist restaurant and a Jewish center.

Reuters
Murder in Mumbai: The work of 'practitioners.'
There was nothing remotely random about it. This was no hostage standoff. The terrorists didn't want to negotiate. They wanted to murder as many Hindus, Christians, Jews, atheists and other "infidels" as they could, and in as spectacular a manner as possible. In the Jewish center, some of the female victims even appear to have been tortured before being killed.

So why are so many prominent Western media reluctant to call the perpetrators terrorists? Why did Jon Snow, one of Britain's most respected TV journalists, use the word "practitioners" when referring to the Mumbai terrorists? Was he perhaps confusing them with doctors?

Why did Britain's highly regarded Channel 4 News state that the "militants" showed a "wanton disregard for race or creed" when exactly the opposite was true: Targets and victims were very carefully selected. Why did the "experts" invited to discuss the Mumbai attacks in one show on the state-funded Radio France Internationale, the voice of France around the world, harp on about Baruch Goldstein (who carried out the Hebron shootings in 1994), virtually the sole case of a Jewish terrorist in living memory?

Unfortunately in recent years we have become used to leftist media burying their heads in the sand about the threat that Islamic fundamentalism poses, in much the same way as they once refused to report accurately on communist atrocities. But now even conservative media may be doing it too.

What is the motivation of journalists in trying to mangle language -- such as going out of their way to refer to terrorists as "militants," as one Mumbai story on yesterday's Times of London Web site seemed to do? Do they somehow wish to express sympathy for these murderers, or perhaps make their crimes seem almost acceptable? How are we going to effectively confront terrorists when we can't even identify them as such?

But then the terrorists in Mumbai didn't need to make any public announcements. They knew that many deluded Western journalists and academics will do that job for them, explaining that the West is to blame, especially the Zionists.

We have started seeing this already on the BBC -- the world's largest TV and radio network, which broadcasts in dozens of different languages around the world and is lavishly funded by the British taxpayer.

You would be hard pressed to find any talk of radical Islam on the BBC in recent days, or mention of the fact that Islamists think India should be a Muslim country. Instead the BBC continues to try to persuade its massive global audience that "it is a local Indian problem," that "the subcontinent has a history of unrest," and so on.

Even the Pakistani angle has been presented as some kind of local Pakistan-India dispute rather than as a problem with radical Islam -- this despite the fact that according to numerous reports the Mumbai terrorists themselves were screaming "Allah Akbar" (Allah is the Greatest) as they murdered "the Jews and the infidels" in line with bin Ladenist ideology.

For some time, many have argued that an element of anti-Semitism has distorted the way the BBC covers the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But now, following the Mumbai events, we can perhaps see that anti-Semitism may even be at work in the way the BBC covers foreign news in general. For much of the Mumbai siege, the BBC went out of its way to avoid reporting that the Jewish community center was one of the seven targets. At one point viewers were told that "an office building" had been targeted (referring to the Jewish center as such).

Then on Friday morning, TV pictures of Indian commandos storming the besieged Jewish center were broadcast by networks around the world. Heavily armed commandos, their faces covered by balaclavas, rappelled from helicopters onto the roof while Indian sharpshooters in buildings opposite opened fire and a helicopter circled overhead. Huge crowds of onlookers could be seen looking aghast as they watched from nearby streets. While Sky News and other channels were gripped by these dramatic pictures, BBC World was not, almost pretending there was no siege at the Jewish center -- even though by then it was one of only two sites that remained under attack in Mumbai. Had the terrorists chosen to besiege a church or mosque instead, can you imagine the BBC ignoring it this way?

Meanwhile -- perhaps even more disgracefully -- a New York Times report on the last day of the siege stated: "It is not known if the Jewish center was strategically chosen, or if it was an accidental hostage scene."

Has the New York Times learned anything since the Holocaust, when, even after the war ended in the spring of 1945, the paper infamously refused to report that the Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Germans and so on killed in the camps had been Jews, and killed as Jews?

Dozens of eyewitness accounts by local Indians said the gunmen shouted "Allah Akbar" from the Jewish center. It is housed in a nondescript block and is not obviously marked from the outside as a Jewish center. It is the one Jewish building in a densely crowded city of millions. And the Times, the self-proclaimed paper of record, wants to let readers think it might have been an accidental target?

Even the Times's British equivalent, the Guardian, began its news story: "The inclusion of the headquarters of an ultra-orthodox Jewish group was obviously intended to send its own message." Does the New York Times think that the seeking out and murder by Muslim terrorists of the only New York rabbi in Mumbai and his wife was "an accidental target"?

There was nothing accidental about any of the seven sites that the terrorists attacked. And it was no accident that Mumbai was hit. It is the most multireligious city in India -- with Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Parsees and Jews living in relative harmony.

Mr. Gross is a former Middle East correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph.

Israelies Will Avenge Before Us

2008-12-01T12:25:00.004+05:30

Even If We Ever....

Even as Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon flies to US to get Obama on our side, and make him get over his silliness of handing over J&K to Pakistan as appeasement (and apparently appointing Bill Clinton - the idiot who didn't do anything about Islamic terror when he was president) and get some help from NSA signal intel to get intel on those satellite telephone conversions going on during the terror and destruction between the terror masters in the Papistan and lunatic Islamic terror perpetrators, the outgoing US Secretary of State Condi Rice will visit Delhi to apparently cool India off from what ever little heat it now emits.

One has to understand that US doesn't care about any country's national security other than its own. If and when it does care, it has to be related directly to its own national security. So even if Sri Menon has Obama's ear, don't expect the new president come to our side. Afghanistan is his problem and he'll do what ever it takes to deal with it - irrespective of what we want him to do. Sure they may help us for a few days or weeks, on one issue or the other, but ultimately Pakistan will make the rules as to what US can and cannot do. The western media already started playing the tune to enable this to happen. In fact most western print and television media have started Mumbai terror cover by blaming Hindus for the Islamic death cult murderous rampage. So the western people have been vetted and confused. It's easy for the political leadership to make the switch to appeasement policies if we don't play ball.

Compared to own confused reaction by the gutless prime minister, who invited ISI chief to collect evidence on Islamic terror - how funny is that; it's like asking a murderer to collect evidence at the scene and investigate the case! Luckily the head of the LoP terrorist group doesn't plan to come.

But the guys are who are coming are the Israelis. And they are coming prepared because eight Israelis and few other desi Jews were tortured and killed.

Asked specifically if he was talking of torture marks, he said: "It was apparent that most of the dead were tortured. What shocked me were the telltale signs showing clearly how the hostages were executed in cold blood," one doctor said.
The other doctor, who had also conducted the post-mortem of the victims, said: "Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th itself. It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again," he said.
Corroborating the doctors' claims about torture was the information that the Intelligence Bureau had about the terror plan. "During his interrogation, Ajmal Kamal said they were specifically asked to target the foreigners, especially the Israelis," an IB source said.

And I am willing to wager that the Israelis will avenge the deaths of Israelis and desi Jews with speed and precision then our own criminally negligent Congress I run government.

And When the Police Did Shoot the Terrorists

2008-11-30T23:27:00.003+05:30

The real action of Mumbai police was in another jurisdiction. Senior Police Inspector Nagappa Mali of DB Marg police station acted with his colleagues to capture or kill the terrorists, who had just killed top ATS officers, entering his jurisdiction. They did both.

The duo identified as Abu Ismail (25) and Ajmal Amir Kasab, abandoned the police vehicle which they had been driving after killing its occupants, Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar and went on to carjack a Skoda Laura when they neared a police picket.

“On that night, I was about to go home when I got to know that some terrorists were headed towards my jurisdiction. I immediately formed two teams, one of which was posted at Girgaum Chowpatty and the other at the Tribhovandas Zhaveri Lane. When the Skoda neared the barricades that we had erected at Girgaum, the two men sitting inside turned their head lights to full beam, squirted water on their wind-shields and turned on the wipers in an attempt to hide their faces.
However, as we had information about the colour and make of the car, we signalled them to stop and demanded that they emerge from the car with their hands raised. Kasab who was sitting in the passenger seat came out with his hands raised but then immediately started firing from his AK-47 which he had hidden between his knees.”
When the firing started, ASI Tukaram Umble got hit even as the rest of the team pounced on Kasab and subdued him. In the meantime, Inspector Vinod Sawant who had gone to the driver’s side saw that the driver, Ismail, was also firing with his weapon and Sawant and his associate immediately opened fire on him, said Mali.

The murdering Islamic lunatic Ajmal Amir Kasab was captured and proved to be an invaluable source of information corroborating and filling in gaps missing from the intelligence already available.

Incredible: Shivraj Resigned. But Why?

2008-11-30T21:15:00.004+05:30

The home minister named after the brave Maratha warrior finally resigns. I haven't seen his resignation letter, so I am curious what reasons Shivraj gave for his resignation.

But why now? We are told by the press that he has become too hot even for maharani Sonia to handle. Apparently the sleeping queen just woke up to realize that he wasn't doing his job for the past four and half years and that we have had terrorists incidents every two months for past few years killing thousands of innocent children, women, and men. Of course, the brave fellow soldiers of socialist Congress I brought out their own knifes to finish of dead body. Are we supposed to believe this nonsense!

Now the sleeping queen has new taxi driver too. That's nice. Apparently having a full time taxi driver is more important then having a full time finance minister to deal with current global financial crisis. Won't it better if Manmohan himself retained home ministry because the intelligence agencies report directly to him anyway. Also, any reformation of intelligence agencies and new agencies that would sprout from the Mumbai Islamic death cult massacre would have be handled by the prime minister and his office anyway. But surely a prime minister cannot be a full time taxi driver for the sleeping queen. The cabinet shuffle makes perfect sense.

Why Didn't the Police Shoot The Terrorists

2008-11-30T10:54:00.006+05:30

Photographic editor of Mumbai Mirror, Sebastian D'Souza, describes how he got close up pictures of perpetrators of Islamic death cult murderous rampage at Chhatrapati Shivaji Station, on November 26, in Mumbai. He was curious of one fact about the horror he saw. The much vaulted and exulted Mumbai police, who were taking cover from blood thirsty Islamic terrorists fire, won't shoot the terrorists, who were walking openly on the platform, although they had fire arms with them!!

But what angered Mr D'Souza almost as much were the masses of armed police hiding in the area who simply refused to shoot back. "There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything," he said. "At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back."
As the gunmen fired at policemen taking cover across the street, Mr D'Souza realised a train was pulling into the station unaware of the horror within. "I couldn't believe it. We rushed to the platform and told everyone to head towards the back of the station. Those who were older and couldn't run, we told them to stay put."
The militants returned inside the station and headed towards a rear exit towards Chowpatty Beach. Mr D'Souza added: "I told some policemen the gunmen had moved towards the rear of the station but they refused to follow them. What is the point if having policemen with guns if they refuse to use them? I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera."

Why would that be? Surely some police were cowards. But none of them returned fire to take down the free roaming terrorists!

My guess is they were carrying the vintage bolt action rifles - .303 SMLE No.1 Mark III. (The vintage rifle was discarded much before the World War-II by every major country, except one, of course, in the world.) These rifles are standard issue to police in India, and the police also, probably, didn't have ammunition loaded. It another symbol of antiquated laws and bureaucratic procedures that Indian government follows. (Some company, probably owned by a minister's son, still makes them, just like the ambassador cars, the classic symbol of desi socialism, are still made and bought by the government).

The rifles were just show pieces. The best the much vaulted Mumbai police could have probably done was to physically throw those rifles at the AK47 carrying Islamic terrorists. One could say, stones would have been better arms for the vaulted Mumbai police.

Incredible: Why is Shivraj Still the Home Minister?

2008-11-30T10:09:00.003+05:30

The fundamental rule of politics anywhere is a politician should always worry about getting to, or keeping existing, power. Else he or she does not make a good politician. Because there is no other incentive for people in politics. Surely the pay scale is minuscule. (In India, there are other reasons for some, like enriching themselves using socialist bureaucratic rules - but that still comes from being in power.) It's hard work to campaign and election competition for powerful positions is intensive and expensive.

So the question is why does an utterly incompetent, incomprehensible, and useless Shivraj Patil continues to be power. That too in charge of the security of the nation - for more than four years despite repeated failure. Surely Congress I and maharani Sonia (and yuvaraj and yuvarani) want to remain in power as long as possible. So what explains the lack of apparent and logical choice of Congress I sending Shivraj away - either asking him to resign or firing him. Shivraj, based on his demeanor, will not resign. He is just that type of a person. He cares more about a bit of dirt on his shirt then his job as Home Minister.

One could understand why he got the job despite not winning his seat during the last election. Maharani was obviously rewarding him for his loyalty to the latest Indian royal family. But the reward for loyalty to power usually doesn't undermine the power itself. He could have been gently pushed aside after two or three years at the ministry. Why is he still the home minister after four years of non-performance?

After the latest gory Islamic death cult terror in Mumbai, the prime minister doesn't invite the home minister of the country to an extremely important high level national security meeting. But the prime minister does not fire Shivraj. Surely maharani Sonia would do that. But why doesn't she? What is going on here?

The only explanation that I can think of is, Shivraj has some powerful hold on the royal family. He knows a secret of, probably, maharani Sonia that she doesn't want revealed. So he gets his way despite his high profile and repeated failure. Nothing else explains the incredible insanity of what is going on with Shivraj Patil.

