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ARTICLE |
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Growing US interest in India
The evolving global balance of power
By G. Parthasarathy
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rapid growth of what China calls its “Comprehensive National Power” has been accompanied by strong manifestations of what the Soviets used to call as “Great Han Chauvinism”. Responding to concerns expressed about China’s growing “assertiveness” in relations with its smaller neighbours, its Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi nonchalantly told his Singaporean counterpart in December 2010, with the arrogance reminiscent of the rulers of the Ming dynasty: “China is a big country and other countries are just small countries and that’s just a fact”.
The past two years have seen China resorting to coercion and even use of force in enforcing its maritime boundary claims with Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. The same assertiveness, bordering on arrogance, is manifested in China’s dealings with India which it treats as what is yet another “‘small country” in its neighbourhood.Leaving aside Chinese manoeuvres to undermine India in forums like the Nuclear Suppliers Group, China has actively colluded with Pakistan in blocking international efforts to get the Jaish-e-Mohammed, which masterminded the attack on our Parliament, declared as an international terrorist organization by the UN Security Council. It had acted identically in blocking efforts to get the Lashkar-e-Toiba outlawed, prior to the 26/11 outrage. More importantly, China now acts as though the PoK and the Northern Areas of Gilgit and Baltistan are an integral part of Pakistan, with only Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir being a “disputed” territory. The “Chief Minister”” of Gilgit-Baltistan, Syed Mehdi Shah, twice visited China in the recent past and was received at the highest levels. Contrast this with the entire issue of stapled visas for residents, including military officers, serving in J&K. Moreover, planned Chinese investment for infrastructure and hydro-electric projects in Gilgit-Baltistan is estimated to be of the order of $10 billion, with growing suspicions that the tunnels being built are really meant for nuclear weapon and missile silos. All this is happening when Pakistan is tearing itself apart under the weight of its internal contradictions, combined with the stupidity of its military in cultivating radical Islamic groups to “bleed’’ India and force the Americans out of Afghanistan. These were among the issues considered by a high-level non-official group from the Council for Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Aspen Institute India (AII). The group has now come out with a detailed report on shaping the contours of a US-India partnership to deal with global challenges. The Indian participants included former National Security Adviser (NSA) Brajesh Mishra and former Ambassadors to the US, K.S. Bajpai and Naresh Chandra. The American side included luminaries like former Director of Intelligence Denis Blair, Bush Administration NSA Stephen Headley and Ambassador Robert Blackwill. The CFR-AII report comes at a time when the US is finding that its two Cold War allies, China and Pakistan, are either directly challenging its global pre-eminence, or supporting terrorists killing its soldiers in Afghanistan. The CFR-AII report notes that Pakistan’s intelligence agencies “support terrorist groups that target India, Afghanistan and ISAF forces in Afghanistan”. After the Abbotabad raid which eliminated Osama bin Laden, the US is finding that General Kayani, whom it had touted for long as a “tough professional”, is now arranging for the Haqqani group to even attack its embassy in Kabul. The report states: “Pakistan is showing alarming signs of systemic decline. Its economy continues to underperform peers in Asia.” It significantly notes that the US should “condition military aid to Pakistan on concrete anti-terrorist measures by the Pakistan military against groups targeting India and the US”. The American decision to declare the Indian Mujahideen as a Pakistan-backed international terrorist organization should be seen in this context. The “Dialogue with Pakistan Mantra”’ is alluded to, though Americans have no answer to the question whether “dialogue” will induce Pakistan to change its behaviour. The report dwells on the need for a regional framework, including the US, China, Russia, Iran, the Central Asian Republics, India and Pakistan to evolve measures for stability in Afghanistan. Predictably, the report asserts that India and the US have no intention of “confrontation with China, or to forge a coalition for China’s containment”. But the sub-text is clear. It advocates a strengthened India-US partnership for a viable “balance of power” in Asia, covering the Indian Ocean— which is described as “home to critical global lines of communication, with an estimated 50% of the world’s container products and 70% of the ship-borne oil and petroleum transiting through its waters,” and the Asia-Pacific region. Interestingly, Hillary Clinton