Indian Interests

[SSridhar]

India stuns the US

So, when US officials argued recently that India must reiterate its determination to strictly abide by its own export control laws that prevent any leakages of technology it may buy from the US in the future, they didn't expect the backlash they received from Delhi. The US officials, anticipating the opening of the high-technology floodgates, said they thought it was a simple enough request to make to the Indian government.

Instead, Delhi responded with its own set of demands.

The US should first support Indian membership in key non-proliferation-related groups like the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Australia group(dealing with chemical and biological weapons) and the Waassenaar group (export controls for conventional arms).

"We were stunned," one US official said,noting the US had expended considerable effort, even at the risk of alienating close allies like Pakistan, when it created an exception for India's nuclear status from 2005-2008.

"To ask for membership of these groups at this time was like asking for something fantastic, especially since India continues to refuse to sign the NPT. To think of doing this before the Obama visit is totally impossible," he said.

Countering the US demand, Indian officials argued that if US companies like Lockheed Martin and Boeing wanted their fighter jets to compete in the Indian Air Force's 126-Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft deal (MMRCA), worth $11 billion -- the largest defence deal on the global market today -- or cooperate in activities in outer space with India, then sanctions against these entities must go.

The signal was clear, said a South Asia analyst. India was baiting a recession-hit US with the idea of winning not only the MMRCA tender but also several others in the pipeline.

Every top visitor to Washington DC in recent weeks, from External Affairs Minister S M Krishna to Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, began to point out that dual-use sanctions had no place in the burgeoning partnership.

With the deadline of the Obama visit looming large, both sides said they had now agreed to get off their respective high pedestals, find a compromise {that means there will be only cosmetic announcements while the US demands and gets more concessions from India. There would then be some merit when people claim that Indian diplomats do not extract their pound of flesh in dealings with foreign governments.}and contain the spat before it threatened to damage the rest of the relationship. In the coming weeks, the pace of bilateral visits is expected to pick up, as both sides think up new ideas for Obama's India agenda. Agreements on a space partnership, on education, as well as a new green revolution in agriculture, are very much on the cards, as is a photo-op of Obama rolling up his sleeves and playing cricket.

[svinayak]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/0 ... 71081.html
Dharma attarcts Intelligent People

Julia Roberts is on the cover of the September issue of Elle magazine, and inside she talks about not using Botox and how she is a practicing Hindu.On Botox and plastic surgery:

Her Hindu name is Annapurna.

[Rony]

As per this report

Julia Roberts also gave her 3 kids Hindu names - Twins Lakshmi and Ganesh while the third one was named Krishn Balram.

[derkonig]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 260122.cms
PFI is potraying India as the enemy while exhorting muslims to secede from India. Another day, another revelation, and the caliphate marches on.
Sekoolaar INC & head constable MMS meanwhile lose sleep over shorabuddin.

[Philip]

Bri,tx for referring to Odantapuri.You are right.The entire Indo-Gangetic plain was "cleansed" by the invaders,who attemppted to destroy their culture.That Buddhism flourished all across India,including the south ,with so many sites of archaeological importance existing and still being discovered,shows that there was a humane liberal outlook towards religion in India,where Hinduism,Buddhism,Jainism all co-existed for centuries before the invasions from the west and later on with the arrival of Europeans,especially the Portugese.There was a feature recently in the media about how the Portugese unhappy at finding "Orthodox Christianity" flourishing in Kerala,which existed for 1500 yrs. before their arrival,tried to "Latinise" it by force and destroyed large amounts of palm leaf manuscripts belonging to the Orthodox churches.

The danger to Inndia's heritage is still underestimated even today with the ranks of the ungodly spawning unabatedly across our western borders.The various posts in other threads exposing the sheer lunacy and mindset of the current Paki leadership,their religious instituitions and their henchmen on the street ready to wage war in any form with India,is a reminder that we cannot afford to let our defences down.It also requires us to resurrect the examples of our ancient culture and civilisation which were lost due to the above mentioned factors,to show the world what India truly was and is becoming yet again.

[D Roy]

The best part of course is, the constant reference to caste to denounce hinduism by EJs and lay posters alike in the comment space of that JR article.

A day will come when even fools will learn that "caste" is inherent in Indo-European cultures and continues to exist even in the most "adbhanced" economies.



and of course the EJs forget that it is Xtianity which retains the "caste" of the priest most visibly and tiringly.

