That's all, Your honour! :March 18-24

1. This week saw some hectic political activity in Andhra Pradesh. Election results for bye-elections to 7 seats in the state were out. 6 of them were in Telangana and one was in Kovur assembly constituency, Nellore district. The Kovur election was keenly watched because the incumbent TDP legislator quit and joined the YSRCP (Jagan's party). As expected, the YSRCP candidate, N Prasanna Kumar Reddy won from Kovur with an impressive margin of ~23,000 votes over the TDP rival. In the 6 telangana seats, 5 were won by TRS (it supported one independent) and one by the BJP. All in all, this has been a disastrous election for the two main parties, Congress and the TDP. And as usual, congress leaders have started their blame games. This infighting is reminiscent of the early 90s in the state. Though there is concern in the TDP over the fallout, they are not showing it out openly. In 2 seats that it held earlier, the TDP even lost it's deposits! BJP contested only the Mahbubnagar seat and scraped through in a four cornered contest. This victory has been a shot in the arm for the BJP, especially winning the seat in KCR's LS constituency. However, it is also important to note that the BJP candidate was rejected a ticket by TRS! 

After this disaster for the two main parties, the next big challenge is the upcoming elections to 18 assembly seats. Those are impending disasters too! 17 of the seats are going to polls because Congress MLAs were disqualified for voting against the government. Chiranjeevi got elected to the Rajya Sabha and hence his MLA seat is vacant now. YSRCP will perform exceedingly well in these elections too - and that's when the actual fun will start! If congress people are so much agitated over the loss in mere 7 seats, imagine the levels of instability that will creep in once they lose all 18! TDP is also surely in no better state. Anyways let's wait for those elections now! 

There were a few bye-elections outside AP too. English TV media was as always concentrated on those, because BJP lost them! One election was for the Lok Sabha constituency that the current Karnataka CM, Sadananda Gowda, represented. BJP lost by ~45,000 votes there and this is clearly a huge loss for the party and reflects the crisis it is in. However, much of the media attention was focussed on an assembly seat in Gujarat. BJP held this seat since 1995 and lost it to the Congress now. And the English TV media festivilised on this result! It was a huge setback for BJP according to them. Strangely no word about the set-back to Congress in AP! Don't believe me? check out the snapshot below :) 

 

2. The "nataka" in Karnataka just never seems to end. After the High Court quashed the case against him, Yeddyurappa got bold and demanded that the BJP leadership reinstate him as the Chief Minister of the state again! And this time, he took about 58-60 MLAs to a resort and started blackmailing the central leadership! After unrelenting for more than 4 days, he finally agreed to meet the central leadership. And after meeting them, he decided to not claim the CM's chair for now. The primary reason being that all the court cases against him haven't been quashed yet and reinstating him will only add to the instability. For now, there seems to be a halt but with Karnataka, we are never sure! 

3. As expected, Dinesh Trivedi resigned as the Railway Minister. As expected, Mukul Roy was sworn in as the new Railway minister. As expected, he rolled back the fare hike announced by Dinesh Trivedi. Only the fare hike of 1st AC and 2nd AC passengers stays now. Suddenly, even the 3rd AC passengers are also "poor" people now! As expected, the PM praised Dinesh Trivedi for presenting a good budget and apparently he regretted the departure of Mr. Trivedi! What authority can we expect from a Prime Minister who can only whine but can never act? 

4. And finally, another gem from the Prime Minister. While responding to demands from the DMK that India vote against Srilanka in the UNHCR meet, he told the Lok Sabha that he is yet to read the draft but is inclined to vote for the draft that will censure Srilanka! What can we further comment on this attrocious position? He hasn't read but will vote for it (given that his government will face trouble from DMK if he does not do so!). And as expected, he voted against Srilanka at the UNHRC summit. Various opinions have been expressed on this issue and it is not possible to cover all of them here :). Recommended readings here - 1, 2, 3 (PM's reply to Srilankan President), 4. 

5. And finally your honour, the planning commission is at it again. They have claimed that poverty in India reduced by ~7% since 2004. The definition of poverty is this - if you have a spending capacity of more than Rs. 28.35 in urban and Rs. 22.42 in rural areas, then you are "above poverty line". That's all, your honour! 

"Useful" and "Constructive"

India's External Affairs Minister met his Pakistan counterpart yesterday. They addressed a joint press conference.

