Copenhagen and its aftermath

We did not get an agreement on 50% reductions in global emissions by 2050 or on 80% reductions by developed countries. Both were vetoed by China, despite the support of a coalition of developed and the vast majority of developing countries. Indeed, this is one of the straws in the wind for the future: the old order of developed versus developing has been replaced by more interesting alliances. (via The road from Copenhagen | Ed Miliband | Comment is free | The Guardian).

Old bulldog ... old tricks

Gordon Brown, The British Prime Minister declared, "today, together with Norway and Australia, the UK is taking a further step to a Copenhagen agreement: publishing a framework for the long-term transfer of resources to meet the mitigation and adaptation needs of developing countries." (Paris Hilton note, who the PM of Britain is!)

More interesting was when Europe went ahead and committed funds and disbursed carbon credits. Small amounts - but nevertheless a significant step! So, what gives! How come Europe was disbursing - not serious money, but more than pocket money, without using IMF, World Bank, et al. No UN! How come?

Anglo-Euro efforts

The joint trojan operation (Norway, Australia and UK + EU) against China (or was it India?) was immaculately pursued. Bernarditas de Castro Muller, former lead coordinator and negotiator for the G77 and China in Copenhagen, writing in the Guardian of UK, reported

The UK financed workshops in selected vulnerable countries and deployed climate envoys. One of its envoys told intransigent negotiators that the UK would mobilise a group of vulnerable countries to pressure the major developing countries – such as China, Brazil and India – into committing to emissions reductions, contrary to their obligations under the climate treaty.

The EU for example made sustained attempts to influence and pressure developing nations – something that only served to increase their cohesion. They bribed where they could, promising the same recycled financing and maybe more to come if countries bent to their demands. And they bullied when they could not bribe.

India's neighbours, like Maldives, Bangladesh were co-opted - as were countries, led people of Indian extract like Caribbean island of Guyana, Mauritius. The strategy was to isolate China and pair India with the 'vulnerble 14' - like Maldives, Guyana, Bangldesh, etc. For instance, alongwith Mohammed Nasheed, Bharrat Jagdeo in Guyana, was faultlessly pursued. Long ignored and isolated, countries like Guyana suddenly found themselves in the spotlight.

Agreeably surprised, they wondered how Guyana "received a disproportionate amount of coverage and access given its size for its progressive and leading stance on climate change." Time magazine nominated Guyanese president Bharrat Jagdeo, as one of Heroes of the Environment 2008. This year Time magazine included Mohammed Nasheed in its Heroes of the Environment 2009. It was also announced,

Stabroek News in Guyana has confirmed that President Bharrat Jagdeo has been nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to combat climate change. He was nominated by Professor David Dabydeen, Director of the Centre for Caribbean Studies at the University of Warwick.

The Commonhealth Heads meeting a few weeks before Copenhagen was supposed to seal this 'alliance.' Intriguingly, the French President Sarkozy joined the Commonwealth Summit, with Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen and UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon - and proposed a US$10 billion fund for climate change. Just imagine the French joining in a Commonwealth meet (a first, I would think).

Possibly it was the US efforts which made China and India stand together at Copenhagen.

Why the US did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol?

The political undertones of climate control talks are unravelling. The first major smoke signal was when the USA refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol - while talking about global warming and climate change at the same time. Sometimes puzzling and wholly beyond understanding! The lip service paid by the US to climate change can be best summarized by a Hindi idom हाथी के दांत, खाने के एक, दिखाने के एक. Meaning, elephants have two sets of teeth - one for actual use and another for show.

The third element in the multilateral equations set was the efforts made by Bush /Obama to get India and China to 'get on the climate change band wagon' with the US. The Chinese 'unilateral' announcement of 'voluntary' carbon intensity cut after Obama's trip to China a few days before Copenhagen was a signpost of this unusual 'alliance'. India followed soon thereafter with its own 'voluntary' carbon intensity cuts. One of the justifications of Bush's nuclear deal with India was climate change.

This US master-stroke of Obama+BASIC meeting, ensured that the “only breakthrough was the political coup for China and India in concluding the anodyne communiqué with the United States behind closed doors, with Brazil and South Africa allowed in the room and Europe left to languish in the cold outside.”