Warning and Preparation

2008-11-27T12:23:00.007+05:30

I realize the top tier of Maharasthra/Mumbai Anti-Terror Squad (profile of the chief: Sri Hemant Karkare) died last night in the battle with terrorists who are still rampaging Mumbai. (I noticed that while the terrorists were carrying AK47s, few policemen had semi-automatic rifles while most had old WWI-type single/double shot rifles - standard issue to police in India. While terrorists probably practice everyday, how often do the police, even the ATS, practice shooting?) Surely they were brave to lead their police corp from the front. But what exactly did they do to mitigate the increasing and aggressive threats after each attack, five so far (until the current carnage) this year, from the terrorist group Indian Mujahideen?

Here was the warning:

The IM, in an email sent out in September, had warned the ATS against harassing Muslims in Mumbai and said that it was closely watching every move made by the squad.
In the email, the IM stated, "You ( the ATS) should know that your acts are not at all unnoticed; we are keeping an eye on you and just waiting for the right time to execute bloodshed. We are aware of your recent raids at Ansarnagar, Mograpada in Andheri and the harassment and trouble you created for the Muslims."
"You threatened to murder them and you even misbehaved with the Muslim women and children," the email alleged.
"If your arrogance has reached this degree and if you think that you can scare us by your stunts, then let the IM warn the people of Mumbai that the ATS will be responsible for the deadly attacks on Mumbaikars in the future."

Here is how Mumbai/Maharasthra Anti-Terror Squad prepared to deal with those threats:

Mumbai : The Anti-Terrorist Squad on Wednesday said its failure to get police custody of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur among other accused in the Malagaon blast case from the MCOCA court is a setback which will slow down the investigation.
"Police custody would have helped investigations to proceed faster but still we will see how best to deal with it in a legal way," ATS Chief Hemant Karkare said in a TV channel....
The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) unit on Wednesday searched the residential premises of the Malegaon blast accused Lt Col Srikant Prasad Purohit, booked under the MCOCA, in Pune.
"It was a routine search," an ATS officer said but declined to elaborate on the purpose behind the move.

If there was ever a case to show how reactionary Indian law enforcement and political establishment is, this has to be it.

It's War

2008-11-27T01:29:00.005+05:30

Mumbai is in an all out War. Things like this don't happen in a normal nation.

Nation's intelligence bodies are missing in action. Maharashtra ATS is busy torturing Sadhvis, Swamis, and Army men.

If India doesn't go to war now to put an end to this, it is time to give up on India for a long time.

How LTTE Gets Its Weapons

2008-11-26T23:20:00.004+05:30

By Air!

London: Analysis of high-resolution commercially available satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe and GeoEye has allowed Jane’s Intelligence Review to verify that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) constructed two 1,000 m paved runways between 2002 and 2007. One of these runways is currently being extended to 2,000 m.

That's more than a mile!! Usually used by 747s to take off and land at an international airport!

According to a news release by Jane’s, these airstrips are unnecessarily long for the light aircraft that the LTTE uses for aerial attacks and are probably intended to handle larger cargo planes delivering weapon shipments...

The construction of a highly visible runway could be seen as part of the LTTE’s ambitions to develop the trappings of an independent political state, complete with an airport.

Life in China

2008-11-26T22:51:00.004+05:30

I know we are no better. I remember the days when Ashok Jain was tortured, under FERA, by the central agency, Enforcement Directorate, in late 90s. Of course, we know the torture cases of recent detainees of a Sadhvi and a lieutenant colonel belonging to military intelligence.

But at least we know where they are. Not so apparently in China. And the person missing is the second richest man in China!!

Hong Kong media on Monday cited Chinese financial publication Caijing as reporting that Huang was recently detained by the police over the alleged manipulation in shares of Shandong Jintai Group, a Shanghai-listed pharmaceutical company run by Wong's elder brother...

Huang is China's second-richest man with a net worth of $2.7 billion, according to a Forbes magazine ranking cited in The Wall Street Journal.

Huang's whereabouts has become a matter of intense speculation among China watchers.

The Closest Thing One Will Find

2008-11-26T21:51:00.005+05:30

Last week I had an incredible but possible, behind the scene, plot of a combined Maharashtra ATS, presumably by ruling state Congress I and its allies, the psec media, and Congress I action to overcome Congress I's failure to tackle extended Islamic terrorism in the country and at the same time to keep the marginal political vote, meaning majority of Muslim vote, in its column.

This is the closest evidence will find actions of the media and Congress I working in tandem. One can already see the hunt by Maha's ATS to pin any and every unsolved terror incidents on the recently detained so-called Hindu terrorists. One has to remember, when actions like these are launched, few people in Congress I party itself and in the media actually know what is unfolding and why.

Here is Praveen Swami of The Hindu doing some legwork to connect what the psec media is saying with what ATS is saying.

NEW DELHI: Late on Monday, a national television channel broke the latest in the series of prime-time exclusives that have characterised the unfolding of the investigation into September bombing in Malegaon.

Five Army officers, the television station announced, were being investigated for their connections with the Hindutva terror group Abhinav Bharat. Later, it claimed that a team of the Maharashtra Police’s Anti-Terrorism Squad was in New Delhi to discuss the issue with top military officials and National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan.

But as Tuesday wore on, Ministry of Defence officials insisted they had received no list of officials wanted for investigation by the ATS, while it turned out the NSA was not scheduled to hold meetings with Maharashtra Police officials. Indeed, two ATS officials separately told The Hindu their only representative in New Delhi was Deputy Inspector-General Parambir Singh and he was there to attend a wedding.

And this from Congress I spokesperson, Verrappa Moily

"The internal security of the country is today threatened by two 'A's--Advani and Abhinav Bharat," senior party leader M Veerappa Moily, told reporters alleging that the outsourcing of terror has become the "new cult with some of the outfits of BJP".

The Debate on J&K Needs to be Turned

2008-11-24T09:22:00.005+05:30

Few facts of anything significant related to Bharatiya national interest or security are actually take up in the western media. So it's no surprise that following the new US president lead to intervene in Bharatiya border issue in J&K , the US media has taken to his call. NYT's Sri Kristoff has written that US needs to intervene to deliver J&K to the Land of Pure. Nitin's Acorn has something to say about it which are followed by some uninformed comments.

Before we talk about the issue, we first need to put a stop the debate on Sri Kristof's (and his type) terms. We need to put an end to his human rights abuse falsehood. People take it as truth, without question, that J&K people's, meaning apparently only Muslim's, rights are abused by a Hindu majority nation. What could be more absurd than this!

For a start, which group of people were ethnically cleansed, because of their religion, from Kashmir valley? We already Hindus don't count for very much India, and clearly they don't count for much with the NYT types. So even if we ignore Hindus that were forced to flee their homeland, how are Muslims living in this side of J&K border worst off then living in the Pakistani side of the border? I am sure the supposedly democratic human right activist Kristoff can tell us when was the last Muslims in PoJ&K voted for their own government? I am sure he can't tell the voter turnout during the current state elections in J&K. In fact, I am sure he doesn't even know that normal elections are being held in J&K at this very moment.

So even if one takes the bogus notion of human rights as expounded by Kristof types, that Tibetans should not fight for independence from commie China - well because China is a big fast growing economy and that Tibetans are better economically under the Hun commies, even if their freedoms, culture, language and religion are destroyed by the commies and by the mass migration of Huns into the Tibet plateau. Why shouldn't the people of J&K have the access to another big and growing economy? Such as an Infosys or Reliance or a Tata or an IIT. What exactly do the people living in PoJ&K look forward to? A few years in a madrasa?

The dubiousness of these human right groups and their spokespersons in the media is how shall we put it.....

Missed Rescue Operation

2008-11-22T23:10:00.003+05:30

Shishir Gupta reveals in IE that Navy sought permission for a mission to rescue kidnapped Indians by Somali pirates before it started naval patrol in Gulf of Aden and along coast of Somali to thwart piracy. Unfortunately, UPA government did not agree to the mission. The strategic implication of a successful extraction mission of kidnapped desis by Bharatiya Navy, from eastern African coast, thousands of miles away from the country would have been unthinkable compared to the response INS Tabar's action has enabled.

The Tabar action appears to have been carefully calibrated; the foreign ministry had earlier shot down a navy proposal to launch a commando mission to rescue the largely Indian crew on board the Stolt Valor, a Japanese merchant ship hijacked by pirates on September 15. South Block apparently did not agree with the navy on intervention; it was a case, after all, of a Japanese ship in Somalia’s territorial waters. However, that same day in October, Defence Minister A.K. Antony cleared the navy’s twin proposals: patrolling international waters from Salalah in Oman to the Gulf of Aden, and urgently exploring the possibilities for joint patrols with other countries.

Negotiation - Saudi Style

2008-11-21T21:48:00.004+05:30

After India blow up a "mother boat", every major navy is rushing the Gulf of Aden to show off how strong they are militarily - the Russians want to replace leaving war ship; Britain wants to lead NATO forces (which are also a replacement); and the Chinese want in on the action. A dramatic headline helps!

Those with no big navies or those with economic interests in the area, such as hijacked merchant ships are negotiating with the hijackers paying on average $1-2 million in ransom money per ship and crew. The Somalia coastal economy is booming with about $150 million pumped into the economy in recent months.

Life was good until some hijackers made a wrong move. They hijacked a $100million worth Saudi oil supertanker. Hijackers want a quarter of tanker's economic worth as ransom money. But they didn't expect this:

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Dozens of Somali Islamist insurgents stormed a port on Friday hunting the pirates behind the seizure of a Saudi supertanker that was the world's biggest hijack, a local elder said...

"Saudi Arabia is a Muslim country and hijacking its ship is a bigger crime than other ships," Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow, an Islamist spokesman, told Reuters. "Haradheere is under our control and we shall do something about that ship."

If anyone had any doubts as to who is funding Islamic terrorists groups, this episode should clarify those doubts.

Incredible: We Have Ours, You Have Yours - We Are Even

2008-11-21T10:49:00.008+05:30

Based on the master craftsman of the corrupt and incompetent Congress I's Veerappa Moily's incredible statements and how the secularists are predictably reacting to what BJP said in reaction to Moily, here is a plausible theory of recent events, however implausible it may sound.

They dug themselves into a deep pit by not acting when Islamic terrorists stuck repeatedly. They were, of course, calculating the marginal political cost of acting against terrorists. They had stuck down POTA, they had asked police and other law enforcement, where they could, to go easy on terror investigations, and they had Sachar Commission to buy out ordinary Muslims with sops and reservations and even offering first dibs at "all resources of the nation."

But the Islamic terrorists have their own mind. The terror didn't stop. It kept going at predictable intervals at populated locations - bombing by trains, cars, scooters, bikes, and cycles.

The terrorists loved killing innocent people by the hundreds. And watch the carnage along with psec debates and news thamsha on television while smoking and eating home delivery pizza.

Suddenly one of the law enforcement group made a breakthroughs, locates one of the terrorist cell, and goes to their residence with guns blazing. Islamists and their buddies in psec media screams bloody murder. More revelations come out on the extent of terror cells and how wide spread the disease is in the country.

Then comes the political heat from the opposition. It's getting really hot because people aren't buying their stories on Islamic terrorism anymore. And parliamentary elections are only few months away. Elections in various states showed none of the socialist welfare schemes seem to be working. What to do?

Former CM of Madhya Pradesh, a rising star in the party, has an idea! He has knowledge of ultra nationalists who tried to set off bombs when he was the CM in 2002. A plan was made to turn tables on opposition and neutralize terrorism as election issue. Which was the organization to carry out the plan forward - it has to be a state that is in their control and has to have a pliable head? Which media groups to engage? They have done this many times. Just give them leads and they will run with it.

The key to the plan is not to incur the marginal political cost - for themselves and their partners in crime in the cabinet and ministries few months from now. Have to keep those Muslims on their side. If the plan worked, there are plenty of idiot secularists and gullible Hindus who would have plausible doubt about Islamic terrorism thanks to the good work of the media. That would be enough of these people to push them over the finish line - five more years of power!

They have after all done this before.

Beleaguered Governments have made a habit of trying to bolster their electoral prospects through dirty tricks. In 1989, there was the elaborate attempt to discredit V P Singh through the discovery of fictitious accounts in St Kitts. Both the agencies and senior journalists were part of the plot. In 1996, there was the Jain hawala case which neither secured convictions nor won the Congress the election.

It might even work now!

It's worth a try. People have short memories - remember Indira's come back in lesser period than the emergency itself! The unchanged party that massacred thousands of Sikhs is now "the" secular party! Sometime it's easier then some people think.

And so the die is cast - the plan rolled out predictably, at least so far. Congress I reads its prepared remarks: we have our (Islamic) terrorists, you have yours'; we are even.

Depending on how many dumb idiots are around, and there are plenty, it just might work.

A Shooting War That Could Turn Worst

2008-11-19T23:10:00.005+05:30

INS Tabar, patrolling the seas near Gulf of Aden and Somalian north coast, engaged in shooting match with Somali pirates! Few weeks ago, commandos, flying in a military helicopter, shot at and drove away speed boats trying to board merchant ships carrying Indian and Saudi flags. Now INS Tabar guns fired at and destroyed the so-called mother ship, a ship that tows speed boats close to their target ships while providing food, ammunition, and space for pirates.