[RamaY]

^

Caste - Etymology

caste 1550s, "a race of men," from L. castus "chaste," from castus "pure, cut off, separated," pp. of carere "to be cut off from" (and related to castration), from PIE *kas-to-, from base *kes- "to cut." Application to Hindu social groups picked up by English in India 17c. from Port. casta "breed, race, caste," earlier casta raça "unmixed race," from the same Latin word. Caste system is first recorded 1840.

and the oxford dictionary coverts this into
caste race, stock XVI; hereditary class in Indian society XVII. — Sp., and (particularly in its Indian application) Pg. casta, sb. use (sc. raza, raça race) of fem. of casto pure, unmixed (see CHASTE). {All references to European roots are removed }

From "Andhra Pradesh History Thread"
Bharatiya chatur-varna system is not a caste system. Max-Muller had this to say on the word caste.

“This term “Caste” has proved most mischievous and misleading, and the less we avail ourselves of it the better we shall be able to understand the true state of society in the ancient times of India. Caste is of course, a Portuguese word, and was applied from about the middle of the sixteenth century by rough Portuguese sailors to certain divisions of Indian society which had struck their fancy.

It has before even used in the sense of breed or stock, originally in the sense of a pure or unmixed breed. In 1613 Purchas speaks of the thirty and odd several castes of the Banians (Vanigs).

To ask what caste means in India would be like asking what caste means in England, or what fetish (Feitico) means in portugal. What we really want to know in what was implied by such Indian words as varna (color) Gati (kith), to say nothing of Sapindatva or samanodaktatva, Kula (family), Gotra (race), Pravara (lineage); otherwise we shall have once more the same confusion about the social organization of ancient India as about African fetishism or North American totemism. Each foreign word should always be kept to its own native meaning or, if generalized for scientific purposes it should be most carefully defined afresh. Otherwise every social distinction will be called “caste” every stick a “totem” every idol a “fetish”.

[RamaY]

India lends Bangladesh one billion dollars as ties warm

"This one-billion-dollar line of credit is the largest ever given by India to any country," said Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Dhaka.

"I am confident that this line of credit will be the stepping stone for a shared destiny and will transform our bilateral engagement," he said at the loan signing ceremony.

The line of credit also marked the single largest loan Bangladesh has received from any nation, development bank or donor agency, Dhaka's Economic Relations Division secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said.

"The terms of credit are very favourable to Dhaka. The interest rate is just 1.75 percent and will be paid back in 20 years," Bhuiyan said.

Awesome news!!!

Kudos GOI and MMS!

a year or so ago I mentioned this thought, and I am very happy to see them come to fruition. I recommend GOI extend this $billion LOC to all other SAARC nations except Pakistan.

1. Bangladesh
2. Bhutan
3. Maldives
4. Nepal
5. Sri Lanka
6. Afghanistan

And India should invite Myanmar to SAARC as full member and extend the LOC to them as well.

Perhaps any region that seeks independence from Pakistan should feel confident that they can rely upon this line of credit to pass thru their formation challenges.

2nd Round would be to help African nations.

[ramana]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/0 ... 71081.html
Dharma attarcts Intelligent People

Julia Roberts is on the cover of the September issue of Elle magazine, and inside she talks about not using Botox and how she is a practicing Hindu.On Botox and plastic surgery:

Her Hindu name is Annapurna.

My niece met her at a temple in Colorado and she told her name was Annapuna and she was a devout Hindu. She really is more Hindu then most NRIs in US and probably RNIs in India. There are many ih Hollywood who are like her might get the courage to to go open.
BTW she truly believes in reincarnation which is a principal tenet of Hinduism.

[negi]

So every now and then when I convince myself to reconsider my love for Gobermund stuff like following happens

55 pvt companies to disclose staff’s caste in annual reports next year

While I have not seen much of the corporate world never have I heard anyone from India's private sector complain about caste being an issue, I don't know who is this mofo who came up with this bright idea.

Btw do all private companies even capture caste data ?

[Pratyush]

The politics of identity instead of being weakened is only being strengthened by the politician-babu nexus.

Truly Divide and rule.

[Manish_Sharma]

I recieved the following with spam mail, hopefully true:

deleted by moderator

[chaanakya]

^^^

Incredible but fiction

[Philip]

If we didn't know about it already!

Dev Patel: Hollywood only wants Asians to play terrorists, taxi drivers or geeks
Hollywood is institutionally racist, according to the Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel, who claims Asian actors are limited to roles as terrorists, taxi drivers or geeks.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film ... geeks.html

Excerpt:

By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor
Published: 7:00AM BST 09 Aug 2010

"The fact that me and Freida have any kind of platform in Hollywood is a big step forward" Photo: Paul Grover When the story of a boy from the Mumbai slums became the surprise hit of 2009, winning eight Oscars, it was expected that Patel's career would take off.