In hindsight, US covert resistance to climate change was actually resistance to the monopolisation by the EU on the climate change agenda and campaign. Under the garb of climate change, EU was trying to do what US did to the world, under the garb of poverty elimination, population control, Bretton Woods in the aftermath of WW2.

What were the BASIC countries resisting

Writing from a Western standpoint, John Lee, in the Guardian, of the UK, faults China for not allowing,

"Teams of international economists, scientists, inspectors and statisticians roaming China to gather information on carbon emissions and reduction initiatives ... reporting to political masters in America and Europe ... (on) the further problem of cheating in current and future carbon reduction schemes." (ellipsis and linking text in brackets mine).

Ed Milliband, Britain's Energy Minister, younger brother of British foreign secretary, David Miliband, writing for the Guardian,

"We cannot again allow negotiations ... to be hijacked in this way. We will need to have major reform of the UN body overseeing the negotiations and of the way the negotiations are conducted (for this) global campaign, co-ordinated by green NGOs, backed by business ... we must keep this campaign going and build on it. It needs to be more of a genuinely global mobilisation, taking in all countries ...this year has proved what can be done, as well as the scale of the challenge we face. (ellipsis and emphasis mine).

Indeed much has been done.

Face behind the mask

Faceless NGOs, without accountability to anyone, were able to bring global political leadership, to the very brink of an agreement. Like Milliband's boss, Gordon Brown remarked, "the political will to secure the ambitious agreement ... comprehensive and global agreement that is then converted to an internationally legally binding treaty in no more than six months." was very much there. The same 25,000 people (25 countries x 1000 powerful people) who rule over the G8-/OECD wanted the poor to invite these 25,000 to have undue and illegitimate oversight over our ‘poor’ lives – in the name of climate change.

To deliver more than 600 crore (6 billion) of humanity to an agreement that would have allowed the likes of the Milliband Brothers (and their NGO 'partners-in-crime') to pry into our lives, our affairs and dictate our very existence - with our own consent. Without recourse, with no checks and balances. With large amounts of unaccounted money at their disposal. To decide how we live our lives. Under a system, that would have re-invented colonialism, in a way wholly unknown to us earlier.

Any deal was a bad deal

Last time around, India was called the deal breaker at Doha. This time around, it is China. Who gets called, what by whom, may seems unimportant! But as my grandfather reminded me many times, बद हो जाओ, लेकिन बदनाम नहीं (Beware of getting a bad reputation).

The Guardian, goes onto say, "Only China is mentioned specifically in Miliband's article but aides tonight made it clear that he included Sudan, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba, which also tried to resist a deal being signed." Sadly India is not included in this list of 'deniers' who are, as Gordon Brown puts it, "anti-science and anti-change environmental Luddites who seek to stand in the way of progress."

How I wish India was blamed for the failure of Copenhagen!

De-construction of climate change by 2ndlook

• Climate change – How India is falling for propaganda


• Climate Change at Copenhagen – Britain mounts a Trojan operation


• Indian cows were blamed for global warming!


• US Euro Clubs hobble Third Wold


• Climate head steps down over e-mail leak


• NASSCOM wakes after 15 months


• PR Stunts – The Maldives underwater meeting


• Indian to head Amnesty


• Amartya Sen at the Aspen Institute India's Conference in New Delhi - WSJ.com


• Climate change – ‘Time for Plan B’ says Nigel Lawson

Amartya Sen at the Aspen Institute India's Conference in New Delhi - WSJ.com

India's approach should have been to push for what it considered to be a "fairer, juster deal" on climate change that all parties can agree to -- and if that means mandatory cuts, then so be it. "To say under no circumstances will we accept mandatory restraints is ridiculous," he said. "Our position should be we will accept a just agreement, an agreement that creates a better world." He said he was particularly disturbed at one point during the Copenhagen deliberations to see African and other developing nations side with China on the ramifications of an increase in global temperatures and to see India on the side of the U.S. and western Europe when "we have been traditionally the spokesman of the underdog." (via Snapshots from the Aspen Institute India's Conference in New Delhi - WSJ.com).

Inside Indian bedrooms

60years ago, an assault was made by foreign 'observers' into Indian bedrooms. Foreign 'observers'

1. Tied 'development aid' to India's population control.


2. Trained Indian 'health workers' to control India's human reproductive behaviour.


3. Paid for by Western Governments, soon after that, we had 'health workers' fanning out across the Indian country-side, conducting vasectomies /tubectomies on India's (especially poor) population.