"This pirate vessel was similar in description to the 'Mother Vessel' mentioned in various piracy bulletins. INS Tabar closed in on the vessel and asked her to stop for investigation," a Navy spokesperson said.
But the pirates threatened to blow up the warship if it sailed closer to their mother ship, despite repeated calls from INS Tabar to stop and let the Navy personnel to inspect the ship, he said.
The Navy noticed that pirates were roaming on the upper deck of the vessel with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers in hand, and they continued the threats and subsequently fired upon INS Tabar.
In their retaliatory action in "self-defence," INS Tabar opened fire on the mother vessel of the pirates. "As a result of INS Tabar's guns booming, fire broke out on the pirate vessel and explosions were heard, possibly due to exploding ammunition that was stored on the vessel," he said.
Almost simultaneously, Indian Navy said, two speed boats were observed breaking off to escape. The ship chased the first boat, which was later found abandoned. The other boat made good its escape into darkness, he added.
While some of the pirates could have escaped in the speed boats, a few on board the destroyed mother ship perished, he said.

The Somalian pirates have become more and more brazen capturing tens of ships in the past few weeks including a huge crude oil tanker worth around $100million in the seas of Somalia pumping up Somalian economy. Also, we know Islamic terrorists have a role in Somalia gangs. This piracy business could be related to terror financing. That's what could turn things for the worst for Indian Navy in the near term.

It was clear that the pirates were fighting back before turning tail. It is possible, in future, they will get bold and attack Indian naval ships preemptively, like what they did to USS Cole near Yemen. What would be the response of Bharatiya government be? Will it stay and complete the task of bringing piracy under control in the area or will it cut and run? This would be the first time Bharatiya military would be challenged outside its boundaries, although by irregulars. The response to future attacks will have long term implications to the strategic direction of the country.

Potential Impact to India's Image Due to Obama's Presidency

2008-11-19T11:14:00.003+05:30

I was looking at some of the American news magazines and newspaper coverage after Barack Obama's victory in US presidential elections and was taken aback by the comparison he is already drawing. Obama is already compared to the top American presidents of its more than 200 years history - on par with Lincoln, who won the American Civil War and ended slavery in the country, and Roosevelt, who defeated Hitler's Germany along with Japan in World War II. What exactly are Obama's achievements to compare him to the well known and respected former American presidents is a mystery.

Then you hear that American TV media thinks that it is its obligation to make Obama's presidency a success. One has to wonder why the adoration and adulation for an unproven and unknown person? One obvious answer would be because Obama is the first black US president, a failure would cause American electorate to think twice before electing another black president in the near term - a valid fear for some. But the hype of Obama seems so high, even before he is in office, any slip up will be devastating for his presidency. That's where I see potential danger to India's image.

Meghnad Desai describes the contrast between European and Asia reaction to Obama's election:

But the Europeans are panting to be first in line when he takes up office. Sarkozy has boasted that he talked to Obama for 30 minutes after he was declared President-elect. Gordon Brown as Prime Minister of the UK, which boasts of a ‘special relationship’ with the US, got only 10 minutes but he is plotting to travel to the US soon after Obama’s Inauguration Day on January 20 and be the first European leader to meet him.
In contrast, the response of India and China to Obama’s election has been fascinating. Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh missed Obama’s call at first and Obama called him again. The Chinese are not hotfooting to Washington after January 20 to see Obama. While the Europeans are competing to be the new puppy that Obama can take to the White House (while his two daughters get a real one), the Asians are being cool. What’s going on here?

In order to keep Obama's presidency perfect, any country that may seem opposed to Obama's world view may be in for a pummel by American media, and there by the world media - which tend to follow American lead in any news coverage. We already know about Obama's take on Pakistan's relationship to India and India's strategic matters. If Obama pursues this line of thinking and India pushes back, I am afraid India image in the world will take a severe beating. And this would especially be true if BJP/NDA comes to power next year with a role for Narender Modi in the center because we know there are already plenty of centers of powers in US that control governmental actions towards Sri Modi.

I warned many months ago, in another forum, that relation between Bharat and US is excellent because of only one person - George Bush. Others disagreed. Now it'll be interesting to watch how the relationship changes with Bush gone and potential difficult issues between the two nations come front and center.

Bits of Real Nehru

2008-11-18T11:49:00.005+05:30

November 14th was the 120th birthday of the man who casts a long shadow on Bharat even to this day. It may take another 60 years to clear the cobwebs hiding in the shadow along with the myth that was created around Jawaharlal Nehru during his prime ministership, and especially, since. We usual get the sycophants, such as S. Gopal, take on Nehru. Mohandas Gandhi was probably stung by that same sycophancy when he, being a non-democratic leader he was, choose to impose Nehru on the yet to be independent nation.

Swapan Dasgupta reminds us of the real Nehru, as written by his contemporary, Walter Crocker, the Australian High Commissioner in the 60s.

Even as Sri Crocker talks of Nehru who had little care for children, as opposed to that carefully crafted Chacha image by his sycophants, since Nehru's death, he talks about the various prejudices of Nehru, to put it mildly, which ended having huge lasting social, economic, and foreign policy implications.

Less publicised was the strong impression that his enlightenment was often offset by blind hates. Among Nehru’s ‘prejudices’ Crocker records were ‘‘maharajas, Portugal, moneylenders, certain American ways, Hinduism, the whites in Africa...’’ ...

Nehru, it was said, ‘‘could be emphatic on a basis of insufficient knowledge’’. He may have begun with a caricatured hatred of moneylenders but it soon extended into distaste for the entire private sector. Like the fellow travellers of Stalin, he juxtaposed science with what he considered religious mumbo-jumbo and came to view everything Hindu with utmost wariness...

From such parodies were the three pillars of the Nehruvian order, secularism, non-alignment and socialism, crafted.

I am constantly amazed at how Nehru's sycophants cover up his hatred for the people of Bharat - vast majority of whom are Hindus and extremely religious. How exactly does that make Nehru a great prime minister and how does that make our so-called founding fathers great, as Ramachandra Guha argues in his recent book. It seems to me the greatness of these leaders, especially the usually quoted ones, is more a myth then reality. The greatness belonged to the ordinary people who stuck to democracy and their way of life, despite having leaders who were ignorant, incompetent, and, unsurprisingly, hateful of those ordinary people.

The Great Desi Soothsayers

2008-11-18T00:25:00.006+05:30

Even as I was defending Manmohan and Chidambaram, they themselves are making bogus claims now - that they actually foresaw the coming downturn and put deficit spending in place!!

Singh said he and Finance Minister P Chidambaram had anticipated a global slowdown on the horizon and budgeted for a very substantial amount of deficit to take care of the slack that has emerged now. “The fact that we have given record prices to the producers of wheat and rice; that Rs 71,000 crore worth loans have been written off... We have a very extensive programme for social service and infrastructure expansion,” he said.
“So, as far as our economy is concerned, I think, our fiscal stimulus is already on,” he said.

May be it's even larger than the Chinese $586 billion spending plan! (To be fair, the vast majority of Chinese spending plan is similar to Messers Manmohan and Chidambaram's - preexisting deficit spending plans!) What would we do without these great fortune tellers.

New ISI Military: Girl Soliders

2008-11-15T08:15:00.004+05:30

Apparently the brave Islamic terrorists couldnot complete the task. Taking a leaf from al Qaeda's cowardly actions of using women in Iraq and in Afghanistan as terrorists, now ISI is training girls in terror activities at two sites in PoK.

Over 100 Pakistani girls are being trained in terrorist camps financed by ISI in PoK to carry out militant activities in Jammu and Kashmir, a woman arrested by the BSF along the LoC has revealed.
24-year-old Asiya Malik, wife of a Pakistani soldier, was arrested by the Border Security Force (BSF) at Dadil forward post along the Line of Control in Sunderbani belt of Rajouri district on Thursday, intelligence sources said.
During her interrogation, she revealed that Pakistani girls are being trained in handling of weapons, explosives, jungle warfare and sabotage activities in two militant training camps (MTCs) in Bhimber and Kotli areas across LoC in PoK, sources said.
While around 80 girls were being trained in Bhimber MTC, another 25 were at Kotli MTC, Asiya, who was also trained in Bhimber camp, revealed.
The girls will be sent in group of 10 to 12, she told the interrogators.
Asiya, whose husband Sajad Ahmed is a havildar in 129 unit of Nikial base army unit and her cousin Muzamil a militant commander of Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT), was tasked to conduct recce of LoC to find safe infiltration routes and security deployment pattern, the sources said.
She also told the interrogators that the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI was financing these training camps, where recruits come from various countries including Saudi Arabia.
According to Asiya, Pakistani army was backing infiltration in J&K from across LoC and Major Musa and another Pak army officer Talat visited the camps and LoC infiltration bases, sources claimed.

How would Bharatiya military, para-troops, border patrol fight these children? Imagine the field day the so-called human rights activities, pseudo-secular media, and every bogus activist will have if a few of these girls are killed while crossing from PoK or while engaged with battalion of soldiers or police! The cowardly ISI is, of course, at its devious best. But tough days are ahead if these children make it to J&K and beyond into the rest of the country to start killing and blowing up people.

Key Question When at Home in Orbit

2008-11-13T10:55:00.008+05:30

ISRO made the final orbital maneuver to slow Chandrayaan I into a 100 km circular orbit on Chandra. The most crucial maneuver was few days ago when the spacecraft went from an Earthly orbit to an orbit around the Moon. After that there were series of maneuvers to slow the spacecraft to current orbit - opposite of what they were when orbiting Earth.

Courtesy The Telegraph

The next significant milestone would be when a lunar probe is dropped onto Chandra's surface. As a technology demonstrator and a scientific venture the project is a great success.

But one continues to hear complains that we should first solve some earthly problems before we can "ape" others. As I briefly said before, those complains miss the larger lesson of this project's success. The point is not which tasks we should put on hold until we are economically successful i.e., everyone in the country has basic necessities such as power, water, and access to health care and infrastructure. After all, the entire Chandrayann I project cost little more than Rs. 300 crores. It would cost lakhs of crores to create the infrastructure that would provide the basic necessities to all communities in the country. If one were cynical, Rs. 300 crores is a fraction of, for example, what Laloo Yadav skimmed off during the so-called fodder scam few years ago.

The lesson is not to put on hold so called non-essential projects or expenditures until every person in the country is well feed and is a happy being. And it's not like the government hasn't spent enormous amounts trying to do just that for the past 60 years and failed at it miserably. The lesson to learn is: how is that a small organization within the same failed government establishment can challenge itself to do an extremely complex outer space project and get it done inexpensively and on time? It's not just ISRO. The integrated missile development program, also a rocket based technology, achieved its objectives spending lot less then most other defence projects. In fact, the program was so successful it was dismantled few years ago because the stated objectives that it set out to do, in the early 80s, were complete.

What makes these little funded government organizations succeed, while the vastly better funded government infrastructure projects have failed repeatedly over several decades? Also, if there were no Chandrayaan projects, would it make a difference to other, supposedly more essential, projects? One has to suspend reality to believe that. It can be argued that the government should not be involved in lot those failed infrastructure projects in the first place. But still, why do some projects, based on high tech, succeed, while others, more mundane ones, fail repeatedly?

That should be the key question to ask of Chandrayaan I success. Making some quasi-socialist necessity verses luxury trade off argument misses the point.

Quote: How B-G Trophy Was Won

2008-11-12T21:37:00.002+05:30

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni speaks:

"Ek Chhoti sa baat bolna chahunga. Mahabharat main bola gaya tha ki pakshi jo hoti hai us pakshi ki aankh dekho. Border-Gavaskar trophy jo hai who pakshi ki aankh hai aur hum sirf us par concentrate kar rahe hai and kya strategy se aayegi us par hum zyada concentrate nahi kar rahe hai. (In the Mahabharat, there was a saying which said concentrate on the eye of the bird. Similarly, for us, the Border-Gavaskar trophy is the bird's eye and we are concentrating only on winning it and not on what strategy we are using.)"

That Missing Phone Call

2008-11-10T23:28:00.003+05:30

As I pointed out recently , one of the things that MEA will miss are the consultation phone calls from White House. While Obama is not yet in White House, it is interesting what he refused to do.

NEW DELHI, Nov 9: In continuation of the ‘snub’ to India, US President-elect Barack Obama today spoke to Chinese President Hu Jintao. Till now, Mr Obama has returned calls to 16 world leaders, including Hu, but as reported by The Statesman on 8 November, the “snub” to the Indian Prime Minister continues.

The Ministry of External Affairs however maintain that they are unaffected by Mr Obama’s call to the Chinese leader and points out that Mr Obama will call the Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in due course of time. Officials insist that too much is being read into these telephone calls and this is not an indication of the strength of Indo-US relationship which remains strong.

This, however, does not explain the fact that as of 8 November, when Mr Obama called the Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, the Indian government had maintained that Mr Obama was returning calls only to countries that were having of some military alliance with the US. Officials in the MEA had particularly pointed out that both China and India had not received the call since both did not share a military alliance with USA.

This explanation no longer holds forth. But then the government seems to have no new answer for this latest development and embarrassment.

MEA is clearly in denial. Let's hope they wake up soon for the good of the country.

Another Way to Tackle Terrorism

2008-11-08T22:55:00.003+05:30

May be Not Original, But an Interesting Idea None the Less

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Tibetan Buddhist swami, offers an alternative idea to tackling terrorism. I am intrigued by it. While it may not work on a cross border or international scale, it could work within a national context. The idea itself is not new. South Africa's Truth Commission was set up along similar lines but it was for a completely different reason and from a different perspective.

Also this prescription can be over done.

