Sri B Raman pontificates
Remember Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, who was the Foreign Minister of Pakistan under Yahya Khan?
Remember his antics, crude exhibitionism and unparliamentary remarks about Indira Gandhi in the months before the Indo-Pakistan war of December 1971?
Remember the way he used to conduct himself in the UN Security Council when it debated the growing tension between India and Pakistan?
{Moi wasn't around in '71 saar. But some youtube vids of the said antics would be a nice addition to your fine piece onlee}
Remember Benazir Bhutto, his daughter, who was the then Prime Minister,conducting herself hysterically in public in 1989?
Remember her going to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, stand before a crowd near the Line of Control, face Indian territory and shout hysterically "azadi,azadi"?
Remember the unparliamentary remarks which she used to make about Narasimha Rao, our then Prime Minister?
B Raman is doing yeoman service by seeking to rekindle institutional and public memory of Pak's past record on perfidity, duplicity and shamelessness. Dilli gets played like a violin all too often.....once is happenstance (understandable), twice is coincidence (perhaps explainable), but thrice is enemy action.... only.
What did we do then?
Indira Gandhi and Narasimha Rao ignored with contempt the behaviour of Z.A.Bhutto and Benazir and continued doing what they thought was necessary in India' national interest. We should similarly ignore with contempt the behaviour of Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the Pakistani Foreign Minister, and his unparliamentary remarks about Mr.S.M.Krishna, our Foreign Minister, while briefing Pakistani media personnel on July 16 about his talks with our Foreign Minister the previous day.
What should we do now?
The Government of India, Mr.Krishna himself and Mrs.Nirupama Rao, our Foreign Secretary, need to be complimented for conducting themselves with great personal dignity befitting us as a responsible and mature nation with a mature political leadership in power and for refusing to let themselves be provoked and react in kind against Mr.Qureshi. One of the objectives of Mr.Qureshi was to create doubts in the minds of the Indian public about the credibility and professional competence of Mr.Krishna. Another was to create a crisis atmosphere in the hope of thereby making the West and the Islamic world exercise pressure on India. The Bharatiya Janata Party and some of its leaders and spokesmen are unwittingly walking into the Pakistani trap by their campaign against Mr.Krishna at a time when the political class should stand united behind him.
And his prescription sadly lacks punch, IMHO.
When Z.A.Bhutto and his daughter indulged in anti-India antics and exhibitionism there was no global TV. We had to read about them in the print media and wait for the visuals which arrived days later. There were no live transmissions, no live debates. Only we in India followed closely the antics and exhibitionism of Z.A.Bhutto and Benazir? Most of the rest of the world did not. The international community did not have an idea of the kind of Foreign Minister or Prime Minister Pakistan had.
Things are different today. Thanks to the global TV networks, the whole world had an opportunity of watching alive the antics and exhibitionism of Mr.Qureshi and the measured and cultured response of Mr.Krishna and Mrs.Nirupama Rao.It will redound to our credit and make the international community understand----if it has not already understood it--- the kind of Pakistani leadership and the kind of Pakistani Muslim mentality we have to contend with.
Baloney.
Only the wilfully blind can give any benefit of doubt to the frontline international migraine.
Who are we supposed to scofe points with? And what for? What has playing good munna all along brought us? Why seek not to rock the boat - it gets ever tougher as our mil+economic weight increases yoy?
OK, rant over. back to scheduled programming....
(Sums it all)
on behalf of Kerry Lugar. We dont have the money to pay for the new aid estimatee. So will seek to elimainate it all together. more