However, the 20-year-old from Harrow, north-west London, has been frustrated by the lack of decent roles on offer and is currently jobless.

"Because Slumdog was such a big hit there was a lot of pressure in terms of what I did next. For my second film I wanted a role that would stretch me, but all I was getting offered were stereotypical parts like the goofy Indian sidekick," he said.

"Asian actors tend not to be sent Hollywood scripts that are substantial or challenging. I'm likely to be offered the roles of a terrorist, cab driver and smart geek... I want to show that I have versatility. You have to remember that, before Slumdog, the last film about India that went big at the Oscars was Gandhi, as played by Ben Kingsley. The fact that me and Freida have any kind of platform in Hollywood is a big step forward."

Freida Pinto played Patel's love interest in Slumdog Millionaire and is now his real-life girlfriend. The Indian-born former model has had more success than Patel, winning a role in Woody Allen's latest film.

Patel said he was hoping to overcome prejudice. "I'm buzzing with adrenaline and raring to go, but I have to be realistic. Being an Asian actor, it's never going to be easy. Hopefully the industry is changing and the casting directors will be less focused on colour so that people like myself can get through the door."

He was plucked from the relative obscurity of Channel 4's teen drama, Skins, to make his film debut in Slumdog Millionaire. Directed by Danny Boyle, it became a box office phenomenon and won the best picture Oscar.

Unfortunately, the film Patel chose for his second role has been mired in accusations of racism. The Last Airbender is based on a children's television cartoon in which the main characters are Asian. The £100 million Hollywood adaptation, released in the UK this week, has white actors playing the roles and the Asian actors - including Patel - are limited to playing baddies.

When the film premiered in the US last month, protesters demonstrated outside the cinema in Los Angeles.

[JE Menon]

>>"Asian actors tend not to be sent Hollywood scripts that are substantial or challenging".

"Asian"? I thought he was..... British. Where does India come into it? I'm also mildly curious as to why Hollywood has to offer challenging roles to "Asian" or for that matter Indian actors... As far as I can tell, Hollywood is probably the most market-driven location on the planet. And they do what the most profitable market demands. For them that remains the US, for the most part, although exceptions here and there exist for some movies (think Aeon Flux for example) ...

I'm sure when they determine that Indian actors will generate more ticket sales than they otherwise would, they will cast Indian actors. Not sure if Dev Patel will stand much of a chance though. Nothing against the guy, mind you... just not too keen on whiners who say things like "hopefully... casting directors will be less focused on colour"... Casting directors, and all others in the film industry in the US pretty much are focused only on one colour: franklin green

[Prem]

.Iran Sanctions Make China, Russia Winners While Reliance Loses
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-0 ... -toll.html

Sanctions punishing Iran for its nuclear program are deepening the country’s ties with China and handing Russia opportunities to sell more gasoline while hurting suppliers in Europe and India.These countries have long-term interests in the region,” said Gary Sick, a member of the U.S. National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter and Reagan and the principal White House aide for Iran during the 1979-81 hostage crisis. China wants “to maintain relations with Iran for the sake of maintaining some access to the oil,” he said. While sanctions against Iran are denting the country’s fuel imports, squeezing supplies to the country’s 73 million people, they are forcing refiners including India’s Reliance Industries Ltd. to pay higher costs to ship gasoline to more distant markets. Sanctions also translate into lost profit for Paris- based Total SA and other European refiners, which are facing their lowest returns on processing crude since December.

India’s sales of gasoline and blending components to the U.S. rose to 2.94 million barrels in May, compared with 492,000 barrels in January, U.S. Energy Department data show. Almost all of the sales were accounted for by Mumbai-based Reliance, said Praveen Kumar, a consultant at Singapore-based Facts Global Energy group.

[RamaY]

I see this pattern of UPA2 Administration

1. Allowing the "enemy properties act" to lapse
2. Nurturing greater autonomy to JK and dilution of special forces act
3. Inaction against Afjal-Guru type terrorists

Some arrangements/agreements are being made in view of coming Bihar/UP elections???