It did not matter then, who the 'observers' were - foreign or Indian. Neither does it matter now. What matters is someone's monitoring. And I don't like that at all. Even if it done by a Brown.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall

Who is the most dubious of them all? And Carbon emissions is a very dubious subject. Sometime back, cows (read that as India) were targetted for carbon and methane emission. Will it be Indians and human beings next? Rhetorical you think?

Australia proves how this logic works. For Australians this has become a habit. They decided recently, in Australia to kill thirsty camels. Some time back, they were killing cane toads. Before that it was kangaroos. Before that it was dingos. And before that were humans.

Like last time

This time around, based on similarly dubious research, India is being pressured to accept monitoring of climate change. Climate control and the Copenhagen meet is that fast growing octopus which is spreading out. It tentacles can be found in all kinds of places. One of its tentacles has reached India - which was any way the target. The Aspen Institute, India (AII).

To 'soften' up India, the AII organized a gab-fest. Who could be a good candidate for a gathering of such worthies? At least, Nobel Prize winners. Rajendra Pachauri? Al Gore? Any better candidates. Yes.

Amartya Sen - who 'graced' this gab-fest, hosted by Aspen Institute, India (AII) - an 'associate' of Aspen Institute, USA. Amartya Sen is tenderizing up the media, the academia, to accept Copenhagen outcome - which is primarily International 'monitoring' of India's climate control and administration. Does Amartya Sen raise any of these questions? For his efforts to weaken Indian position and interests, Amartya Sen will soon qualify as a unique category of Indian passport holder - Non-Resident, Non-Indian, holding an Indian passport.

The AII-Board of Trustees reads more like Who's Who of Indian industry - Bajaj, Birla, Godrej, Thapar et al.

The carbon credits 'opportunity'

The rich fat-cats are already licking the chops. Estimates have been put out that the 'carbon-credits business s worth Rs.28,000 crores.

Interestingly, note one thing very carefully. No one, but none, is talking up about cleaning up on pollution. No industry is being asked to reduce their pollutants (think of inks, dyes and chemicals), manage by-products (sulphur from petroleum refining), eliminate contamination (paper plants), decrease waste (electronics), recycle (just imagine the number of mobile phone batteries).

Dada Amartya, you got a memory lapse! How come you don't talk about any of this?

Polluter cleans – not pay

One of the fundamental flaws of the Kyoto Protocol was the principal of ‘polluter pays’. Based on retributive justice logic, it was something that was bound to fail. Instead it should have been based on the Indic justice principle – ameliorative and make good. The operating principle should have been ‘polluter cleans and does not pollute again.’

Camels ... in the kingdom of heaven

Copenhagen is for the rich (from poor countries), by the rich (from rich countries) to the rich (from poor and rich countries) – and may the poor and common be damned. And one thing you can be absolutely, completely, definitely, positively, wholly sure of.

The poor will never, ever, at all, in any manner, benefit from climate control.

We can challenge India on Copenhagen goals: US – Global Warming – Environment – Home – The Times of India

White House senior advisor David Axelrod told CNN that the Copenhagen Accord would allow US verification. "Now China and India have set goals. We are going to be able to review what they are doing. We are going to be able to challenge them if they do not meet those goals," Axelrod said.

While this was probably intended to keep the enraged constituencies of US labour unions at bay, who had insisted that Barack Obama come back with a commitment from India and China for carbon cuts and their verification, these statements will only fuel a fire in countries like China and India. (via We can challenge India on Copenhagen goals: US - Global Warming - Environment - Home - The Times of India).

Like last time

This time around, based on similarly dubious research, India is being pressured to accept monitoring of climate change. Climate control and the Copenhagen meet is that fast growing octopus which is spreading out. It tentacles can be found in all kinds of places. One of its tentacles has reached India – which was any way the target. The Aspen Institute, India (AII).

To ’soften’ up India, the AII organized a gab-fest. Who could be a good candidate for a gathering of such worthies? At least, Nobel Prize winners. Rajendra Pachauri? Al Gore? Any better candidates. Yes.