Here is the conversion between IE's Shekhar Gupta and the swami:

I remember you spoke in New York a couple of weeks after 9/11 and you were asked what you would tell Osama Bin Laden if you met him. You said you would listen to him first. Now we have a situation in India, where we are having this rash of bombings and people are scared and angry because they believe those who are carrying out the bombings are their brothers from their own country. Can these people be told to listen to those who are attacking them?
Terrorists are also victims. They are victims of the information they have got, they are victims of their own perceptions and that is why it’s very important that we try to understand them.

They are angry...
Their perceptions are not helpful to them that is why they get angry, violent, they want to punish. And that is why they need to be helped and not to be punished. One way to help them is to allow them to speak out.
They are those who believe that they are victims of discrimination and injustice and based on that kind of belief they have tried to do something but, so far, have not succeeded. No one has listened to them, done something for them and that is why they have taken recourse to terrorism. So, what we can do as a government, as a nation is to organise a session of deep, compassionate listening and invite them to come and to tell us what is in their heart, their suffering, their frustration. You can organise it in such a way that the session of listening is televised for the whole nation to follow. And if we have enough attention and compassion, we bring about relief. They feel that they are now understood, and they suffer less.

It will be like a pressure valve getting released?
Yes, and if we repeatedly organise sessions of deep listening then I think after a few months the level of violence and hate will go down and that is what we have experienced in our community.

On the Perils of A New President

2008-11-06T10:19:00.008+05:30

Barack Obama, largely an unknown person, will be the new president of US in January. After a rather successful and close relationship between India and US during the past eight years, or at least the last four years, of Bush presidency one wonders what is in store for the relationship in the next four to eight years.

Of the little experience that Obama has, his experience in international matters is even smaller. People largely know about him from his autobiographies - two of them. His article in Foreign Affairs about his apparent foreign policy, many months ago, was minimalistic with a passing mention of India. A friend of mine who lives in Chicago attended an early gathering of desi-Americans to size up Obama's contest for presidency and about his thoughts on Indo-US relationship. At the time Obama, following his NPA friends talking points, was not keen on 123 Nuclear Agreement. Later on he was mildly supportive of it, probably to keep desi-Americans happy and on his side, and because the agreement was inevitable.

But mostly during the past year or so, he was focused on the Land of the Pure. At one time, he wanted to attack LoP to get Osama bin Laden and his followers. At another time, he wanted to apply diplomatic pressure on LoP to go after al Qaeda settled in NWFP. At a different time, he wanted to buy LoP support to pursue al Qaeda. Reading about this, I predicted, multiple times during this period, that the Pakistanis will play the usual game of reciprocity with the new president Obama - deliver J&K for any action on their western front. But even before the Pakistani could play their game, Obama seem to be going along the same path. Some this talk could be because of his advisers - old Clinton hands, like Madeline Albright and Richard Holbrook, and some even older, like Zbigniew Brezinski (the Jimmy Carter's NSA hand), and some more recent, like Colin Powell. All these advisers look at Indo-US relationship through the lens of Bharat-Pakistan, i.e., hyphenation. Bush put a stop to the decades old hyphenation policy of US including Bill Clinton's hyper-hyphenation, which included China (with Clinton saying China had legitimate interests in the subcontinent at the height of nuclear testing days in 1998). See B. Raman's take on who in Obama's advisory team may be advising Obama how.

If one were a classic so-called Obamanics, one would ignore what Obama actually says and conclude whatever one wants from Obama-speak. So, despite recent Obama's policy pronouncements, it is possible Obama may continue with Bush lead of having close relationship with Bharat. But it's highly unlikely. For one thing, I suspect, Obama is an Islamo-phile. Of course, there is nothing wrong with being an Islamo-phile. But a nation or leader dealing with president Obama has to understand where he's coming from to deal with his policy positions.

Three things about Obama makes me think he is an Islamo-phile.

First, although I am told from people who read his autobiographies that Obama doesn't talk about his younger days - after his childhood apparently he suddenly appears in Chicago's black community, works his way up in the city's community and then raise fairly rapidly through state government and US Senate. But apparently he visited LoP in the 80s with his Pakistani friends. We know Obama, at the time, felt like an outsider. So it's less probably that he went to LoP to check on how Reagan and US government were doing to throw out Soviets from Afghanistan, but rather to see for himself how the mujahideens are organizing and fighting the Soviets. B. Raman writes of this trip:

It was at the invitation of one of his Pakistani friends that he visited Islamabad, Karachi and Hyderabad (Sind) in the 1980s. Nobody can hold that against him.

As an Indian, one will be but human if one felt troubled that he did not disclose this till he became the Presidential candidate. He disclosed this----as if in passing--- when it was alleged that he did not understand the Islamic world and its divisions. He mentioned his visit to Pakistan to show that he knew about the divisions in Islam, about the Shia-Sunni differences.

Why did he keep mum on his visit to Pakistan till this question was raised? Has he disclosed all the details regarding his Pakistan visit? Was it as innocuous as made out by him----to respond to the invitation of a Pakistani friend or was there something more to it?

I have never heard of Obama's trip to LoP until the post by Sri Raman. It is possible, as a young man, Obama wasn't sure if he was Muslim or a Christian. And it's fine for him to look for his religious roots and gain some understanding.

Secondly, recently we find out that Obama's mentor, other than local former terrorist bomber Bill Ayers, was Prof. Rashid Khalidi. Prof. Khalidi was a PLO spokesperson. Perfectly sane person but someone who dislikes Israel. Apparently Obama learned about Arab politics and about Islamic world from Prof. Khalidi and his wife over number of dinners at Khalidi's house. LA Times published a piece in April on a dinner party for Prof. Khalidi when he moved from Univ. of Chicago to Columbia Univ. Apparently Obama was full of praise for the professor while others were blasting Israel and Jews with Bill Ayers present at the table.

According to Wallsten the evening not surprisingly turned into a classic Jew-bash:

"During the dinner a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, "then you will never see a day of peace."

LA Times has the video of the party bashing Jews, but won't release it - probably protecting the paper's favorite candidate.

And thirdly, Obama's dad was a Kenyan Muslim. Obama himself is a Christian, but it explains his youthful interest in Islam and Muslim lands. And I suspect his sympathy for whatever real and imagined afflictions Muslims feel that Islamic nations have.

With Obama's possible Islamo-phile attitude, the countries that will be most impacted by his policies will be the ones that have bloody borders with the lands of Islam - mainly Bharat and Israel, but also Afghanistan. Israel will have to deal with a not-so friendly US government along with already unfriendly Europeans. But American Jews and Israelis can take of care themselves. Backed by Obama's administration, Afghanistan will have to deal with possible reconciliation with Taliban (former mujahideens) enabling NATO and US troop withdrawal. Any revival of Afghanistan as a normal country will probably end with India losing out a strategic foothold while LoP gets its strategic depth back.

After Bush leaves the presidency, the bonhomie between India and US will probably come to an end - the drop-in visits by the president when a senior Bharatiya leader visits the White House on business; the consultation phone calls to the prime minister; and simple praise and defence of Bharat in international arena will, I suspect, be a thing of the past. The strategic room for Bharat on world stage may shrink quite a bit. One hopes MEA and Bharatiya foreign policy watchers are ready for the new reality and are prepared for it without being surprised at what changes the new US elections will bring. This will especially be true if BJP/NDA wins elections early next year - it should not expect to pick up US-Bharatiya relationship from where it left off five years ago.

In the Middle of Iran Nuclear Muddle

2008-11-01T12:07:00.002+05:30

Fresh report surfaced to indicate that a few weeks ago India cooperated with US to block North Korean communists from supplying arms, possibly nuclear but more likely ballistic missile parts, to Iran.

According to the Western and Asian officials, the North Korean plane, an Ilyushin-62 long-range jet owned by the North Korean state airline, made a stop in Myanmar on Aug. 7 and sought permission from Indian air-traffic controllers to fly over Indian airspace. India eventually blocked the flight at Washington's behest, the officials said.
Neither the White House nor the Indian prime minister's office would comment on the operation or describe the cargo believed to be aboard the plane.

The cooperation was probably under the US-lead Proliferation Security Initiative, although India hasn't formally signed on to the initiative. PSI is primarily related to nuclear, chemical, and biological and related materials. It's highly unlikely N. Korea would be supplying nuclear material to Iran at this stage of the six-party on-again off-again talks. But it came when N.Korea was playing its usual game of repairing the recently dismantled Yongbyon nuclear facility to make Washington bend its demands. Washington eventually did by removing N. Korea off its terror sponsoring nations list over the objections of Japanese, who are still waiting on N. Korean cooperation to track down kidnapped Japanese citizens decades ago at the height of cold war.

If it were nuclear material that were being shipped to Iran, Washington would have gone ballistic. As the article indicates, it was probably missiles components. Washington and Israel, and also India, would still have to be very concerned that Iran would have the delivery capacity to supplement its fast moving nuclear weapons program. Iran, just like Pakistan, already has fairly advanced missile program courtesy of N. Korea.

But the irony of the cooperation was that the Kolkata International Airport denied permission to the N. Korean plane, waiting in Myanmar, to fly over India to its destination. One has to wonder what the communists reaction would be when they find out New Delhi ordered their communist city to comply with American request.

Flawed Debate on Revenge Terrorism

2008-10-29T12:14:00.006+05:30

There is More to It Than Name Calling

The debate over arrest of at least two Hindus - the first arrested was, interestingly, a women, Pragya, and that too a sadhvi - who apparently planted bombs in Malegaon, is assuming proportions of silliness. Sure call them Hindu terrorists and condemn the violence. The police and their so-called anti-terrorism squads of various states are trying to piece together the puzzle of who is who and how they are connected. Apparently some worked for BJP or were with RSS or ABVP years ago. And that's the fodder for p-sec media tamasha.

What is missing from the debate and analysis is why this is a surprise. Islamic terrorists and their masters in the Land of Pure have been at this for 15 years since Mumbai terror bombings that killed over 200 people. Remember prior to those terror bombings the masters supplied weapons and ammunition to Muslim areas in Mumbai to kill any Hindus rioters that would have come that area. They wanted open riots and killing, something close to an open warfare, amongst Hindus and Muslims. And the terror bombings never stopped since. Now that Hindus are forming entities to make that a reality is somehow surprising? A normal sane country would have understood what the Islamic terrorists puppets and their masters are up to and pursued a twin strategy of taking out the masters while destroying the puppets. Instead all we got were denials year after year - one terror attack after another.

We were told a peace treaty over J&K with Pakistan apparently would somehow pacify the masters - as though negotiations and signatures on a piece of paper ever satisfied evil. Obfuscation and appeasement became the strategy for dealing with the in-house terrorist puppets. Everything was, and still is, being looked at from political and vote bank angle. As though the terrorists and their strategies would somehow stray to the vagaries of votes and democracy. Nehru's and Indira's socialism already created a entitlement culture, sense of oppression, and a class culture among many. Combine that with the appeasement politics of the past two decades (or longer) and one has to wonder how exactly is an Islamic terrorist satisfied?

Also, there is a parallel between what the Christian cult groups are doing to undermine Hinduism in the country and what the Islamic terrorists are up to. Formation of Hindu entities to undertake revenge terrorism purportedly against Islamic terrorism and against soul harvesting Christian cult groups is a logical outcome of the way the State of India works. That work ethics was, and continues to be, drawn from the way Nehru and his cronies functioned from day one of democratic India. The complete and utter disregard for anything Hindu - cultural, spiritual, social, and historic - and in its place trying to create a disgusting and contorted entity called a (pseudo) secular India. That experiment is about to fail because of its inherent contradiction and immorality it wants to impose on the vast majority of people of the country.

Revenge terrorism and anti-Christian cult actions are just a start. One has to remember that Hindus are normal human beings - they solve major societal and existential problems, such as invasions and civilizational destruction, by going to war. In fact, the entire religion of Hinduism is based on celebrating the victory of good over evil - not by appeasing evil or signing a peace treaty with evil, but by fighting it, every time, throughout its history. This is especially true when the State, that legally has the sole power to use force, is unwilling to deal with the cultural existential threat to the majority and hiding behind the banner of secularism. Gandhi's peace activities of the 1920s through 1940s were an aberration in Bharatiya history and the so-called peaceful transition, or independence, paid it's prize with partition of the newly independent land (with lakhs of people killed) and continuation of non-native British politics, policies, and law. There was never a clean break from the old imperial tyranny and the contorted morality of socialism imported from Britain.

With the State living in denial, that so called peaceful transition of 60 years, artificially propped up by socialism, seems to be coming to an end. And, as could be expected, the p-sec analysts, conditioned to think a certain way for decades, seem to be missing the big picture, again.

For Freedom, Justice, and Joy

2008-10-27T23:10:00.009+05:30

Let freedom from pseudo-secular intellectuals rein;
Let justice be unshackled from lefty secular politics of the day;
Let joyousness spring forth from under the tyranny of socialism;
Could there be a more celebrated day then Deepawali

Deepawali Subhakakshalu to everyone. Celebrate freedom, justice, and prosperity for everyone....

Such Urgency to Tackle Financial Crisis

2008-10-22T11:45:00.000+05:30

The Americans come up with a new proposal almost every two days or so to thaw the frozen credit market. The Europeans come with a new proposal may be once a week. Everyone in west from U.S. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke to French finance minister Christine Lagarde is working day and night to tackle the credit market, the libor, corporate capitalization and everything in between. Ajay Shah has crisis watch on his blog everyday watching the crisis unfold and writing about the implications of the crisis on Indian financial markets and corporations. Sri Arun Shourie talks about what needs to be done urgently to undo the damage done to Bharatiya economy because of current financial crisis.