[Prem]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynewspoint/2010 ... int_ts3376
In Photos: Container ship crashes, tips near Mumbai

Two days after a container ship smashed into another vessel and ran aground off India's coast near Mumbai, the container ship was still listing heavily Monday, the Associated Press reported. Officials were concerned about the environmental impact of oil leaks, according to AFP, which said 33 crew members were rescued.One police officer fell off a patrolling speedboat and drowned, however, because neither the officer nor colleagues knew how to swim, a police spokesman told AFP.

[ramana]

http://www.business-standard.com/india/ ... ds/403915/

BUSINESS STANDARD

Sanjaya Baru: Indian minds, foreign funds

Governmental bureaucratism and niggardly corporates drive think tanks abroad for funds

Sanjaya Baru / New Delhi August 9, 2010, 0:55 IST

India’s best-known “think tanks” are becoming increasingly dependent for their funding on foreign benefactors. In economic policy, national security and foreign affairs, India’s premier think tanks and research institutions find it easier to raise funds abroad than at home, be it from a bureaucratic and feudal governmental system or from a miserly and disinterested corporate sector.

While some ministries, like external affairs, defence and commerce, have their own government-funded think tanks, others have their favourites in the non-governmental sector. Both are required to kowtow to the extant dispensation in the respective ministries — and many of these institutions have become sinecures for retired or retiring civil servants.

Indian corporates, on the other hand, have never been a major source of funding for research, even if they are increasingly funding education. Thus, Bharti’s Sunil Mittal, the only Indian mentioned in a Wikipedia list of world’s 100 top philanthropists, has liberally funded school and college education, including institutions like the Indian School of Business, but when it comes to supporting think tanks, he has so far preferred to help the Carnegie Endowment rather than any policy think tank in India. Same applies to most of India’s celebrated billionaires.

While Tata Sons have for a long time funded research institutions, Indian think tanks find the process of securing such funds becoming increasingly bureaucratic and so prefer courting foreign funding agencies. The Ambani family set up the Observer Research Foundation, with an impressive office, but it has so far attracted more retired diplomats and policy-makers than active researchers!

While India’s billionaires give away millions to Yale and Carnegie, India’s own think tanks are increasingly forced to turn to foreign funders because neither the government nor Indian corporates are willing to offer them untied funding.

Almost all the non-government economic, defence and foreign affairs think tanks and research institutions in the nation’s Capital are today more dependent on external sources of funding than domestic sources, government or non-government.

Major sources of research funds include multilateral financial institutions, like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank; western and eastern private foundations like Ford, Rockefeller, McCarthy and Sasakawa; and, foreign governments that fund agencies like Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

This is not a new phenomenon. There was a time when, in fact, India’s premier social sciences research funding institution, the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), was itself receiving more funds from the Government of Netherlands than from the Government of India. Today, few foreign funding agencies bother routing their funds through the ICSSR, they do so directly.

Before worried nationalists raise a cry against this trend, they should find out what shape and condition of disrepair the ICSSR itself is in. Not only does the ICSSR have an officer of the Indian Administrative Service as its member-secretary, it has more than one council member without even a doctoral degree! Indeed, even radical social scientists who don’t like either government or corporate funding find it alright and easier to approach global non-governmental organisations for financial support.

In the field of international relations, India has as many as 65 listed research centres and “think tanks”. Of these, as many as 36 are located in New Delhi. A large number of these centres are funded by the government and the university system, but the most prominent ones are, in fact, funded by foreign governments and funding agencies! A substantial part of high-quality research on India’s relations with countries like China and Pakistan is, in fact, funded by foreign funding agencies.

It is not as if attempts have not been made by Indian scholars and researchers to secure corporate funding for Indian think tanks. But in most cases a mountain of effort is required, both in terms of lobbying and paperwork, to secure a molehill of funding. And, after all that and much interference in the running of the institution, there is little interest in the institution’s intellectual output.

India’s most respected strategic affairs guru, K Subrahmanyam, who ran a government-funded think tank, Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA), as an independent and autonomous institution that respected the intellectual freedom of its faculty but found it very difficult to get anyone in government to listen to them or support their research work, once remarked to this writer, “I remember explaining to the director of Chatham House (UK) that the basic difference between IDSA and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is that the former gets all its money from the government but cannot get the time of the day from them, while the latter has to raise its own resources but gets all data and relevant information from government sources. Our senior bureaucrats have burdened themselves with so much of trivia because of the lack of a culture of delegation that they have no time to read such outside studies. Therefore, they have no use for them.”

The armed forces have become a bit liberal in funding think tanks, but these remain boutique institutions without the scope or size of a defence think tank like RAND in the United States.