When Pakistan's Foreign Minister was asked this "We are talking about taking the dialogue process (between India and Pakistan) ahead. In this scenario, Hafiz Saeed's anti-India tirade is affecting the environment, was this issue discussed"

To which he replied (it's a long answer, but you will have to read it in its entirety. "We discussed it. Incidentally, the minister (referring to India's S M Krishna) raised the question that he was concerned about hate speeches that incite people, and that we should avoid them. I do agree that both sides need to create an enabling environment, and not let the climate of engagement be vitiated by these speeches, should refrain from negative propaganda against each other"

Perhaps even he was bored with the same crap being dished out always and therefore continued thus - (here comes the actual stuff). "When you point out to Saeed's speech, or speeches, let me draw your attention to the Indian Home Secretary's (G K Pillai) statement. The dialogue which was reported in all Pakistani papers.. Tell me, to what extent it has helped? We were of the opinion that it was uncalled for"

So first he gives a long winded answer, and then goes about equating our Home Secretary with noted terrorist Hafiz Saeed. Hafiz Saaed is on record for his vitroil against the Indian state. It has been our long standing demand that he be tried for crimes against India. And Pakistan now has the gall to equate that guy with the Home Secretary of the country (who said that ISI is behind the 26/11 attacks). So now blaming ISI and threatening India are on the same page. Infact this report in The Hindu calls the Home Secretary's statement as the biggest irritant. Wow - look to where we have stooped down to. Yet, we chose to remain silent on this. Our great External Affairs Minister didn't refute the "we agree" statement. The silence is defeaning.

No no, we just don't remain silent - we are desperate to talk to them. We are desperate to see to it that the talks do not fail at any cost. Happen what may, the end statement has to be that the talks will continue. Our Prime Minister is just so desperate to have the talks at any cost - it doesn't matter what people feel in India about it.

Every single time talks are held, we are told that "Terror is high on our agenda", and then we are also told that we will seek answers from Pakistan on the progress of their investigations. Now, has any progress been made? Is India satisfied with their response? If they are, then why do they have to rake it up each time there is a meeting? If they are not, then what on earth is stopping us from saying that we really can't move further if you don't co-operate? Why are we treated to this shameful spectacle with alarming regularity these days?

There is one more dimension - the media's role in this whole saga. Why are sections of the media so desperate to cover up the failures of the two governments, when it comes to these talks? Why don't they show more guts and demand better answers from our government as to what exactly is the strategy? Why this blind following of the shameful planning by the government. Many journalists just dish out the same stuff again and again, and never once do they talk about the need for us to be tough with Pak for encouraging terrorists (who by the way, kill our citizens). Even now, sections of the Indian media are making desperate attempts to see the "positive" side of these talks - we will talk further!

Ofcourse, we will talk further. It doesn't matter what kind of shit is thrown at us; it doesn't matter what kind of vitroil is directed at us. We will talk, even if you don't wish to. Even if you continue to encourage those who kill us.

And ohh by the way, for the record, Pakistan found the talks "useful" and India found the talks "constructive"

And yet, we shall talk!

On February 26, 2010, the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan met in New Delhi. As has been the trend, India gave 3 dossiers to Pakistan and then said that the next round of talks will happen after Pakistan responds to them. And Pakistan hasn't yet responded to them. True to our stand, the secretaries did not meet. But hey, we never said the Prime Ministers will not meet right? So, in Thimpu this week, the Prime Ministers of both the countries met. Infact, they even went for a stroll, at the "insistence" of the summit leaders. (by the way,If you are wondering what Summit - the SAARC summit. Wouldn't blame you for forgetting that, given the fact that SAARC has been reduced to this bilateral farce long ago! )

Anyways, post the "stroll" and then a one-on-one meeting, it was decided that the dialogue process will be put back on track. A cursory (and not even careful) reading of the news reports clearly tells us there are no specifics that have been decided as of yet. What will the two countries talk about? Siddarth Varadarajan "analyses" that "...but the Manmohan Singh government will need more than mere words in order to convince sceptics at home.". What is very conveiniently forgotten is that the Prime Minister himself is not convinced, so where does the option arise to convince "sceptics" at home?

We have not been told what action has been taken by Pakistan. Frequently, we hear the Home Minister, the External Affairs Minister, and the Defence Minister say they are not at all satisfied with what Pakistan has done. Yet, the Prime Minister does not care for these sentiments. He seems to be trying hard to please the world community, that he is ready to leave a legacy of peace behind him, no matter how many times we are attacked. The sense of urgency the Prime Minister is showing to get talks back on track is plain baffling. And more importantly, the reasons cited (if any) are totally misleading. The only lesson that we seem to have learnt from the Sharm-el-Sheikh summit is that there will no joint statements after the two PM's meet.