recently referred to the Asia-Pacific as the “Indo-Pacific,” quite obviously having taken note of India’s growing ties with Australia, Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. It is also clear that India-US differences will remain on relations with Iran and on the NATO propensity for selective regime change under the rubric of “Responsibility to Protect”. The report is upbeat on US-India economic ties and makes significant recommendations for enhancing cooperation in areas like space, defence production and defence R&D. Goldman Sachs estimates that the Indian economy will expand at an average rate of 8.4% through 2020. The report stresses the significant potential for cooperation in areas like infrastructure, transportation, energy and agriculture. While it calls for US support for Indian membership of export control forums like the NSG, the MTCR, the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement, should India really show interest in joining these cartels, especially given the US-led move to get the NSG to ban the export of reprocessing and enrichment technology to India, because it is not a signatory to the NPT? No Indian interest is served in joining such forums, where it is considered less equal than others. We need to bide our time and see how US pressures influence our other partners like France and Russia, which do not share the American aversion for the transfer of important reprocessing technology to India. Moreover, both France and Russia appear unhappy, but ready to live the provisions of India’s Nuclear Liability Act, even though they may require higher insurance cover for their nuclear power plants. The CFR-Aspen India report carries wide-ranging recommendations which South Block should look at seriously. With its economy set for a continuing high growth path, India now has the luxury of having multiple partners, without having to compromise the autonomy of its decision making. Ironically, the wheels of history appear to have turned a full circle. The US, which partnered China and Pakistan for over four decades at the cost of India, now finds merit in partnering a democratic and economically vibrant India in facing an assertive China and a jihadi
Pakistan.
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MIDDLE |
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Netaji
by V.K. Kapoor
IT was an “accidental catch”. I showed the CD to my boss in the Ministry of Home Affairs. After that we went to the ‘Chief’. I left the CD with Chief.I was sitting in India International Centre. “Netaji” saw me and came straight to me. He waved away his hangers-on and took me to a corner lawn. He looked like a killer with the eyes of a shark. He looked straight into my eyes and asked me if “We” were after him. I told him that he was an accidental catch. He asked me if that CD had been showed ‘Above’. I told him that I left it with the Chief. He told me that he had checked me out and was told that I was not ‘politically aligned’. After that he relaxed. After a week, I got a call from his private secretary inviting me for dinner. I reached at the appointed time. Netaji received me very warmly. I was slightly wary. I found the guests very colourful. Mostly they were business men while some were from the film industry. He introduced me to a middle-aged woman, and instructed her to look after me. She told me that she was a psycho-therapist in Bombay and also held fashion shows. She said that ‘Guddu’ (Netaji) was a very dear friend. She told me that her clients were top heroes and heroines and business tycoons. After I refused a drink, she told me that non-drinkers die early. She gave me some tips about “healthy and discreet” adultery as it “improves the marital atmosphere”. In spite of her years, she looked radiantly appetising and had the pungent saltiness of a woman who knows all the tricks. She spotted a minister coming, and darted towards him. Delhi has a very dark underbelly. Open looks frequently hide devious hearts. Netaji became quite friendly with me, and used to invite me to his office. One day I asked him about the ‘casting couch’. “Are you talking about the political ‘casting couch’ or the filmi one,” he said. He explained that the two professions had one thing in common. In both the professions people want “a role”. Everybody wants to go up the ladder, whether ‘filmy or political’. He narrated the stories of some “Badnam Munnis” of politics, who were holding important assignments. Being on the inside brings not only opportunity, but temptation. Netaji had sowed enough wild oats to need a Combine harvester. He wanted me to join him. I asked my Chief’s advice. He told me that if I wanted to spend my post-retirement days in Tihar Jail, this was a golden opportunity. I wriggled out. Netaji died in an accident in mysterious circumstances. One day, I and my boss were discussing his deeds. My boss said that by not making “proper use” of the CD, we lost a lifetime opportunity to have a Swiss bank account. I told him that all honest government servants belong to the BPL (below poverty line) category with have middle class mentality, morality and timidity, but that keeps the things
moving.