I am not suggesting for a moment that as a consequence of this pattern of funding, Indian scholars have mortgaged their minds to foreign funders. Far from it. India’s most respected scholars, fiercely independent in their thinking, will never sing for their supper and allow the one who pays the piper choose the tune. Yet, for a country as big and important as India, it is a matter of great shame that so much of our best research and most important research institutions depend so much on external sources of funding.

Disclosure: The writer is on the governing board of Centre for Policy Research, Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies and Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi, and a consulting fellow of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, London.

A few remarks:
- As the former member of the first NSAB and later the PM's spokesperson what did Mr Baru do to foster the use of the area studies centers set up by Sri Krishna Menon? Did he ask for the opinion of these centers on any issue? Does he know which are these centers at all?

- I agree with him that despite being paid by foreign pipers Indian thinkers never allowed them to call the tune.

- The ones who sing to foreign tunes most likely would sing due to ideology and even with out being paid.
- The babu culture is the root of not using the in-house expertise.
- Mukesh bhai told a famous think tanker, Isme hamara khya munafa hain? And genius was US returned at that time.
- One way out is to create blogs and use the forum to post what your mind is thinking. Atleast there is a record of your thoughts. Let the mind awake to that heaven of freedom which the great poet Tagoreji pined for.

- This sorry state of affairs leads folks to visit BR in hope to get some gnan and they get drivel and non-sequitor posts. Even this little effort is regularly derailed and babbled.

BTW, a former member made the pilgrimage to desh and was listened to by the most high advisors with avid interest and for his integrity.

[SwamyG]

And India should invite Myanmar to SAARC as full member and extend the LOC to them as well.

India should go one step further and offer them statehood. {ducks for cover}

[RamaY]

SwamyG garu

Myanmar rightfully belongs to SAARC. And they can use Indian help to build their nation. Unlike PRC India doesn't disturb it's internal strategic situation

[Pranav]

Important news: Kashmir stone-pelting is being funded by Christian aid agencies operating out of embassies of ostensibly friendly North European countries:

Posted by Anindya in J&K thread:
From http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100811/j ... 797521.jsp

Valley cash scanner on embassies
ARCHIS MOHAN

New Delhi, Aug. 10: Security agencies suspect development aid from north European countries is being routed to Kashmir NGOs with links to militants. Some embassy officials of South Asian origin, who are first or second-generation migrants to Europe, are thought to be behind the funding and are being watched for the past few months, sources said.

“Their activities and modus operandi are suspect to say the least,” a source said, citing how the embassy officials under the scanner change their cellphones frequently.

The NGOs receiving the money claim to be working for human rights in the Valley, but youths employed with them have been involved in the ongoing street violence, sources said.

Suspicion has centred on funds from specific Christian aid agencies. But the government is treading softly because India has extremely cordial relations with the countries in question.

Security agencies are confident the mission officials of South Asian origin and not the donor country or agency are behind the funding. “These officials have influenced the decisions of these donor agencies,” sources said.

The government may soon relay to the mission heads the “undesirability” of keeping these embassy officials in India.

Security agencies have already been investigating a money trail from Spanish cities and towns to Kashmir. Home ministry sources say this cash from Pakistan’s ISI — mostly small amounts — is being paid to stone-throwers in the Valley and is even financing gunrunning.

Minister of state Ajay Maken told the Lok Sabha that “militants/terrorists active in India are also funded by their outfits based abroad, particularly in Pakistan, often routed through third countries”.

India, the minister added, has “recently become a member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)”.

Maken said central intelligence and security agencies, working in tandem with their counterparts in the states, had arrested “a number of persons involved in facilitating funds/financing of terrorism”......

[ramana]

So Pak is progeny is joining diplomatic service of European countries and funding jihad terrorism in Kashmir.

[Pranav]

So Pak is progeny is joining diplomatic service of European countries and funding jihad terrorism in Kashmir.

It would probably be more accurate to say that certain European countries are using Christian aid orgs and Pak employees to fund stone-pelters.

[RamaY]

^ The are ensuring that their dirty hand (pak) is not exposed like in 11/26. It is getting difficult to justify paki actions.

It is like parents buying smokes for the kid, so they can avoid his arrest.

[Pratyush]

And India should invite Myanmar to SAARC as full member and extend the LOC to them as well.

India should go one step further and offer them statehood. {ducks for cover}

If the Myanmar govt is open to the idea then it is some thing that can be offered.