Amartya Sen – who ‘graced’ this gab-fest, hosted by Aspen Institute, India (AII) – an ‘associate’ of Aspen Institute, USA. Amartya Sen is tenderizing up the media, the academia, to accept Copenhagen outcome – which is primarily International ‘monitoring’ of India’s climate control and administration. Does Amartya Sen raise any of these questions? For his efforts to weaken Indian position and interests, Amartya Sen will soon qualify as a unique category of Indian passport holder – Non-Resident, Non-Indian, holding an Indian passport.

The AII-Board of Trustees reads more like Who’s Who of Indian industry – Bajaj, Birla, Godrej, Thapar et al.

The carbon credits ‘opportunity’

The rich fat-cats are already licking the chops. Estimates have been put out that the ‘carbon-credits business s worth Rs.28,000 crores.

Interestingly, note one thing very carefully. No one, but none, is talking up about cleaning up on pollution. No industry is being asked to reduce their pollutants (think of inks, dyes and chemicals), manage by-products (sulphur from petroleum refining), eliminate contamination (paper plants), decrease waste (electronics), recycle (just imagine the number of mobile phone batteries).

Dada Amartya, you got a memory lapse! How come you don’t talk about any of this?

Polluter cleans – not pay

One of the fundamental flaws of the Kyoto Protocol was the principal of ‘polluter pays’. Based on retributive justice logic, it was something that was bound to fail. Instead it should have been based on the Indic justice principle – ameliorative and make good. The operating principle should have been ‘polluter cleans and does not pollute again.’

Camels … in the kingdom of heaven

Copenhagen is for the rich (from poor countries), by the rich (from rich countries) to the rich (from poor and rich countries) – and may the poor and common be damned. And one thing you can be absolutely, completely, definitely, positively, wholly sure of.

The poor will never, ever, at all, in any manner, benefit from climate control.

Indian to head Amnesty

Salil Shetty (48), Director of the Millennium Development Goals Campaign, is set to become the Secretary-General of Amnesty International. Salil Shetty will be the first Indian to head the international secular non-government organisation.

An alumnus of St Joseph’s Indian High School and St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bangalore, Shetty was President of the College Student Union in 1979. He did his Masters in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and went on to earn a distinction in a Masters of Science in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics.

He joined the United Nations in October 2003 as Director of the Millennium Campaign ... Before joining the UN, Shetty was Chief Executive of ActionAid. (via B’lorean to head Amnesty).

Citius, altius, fortius

Amartya Sen wins the Nobel prize. For research on the Great Bengal Famine. And what does he do - he papers over the entire British policy in Bengal during WW2 - which resulted in the Great Bengal Famine.

The Congress in India, the UMNO in Malaysia and the Kenya African National Union, better known as KANU, have actively white-washed colonial genocides, It took a Catherine Elkins to partially unmask the killings during the Mau Mau uprising. The genocide in 1857 Indo-British War has been estimated by Amaresh Mishra's book. The killings in Malaysia have remained un-investigated and unexposed.

According to the official figures, Mau Mau killed fewer than 100 whites and about 1,800 Kikuyu loyalists while some 11,000 Kikuyu were killed in return. Both Elkins and David Anderson regard these figures with derision — Anderson points out that the mass hanging of 1,090 Mau Mau had no parallel anywhere in Malaya, Indochina or even Algeria, while Elkins suggests that the real number of deaths may have run into hundreds of thousands. (From The Sunday Times, January 9, 2005, Britain's Gulag by Caroline Elkins; Histories of The Hanged by David Anderson, REVIEWED BY R W JOHNSON).

Rajinder Pachauri, head of the IPCC, which won the Nobel Prize, now similarly promotes the 'interests' and the agenda of the climate change lobby. Promoting, protecting the climate change agenda, to the exclusion of Indian interests.

Arundhati Roy's became a 'force' to reckon with - after getting the a large advance (media reports change from 500,000 to, 1 million) and winning the Booker Prize. No prize, for guessing which country gives out the prize. Her promotion of the 'liberal-progressive' agenda - for instance, her Kashmir ideas keep the debate in India from becoming rational or useful to India.

The most elite of Indians

Today, Amartya Sen returns the 'favour' of the Nobel Prize by promoting Western agenda and ideas. In the climate control debate, he proposes that India should 'welcome' international, inspection, audit, intervention and dictation. Rajinder Pachauri defends the fraud of climate change. To cover up the climate change fraud, he indulges in mudslinging against the East Anglia hackers. Arundhati Roy thinks that consigning another 2 crore (twenty million) Kashmiris into the Pakistani hell is OK - based on terrorist activities of some 2000 jihadis. I am very happy for Salil Shetty, except for one thing. The question that springs to my 'provincial' mind' (aka मोटी, देसी और मंद बुद्धि) is ...