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OPED
Tribute |
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The tireless crusader of Punjabi theatre Gursharan Singh may have
breathed his last. But his voice that stood for the oppressed and the
dispossessed will continue to echo in the corridors of time
Theatre’s iconic missionary
Nonika Singh
The best tribute to Gursharan Singh who dared to take on the establishment would be to keep the ball rolling through sincere efforts
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The
voice that refused to be cowed down, that stood its ground against all odds and
all pressures whose courage of conviction could never be challenged has fallen
silent. Gursharan Singh, the titan of Punjabi theatre, after a prolonged
illness, passed away on the night of September 27. Without doubt his death has
created a void that can never be filled. But more significantly the man whose
theatre journey began in 1954 with the play Lohri Di Hartal and went on
to direct over 200 plays, clocking thousands of shows, leaves behind an
inspiring legacy. As Kamal Tewari, Chairperson Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi,
puts it, "He created a revolution in theatre movement. Most of the theatre
that is happening today in Punjab and Haryana is thanks to him". Indeed,
while singlehandedly with missionary zeal he took theatre to the remotest
corners of Punjab, he has motivated at least three generations of theatre
persons. His disciples spanning many generations including eminent theatre
persons like Amritsar-based Kewal Dhaliwal, Mohali-based Sahib Singh and scores
of others will keep the torch that he lit aflame. An emotionally overwrought
Singh says, "In village Lambee, where my play was to be staged and had to
be postponed because of his demise, people are paying a tribute not only to
Shaheed Bhagat Singh but also Bhaji." But then Bhaji, as Gursharan Singh
was lovingly known as, was as much a revolutionary in his own way.
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Gursharan
Singh 1929 — 2011 |
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Gursharan Singh not only wielded the directorial baton but also held mightier than the sword pen and wrote over 175 plays including popular ones like
Dhamak Nagade Di, Band Kamre, Chandni Chowk Taun Sirhind Teek, Kamya Da Vehda
and Baba Bolda Hai. Satire was his forte and he never lost his sense
of humour.
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Detractors
and critics may have faulted his craft, often dubbing it "sermonising",
for him theatre was first and foremost an agent of change. Let people’s voice
prevail`85 so he believed. How he touched their lives are stuff that fables are
made of. Gurcharan Singh Chani well-known theatre person, says, "He was an
icon of Punjabi life not just theatre." He recalls one particular incident
about six years ago when in a village near Jaito, lakhs of villagers swarmed
the roads for his felicitation ceremony. That was the power of his theatre
— simple, direct, often blunt and always bold, never shying away from telling
the truth as it is. Socially relevant, theatre of activism or agitprop theatre
call it by whatever name his was theatre that reached its target audience—-the
marginalised and the dispossessed, the very people for whom his theatre was
dedicated to. But he impacted men in high places too. Chani says,
"During the dark hour of terrorism when he was working in Amritsar men
like Siddhartha Shankar Ray, then Governor of Punjab, were afraid that he might
be killed and felt that he needed to be brought to Chandigarh." Chandigarh
remained his karambhoomi till he breathed his last devoting his life and
tireless energy to theatre. His admirers and disciples like Anita Shabadeesh
hailed him as Kranti Da Kalakar in the documentary that she made on him. In his
honour, her theatre group Suchetak Rangmanch has been instrumental in
organising Gursharan Singh Naat Utsav for the past eight years. Honours came to
him on its own. Kalidas Samman, Kala Rattan by Sangeet Natak Akademi, Lifetime
Achievement Award by Punjab Arts Council`85.the list is endless. But what is
more gratifying is that despite being physically incapacitated in his ripe
years, he died a happy man. The "desired utopian reality" with
which all his plays ended, he felt was coming closer to realisation.
Egalitarian world, he may have felt, was yet to come about, but the world, the
governments included, he felt were moving in the right direction. His role in
making governments sit up and take notice is best exemplified by the fact that
it was his persistence that led to the inclusion of mother’s name in Punjab
school Education Board certificates. But then Gursharan Singh was a man of
action. As celebrated theatre director Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry notes, "He
was both inspirational and aspirational. To hordes of theatre activists in
Punjab he who represented courage and fearlessness will remain a fountainhead
of inspiration."
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