Pakistan now knows that happen what may, we will continue to give dossiers. And then we will talk. It doesn't matter if any action has been taken on the Dossier. Talks will happen, and it is always a win-win situation for Pak at the world stage.

Nothing changed after the Feb. 26th meeting; nothing changed from the time Chidambaram, recently, publicly rebuked the High Commisioner of Pakistan; nothing changed from the last time A.K.Anthony told us that there are 42 training camps across the LoC, training for we all know what; Hell, nothing changed from the last time, I wrote this letter to the Prime Minister. Every single point is valid today too. Yet, we shall talk.

Salman Bashir - The Dude!

Yaawwnnn. This is how practically every journalist who was the press conference of the Forieign Secretary of Pakistan felt last evening. Any question was invariably answered to test the patience limits of all those present there. And more importantly, the tone, the language and the content of his answers was just so despicable that one started wondering as to why we are even talking to Pakistan.

Yesterday was when the two foreign secretaries met in New Delhi (for something like, to give peace a chance, blah blah). After the meeting, the Indian foreign secretary met the press, and took some questions. All answers were on expected lines. We discussed terror, they did bring up Kashmir and we stated our positions etc etc. So far so good.

At around 5:40pm, the Pakistan Foreign Secretary, Mr Salman Bashir (hereinafter referred to as the Dude!), started addressing his press conference. And all pieces slowly started falling apart. The Dude tells us not to lecture Pakistan. When asked about the dosseirs, the Dude tells us they want concrete proof and not "literature". And then the Dude goes on to lecture us on how the talks should be held, and how we are being unreasonable in talking about only terror, and how Kashmir is the core issue blah blah...yaawwwnnnn. The Dude then tells us that their country has seen 1000's of Mumbai and how their country is also a victim of terror. Never mind that the Dude forgot that terror was of their own making, and that they are trapped in the grave that they have dug!

Hey, if you think the Dude was only serious and had no sense of humour, then you are mistaken my friend. With a wry smile, our Dude tells us "We know that all is not well". What a humour, man...what a humour. Also, the Dude also tells that our Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, is a man of vision. The Dude used our country to tell us how we should be handling terror related issues and he also reminded us that his country is a also a victim of terror. The Dude spoke like a politician, and rubbed tonnes of salt on our wounds. This prompted some "sources" to tell CNN-IBN that India is not desperate for talks; the Dude has been briefed by the army; 85% of the talks concentrated on terror; that the Dude's country is not serious about dealing with terrorists.

And so ended the farce called Indo-Pak talks.

No future date has been set, but common sense suggests that we hold off till action is taken against the 33 new names of the conspirators we gave to them in the 3 new dossiers yesterday. However, the big question is - at the higher echelons of the government, will common sense prevail?

That's all, your honour!: Feb14-20

1. What will you do, if you get an intelligence report, saying that a group of 35 naxals (I know they are now called Maoists, but I don't care for the nomenclature) have assembled within a 4-5km radius of a camp inhabited by Jawans? You will alert them. What did the West Bengal Government do? It waited to see if the next intelligence report will give them the exact place and time of their next strike. And so while they waited, what happened? This group of Naxals went and attacked the camp, where the Jawans were caught unawares; killed 24 of them; injured seven more; took away all the guns; burnt the place; and then planted landmines along the road to this camp in Silda, West Bengal. Some very good investigative reporting by CNN-IBN has also revealed that the intelligence report was recieved not just on the previous day of the attack but also at 2:30pm on the day of the attack (the camp was attacked at around 6pm). The investigation also revealed that 3-4 lady naxals disguised themselves as prostitutes and first approached the camp. Jawans did get distracted, and what followed was bloodbath. And then Chidambaram asks why the "intellectuals" still support the Naxals. And it was then that NDTV picked up this attack story as its main topic and led many many discussions on this same topic "Is it time to stop romanticising Naxals"? It was time, longggg time ago... you only woke up after PC questioned it! All outraged, right (meaning correct, not right-wing) thinking persons in this country have abhorred violence whatever name it took. It doesn't take multiple debates on NDTV to confirm this elementary fact. The offer to talk to them is still open says PC, but they have to lay down their weapons. Their condition (yes, they have the nerve to put conditions too) is that the state has to stop it's attrocities on people. huh? Dude, just buzz off, ok? You have a freaking problem with the system and want to fight it, we dare you to contest elections. Hiding under a mask and killing innocent people is just cowardice. Shame on you.