Is Salil Shetty joining this 'elite' club?

Climate change - 'Time for Plan B' says Nigel Lawson

The world's political leaders, not least President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, are in a state of severe, almost clinical, denial. While acknowledging that the outcome of the United Nations climate-change conference in Copenhagen fell short of their demand for a legally binding, enforceable and verifiable global agreement on emissions reductions by developed and developing countries alike, they insist that what has been achieved is a breakthrough and a decisive step forward. (via Nigel Lawson: Time for Plan B - WSJ.com).

The real issue

For the first time, in all the coverage that climate change has seen (dare I say, over-coverage), here is something that was 'honest', 'open', 'clear' and 'transparent'. In more informal surroundings I would have used the word brazen.

First - He, Nigel Lawson, starts of with clearly defining that the G8/OECD world wanted "a legally binding, enforceable and verifiable global agreement on emissions reductions by developed and developing countries alike". Awesome.

The same 25,000 people (25 countries x 1000 powerful people) who rule over the G8-/OECD wanted the poor to invite these 25,000 to have undue and illegitimate oversight over our 'poor' lives - in the name of climate change. While the rest of the world was pussyfooting around this issue, here we find Nigel Lawson 'outing' the real agenda. Good work, Nigel.

Reaching out

Second - He was honest to admit what his real peeve was. He thinks that the "only breakthrough was the political coup for China and India in concluding the anodyne communiqué with the United States behind closed doors, with Brazil and South Africa allowed in the room and Europe left to languish in the cold outside."

If he can feel bad about that, we can surely feel good about it. Since, this is the season for cheer and goodwill, let me confess ...

I do, at least.

They don't want us to compete

Third - He also very simply goes to the nub of the matter.

"The reason we use carbon-based energy is not the political power of the oil lobby or the coal industry. It is because it is far and away the cheapest source of energy at the present time and is likely to remain so, not forever, but for the foreseeable future."

And dear Nigel, we cannot allow access to India-China to get that benefit? Can we!

Creating fifth columnists

Fourth - He goes onto questioning the "2006 Stern Review, quite the shoddiest pseudo-scientific and pseudo-economic document any British Government has ever produced". And this was the same Sir Nicolas Stern, who the Indian Government wanted to /did consult. And he does quite simply capture the debate well when he says "any assessment of the impact of any future warming that may occur is inevitably highly conjectural, depending ... on the uncertainties of climate science ... (and) on the uncertainties of future technological development. So what we are talking about is risk".

We can do business with such people

Fifth - He also fires a warning shot at China and India with "The risk of a 1930s-style outbreak of protectionism—if the developed world were to abjure cheap energy and faced enhanced competition from China and other rapidly industrializing countries that declined to do so—is probably greater than any risk from warming."

Your 'great' poet, Sheikh-speare, put it well. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. You want a trade war, Nigel Boy? You got it!!

Just tell us where and when!

He then goes onto draw

"the outlines of a credible plan B are clear. First and foremost, we must do what mankind has always done, and adapt to whatever changes in temperature may in the future arise.

This enables us to pocket the (many) benefits of any warming while reducing the costs ... Addressing these problems directly is many times more cost-effective than anything discussed at Copenhagen. And adaptation does not require a global agreement, although we may well need to help the very poorest countries (not China) to adapt ...

... it is not going to be easy to get our leaders to move to plan B. (as) calling a halt to the high-profile climate-change traveling circus risks causing a severe conference-deprivation trauma among the participants. If there has to be a small public investment in counseling, it would be money well spent.

The speed with which the Plan B has come out means that they (G8+OECD) have given up on Plan A, which is good news. Since, their strategy did not work, what Plan B means is that they will go one country after another. Tackle them individually.

The West + Japan may make one last attempt in Mexico. If unsuccessful, they may drop the entire climate change agenda.

Which is good news.

PR Stunts – The Maldives underwater meeting

Maldivian officials said the idea to hold the attention-grabbing underwater cabinet meeting came from President Mohamed Nasheed when he was asked by an activist group to support its "environmental day" action on October 24.

"The 350.org group asked if the Maldives can hold an underwater banner supporting environmental day," an official from the president's office said.