[Hari Seldon]

^^^Myanmar already has an FTA with PRC. Time we offered tghem one. Am told all along the Burmese border, INR is freely exchangeble like in Nepal. Good. Leverage that. Infra needs to built by desi firms on both sides of the border. Etc.

[Stan_Savljevic]

^^ India runs a 5:1 deficit with Burma in trade. A FTA is not imminent, unless it comes with the ASEAN (which itself is stuck in terms of ASEAN's advantage because of ASEAN's paranoia in letting India's services sector a way in). The Burmese are paranoidal of India that none of the Than Shwe visits can cover up. For that, one has to understand India-Burma history all the way down south of the post-1937 saga. The Burmese are even more paranoidal of china. Despite that, they are able to do trade with china. What is the need of the hour is to try to package institutional reform in India-dominated fields by providing an attractive option for Burma to find a better alternative than possible with china. That is slowly happening. FTA may or may not happen asap, but there is only one direction for Indian exports to Burma: up. HR-nazis also have a due role that we in brf often hate to accept: of strengthening GoI's hand in the bargaining process citing the HR-nazis.

[SwamyG]

^^^
Stan saar:Why do you think they are more paranoid over China than India? Why is India's soft passive aggression not worrisome to them?

[suryag]

How To Fashion A Fork
Former Foreign Secretary Shri Saran on how to deal with LOP. Nice article, shows the institutional thinking in foreign policy circles and PMO.

The formulation of an effective Pakistan strategy must, therefore, begin by putting aside certain long-held but invalid assumptions. We need to put in place a strategy with a full range of options; we should be ready to impose costs when our interests are being threatened.

the ending seems to be an antithesis and looks like he had to somehow stitch together Shri MMS' vision and what he believes should be the strategy

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is right that even during the depth of the Cold War, the US and the then ussr did not shun dialogue. As nuclear power states, neither should we. We must manage this relationship prudently, which would prevent the possibility of war and over time, yields an outcome which resembles the PM’s vision of a free flow of goods, peoples and ideas across borders that remain no more than lines on the map. This should be the guiding star of our strategy towards our neighbourhood, including Pakistan.

[Stan_Savljevic]

^^^
Stan:Why do you think they are more paranoid over China than India? Why is India's soft passive aggression not worrisome to them?

Boss, I can only guess from what I interpret, so my guess is as good as none. With that caveat, despite the supposed "passive aggression of India", we have nt really taken over any territory in Burma like the chinese have done. Again one may qualify that as the chini soft takeover vis-a-vis the Indian threat that looms large, but has nt fruitioned yet. The chinis have taken over the economy in quite a few parts and have set alarm bells ringing. Post-Chettiyar crisis, when GoI looked the other way and did nt help Indians lest it hurt the Burmese's feelings, we have nt really done much to qualify us as a major threat in reality. But in the mind-space, we are still the same "looters" who loaned at exorbitant rates. Not to mention that the Chettiyars loaned only where the brits found extremely risky investments. The Chettiyars' nail in the coffin was their aloofness, they never inter-married.

On other issues of ==, we have armed the Karen rebels as much as the Burmese have provided sustenance to the Naga and Bodo and Ahom terrorists. We have sided with the democrazy-nazis for a long while just like the chinis have found the Ne Win follow-ups a good bet to invest on. China has a leg up on India only by like 5-10 years, so there is still a ton of hope. Provided, we move away from the slumber of taking things for granted. How many people even talk about burma in the ddm today? How many about nepal? Everyone and his uncle is an expert on pak-e-satan, while we miss the boat on win-wins elsewhere. Just like the pakis love to be India-centric, we (both in brf and in ddm) are paki-centric, whether it be crikkit matches or policy sphere. Now tell that to the "ahead of the curve" crowd and you might have as well thrown a live-rat in their midsts.

[ramana]

SuryaG, Thanks for the Shyam Saranji's article. Its very perceptive. He advocates the proverbial carrot and stick to the Paki Donkey. I wish its at the wrong ends.

Also glad he is now envoy to Kathmandu.