2. And then there is Pakistan which is apparently "unhappy" that we are not willing to restart the composite dialogue with them! From where do these people get the nerve to demand things? India will talk about only thing for now - what the hell have you been doing to control terror camps in your country. That's all we will talk about. If you want to talk about the revenues generated by that sick film MNIK, fine then. You talk, we won't even bother to listen. Already there is deep divide amongst the top most executives of the government on whether we should talk or not, and Pakistan wants us to talk about trade and commerce among other things. yeah right! Speaking of the divide, from the many reports coming out this week, it was very clear that only the Prime Minister wants to talk and no one in the government is very keen on this initiative. Who cares, for our PM is a decent and honest person; it is totally unfair of us to even demand him to atleast address the nation and ask why this shift in stance.

3. KCR is a not just a funny man, but unfit to the core too. Not that you don't know that fact, but something that happened this week just reiterated it. This guy has resigned some zillion times before and yet can't it right ever! His latest resignation was rejected by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha on grounds that it was not in the proper format. hahahahahaha..comon dude, get it right just once in your life! Speaking of resignations, AP Assembly Speaker accepted the resignation of all the TRS MLA's, plus he also accepted 1 BJP MLA and 1 TDP MLA's resignations. He must have thought - good riddance! Very conveiniently, he said he needs more time for accepting 2 congress MLA's resignations. And ofcourse, the High Command reigned them in, and dudes have withdrawn their resignations. Anyways, KCR is the greatest. That's all, your honour!

That's all, your honour!:Jan31-Feb6

1. What happens when an economist tries to control foriegn policy? Both of them get messed up! As is evident from what is happening in our country today. We have an economist Prime Minister who doesn't talk and act about price rise but is obssesed with Foriegn policy!

There is a very high probability that our Prime Minister will win a Nobel Peace Prize, for his untiring efforts to make peace with Pakistan and for his unwillingness to guage public opinion in the country. Just days after the Home Minister and the External Affairs Minister said that they are not satisfied with Pakistan's response, just days after that spooky arrogant Foriegn Minister of Pakistan, Qureshi called us "shy", news leaked out that our Foriegn Secretary has alread extended an invitation to talk to her counterpart. Here's the best part - Pakistan is yet to respond to this offer because they are not happy with the offer! So what does our establishment do? Sources from NDTV revealed that India has agreed to talk about Balochistan also, and will include terror in a big way in these talks! So, all that humbug about "bad drafting" during Sharm-el-Sheikh finally turned out to be bogus. But hey, our PM is decent, humble and an integral man, so let's not question his judgement. Please.

2. Shahrukh Khan owns an IPL team. His team, along with all other IPL teams did NOT buy any Pakistani players. Then, just because his movie is releasing, our hero projects his "holier than thou" attitude by saying that they should have been bought in the first place. Frankly, I didn't care about that statement, but what followed from his precious mind is what still disturbs me. He credits Pakistan to have been a "great neighbour", they have always been "good neighbours" but we have to take into account the times we are in. A "great neighbour" does not keep quiet when his home is being used to attack yours.A "great neighbour" will not spread hatred withing, just for the kick of it. And please spare me of this lecture that the civil society of Pakistan is not bad. There is not denying that fact, but sadly it is not they who control what the establishment in the "great neighbour" does. And the icing on the cake was our hero says he just said what every Indian should have. Shiv Sena's rhetoric and threat to violence is deplorable, just as TRS' is. They just chose the wrong way to oppose SRK, but what SRK said is completely unacceptable(atleast to me). To hell with his movie, whatever it's "name" is!

3. Wait, by the way, the Prime Minister has announced this week that the worst is over with respect to the food prices. If you think that means Sharad Pawar is resigning, you are mistaken! He actually says prices will go down, because we have good amounts of storage etc. When he says the worst is over, he actually doesn't mean it because check out next - food inflation will increase! It's just UPA's way of projecting that magnificient work has been done to bring the prices down.

4. Finally, a committee on Telangana was formed. Justice B.N.Srikrishna, the man famous for heading the commission to probe into the Mumbai riots of 1993, is heading this committee. There are 4 other members, none of whom are remotely concerned with the Telangana/United Andhra Struggle. They are academics, and therefor I need not say anything about it's composition! Let's not forget that the terms have not yet been decided..patience my dear friend, patience. That's the Chidambaram style!