And now the establishment jumps in to tackle the situation with urgency!

New Delhi, October 21 : Stepping up crisis-management measures to cushion the anticipated economic downturn precipitated by the global financial turmoil, the Government has ordered the High-Level Coordination Committee on Financial Markets to meet at least once a month as an emergency measure to take stock of the situation and identify timely responses.

The committee, headed by RBI governor Duvvuri Subbarao, is essentially a panel of regulators comprising heads of IRDA, PFRDA and SEBI besides top Finance Ministry officials.

The committee convened an emergency meeting in the first week of October to assess preparedness of regulators to tackle the impact of the financial crisis.

The decision comes after repeated suggestions to evolve a mechanism that can provide timely and coordinated response to a situation that is unpredictable, requiring effective regulation.

Meet at least once a month! What would the country do without such urgency, by the people in charge, to tackle the financial crisis.

Interesting Webcast of Chandrayaan 1

2008-10-22T11:35:00.000+05:30

Chandrayaan 1 begins. Although the mission is not complete, the thought of actually doing the mission, putting the project together, and getting it done extremely fast is worth pondering about. If ISRO could manage such a complex task, why cannot other branches of the government - such as constructing a dam or highway project on time, or providing electricity to all villages or education to all children - work so well? Apparently people are capable but the system won't allow them to work.

PSLV - C11 on Launch Pad

But the launch of the boringly named rocket, PSLV - C11, was great. And mission amazing. Sure it's probably a duplication of what other countries did, but those countries don't want to show us how the wheel works. So we rebuilt the wheel and learn something from rebuilding the wheel.

Also the timing of the launch - one year after Japanese and Chinese launches (the Chinese already conducted few space walks) - says something about the future of Asia and how the three powers are evolving.

Finally, here is the strange webcast of the PSLV - C11 launch at ISRO site. Seeing that I am not sure I can complain about other government departments. Better and more advanced things yet to come if Chandrayaan 1 is a success.

Linking Economic Prize to Indus and Vedic Periods

2008-10-16T12:10:00.005+05:30

I am always amazed at Bibek Debroy's columns in IE. His knowledge about seemingly disparate events or things is stunning. May be it's a Bengali intellectual thing! In his recent column, he brings together the recent Nobel Prize for Economics winner Paul Krugman's original thesis on trade, presented sometime in the 70s, on Economies of Scale - a term that's in common lexicon in business and trade nowadays - and growth of cities, and Bharatiya history. Not just recent history but mostly unknown Indus and somewhat known Vedic periods of Bharatiya history! Of course, he doesn't go into much detail in a short op-ed column. But the thought that the two aspects can brought together is something.

However, the myth of an Aryan invasion having destroyed the Indus Valley civilisation still continues, compounded by problems of equating the word “Arya” with ethnicity rather than language and our inability to decipher the Indus Valley script completely. What we do know is that this civilisation was, at least in its mature phase, an urban one, with urban planning, municipal governments and sewage, drainage and sanitation systems. It prospered on the basis on trade, commerce and transportation, though agriculture wasn’t unknown.

In contrast, the Vedic civilisation was nomadic and rural, with horses and chariots, unknown to Indus Valley. Nor do we quite know why the Indus Valley Civilisation declined. Perhaps no single explanation provides the answer, though climate change, deforestation and drying up of rivers played a role. Perhaps the word decline or destruction is inappropriate. The civilisation simply moved elsewhere and was assimilated, such as in Rajasthan and Gujarat. However, during the Vedic period (around 1500 BCE to 500 BCE), India de-urbanised and became increasingly rural. Neither of the two epics describes an urban centre in any great detail, barring Lanka, which was different. Urbanisation didn’t recover until Mahajanapadas of the post-500 BCE period and Mahajanapadas meant kingdoms or republics, rather than cities. At that time, there were 16 Mahajanapadas. Though lists differ, the most common list has Kashi, Koshala, Anga, Magadha, Vrijji, Malla, Chedi, Vatsa, Kuru, Panchala, Matysa, Surasena, Ashmaka, Avanti, Gandhara and Kamboja. But this is a list of kingdoms or republics. The city list has Varanasi (Kashi), Ayodhya, Sravasti and Saketa (Koshala), Rajagriha (Magadha), Vaishali (Vrijji), Kaushambi (Vatsa), Indraprastha and Hastinapura (Kuru), Adhichatra (Panchala), Mathura (Surasena), Podana (Ashmaka), Ujjain (Avanti), Purushapura and Takshashila (Gandhara) and Rajapura (Kamboja)...

Krugman won the Nobel prize “for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity”. In addition, “Economies of scale combined with reduced transport costs also help to explain why an increasingly larger share of the world population lives in cities and why similar economic activities are concentrated in the same locations. Lower transport costs can trigger a self-reinforcing process whereby a growing metropolitan population gives rise to increased large-scale production, higher real wages and a more diversified supply of goods. This, in turn, stimulates further migration to cities. Krugman’s theories have shown that the outcome of these processes can well be that regions become divided into a high-technology urbanised core and a less developed ‘periphery’.”...

Contrast this with our approaches to urbanisation, not only in recent debates about conversion of agricultural land into non-agricultural usage, but also in Government attitudes to development, where the general idea is to keep people in rural India, rather than bring them into urban locations. Might this have something to do with the way India’s historical development occurred, or with the way we perceive this historical development to have taken place? In pre-Maurya and pre-Gupta India, two phases of urbanisation were Indus Valley and Mahajanapadas. We ignore the first and don’t know how to fit it in. For the second, how many of those sixteen cities listed continued to prosper as cities? And how many declined with the decline of Buddhism and Jainism, leaving us to search for Arcadia in rural India? [IE]

Of course, I wish the prize went to the other great trade theorist and strong global trade advocate Prof Jagdish Bhagwati of Columbia, who is also much older then Krugman. It's unusual for someone in their fifties to receive a Nobel prize. But then I suspect the increasing political Nobel committee probably wanted to stick it to US president Bush one last time before he departs by giving a prize to a Bush hater - an almost deranged hate at that - after giving prizes to Jimmy Carter and Al Gore in past years. Unfortunately, the loser is Prof Bhagwati as the Noble committee is unlikely to give a non-posthumous prize for another trade theorist anytime soon.

Welcome Media News, Probably

2008-10-16T11:46:00.003+05:30

When I was in school I used to listen to it on shortwave every night at 11:30 to get an update on world affairs before dozing off. But BBC is different now. It now firmly falls into a left-wing hyper partisan news outlet that doesn't report news but sort of makes it up based on presumed facts on the ground. Here is just an example. But the welcome news is that the BBC may be winding down. There probably was a time when it could have continued on its past laurels. But that moment has long gone.

London, October 15: : The BBC is now in "its last stages" because budget cuts will make it increasingly difficult to maintain standards, the corporation' s world affairs editor has warned.

John Simpson, BBC's longest serving news reporter, said the corporation' s future is bleak as the world service was paying the price of the licence fee being "chopped away".

"The future? Well, I don't think that it's going to look very good for the BBC. I think the BBC we have known, for good or worse, is now in its last stages," the veteran correspondent, whose career at the BBC spans more than 40 years, told an audience at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

Many creations in life outlive their usefulness and purpose. Surely BBC is one those creatures.

Nuclear Deal Passed US Hurdle, But....

2008-10-03T10:22:00.004+05:30

Bharat-US Relationship May Have Reached a High Point For the Near Future

Passage of 123 Nuclear Agreement between US and Bharat, by US, could be the high point in the relationship between the countries for a while to come. I think MEA may be in for a rude shock after January depending on who wins American presidency in November. With Bush, a genuine American friend of India, I think MEA and the entire Indian foreign policy establishment had it easy, at least after Colin Powell left Bush administration in 2004.

Here are the votes by party line on the Nuclear deal:

US Senate:

For - Republicans: 48 ; Democrats: 38
Against - Republicans: 0; Democrats: 13

US House:

For - Republicans: 178; Democrats: 120
Against - Republicans: 10; Democrats: 107

With the Barack Obama, presumably, likely to win US presidency in November, based on current polls, expect the State Department back in charge when it comes to relations with India. With the backing of majority Democrats (see the Democrats opposition to the Nuclear Deal above) in both houses, Obama, while may not be Jimmy Carter, who thumbed his nose at India during his presidential visit telling us what our national interests should be and how we should manage them (which ended up turning off Bharatiya foreign policy establishment for a long time with no visits by US president to the country for 20 years), will be close enough.

Indian foreign policy establishment had excellent access to White House, National Security Agency, and US Defense Department like never before in its history during Bush era. Obama will go back to the old days of traditional foreign policy wonks in the lead. One can see the disparity when negotiations were going on for the 123 Nuclear Agreement. With the State Department establishment skeptical with the deal, clearly US NSA was driving the negotiations with a host of background players like Amb. Blackwell and Ashley Tellis working the system to make get the agreement. While US Defense Department usually has its own foreign policy objectives, any future engagement with India MoD would likely be under the radar.

The most significant change that would shock Indian establishment would be the return of hyphenation. Obama wants to go after Land of the Pure - go after terrorists in its Northwest Frontier Province. And only way to appease Pakistani tantrums, if Obama follows up his words, would be to put Bharat back on the same pedestal as Pakistan. Also expect Chinese appeasement by US to reach a new high. Any talk of US projecting Bharat as counterweight to China, even if we were interested in doing so, would probably stop.

On the other hand, if McCain wins, however unlikely, the relationship between the two nations, with his rhetoric about League of Democracies and strong support for the nuclear deal from day one, will probably take off to new heights. If the right people are in New Delhi, I won't be surprised if we become much more integrated with US - militarily, economically, and strategically.

Shourie's Chinese Points

2008-09-24T21:02:00.003+05:30

What's amazing about Sri Shourie's thoughts on how to deal with China, from his latest book Are we deceiving ourselves again?, is that those thoughts could have been made in post-war 1962! It seems Chinese haven't changed, but importantly, we haven't either.

From among the many:

* Never take its silence to be consent.

* Nor its ambiguous word: remember the. statements they kept making about the maps being old, and their not having had the time to correct them.

* Nor indeed its consent. Not even if that consent is in writing: no compunction restrained China from repudiating the 17-point Agreement with Tibet 50 years ago, just as no compunction has restrained it now from brushing aside the principles and 'political parameters' that were agreed for the settling the border question.

* Rushing troops around at the last minute, buying weapons at the last minute, learning how to counter new types of warfare at the last minute. All this has to be done when the avalanche descends, but by then it is of little use. Nor does the emotion and enthusiasm with which people respond to aggression save the country. The emotion and enthusiasm are indispensable. But they are no substitute for having prepared oneself in the years that precede the onslaught. As Clausewitz would say, "The best strategy is always to be very strong". Both terms are equally important: "always" as well as "very strong".

* Do not pose the question as "all or nothing". The choice that the other fellow sees is not "war or peace", but "limited war", "proxy war", "the violence of peace".

The last point is worth pondering. When the Chinese recently cracked down, yet again, on the Tibetans fighting for independence from communist tyranny, a media person asked a senior politician in the lefty Congress I what was its government's response. That politician answered because we can't roll our tanks into Tibet to defend Tibetans, there is nothing we can do. In fact, I doubt if Manmohan Singh even raised the issue of Tibet in any of his meetings with the Chinese leaders.

Sri Shourie's points reminds me of the letter that Sardar wrote to Nehru in 1949, an year prior to his death, about the nature of communist regimes, especially that of Chinese nature and how we should be prepared for that nature in the early years of an independent nation. Nehru probably thought the pre-modern old fool didn't know what he was talking about - after all communism was the modern future and the Chinese themselves have convinced him otherwise. One can only guess the response Sardar would have given to the Chinese takeover of Tibet few years after his death.

Here is Brahma Chellaney's review of the book.

Fighting Both Sides

2008-09-24T11:58:00.003+05:30

Not that Islamic terrorists in Bharat lack any sympathizers among the self-proclaimed intellectuals, the p-sec media, and socialists, but Jamia Milia Islamia is taking the phrase "fighting both sides" in the battle of Islamic terror to a whole new level.

After denying any links with any of the suspected terrorists arrested by the police for the Delhi bombings of September 13, Jamia Milia Islamia, the denominational university that neighbours the Jamia Nagar ghetto where the Indian Mujahideen module was based, has finally been forced to admit it was wrong. Having attacked the police for allegedly misleading the public, the Jamia administrators have grudgingly accepted that two of those arrested were students of the university. However, this acceptance has not come with cold horror or sober contrition. Rather, the Vice-Chancellor of the university has, with uncharacteristic bravado, decided to put the weight of Jamia -- as the institution is commonly known -- behind the terror suspects. He has committed the university to providing "legal help to the two students ... until they are proven guilty". [Pioneer]

Who needs to pay for that crude to support those Saudi princes who can then send some education funds to the favorite groups of al Qaeda, which then dispersers the funds to various terrorists groups such as LeT and those guys end up funding the terror groups such as SIMI and the so-called Indian Mujaheddins (those were 1-2-3-4-5 steps, at least). (Come to think of it, isn't this how monies are transferred among Catholic church groups to harvest dark souls - but that's a whole another topic.)

