But a day later, I was furious when I read in a prominent daily that the Delhi police was 'pleading with the Left' not to take their protest rally all the way to Jantar Mantar as it would cause enormous inconvenience to everyone - the government and the common Delhi citizen. Why should the police have to plead? The Left has already obtained police permission to conduct the noisiest of rallies in the state capital. Does the police have to cringe before these politicians and obtain their permission to maintain law and order?
I sympathise, though don't completely agree with the ilk of Arundhati Roy (whose pen dripped blood against Dubya in The Hindu) who call Bush a 'war criminal'. And yes, the Americans don't have a good track record in maintaining friendships. By my standards at least, they certainly do not rank among the trustworthiest chaps in the world. In Ronald Reagan's compendium of international relations, by his own admission, there were no permanent friends, no permanent enemies - only permanent interests. So till the morning of September 11, 2001, Pakistan was allowed to support the brutal Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Less than 24 hours later, the US dubs this very country an ally in the newly unleashed 'war on terror'. But whether we like it or not, we have to learn to live with the United States.
True, as a resident of Delhi, I am frustrated and angry at traffic being thrown out of gear to receive the American president. But I am willing to put that down as unavoidable, given the Secret Service's paranoia when it comes to protecting their Commander in Chief. It's the stubborn insistence of people who claim to represent us (read the Left and others) that vexates me. I have a question to ask the Delhi Police, if a group of youth like me, who a) have no political backing, b) are ordinary citizens, and c) don't have the clout to keep us out of jail as our politicians do, march to Parliament on a protest visit, would you 'plead' with us to think otherwise.
As I have written in my earlier blog, the Indian communists are in a position to do enormous damage to our country. You may hate Bush personally, but the bitter truth (if you may call it that) is that he has been democratically elected by the citizens of the world's oldest democracy. A brand of democracy that still ranks among one of the most transparent in the world and, by and large, lives up to international norms. Not the version of democracy that brought a terrorism-supporter like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadenijad to power. So I ask - fine, we acquiesce to your requests and send Bush back home. Perhaps with a kick in his posterior to accompany it with. Fine. Then, what do we do with the unending queues of young Indians with the American dream in their eyes, who stand for hours outside the American consulates in the four metros. Do we tell them to get lost? Perhaps it would be a good idea to ask them to go for higher education to Iran instead. Or better still; urge them to soak in propaganda lessons in Kim il Sung university in the notorious North Korea.
So it's OK if the Chinese Ambassador makes outrageous statements about the Indo-China war in a public appearance where the Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee is present. But God forbid if Mulford so much as opens his mouth to eat - for he is bound to interfere in India's 'internal affairs'. Did the likes of Sitaram Yechury and Mulayam Singh really expect Mulford to shut up after the chief minister of an Indian state called him a murderer in public? Mind you, this was the very same chief minister who let protestors nearly hijack the Indo-American air exercises at Kalaikunda in West Bengal last year, when he CLEARLY HAD NO AUTHORITY to do so, defence matters being a central subject.
I am not suggesting we cringe or submit to the Americans. What I am tired of hearing is incessant talk of abandoning NAM, becoming 'pro-US' or 'encouraging US imperialism'. If we have indeed started looking favourably at US imperialism, our government would have publicly proclaimed its support for the Iraq war. It has not done so and it never will.
So it's time to inject a dose of practical thinking to all our comrades, mullahs and the vicious corrupt and divisive government in Uttar Pradesh. Where a minister can incite someone to murder a cartoonist, and sit back and enjoy the support of the Chief Minister. And (at the risk of sounding pro-Hindu fundamentalism which I am not and never will be), the mullahs who are baying for Bush's blood because he has spilt the blood of innocents in Afghanistan, did you guys really expect the American administration to sit back and do nothing after 9/11? When the Taleban refused to turn over bin Laden, the US had but no option than to use force. And will you please use your influence over your community to condemn the pathetic treatment of women in most countries in the Middle East?
Yes, Bush's visit will be a stormy affair. And all news channels, including mine, will fall over one another to grab 'exclusive' soundbites from the Left and other Bush protestors. Which is not just fine but vitally important, for an objective media should bring viewers as many sides to a story as they are.
But life will go on. And I am planning to be a part of any 'welcome' rally the Left may announce the next time Fidel Castro or Bashar al Assad visit India. Just for the heck of it!first published:March 01, 2006, 16:08 ISTlast updated:March 01, 2006, 16:08 IST
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I do not agree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it was Voltaire's philosophy. So I fully agree that the "patriotic" Left (the adjective comes from the blurb in a hilariously ante-diluvian article Prakash Karat has written for Outlook, in which he claims that it is 'patriotism' and not anti-capitalist bias that makes him oppose India's friendship with the US) when they say they have the democratic right to protest Bush's visit. Protest, by all means. We are, thankfully, a free country, and we need as many views to keep us going.