"The president thought for a while and then came up with the idea to have an underwater cabinet meeting." (via Maldives cabinet rehearses underwater meeting).

Its been done before

From the early 1950's to the late eighties, the Western world created hysteria regarding 'population explosion' in India and China. Enormous pressures were brought onto the Chinese and Indian Governments to 'control' their populations.

The West succeeded in China - and failed in India, thanks to the healthy disrespect that desi Indians had for 'phoren' ideas. This entire theory on population explosion was based on wrong ethical, economic and political bases. Above all, it was based on a fear that China and India could raise an army bigger than the entire population of the West put together. Much like the climate control campaign, the population explosion campaign was sustained over the years - and called for great 'foresight' from the West.

The Maldives trojan

Propping up Maldives as 'fifth' column was similarly done over the last more than 20 years. Based on excellent PR and media management skills, the Maldives was the Trojan horse that India was blind-sided on.

350.org is rather well armed on the PR front - with a specific agency for South Asia itself. Maldives is now tied up with a the 'Vulnerable 14' to actively create pressure on (especially) China and India.

If it was not such a delicious fraud, I could have even admired this operation.

42 terror camps still active in Pakistan: Indian Army chief

Chief of Army Staff Gen Deepak Kapoor has said that there are still 42 terror camps operating across the border in Pakistan in which 2000 to 2500 terrorists are still waiting to infiltrate into Indian side. (via 42 terror camps still active in Pakistan: Army chief- Hindustan Times).

Such cross-border firings did come down for some time after the two countries agreed to a ceasefire along the 198-km International Border in J&K, the 778-km LoC and the 150-km Actual Ground Position Line in Siachen on November 26, 2003.

But Pakistan army is now back to its old strategy of actively aiding and abetting infiltration, and the ceasefire is increasingly turning fragile. Army chief General Deepak Kapoor, in fact, recently said Pakistan army was trying to push in as many militants as possible before the mountain passes get snowed under. (via Terror infrastructure in Pak still intact: Antony - India - The Times of India).

Post-colonial India

So ... if we know this ... what are we doing about these 42 camps?

Post-Independence India has inherited a Pakistan Fixation, which predisposes us to whine - and demonize Pakistan. Endless whining about Pakistan's bad deeds gets us nowhere. A ‘victorious’ Congress, ruling for most of the 60 years of post-colonial India, had three clear propaganda imperatives.

1 – TINA, There is no alternative

They needed to prove that it was only the Congress which could ‘take on’ and ‘defeat’ the ‘glorious and the mighty’ British Empire on which the sun never set. The logic went, “what could India(ns) have done without the Congress”. This thinking went deeper and dirtier, when a certain Deb Kant Barooah, declared “India is Indira and Indira is India.”

Similarly, Congress decided to re-write history and take all credit for the departure of the British colonialists. Contributions of leaders like SC Bose was ignored or the importance of the February 1946 joint action by the Indian Armed Forces against the colonial forces, was minimized to the ‘Naval Ratings Mutiny.’ Leaders like VD Savarkar (the first to write a non-colonial history of the War of 1857), or Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (the founder of the Jana Sangh-BJP) was dismissed as fascism.

Fact is, that Britain was bankrupt and could not hold onto India. Fact is, that for a 150 years – from 1797-1947, many rebellions, wars, individual hits were made against the colonial British Government. The myth of non-violent Indian freedom movement, served both colonial and Congress interests. It showed the British as ‘civilized’ colonialists – and the Congress as ‘enlightened’ leadership. Just like most Western literature caricatures African-American characters as hard-working, humble, docile, placid, obedient, gentle!

2 – If you don’t have an enemy, create one!

The Congress needed to create an enemy. A demon, who they could blame, use, abuse – and Pakistan fitted the bill perfectly. A failed state (!), a hotbed of terrorism – and to top it all, an Islamic State. What more could the West-Congress combine ask for?

Easily slipping into colonial legacy of ‘divide et impera’, the Congress went onto a disastrous foreign policy trail of Hindi-Chini bhai bhai. A solid realtionship with Pakistan would have, arguably, saved Tibet from the Chinese maws – which Nehru’s foreign policy predicated.

3 – Craven desires

To gain Western approval, acceptance, favours, privileges et al.