Here, all the school teacher, whose son was probably killed in any one of the various terrorist bomb blasts around the country initiated by people apparently-not-belonging-to-a-particular-community as the prime minister likes to say until recently, needs to do is to pay her taxes to the central government. Honourable Human Resource Development minister would then disperse the funds directly to JMI, ostensibly to develop a few human resources for the country's future, and it will fight the other side of terror by defending Islamic terrorists (those were 1-2 steps) - all to clear its good name.

It's nice to know JMI cares about its good name. So, just to be sure, will it refund the money taken from the school teacher's taxes if JMI is unable to clear its good name so that the honourable Human Resources Development minister can develop a few other resources for the country's future?

Why US is The Top Dog

2008-08-04T08:39:00.003+05:30

Made from Twin Towers steel:

USS New York

From Barbarindians

How Stupid Can BJP Be

2008-08-03T10:56:00.004+05:30

One has to wonder if BJP lives in a self-created bubble. Is it blind to the fact that most, if not all, major English news channels are biased again BJP and generally biased against Hindu - as a religion - issues? CNN-IBN and NDTV, especially, have repeatedly abhorred BJP while playing second fiddle to Congress I and its allies, communists, until few days ago, or SP, now. Any sane thinking person can see this. Apparently not the BJP.

So when BJP wanted to perform a sting operation against the corrupt Congress I and Samajwadi Party bribing BJP MPs, it called CNN-IBN? What were they thinking? And CNN-IBN performed, along predictable lines, its duty for Congress I - after all it's payback time for its top editors after getting Padma Sris from the same Congress I government few months ago. We are told CNN-IBN couldn't show the tapes because the report wasn't complete. How convenient because, now, it will never be complete! We can see the completeness of their reporting everyday on every topic - from news flashes to journalists reports. In a classic Indian fashion, facts and events were muddied and doubt was created even as the actual tapes weren't shown. One can imagine how devastating the tapes really are to the Congress I's government.

Sudheendra Kulkarni, advisor to Sri Advani, says he was witness to the entire sting operation and that the CNN-IBN reporter, Sidarth Gautam, clearly said that the tapes will be broadcast.

I was a witness to most of what they have stated in their petition to the Speaker and vouch for its authenticity. I was with the CNN-IBN team almost from the beginning to the end of its sting operation and have witnessed its recording of the operation. I have no hesitation in affirming that the channel has double-crossed the whistle-blowers by flouting its own solemn assurance to telecast the tape before the trust vote was taken on July 22. I am willing to depose before the inquiry committee and ready to face any punishment if found guilty.

So much for assurances from any media, let alone a media that is hates BJP. Why exactly didn't BJP have its own cameras rolling? Or make another copy of the tapes before CNN-IBN took them away? And why didn't BJP look for a more friendly news channel, in the first place?

Apparenty BJP was not just naive but stupid. It got conned by the media and it should have known better. And the boycott is better late then never. May be now BJP will realize what the English news media is up to and do something about it.

Harkishan Singh Surjeet Dead at Age 92 - Time of Hope

2008-08-03T10:13:00.004+05:30

Few weeks ago the communists of Bharat lost their grip on power. Soon came signs that they may not partner with leftist Congress I again anytime soon. They surely will not partner with BJP. So the country is safe from communist grab for power, however convolved, at least for another decade or longer.

In another good news, communist leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet died Friday at a ripe age of 92. We are told he was a master tactician in politics and loved the poor. Even if we ignore how a thinking normal human being can be a Marxist, one has to wonder what Surjeet's eulogies mean. He was master tactician to do what? To somehow keep communists relevant in national politics when they should have bit the dust decades ago. He surely was not a patriot and he surely did not care about the nation's history or its future. He loved the poor so much that he wanted to create more of them. And surely, he, along with others of his ideology, have kept the country's poverty persistent for a few more generations then necessary. Such is the relevance of Harkishan Singh Surjeet.

Apparently he is one of the last to die - there is still another Marxist non-patriot, Jyoti Basu, alive and well. But the impact these ignorant fools, who had plenty of say in the way economic policy evolved since independence, can have is diminishing. Lucky for the poor. Lucky for the country.

One wonders why God had to punish the country for so long by keeping Harkishan Singh Surjeet alive into his nineties.

Tirupati's Dalita Govindam

2008-07-15T11:45:00.005+05:30

Tirupati Venkateswara Swamy visits dalits at their homes!

Named ‘Dalit Govindam’, the initiative involves Dalits in prayer rituals and ceremonies without any prejudice or cutting costs. The Lord and his entourage spend the night with the Dalit residents.

Living in abject poverty, a majority of the Dalit families here cannot afford a pilgrimage to Tirumala. Prevailing caste bias means they are not allowed into many local temples.

“The God does not discriminate and this is the message we want to convey to them. Due to poverty, most of them wait several years to make a trip for the Lord’s darshan. We introduced this programme of taking the idols of Lord Venkateshwara and his two consorts to Dalit settlements to eradicate caste discrimination and also to give them an opportunity to pray and worship to their heart’s content and take part in the traditional rituals and ceremonies which they never witness. The priests also give them ‘Vedic blessings’ which only VVIPs visiting the main temple in Tirumala normally receive,” says TTD’s Chairman B Karunakar Reddy.

The idols are kept on a platform in the middle of the ‘dalitwada’ for the rituals. To make sure that there is no hesitation among the residents, the priests go to each and every household and invite them to join the ceremony and rituals. “Three couples are selected who will join the priests in reciting the hymns and perfoming the various rituals. The ‘prasadam’ and food is also prepared with the involvement of everyone. To clear misconceptions like untouchability and segregation, the priests, TTD officials and the local residents then share the prasadam and food from the same vessels and plates,” Reddy informs.

Without being defensive about it, Karunakar Reddy says the program is also to stop the hallowing out of Hindus and Hinduism by well-funded religious converters and soul harvesters.

Pointing out that Dalits are getting alienated from the society and Hindu religion, leading to conversions, Reddy adds: “I hope this will also help bring them back into the mainstream.”

This action of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) will do infinitely more to erase caste/jati/varnam discrimination than any law or reservation system that has been in force for sixty years. I hope TTD will not only visit villages in A.P. but also visit villages all over the country - in the south, north, and northeast - and make it mission to be visible and to speak loudly and clearly that it and Lord Venkateswara doesn't condone discrimination and segregation amongst Hindus, especially against dalits and the so called untouchables. One hopes taking the lead of TTD, other temples stop their discriminating practices and that this action by TTD would take the dialogue against discrimination and segregation within Hinduism to a new level and hopefully pave the path for eliminated segregation from amongst Hindus within a generation. What a complement it would be for economic growth and material development!

All That For Nothing!

2008-07-10T10:22:00.003+05:30

Glenn Kessler of Washington Post writes that US Congress may not ratify the finalized version of 123 Nuclear Agreement between US and India mainly because the much discussed Hyde Act says US Congress needs to have "30 days of continuous session to consider it" and more importantly because leader of US Congress does not want a lame duck session before the new US president is sworn in, sometime in January.

So far so good. But Kessler also says, quoting American officials, that after an agreement with NSG - that 45-member nuclear supply group (which comes after an agreement with IAEA) - India doesn't need an agreement with US. It can go directly to Russia or France to go ahead with the civil nuclear equipment purchase agreements. An agreement then, post-NSG, is actually in US interest so that US companies can bit for civil nuclear projects in India! So US gets little in return for all the help, at least right away, if the agreement is not ratified by US Congress. President Obama and his liberal supports may block it, but who cares! In the long run, surely, India will be grateful for what US, and specifically president Bush, has done and continue to be strategic partner.

So all the hot air from the communists that India will become US stooge apparently is bogus. We may end being the stooge of Russia and France! And BJP's worry that somehow US will scuttle Indian nuclear test capability also seem to come to knots, because there is no Hyde Act with the Russians and the French. Once India is free from the shackles of NPT and American-lead sanctions, it will practically be impossible to put India in that straight jacket again even if India tests and Americans somehow impose sanctions per Hyde Act.

It's another matter if the NSG will ratify the agreement. G8 apparently support it. But once NSG ratifies the IAEA agreement, there is no turning back.

And, it seems, all those arguments are over nothing!

One Off Or New Strategy

2008-07-09T12:34:00.003+05:30

Yesterday I wondered if the latest car bombing in Kabul was a change in Pakistan's strategy towards Afghanistan. Today Praveen Swami writes about how the security and intelligence apparatus is approaching the suicide bombing targeting Bharatiya embassy.

“The water in Afghanistan,” Pakistan President General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq told his spymaster Lieutenant-General Akhtar Abdul Rehman Khan in December 1979, “must boil at the right temperature.”

Ever since a car bomb ripped through the Indian mission in Kabul on Monday, India’s National Security Adviser, M.K. Narayanan, as well as top officials of the Research and Analysis Wing, the Intelligence Bureau and the Ministry of External Affairs, have all been focussed on just one question: was the attack a one-off strike by Islamist terror groups, or part of a focussed operation by Pakistan’s covert services to make the water in Afghanistan too hot for India to swim in?

And The Pitfalls in Getting The Deal

2008-07-08T13:12:00.004+05:30

Even as Manmohan Singh bought Amar Singh's and Samajwadi Party's support using CBI's help, sidelining the communists after four long years of being under their thumb on every issue, the task to getting 123 Nuclear Agreement with US ratified by IAEA and NSG is not going to be easy. C. Rajamohan outlines the hurdles especially from the so called liberals.

As a New York Times editorial revealed over the weekend, those who oppose India’s membership of the nuclear club have not raised the white flag. The caution from the Times against an international rush to implement the nuclear deal is likely to be repeated by some other leading publications. So long as the CPM and the BJP were blocking the deal, India’s international adversaries had no reason to step into the debate. The very moment that India signalled its readiness to make the final push, the opponents have come out of the woodwork.

The potential new president of US, presumably Obama, already conveyed that he would not proceed with the deal and that the relationship with India would be on a lower footing. (Knowing this why American Indians and Indians in India support Obama is a mystery!) McCain already endorsed the deal. All that the opposing groups, this could include China, have to do is to delay the ratification of the agreement until January when the newly elected president Obama can take over to make the agreement unworkable for India. After all, the agreement - C. Rajamohan calls it the "most consequential diplomatic campaigns" - may still not be Manmohan's legacy. But I do wish him well.

Terror Innovator Innovates Again

2008-07-08T12:50:00.002+05:30

No one innovates more than LTTE in creating terror in new ways. The suicide bombers. A Navy. A disassemblable bomber plane. And now a human torpedo!

Rattled by the “mystery explosion” that sunk one of its fast-attack naval crafts on March 22, the Sri Lankan government has shared the findings of its investigation with an official team led by National Security Advisor M K Narayanan that visited Colombo last week. The Indian team was briefed on the LTTE’s latest weapon — “human torpedoes”. The Indian team included the Foreign Secretary and the Defence Secretary.

Attacking Indian Embassy

2008-07-08T11:32:00.004+05:30

Even as some argue that Bharat should even attempt to be a super power - one reason being there is Bharatiya Hindu Right (sic) in the country, apparently we already are. If not a super power, at least a region power that matters.

What else would explain the suicide car bomb terrorist attack - second largest in the recently initiated suicide terror in Afghanistan - that specifically targeted the ambassador to Afghanistan Sri Jayant Prasad, who was unhurt. Other 41 people weren't so lucky including two senior embassy personal and two low-level Bharatiya employees and number of Afghans waiting in line to get a visa to India and others shopping in the nearby market. About 150 were hurt. It was one powerful car bomb. But why target India? And why now?

Early AP story claimed that Taliban denied the attack and Land of the Pure's foreign ministry spokesperson had nothing to say. But now Taliban claims it did it and LoP denies its ISI's involvement. One apparent LoP political analyst that AP reporter spoke said Indians were asking for it by opening consulates all over Afghanistan. Presumably for influencing events in Afghanistan and spying on its eastern neighbour. So it's clear who perpetrated the attacks.

The why now may be easier to answer. With election season in India and US, the likely repercussions are less. In fact if the terrorists are lucky and if it plays out well on India's TV, with enough public pressure, India may even pull out of Afghanistan. There was some public outrage when civil engineers were killed by Taliban in the past.

And why would Taliban attack Indian Embassy when the Afghanistan Interior ministry was just down the road? Surely Taliban cannot overturn Karzai's government by targeting India.

Recently president Karzai claimed that ISI was planning to assassinate him. Few days before that Karzai said he would send Afghan forces across the border to hunt down Taliban and al Qaida. With European forces on-again-off-again support to US and NATO involvement in Afghanistan, ISI seems to be working on a strategy. It cannot direct its attacks on US and NATO forces - if the NATO forces have any inclination that ISI is directly killing Americans or Europeans, LoP will be in deep trouble. With Karzai out the way, with India out the way, and with Bush retiring, LoP establishment could use its charm offensive to, may be, talk the newly elected US president, presumably Obama (who seems to be the next Carter when it comes relations with India), into negotiating with Taliban in the name of stability and early withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. The promise can be made to the Americans that Taliban and ISI will work together to fight al Qaida. In fact, a few key al Qaida personal may even be handed over at the right moment. That way the intense Islamic jihadi pressure building up in LoP could be released westwards. It would be back to the strategic depth situation of the mid-90s - an ideal situation for ISI.

It's just possible ISI may be taking its chances to create conditions that may play out to its advantage after elections are held in US and in India, late this year and early next. The next US president and Bharatiya prime minister may be the wild cards.