Illustration by Sorit
opinion
How To Fashion A Fork
Talks with Pakistan must continue. It is mildewy strategy that should go.
Shyam Saran

The dominant reaction in India to the Wikileaks disclosures, cataloguing Pakistan’s serial misdemeanours and double-dealing in the war against terrorism, has been one of patent satisfaction. It is reckoned that despite the general reluctance to confront Pakistan, this latest expose could hardly be explained away. But this is neither the first nor the last time when Pakistan’s double-dealing will be given a pass. Remember A.Q. Khan and his “private nuclear superbazaar”? That was a bigger camel that made it through the eye of the needle. As long as Pakistan’s friends determine that their interests are better served by playing along with Pakistan’s rulers than by confronting the latter on their double-dealing, not much is likely to change. We need to admit that the objectives of our Pakistan policy, in particular the cessation of cross-border terrorism and not merely its occasional remission, are unlikely to be delivered through the instrumentality of the US-led coalition. This is a challenge we will need to deal with ourselves. There are significant benefits that the Indo-US partnership has delivered, but compelling Pakistan to stop sponsoring terrorism against India as an instrument of state policy is unlikely to be one of them.

There is another assumption which needs to be jettisoned. Our posture towards Pakistan, in recent years, appears to implicitly accept the judgement that despite terrorist violence unleashed against us by a hostile military-dominated regime in Islamabad, our security is less threatened by such a regime being in charge than the alternative of a fundamentalist jehadi regime. This generates a certain hesitancy in confronting the prevailing Pakistani threat. Frankly, there is not much to choose between the two alternatives. Both are dangerous; any difference is one of degree. And Pakistan will stay united or fragment, or descend into a fundamentalist nightmare, irrespective of what India does. It is Pakistan’s internal dynamics and what its people want which will shape its destiny, not India.

Finally, we must accept the admittedly uncomfortable reality that there is a pervasive sentiment across Pakistan’s elite, civilian and military, that it is only terrorist violence which compels India to sit for talks, and hopefully deliver on Pakistan’s objectives, be they on Kashmir or on Afghanistan. Otherwise, it is argued, India would have no incentive even to engage with Pakistan. There may be differences over the levels of violence perpetrated against India, or its targets, but there is little questioning of the policy itself. The Pakistani army and the ISI are able to tap into this sentiment and ensure acquiescence to their strategy. The recent Pew public opinion poll, which reveals widespread perception of India as an enemy in Pakistan, corroborates this. This will not change in a hurry.

The formulation of an effective Pakistan strategy must, therefore, begin by putting aside certain long-held but invalid assumptions. We need to put in place a strategy with a full range of options; we should be ready to impose costs when our interests are being threatened. We should, equally, be willing to deliver benefits whenever there is a demonstrated willingness by Pakistan to meet our concerns. There is, for example, no reason for us to be defensive about our presence in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s claim for strategic depth in that country is good enough reason for us to deny it to them. We should reassert our claim to Gilgit and Baltistan, which we seem to have given up by default. There are other pressure points which could be explored, including working in concert with those who share our perceptions.
{Stick}

In parallel, India should utilise opportunities, however limited they may appear, to build upon commonalities—for example, in promoting trade and cultural affinities, in the better use of shared water resources, in tackling climate change and in ensuring energy security in a resource-constrained world. Our expectations must be modest, since India-Pakistan relations will remain adversarial for the foreseeable future.
{Carrot!}

India-Pakistan dialogue is the forum where we can pursue our objectives through nuanced diplomacy. Its repeated interruption is not an effective response to Pakistan’s involvement in terrorist violence in India. It only creates space for others to interject themselves into India-Pakistan relations, pursuing their own respective agendas.


Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is right that even during the depth of the Cold War, the US and the then USSR did not shun dialogue. As nuclear power states, neither should we. We must manage this relationship prudently, which would prevent the possibility of war and over time, yields an outcome which resembles the PM’s vision of a free flow of goods, peoples and ideas across borders that remain no more than lines on the map. This should be the guiding star of our strategy towards our neighbourhood, including Pakistan.


(My no war collapse strategy!}

(Shyam Saran, a former foreign secretary, has been appointed special envoy to Kathmandu)

[svinayak]

SuryaG, Thanks for the Shyam Saranji's article. Its very perceptive. He advocates the proverbial carrot and stick to the Paki Donkey. I wish its at the wrong ends.

Also glad he is now envoy to Kathmandu.

Can somebody post an article on China by Shyam Saran in India Abroad

[Kanson]

How many people even talk about burma in the ddm today? How many about nepal? Everyone and his uncle is an expert on pak-e-satan, while we miss the boat on win-wins elsewhere. Just like the pakis love to be India-centric, we (both in brf and in ddm) are paki-centric, whether it be crikkit matches or policy sphere. Now tell that to the "ahead of the curve" crowd and you might have as well thrown a live-rat in their midsts.

Valid point.

Not to mention that the Chettiyars loaned only where the brits found extremely risky investments. The Chettiyars' nail in the coffin was their aloofness, they never inter-married.