Consider the English language policy of the post-colonial Congress Government. It has massively subsidized English education in India so that the children of the elite could ‘escape’ to the West. The demeaning ‘population control theory’, the English language education – all, a result of this need of the Congress Party.

The deliberate colonial distortion of Indian history continues unchecked and unhindered. You only have to read Congress Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh’s speech at Oxford, praising the Raj, while receiving his honorary doctrate, or Chidambaram’s decision to end “abject poverty” in India that he seems to “have known for 5,000 years.”

When each of these elements are looked at in isolation, we can take benign view of these actions. When looked at collectively, it forms a clear pattern.

A rather ominous pattern.

The Root Of This Problem

The state of inter-government relations in South Asia is a sign of lazy Indian diplomatic corps (the IFS) which considers all these neighbourhood postings as ‘punishment’ postings. The ‘best’ of IFS corps wants postings to Western capitals. Like the IAS, the IFS is another albatross around India’s neck.

A large part of India’s Foreign Ministry budget goes towards Western engagement (for proof, look at the dubious Festivals of India in USA, France, Russia, Britain, etc). Instead if the same money was spent in the sub-continent, it would have been better spent. The huge monies spent on Western embassies are mis directed. It would be ideal if those Western embassies were Spartan, frugal (I should actually say Gandhian) – and our the money saved was invested in the sub-continent. India’s Western engagements are at a direct cost of involving and managing the neighbourhood relationships.

If India’s problems were limited to Pakistan, possibly, there is some merit to India’s Pakistan Fixation. India’s relations with its other neighbours are also in trouble. Its relations with Bangladesh are at a historic low. Relations with Sri Lanka are back from the brink. Nepal is the new fire in the sub-continent.

What should India do?

The other issue is that Indian bureaucrats whine. They issue empty threats - and take no follow up actions.

For instance, cut off Pakistan's supplies of paper, inks, dies, presses, spares for the currency printing. Are things changing.? India has indeed has taken the first intelligent action (that I have seen) in a long time in handling Pakistan.

Next! Send a 100 Indian agents to lob grenades into Pakistani terrorists camps - every month. Just one grenade in one terrorist camp every month. Within the next 6 months the terror infrastructure of Pakistan will evaporate.

Other options India can consider.

1. Zardari wants to export cement and sugar to India. India has a large market for both – and can easily absorb Pakistani exports. Tie these Pakistani exports to quantitative achievements in shutting down terror camps in Pakistan.


2. Pakistan precarious financial position does not allow it the luxury of an arms race with India. Pakistan has access to Western technology for – in defence for RDX, machine guns, PACs, etc. The world must withdraw all technology from Pakistan for all arms and ammunition. No RDX, no tanks, no F-16s, no APCs. Pakistan must be put on strict diet of military technology blockade by the world. No less.


3. Fake Indian currency notes are also allegedly coming out of technology supplied by Europeans. Close these channels. Pakistan’s suspected role in counterfeit currency operations must also be put under the scanner. Controlling Government’s of the 12 companies that dominate the currency printing business must be made to choose. Between India and Pakistan. If the German Government can arm twist their companies to suspend currency supply to Zimbabwe, there is no excuse for them to not to lean on dealings with Pakistan.


4. Pakistani Hindus (especially Dalits) are crucial to Pakistan. Announce a scheme for Hindu immigration from Pakistan to India. The loss of this 2% of Pakistani population can make life difficult for Pakistan. Facilitate their immigration to India.


5. Work with US, NATO, Afghan Governments to close down the Peshawar arms bazaar. This small time bazaar became the sourcing centre for terrorists all over the world. Initially, stocked up with arms from the CIA funded jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan, Peshawar, has become a problem that never ends. If required, there should be a UN mandate to send in a multinational force to surround, capture and destroy this centre for arms and armaments.


6. Pakistan is at the crossroads of a jihadi, terrorist, criminal elements who have joined together and created an incendiary mash-up. Fueled by a drugs trade worth billions, arms trade worth millions and respectability, as they are ‘carrying out a religious jihad’.


7. The leadership of these gangs has to be de-fanged. LK Advani, as the earlier Home Minister, forwarded a list of ‘Most Wanted 20′ to Pakistan nearly 7 years ago. Not one has come to India. The US has not co-operated on this one important Indian requirement.

The Pakistan problem is finally not as complex and it is made out.

Nor as easy as some may want it to be.