An Icon Who Gave the First Decisive Victory Over Foreign Forces Dead At Age 94

2008-06-30T23:06:00.008+05:30

Imagine when was the last time Bharatiya forces decisively defeated an aggressive foreign force - not a neutral stalemate and surely not a bumbling defeat that was salvaged, partly, only by retreating enemy forces. One has to go a long way. If one thinks about it carefully about the ultimate outcome, may be never. Therein lies the significance of what Sam "Bahadur" Manekshaw did in his brief stint of being in charge of Indian Army. So if the current defense minister and the current chiefs of the three services - who? - did not want to honour this hero in death, it shows how tiny these men are. But, protocol or not, most people know who the hero, that genuine real life hero, is. The snub does not diminish the Field Marshall who died on June 27, 2008, at a ripe age of 94.

A Childish Nation's Not So Grand Send-off to a Hero - Rediff

Is there another military man's name that most people recognize - other then the other Field Marshall, K.M.Cariappa? Because Field Marshall Cariappa was not bemused by Nehru's pseudo-secularism, a whisper campaign was waged to try and tarnish his image. Field Marshall Manekshaw came close to the same, but official, fate when he had something to say about the incompetency of the civilian and military men in charge during the 1962 debacle. Luckily sane minds prevailed after the incompetency was purged.

While most people know of Sam Manekshaw's brilliant execution of the 1971 war for Bangladesh another episode shows the personality of Manekshaw. I watched a documentary on Indira Gandhi some years ago and in it the Bahadur himself narrates an incident sometime after he became the chief of Army in 1967. In one of those early paranoid periods of Indira, when rumours of Army exercises and secret plans for taking over the country to impose a military dictatorship were floating around, because of the on-going political uncertainty due to the tussle between the two splintered Congress parties, she called Manekshaw into her office and asked him, if the rumours were true. Surely Manekshaw heard the rumours too replied, "What do you think?" Unlike most generals in countries in the neighbourhood during that period, Sam Manekshaw didn't even contemplate that he was the salvation to the country's problems. That put Indira's mind to rest and probably contributed to her listening to his advise, few years later, as to why he shouldn't attack East Pakistan in August, although refuges were pouring in, when monsoon was at its peak in the Bengal region and the northeast mountain passes from China were eminently passable.

Two Great Men Chatting in late 2005 - Rediff

Beyond the famous war of 1971 - he retired soon after in 1973 when he became the second of the two Field Marshalls the country has had, Sam Manekshaw was involved in the first war that the newly independent country fought against the newly formed enemy nation. In the story he narrates to Prem Shankar Jha, he, as a part of Directorate of Military Operations, accompanied V.P. Menon, a babu extraordinary, to the Kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir, during the early uncertain days of Pakistan-backed Islamic tribal attack on the kingdom, to make Maharaja Hari Singh sign the kingdom's accession into the republic. After returning from Srinagar, Sam Bahadur goes to the high-level meeting headed by Mountbatten to consider the next steps.

At the morning meeting he (V.P. Menon) handed over the (Accession) thing. Mountbatten turned around and said, ' come on Manekji (He called me Manekji instead of Manekshaw), what is the military situation?' I gave him the military situation, and told him that unless we flew in troops immediately, we would have lost Srinagar, because going by road would take days, and once the tribesmen got to the airport and Srinagar, we couldn't fly troops in. Everything was ready at the airport.

As usual Nehru talked about the United Nations, Russia, Africa, God almighty, everybody, until Sardar Patel lost his temper. He said, 'Jawaharlal, do you want Kashmir, or do you want to give it away'. He (Nehru) said,' Of course, I want Kashmir (emphasis in original). Then he (Patel) said 'Please give your orders'. And before he could say anything Sardar Patel turned to me and said, 'You have got your orders'.

I walked out, and we started flying in troops at about 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock. [bold added]

There are two kinds of great men - those who are genuinely loved by everyone and those who are not. Sam Bahadur was the former. There are numerous stories of his genuine concern for people around him - from an elderly peon to a newly minted officer. And he was a great story teller.

Manekshaw was at his evocative best when he recalled his acquaintance with President Yahya Khan (Yahya Khan was the president of Pakistan in 1971) when the latter had worked under him in the military operations directorate of the British Indian Army just before partition.

Yahya Khan, then a colonel, was impressed by Manekshaw's James motorcycle which he had bought for Rs 1400. ''I told him that he could have the vehicle for as much. He said he would give only Rs 1000. I said okay,'' Manekshaw recalled.

''But I don't have a thousand rupees now, I will send it to you later,'' Yahya Khan said. It was August 13, 1947. Twenty-one years later Yahya Khan became the president of Pakistan. ''I never received the Rs 1000, but he gave me the whole of East Pakistan,'' Manekshaw said amid thunderous applause.

Here is an extract from Lieutenant General Depinder Singh's memoir of this extraordinary man - Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, Soldering with Dignity.

Those Hindu Terrorists

2008-06-23T13:02:00.003+05:30

Apparently a motley crew does exist! Indian Express briefly profiles various groups, including the group that set off crude bombs in Mumbai last week, that want to take up arms and fight. Apparently they are fighting for Hindu cause because, according to them, Hindus are under grave threat. Not sure how they are going to fight the threat by blowing up innocent people. Talk about copy cats. Needless to say, the idiots needs to be put away.

One of the groups is called SS - Sanatana Sanstha!! This is exactly what the self-appointed secular bridges are looking for. One can image their excitement to club these motley crew with the Bharatiya right even as they offer apologies to the real terrorists that are killing hundreds every year - the Islamic and Maoists groups.

The five men were members of the Sanatan Sanstha (SS) and the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), hitherto little-known groups operating in the hinterland of Maharashtra and Goa. Two of them are also members of another newly launched outfit called the Dharmashakti Sena, pictures of whose inaugural rally in April show young men dressed in military fatigues.

These groups, which work like wheels within wheels, have been quietly mobilising Hindus on a cocktail of Ramrajya, Hindu dharma and “dharmakranti” — religious revolution — in and around Mumbai for a few years now....

While the motley crew will be used as an excuse to further not do much about tackling Islamic terror in the country, one should challenge the secular bridge to tackle "all" terror groups by passing workable anti-terror laws and to investigate and arrest all the terrorists.

Closed Door In-Fighting

2008-06-23T12:57:00.003+05:30

In case someone missed it, Praveen Swami provides an excellent background, as always, on the current in-fighting going on in the Land of the Pure's Army - between Gen. Musharraf and his former loyalists using the trouncing of his Kargil adventure as the focal point.

Kargil is merely an instrument for discrediting President Musharraf’s anti-Islamist campaign. Many of the ‘Kargil Ghazis’ occupy important positions in Pakistan’s war against the Taliban and the al-Qaeda. Peshawar-based XI Corps commander Masud Aslam, for example, commanded 80 Brigade which was decimated in Kargil. He won a Sitara-e-Jurrat, or Star of Courage, for allowing the men he sent to be sent to their slaughter in an ill-conceived operation — a taint that hangs over his conduct of operations in the NWFP. Incidents like the destruction of the Spinkai town by the Pakistan Army’s 14th Division, which is reported to have displaced thousands, are represented by the army’s in-house hardliners as examples of just how little President Musharraf’s loyalists care for their own people.

Not Just a Mouth Piece But a Propaganda Machine in the Kingdom Itself

2008-06-19T10:47:00.003+05:30

Sri B. Raman writes of The Hindu's editor N. Ram's attacks on Sri Dalai Lama that are being used as propaganda and required reading by, hold you breath, the Communist Chinese political honchos themselves!! Apparently N. Ram's thesis bashing his holiness Lama was translated into Tibetan and Uighur languages and made required reading for the people of those regions. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise how close N. Ram is to his beloved country and their leaders.

Shri N.Ram, the well-known Editor-in-Chief of "The Hindu" of Chennai, has been the toast of China for an article purported to have beenwritten by him refuting the allegations levelled by the Dalai Lama and his supporters regarding the events of March in Lhasa . The Chineseauthorities have been gratified by what they see as his vigorous articulation of the version of the events as put out by them.

2. A report on Shri Ram's article disseminated by the State-owned Hsinhua news agency of China is annexed. It is learnt that this has beentranslated into the Tibetan and Uighur languages and copies distributed in all the monasteries and educational institutions in theTibetan-inhabited areas of China. It has also been made required reading in the patriotic re-education classess for Tibetans being organisedby the Chinese authorities.

Here is that N. Ram's article that the Chinese Communists translated.

Who Surprised Whom!

2008-06-19T05:57:00.003+05:30

We must, by far and away, be the worst country on the planet when it comes to national security and protecting border. Chinese walk all over the existing border including building roads and other infrastructure. And apparently:

During the recent visit of India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Beijing, the Chinese reportedly stunned him by raising the issue of Finger Area.

Here is the aggressor taking the issue to heart of the matter. It should us who bring the issues and take Chinese to task - as the foreign minister said he would before taking that plane to Beijing. Apparently he did not. May be he was saying hindi chini bhai bhai. After all he crushed the Tibetian protests in our country to please his Chinese friends and, of course, to please leftist Congress I's communist traitors in bed.

Here is what we are avoiding that the former commerce minister, Subramanian Swamy, says we should be talking about:

In particular, a crucial choice will have to be made. Choice I: India could form a compact with China. Choice II: It could become part of the U.S. efforts to keep China ‘contained’. How and why the choice is to be made must be subject to an in-depth analysis and national debate. Either India befriends China in a fundamental and strategic sense, or India confronts China. There is no third way.

Desis Are Taking Over!

2008-06-18T13:31:00.002+05:30

This is Wall Street Journal's headline today.

Mahanatyamani Kalamandalam Gopi

2008-06-18T12:15:00.002+05:30

I am always mesmerized by Kathakali when I watch it on TV. I have never watched it live and wish I would someday. Ajayan of Mint profiles Kalamandalam Gopi, a person who expanded Kathakali's fame.

Training at Kalamandalam was rigorous—from 4 am till 10 pm, under maestros such as Ramankutty Nair, Padmanabhan Nair and Krishnakutty Warrier. It lasted for seven long years. “It is the dedication of those teachers that has helped me grow to these heights,” says Gopi.

Kathakali has its roots in Krishnaattom (dance) which was developed and popularized by the Zamorin, who ruled Kozhikode in the 17th century. It is based on the famous 12th-century Sanskrit poem Geeta Govinda which celebrates the love of Lord Krishna for Radha. The ruler of Kottarakkara, a fiefdom in south Kerala, gave form to another play, Ramanattom, based on the life of Lord Rama. These masked plays were a precursor to Kathakali. In the 18th century, the ruler of Kottayam in central Kerala gave Kathakali its current name, along with its present form, making innovations in the costumes, stylization and presentation, and basing it on dramatic episodes from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.

Traditionally, stories based on the epics were composed to be performed over a whole night, but with time they have become more concise, focusing only the dramatic and popular parts that last from two to four hours....

Gopi still remembers his performance as Bhima in Paris in the 1980s. Enacting an episode of the Mahabharata, he was to kill Duryodhana. “I was very young then. Bhima was to pull out the intestines of Duryodhana and, to an extent, I overdid it. A pregnant woman in the front row was shocked at the performance and fainted,” he recalls.

Three factors are crucial in the making of any good Kathakali actor—a body and face ideal for the Kathakali costume and make-up, acting and expressive abilities and rigorous training. “What one finds in Gopi is a rare and happy blend of all these,” says M.V. Narayanan. “He is actually the only actor today who can present with equal ease such highly technical and systematized roles like that of Arjun or Bhim or Yudhisthira, as well as the more ‘emotive’ and ‘freewheeling’ roles such as Nala and Karna.”

And There Was Not Even a Followup

2008-06-16T23:55:00.004+05:30

Here is an interview between IE political staff with a senior member of the leftist Congress I party, Prithiviraj Chavan, Minister of State but part of PMO. Here is Chavan's answer to a question followed by another question:

(PC:) I think we are becoming too minister-centric in states and even at the centre. Nobody will trade a ministerial position for a party position. The power that a minister enjoys of dispensing favours, of amassing wealth and patronage is so huge that people take up party responsibility only to see that they will get ministerial berth later on. That is something we have to introspect: how to re-organise the party.

•SHAWAN SEN: What is your opinion of the Gurjjar stir and their demand for ST status?

Is't amazing based on what the answer was, that there was no follow up question on that issue? Is Congress I so corrupt that follow up question is not necessary? I wonder what the IE political staff would do if BJP gave a similar answer to a question.

If there was any doubt that socialism, with it's vast power of government to control all economic activity of the country, is evil that statement should put to rest any doubt.

Vindictive Foreign-born in Charge

2008-06-15T11:00:00.003+05:30

It's hard to say if she was not foreign-born, she would love the country. After all there are plenty of locals who hate the country. But being foreign-born makes love for the country harder, interest in the country's development minimal, and pursing vindictive politics easier.

Sudheendra Kulkarni, who was in the PMO when Sri Vajpayee was the prime minister, writes about his experience of Sonia Gandhi's vindictiveness.

Once something remarkable happened at an NDC meeting in 2002. Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh and one of the most active participants in all such forums, suggested that in addition to having formal meetings with fixed agendas, there was a need for a free-wheeling brainstorming get-together outside the Capital to discuss major developmental issues before the nation. Most chief ministers, including those belonging to Congress-ruled states, endorsed this novel idea. S M Krishna, who was then the chief minister of Karnataka, even offered to host the conclave in his state....