I'm hard to understand this aloofness. If i'm not wrong, these Chettiyars, a business community, migrated much before the British came to India. So, i guess, they should have established themselves with much more legitimacy.

[SSridhar]

India to link 12 more countries to Pan-African tele-medicine & tele-education network

Twelve more African countries will be formally inducted into India’s flagship initiatives in tele-medicine and tele-education as part of the Pan-African network that will also establish a communication link between secretariats of their heads of states.

On Aug 16, Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna will have a video-conference with Ministers of 12 African countries. These will be the second batch of African nations to be formally inducted into the satellite network.

“In some countries, the foreign minister would be at the launch site, while in others, the concerned minister would be present for the ceremony. We will be going to each country through video-conference one-by-one,” said a senior External Affairs Ministry official.

The first batch of eleven countries had been inducted in February 2009, when the then External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee had inaugurated the network with a similar video-conference ceremony.

“Since the Minister speaks to each country one after another, there is a limited time in the schedule and we have had to restrict the number of countries to twelve,” he said.

So far, India has signed agreement with 47 countries in Africa, but the infrastructure has been completed in thirty-four of them.

The countries that will be formally part of the network are Botswana, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia and Uganda. “For the first time, we will have countries from North Africa who will be part of the program,” the official, who could not be identified because of government rules, told IANS.

The eleven countries in the first batch were Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Seychelles.

There are three components to the Pan-African network, implemented by State-run Tele Communications of India Limited (TCIL) which are tele-medicine, tele-education, as well as, a “VVIP” network between the heads of State or government.

The pilot project of the network was with 34 students to acquire a degree in Masters of Business Administration from Indira Gandhi National Open University, without even leaving their country’s border.

Since then, 2000 African students are enrolled to get their degrees from top Indian universities, by attending classes by Indian lecturers, through video-conferencing.

Besides, doctors in African hospitals are also getting further training as part Continuing Medical Education classes conducted by Indian doctors working in super-specialty medical institutions here. “We have conducted 658 CME sessions so far,” said a senior TCIL official.

Online medical consultation is also being provided to each participating African country for a period of five years in various medical disciplines.

[ShauryaT]

Can somebody post an article on China by Shyam Saran in India Abroad

Shyam Saran is now part of The Council for Policy Research. You will find all his recent works at cprindia.org.

[Jarita]

Swamy's latest tweets.. They have implications on India (and please don't say that who a leader marries does not matter for India)

-He and Priyanka failed the Hindi exam in college--St Stephen & Jesus and Mary. So BA fail ! They represent UP!!

-those who could have got him jail for Boston but didn't are worse than him.

-There is something moving about Greek tragedy. This is Italian perfidy. Crude crass and a cross between Nazi and mafia.


- But for time being, to enable Ali Baba and his forty youths to ascend the gaddi, she has been parked with a Brazilian.


- listening to PM I felt sorry for my friend Manmohan. What a cartoon that Italian tadakka has made of him.

- She is code worded Juanita. Veronique is Colombian with a Venezuelan passport and Spanish residence.

- he has nightmares from the Sep 27, 2001 arrest of him and Veronique by FBI at Boston airport.

- For sometime it was Afghan ex-King Daud's grand daughter. But Veronique however is a Cartelli so Baba cannot dump her.

- He is already married to her in a fly by night place in Spain.

- Can someone tell me why Rahul baba travels so much every month to London, Dubai and Maldives with a tall Colombian girl Or is he Ali baba ?

[ramana]

National Maritime Foundation

Archive of Op-eds on National Interests

[rohitvats]

The first 3/4th of the articel by SS could have been easily passed off as summary of collective wisdom (that I could glean) from BRF on the TSPA.

The eye-opener is this - the No War Collapse Strategy (as ramana garu puts it). All the while we talk about this 'meaning less borders' being a compromise for us - have we thought about this angle from TSP perspective? What does such a situation does to them?

I'm glad to read that one of the best and finest minds in Indian Establishment thinks on these lines - for it shows that they have complete grasp of the subject. Even the Chai-Biskoot sessions have serious thought and purpose behind it - and not only the US pressure and weak kneed PM arguments that we always forward.

Also, clearly brings out the multi-dimesional and extremely complex nature of Indo-Pak relationship - and hows the challenges faced by Indian Establishment in dealing with the situation.

May the tribe of SS and his ilk grow.

[Pratyush]

National Maritime Foundation

Archive of Op-eds on National Interests

Great find Ramana,