But a day later, I was furious when I read in a prominent daily that the Delhi police was 'pleading with the Left' not to take their protest rally all the way to Jantar Mantar as it would cause enormous inconvenience to everyone - the government and the common Delhi citizen. Why should the police have to plead? The Left has already obtained police permission to conduct the noisiest of rallies in the state capital. Does the police have to cringe before these politicians and obtain their permission to maintain law and order?
I sympathise, though don't completely agree with the ilk of Arundhati Roy (whose pen dripped blood against Dubya in The Hindu) who call Bush a 'war criminal'. And yes, the Americans don't have a good track record in maintaining friendships. By my standards at least, they certainly do not rank among the trustworthiest chaps in the world. In Ronald Reagan's compendium of international relations, by his own admission, there were no permanent friends, no permanent enemies - only permanent interests. So till the morning of September 11, 2001, Pakistan was allowed to support the brutal Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Less than 24 hours later, the US dubs this very country an ally in the newly unleashed 'war on terror'. But whether we like it or not, we have to learn to live with the United States.
True, as a resident of Delhi, I am frustrated and angry at traffic being thrown out of gear to receive the American president. But I am willing to put that down as unavoidable, given the Secret Service's paranoia when it comes to protecting their Commander in Chief. It's the stubborn insistence of people who claim to represent us (read the Left and others) that vexates me. I have a question to ask the Delhi Police, if a group of youth like me, who a) have no political backing, b) are ordinary citizens, and c) don't have the clout to keep us out of jail as our politicians do, march to Parliament on a protest visit, would you 'plead' with us to think otherwise.
As I have written in my earlier blog, the Indian communists are in a position to do enormous damage to our country. You may hate Bush personally, but the bitter truth (if you may call it that) is that he has been democratically elected by the citizens of the world's oldest democracy. A brand of democracy that still ranks among one of the most transparent in the world and, by and large, lives up to international norms. Not the version of democracy that brought a terrorism-supporter like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadenijad to power. So I ask - fine, we acquiesce to your requests and send Bush back home. Perhaps with a kick in his posterior to accompany it with. Fine. Then, what do we do with the unending queues of young Indians with the American dream in their eyes, who stand for hours outside the American consulates in the four metros. Do we tell them to get lost? Perhaps it would be a good idea to ask them to go for higher education to Iran instead. Or better still; urge them to soak in propaganda lessons in Kim il Sung university in the notorious North Korea.
So it's OK if the Chinese Ambassador makes outrageous statements about the Indo-China war in a public appearance where the Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee is present. But God forbid if Mulford so much as opens his mouth to eat - for he is bound to interfere in India's 'internal affairs'. Did the likes of Sitaram Yechury and Mulayam Singh really expect Mulford to shut up after the chief minister of an Indian state called him a murderer in public? Mind you, this was the very same chief minister who let protestors nearly hijack the Indo-American air exercises at Kalaikunda in West Bengal last year, when he CLEARLY HAD NO AUTHORITY to do so, defence matters being a central subject.
I am not suggesting we cringe or submit to the Americans. What I am tired of hearing is incessant talk of abandoning NAM, becoming 'pro-US' or 'encouraging US imperialism'. If we have indeed started looking favourably at US imperialism, our government would have publicly proclaimed its support for the Iraq war. It has not done so and it never will.
So it's time to inject a dose of practical thinking to all our comrades, mullahs and the vicious corrupt and divisive government in Uttar Pradesh. Where a minister can incite someone to murder a cartoonist, and sit back and enjoy the support of the Chief Minister. And (at the risk of sounding pro-Hindu fundamentalism which I am not and never will be), the mullahs who are baying for Bush's blood because he has spilt the blood of innocents in Afghanistan, did you guys really expect the American administration to sit back and do nothing after 9/11? When the Taleban refused to turn over bin Laden, the US had but no option than to use force. And will you please use your influence over your community to condemn the pathetic treatment of women in most countries in the Middle East?
Yes, Bush's visit will be a stormy affair. And all news channels, including mine, will fall over one another to grab 'exclusive' soundbites from the Left and other Bush protestors. Which is not just fine but vitally important, for an objective media should bring viewers as many sides to a story as they are.
But life will go on. And I am planning to be a part of any 'welcome' rally the Left may announce the next time Fidel Castro or Bashar al Assad visit India. Just for the heck of it!
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