Given the informal nature of the proposed conclave, the venue chosen for it was the sprawling and serene Infosys campus in Bangalore. Accordingly, Dr Ghosh and I went there to interact with senior Infosys executives. A separate preparatory meeting was also held with Krishna’s officers in Vidhan Soudha. However, within a few days, the idea of PM’s retreat with CMs came crashing down. Krishna informed Vajpayee that the Congress president disfavoured her party’s CMs attending it. Later, I asked Krishna — he is one of the gentlest politicians that I have known — “What happened?” “You know, Madam....” His incomplete reply said it all.

One Reason Why Bharat Continues to be a Democracy

2008-06-14T12:36:00.003+05:30

The official media tried to suppress the new of the Congress debacle and, especially the defeat of the Prime Minister and her son as long as they could. This gave rise to many wild rumours and speculations. I later came across an account of what happened on that fateful day in the memoirs of K.P.Krishnanunny, a PTI correspondent*. Once the results of the counting in most constituencies showed that the Janata Party was heading towards a great victory, Krishnanunny typed out the story whose lead line was: 'The 30-year Congress rule in India has ended and a non-Congress Ministry will assume office soon....' To his surprise, his Editor asked him to hold on to the story, and according to Krishnanunny, told him that Indira Gandhi was meeting the three chiefs of staff 'apparently to know their mind whether they would extent support to her if she continued in power despite adverse election results.' Only after ascertaining that the 'service chiefs had turned down Mrs Gandhi's attempt to remain in power' did the Editor release the story.

Emergency was officially lifted on 23 March 1976. With that ended the darkest period in the history of the Indian Republic.

Excerpt from My Country My Life, L.K. Advani, Page 266, Rupa & Co.

* - K.P. Krishnanunny, Reporting Memoirs, Kozhikode: Olive Publications [Apparently Krishnanunny's memoir retells the story of Emergency as it unfolded at the level of prime minister, that no one else was able capture.]

It's Official - Maoists and Islamists Are Now Partners in Terror

2008-06-13T12:19:00.002+05:30

Call them the Mao-Islamists - Only Group Left to Join in is Our English News Media

One had a nagging feeling when the so called human rights activists, sympathizers of Maoists terrorists, try to divert attention when an Islamic group kills tens or hundreds of people during their bombing fests, as happened as recently as Jaipur bombings. Or when the left wingers join forces to defend a terrorist conspirator, Mahmood Afzal, for attacking, of all places, the Parliament when it was in full session.

Apparently all that was ground work for what was to come next - an official partnership between the two terrorist group and their various support groups.

Calling themselves “the victims of state terror”, the two improbable partners had sat together for the first time and called for resistance against all kinds of terror unleashed by the State and Central governments against Maoists and Muslims. The meeting was held in Kerala last month.

The main forces behind the move are — ‘Porattom’, a Maoist group having base in South India, Minority Watch, a human rights organisation suspected of having close links with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and National Democratic Front (NDF), a radical Muslim group accused of having similar links with the banned Islamic Sevak Sangh (ISS)...

The meeting was also attended by some civil society movements including Confederation of Human Rights Organisation (CHRO) and People’s Union Civil Liberty (PUCL) working against encounter killings and anti-terror laws.

Normally, non-secular Islamics fundamentalists would crush any left wing activities in the areas under their control, say, in the Gulf region. And the Godless Maoists would push any religious activities underground, like the Stalin's Soviet or Mao's China. But ideology of terror can make strange bedfellows.

One can only imagine the English media joining in transforming their role from being just apologists to both the Maoists and Islamic terror groups. Unsurprisingly, as suspected even by casual observers, many of the so-called "human rights groups", groups doing the bitting for Maoists and Islamic terror groups, also joined in the partnership.

Also imagine if the major foreign powers joins in from the east and north to support the entire Mao-Islamists terror infrastructure to undermine the country when they deem appropriate. It would be the continuation of thousand year assault on Bharat - the Islamic onslaught since the 8th century followed Christian European onslaught since the 16th century. I think our nationalists celebrated too soon, in 1947, when India finally got independence, that the assaults will finally cease.

One has to wonder if the Bharatiya state is capable of standing up to this partnership and fight back. Surely more than half the political spectrum, the secular apologists all, which are already steeped in appeasement of Islamic forces - those quotes and reservations and, of course, first claim to national resources - and in apologizing to Maoists terror - "they are our family", cannot or will not put up a fight. The task is daunting indeed for the right thinking people in power. I shudder to think what if Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Sri Advani and their cohorts decided not to form BJP and call it quits after the dismantling of Janata Party post-1980 elections losses. Who would right minded people turn in a democracy if not the political parties?

Terrorists Know Who is Tough on Them

2008-06-12T11:19:00.003+05:30

With BJP taking over Karnataka, the underground terrorist organization, Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) wants to move.

Based on this report, Intelligence Bureau officials told rediff.com that leaders of the banned SIMI are having second thoughts about making Karnataka their base.

In his narco test, Asif said SIMI leaders had decided to shift their base if the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power.

Asif added that SIMI leaders had taken the decision after analysing the trends and patterns from other states where the BJP was in power.

IB sources say SIMI has already started making inroads into other states because of the crackdown on them and the new state government promising tougher anti-terror laws.

The SIMI had built up a strong base in Karnataka as evidenced by the attack on the Indian Institute of Science -- and its cadres played a crucial role in providing logistical support in carrying out various blasts across the country.

According to the IB, SIMI shifted base to Karnataka after the police forces in their two strong bases, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, initiated a ruthless crackdown. Shifting to another state from Karnataka will be a relatively easier task, as the outfit's bases are relatively new, the sources said.

Bush Did Us Good

2008-06-12T10:46:00.004+05:30

In a silly nostalgic article in New York Times (which I happened upon via another source), former US Secretary of State, who wanted to put India back in a bottle and used phrases like "stop digging if you are in a hole" while referring to India's 1998 Phokharan II nuclear tests, Madaleine Albright, rues the end of self-proclaimed white man's burden.

During the 1990s, certain precedents were created. The administration of George H. W. Bush intervened to prevent famine in Somalia and to aid Kurds in northern Iraq; the Clinton administration returned an elected leader to power in Haiti; NATO ended the war in Bosnia and stopped Slobodan Milosevic’s campaign of terror in Kosovo; the British halted a civil war in Sierra Leone; and the United Nations authorized life-saving missions in East Timor and elsewhere...

The Bush administration’s decision to fight in Afghanistan after 9/11 did nothing to weaken this view because it was clearly motivated by self-defense. The invasion of Iraq, with the administration’s grandiose rhetoric about pre-emption, was another matter, however. It generated a negative reaction that has weakened support for cross-border interventions even for worthy purposes. Governments, especially in the developing world, are now determined to preserve the principle of sovereignty, even when the human costs of doing so are high.

I think we owe the current US president George Bush a, may be two, thank yous: one, for putting to rest the notion that west, mainly US with the powerless Europeans egging on, can enter any country it wants for any reason it wants - hope it stays that way for the foreseeable future; and, two, for pursing a very close relationship with India.

We already know that at least one of possible future US president, Barack Obama, a classic left winger, would bring back moral equivalence between terror victim Bharat and terror sponsoring Land of Pure, and, who knows, side with Chinese when the time comes, keeping in tune with the historic sore to ambivalent US relations with India. The days of bonhomie between US and Bharat may be coming to an end.

Humour: Solidarity, But Can't Touch It!

2008-06-05T20:37:00.003+05:30

(Caption says)Working for a greener cover: Vidya Balan (whoever she is) showed her solidarity to the environment and participated in the tree plantation drive (from DNA)

No such qualms here:

And the GOI Has a Kalpavriksham!

2008-06-05T11:36:00.005+05:30

The price raise, based on global market prices, should have been "Rs 21.43 a litre on petrol, Rs 31.58 on diesel, Rs 35.98 on kerosene and Rs 352.99 on an LPG cylinder."

Instead, actual price raise, controlled by the wise Government of India was "Rs 5 per litre on petrol, Rs 3 on diesel and Rs 50 per cylinder of cooking gas LPG while keeping kerosene, the poor man’s lighting and cooking fuel, untouched."

How does the government plug the difference? By taking on more debt via oil bonds. Why? In order to control inflation which is already mangled by all sort economic distortions from agricultural products to steel.

Sure, short term inflation may be held down. But at what cost? First, oil bonds are the debt of the people, not some faceless government. The current users spurge oil at lower cost, but their children will be paying for it for decades to come.

Second, because the oil bonds are huge - subsidies are huge - they are going to crowd out productive investment in the economy impacting cost of borrowing for everything from infrastructure to agriculture investments. Here is what the oil bonds are going to take in:

"With the OMCs having to absorb Rs 20,000 crore of the loss as against Rs 16,125 crore last year, the leftover loss of Rs 135,000 crore would be handled by the government with the Finance Ministry issuing oil bonds every quarter based on actual numbers. However, to provide immediate liquidity to OMCs, the government would allow them to daily place Rs 1,000 crore of previous oil bonds with the central Reserve Bank of India in lieu of foreign exchange to import crude oil."

Third: because the actual price raise is a small fraction of what the price raise should be, energy consuming people will not make dramatic adjustments in their consumption habits. A Rs. 20 increase in petrol cost would surely make more people to drive cars less by curbing unnecessary driving or switching to two-wheelers and force vehicle owners to maintain their vehicles better to increase the mileage of the vehicles. A Rs. 300 increase in LPG cylinder would dramatically change peoples cooking habits ensuring minimum wastage of LPG. The prime motivation for changing peoples behaviour is taken away by not increasing prices of oil products to market levels.

Fourth: people, media, and opposition political parties would have forced the government to find more oil/gas within the country itself. Instead of underinvestment and slow progress of prospecting for oil and gas fields, there will be a big push for increased investment and, hopefully, increased privatization for finding and drilling activities.

And lastly: high oil/gas prices will create an immediate market for alternative energy sources - more people will use solar or alternative means to get energy. That in turn will boost investment in alternative energy, presumably low cost technology that we excel at, by private players who want to serve the alternative energy market.

The last three are critically important for future energy needs and future growth of the economy. The first two will surely hurt the economic growth in the long run.

None of these are achieved by subsidizing oil products and taking on more debt by the current government which will have to be paid for by future generations. In 2002-03, when price of energy was at a low point, there was considerable discussion in NDA government on allowing markets to determine price of energy that people consume in the country. Baby steps were taken. UPA, which came to power in 2004, folded the baby steps and went back to the old socialist ways of command and control of energy markets and distortion of prices.

Meanwhile Communists, partners in current government's bed, say they will hold dharnas. And BJP's Sri Advani takes a swipe at UPA that it's one more instance of UPA's bogus aam aadmi policies. And why not the swipes.

The only positive that seems to come out of this sorry oil story is that the government is cutting all kinds of taxes that are a norm on petroleum products in the country.

"The government took a hit on its revenue by cutting customs duty on all products by 5 per cent, abolishing that on crude oil and lowering rates on petrol and diesel to 2.5 per cent. It also cut the excise duty on petrol and diesel by Re a litre to Rs 13.45 and Rs 3.60 per litre respectively. While the increase in retail prices would bring in Rs 21,153 crore for the OMCs, the duty cuts would reduce their tax outgo by Rs 22,660 crore."

Let's hope those duty cuts will stay even after oil price come down to earth as it seem to finally indicate (down to $122 from $135 a future barrel of crude just a few weeks ago), although it's still very high.

Was the Company Responsible?

2008-06-05T11:22:00.004+05:30

The headline of story related to an arrest in the Jaipur bombings case says "Police probe Infosys Jaipur employee for ‘SIMI links’." Why exactly was Infosys name used in the headline?

Does this mean Infosys is implicated in the case? Infosys has tens of thousands of employees. Is it supposed to be responsible for all those employees off-campus activities? A passing mention of the name of company in which the arrested person worked for in the article would have sufficed. The headline adds no value other than dragging Infosys name into terror-related cases.

Wonder Why They Didn't Think Of It Before

2008-06-04T11:12:00.003+05:30

UN meet again - rather UN's Food and Agricultural Organization - in Italy. This was an emergency meeting to tackle the raising global food prices. And they promised to deliver - not just beat back the current food emergency but to solve an age old human problem just by talking about it!

The babus from the currently bountiful countries like Zimbabwe and 43 others got together and declared "We commit to eliminating hunger and to securing food for all, today and tomorrow!"

One wonder why they didn't think of it before. If they did, I'm sure they could have tackled it long time ago, just like they will now!

Star Wars is Here

2008-05-30T00:35:00.003+05:30

I was just catching up on Star Wars. Apparently some of that tech is already here - no, not the laser guns, light saber, or the intergalactic travel.

Guess where these folks were? In case you don't see it...guys on the right and middle were in US and Cisco's John Chambers was in........? At the same time!!!! (via guykawasaki)

Landscape Of Vastitas Borealis

2008-05-27T12:29:00.008+05:30

View of Mars North Pole Horizon

Close-up of a Polygon Resulting From Frozen Seasons

Approximate colour pictures from Phoenix Mars Lander, of NASA, which landed on May 25th, on the ice-capped North Pole of Mars, after traveling since of August 2007 from Earth. Location is called Vastitas Borealis - 68 degrees north latitude, 234 degrees east longitude. Scientists know there is ice just below the surface - those ploygons are formed even on Earth from seasonal freezing and thawing of surface ice. Among the many things that are planned for the Phoenix lander, there is a scoop on board to dig up soil, heat it, and analyze the vapours for carbon compounds to see if there is any type of life beneath the surface soil or in the sub-surface ice.

Here is full coverage of the 90-day (or longer) mission.