Smart Card. Made In India

After a long time, I find India makes a smart foreign policy move. Looks like it has left the Americans and Pakistanis to settle their score, and is pursuing its old friends in the Islamic world. Or why the sudden embrace of Iran and support for Palestine?

For long, India told the whole world about Pakistan’s links to terrorism. But the big powers, save the Soviets, often scoffed at India’s complaints, and advised it not play big brother with the humble, poor Pakistan. When the planes hit the underbelly of Big Apple, American eyes almost popped out and saw through the Pakistani plans.

But both the players continued with their double games: Pakistan continued to be a friend of Taliban and US; US continued to be a friend of Pakistan. India, though continued to be an enemy of Pakistan and Taliban, did not become a friend of US. Pakistan is part of the problem, Jaswant Singh, then foreign minister, kept insisting, and hence cannot be part of the solution. None was bothered.

India, instead of keeping its cool with an “I-told-you-so” wink, kept egging on the US. Uncle Sam attached only irritant value to it, for they knew their game well now. It, however, played platitudes (we are natural allies…) and ensured that India lost its allies in the West Asia. When Iraq was attacked, India took its sweet time to decide not to take a stand on it. Palestine vanished from the Indian policy radar. There would be no parallel for stupidity in international diplomacy to India’s uncalled for vote against Iran in IAEA meet. It, forever, soured the relations between two people (we are brothers, history tells us) which began when history did. US even blocked the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. Poor Mani Shankar Aiyar, the relic of Nehruvian foreign policy school, was the only apparent loser: he lost his job as oil minister after diligently pursuing the project.

A decade later, it appears the games of US and Pakistan have played themselves out. The American media is raging with anger ever since the Bin Laden discovery. There is a Bill in US Congress now to freeze all aid to Pakistan, save for securing its nukes. Its Joint Chiefs of Staff openly said ISI had planned the Kabul embassy attack. Unlike in the past, Pakistan also fired its empty shells back at US. Hina Rabbani Khar, whose officers would have bought her ticket to New York with the dollars they borrowed from US mission in Islamabad, threatened the US with risking its valuable ally. And of late, while refusing to act against the Haqani network (‘once the blue-eyed boy of CIA: Khar), Pakistan has said enemies of China are enemies of Pakistan, too. Another attempt to up its price in bargaining with the US.

A surprise absence in the whole melee has been, India. Instead of being self-invited and playing second fiddle to the US, it has chosen to play its game. It openly supported Palestine’s right to statehood. Manmohan Singh accepted the maverick Ahmadinejad’s invitation to visit Teheran. It has almost opened a war (of words, of course) front with China on oil exploration in South China Sea, giving the US indication that it could, if it wants, air its support.

Now US will fight India’s war with Pakistan. S M Krishna can relax. In the meantime, he can get his wig serviced at Gulfgate, and get ready for the next meeting with Ms Khar.

Et, too, Achu?

Friends, Indians and thara countrymen,
lend me your ears.

I come to ban Endosulfan, not to spray it.

The evil insecticides do lives after them,
For their components enter men’s bones.
So let it be with Endosulfan.

The noble Achuthanandan hath told you
Endosulfan is dangerous
If it were so, it is a grievous fault,
And grievously will Endosulfan answer it
when it is banned.

Here, under leave of Achuthanandan
and the rest and his fast—
So are they all, all honourable men—
V M Sudheeran included
Come I to speak in Endosulfan’s funeral.

It was not my friend, though it killed insects:
But Achuthanandan says it was dangerous;
And Achuthanandan is an honourable man.

Achuthanandan wants to ban it all over India
For it has killed and maimed people.
Very good. But isn’t the tragedy limited to
Kasaragod where it was sprayed aerially?
Is there a report from anywhere else
Where it was not sprayed so?

But Achuthanandan says it is dangerous;
And Achuthanandan is an honourable man.
And he is on a fast.

Why did the CIB permit its aerial spray,
For a long, from 1978 to 1992?
Didn’t they know it would kill people,
poison air, pollute water and degrade soil?
Who was the culprit, endosulfan or
those who cleared it for aerial spraying?
Is Achuthanandan planning to prosecute them all?

But Achuthanandan says it is dangerous;
And Achuthanandan is an honourable man.

Isn’t Plantation Corporation,
which sprayed it on people,
a government company?
How come it sprayed endosulfan
from 1992 till 2001
without CIB permission?
Who is more dangerous, endosulfan, or
Those who sprayed it on people?
Is he planning to prosecute them all?

But Achuthanandan is on a fast.
And he is an honourable man.

Hasn’t the Kerala Assembly pass a bill
to set up a tribunal for
compensating Plachimada people?
Isn’t Coca-Cola being held accountable?
Why not a tribunal for Enmakaje victims?
or is it that only MNCs need to be answerable?

But Achutanandan is on a fast for the people of India.
And he is an honourable man.
Isn’t he shooting the messenger?
Isn’t he playing a cruel joke on people?
Isn’t the media playing along, stupidly?
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.
Bear with me.