5. Your honour, my apologies for not writing about Rahul Gandhi's "bravado" in Mumbai and the subsequent drooling by the media in general, NDTV in particular. But this space is not enough to express my feelings! A fresh blog post will appear soon...until then, tata! (click here)

6. And finally, in this piece, Hasan Suroor blames a well known Delhi based Journalist for hijacking the agenda of the Afghan Summit. NDTV's Barkha Dutt was there in London. She interviewed both S.M.Krishna, and S.M.Qureshi. It was on her show that Qureshi called us "shy". No, I am not saying she was the one Hasan is referring to, I am just saying what I saw on TV. I don't want to get sued. That's all, your honour!

One year later...

The Good:

1. No terror attacks since last year
2. Regional centres set up for NSG
3. Increased vigilance, with policemen constantly on their toes

The Bad:

1. Investigations leading to nowher.
2. Pakistan is playing around with us as if nothing had happened. We gave them 7 dossiers so far, and yet they shamelessly say - not enough evidence!
3. The Prime Minister almost compromised in Egypt with Pakistan, before public backlash prevented him from going any further.
4. No one in the entire system has been held accountable for multiple terror attacks in the country.
5. Kith and kin of victims are raising many questions, but government is just ignoring the questions.
6. R R Patil is back as Home Minister of Maharasthra
7. Vilasrao Deshmukh is now Union Cabinet Minister
8. It might be trivial to many people, but it bothers me a lot that the Prime Minister of this country has chosen to be out of the country for the first anniversary of 26/11. At a time when he has to address the nation and update the citizens of this country about the progress made since last year with the investigations; at a time when he should be visiting Mumbai and be talking to the kith and kin of the victims of the carnage, he chose to be out of the country trying to ink the nuclear deal (which by the way is still not done). This image in today's Hindu speaks says it all.

The Ugly:

1. Ajmal Kasab is STILL alive and kicking, making demands for biryani too. It is a shame that we have not been able to hang him yet.
2. Worst part is that we don't know when he will be hanged!

We couldn’t find stronger words, atleast?

The Chinese government is upto a new trick. And the magnitude of this diplomatic shift is humungous. Till last month, China considered the whole of Arunachal Pradesh as disputed territory. And from last month onwards, it started to consider Kashmir also as disputed territory. No, there was no official statement saying this. It was being done discreetly. Until, The Hindu broke the news. For a full month, Chinese have issued separately stapled visas to Kashmiri students, similar to what they do for Arunachal Pradesh residents.

So now, it is not just Pakistan that considers this as disputed territory, we have China do it too. And what was our government's response to this blatant disregard by the Communists across the border? We protested like this: "It is our considered view that there should be no discrimination against visa applicants of Indian nationality on grounds of domicile or ethnicity". That's it. That is the official statement. A country suddenly decides to question the legitimacy of a part of your country, and you tell them that in your "considered" view, it is wrong? Till the other day, atleast our words used to be strong. Now we have even lost our penchant for using stronger language too. No wonder, neighbours take all this leeway to behave as they wish. Imagine if we were to administer such a huge shift in our policy, the first response of the Chinese would have been tit-fot-tat.

By the way, Comrade Prakash Karat loses no oppurtunity to deride all those who criticize China. Why did he not come out with a statement against this frustrating action by China?

Dear Mr. Prime Minister…

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

I was a big proponent of talks till the terror attacks intensified. I am not talking about just Mumbai here. Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai train blasts – all have hit the psyche of normal Indians who suddenly feared that going out for a stroll might mean death. Fortunately, I have not lost any dear ones in these attacks. But, I still cannot forget how I felt the day after the blasts in Hyderabad – an uneasy calm, and a disturbed mind torn between sympathizing for those who died and anger at those who were responsible.

All along, we have known that elements in our neighbourhood were directly assisting these activities. And when 26/11 happened, that was the last nail in the coffin, and rightly so (and like we have done multiple times before) we decided not to talk to Pakistan until "action" was taken on terror. The whole country was in grief and majority of us forgot to ask then, what exactly does "action" mean? And in the busy times you have had since then, I am sure even you must not have thought about actually defining what "action" you were expecting from Pakistan.

The joint statement released in Egypt has been discussed before on many forums, and many questions were asked right from drafting to issues included. And while you rose to answer all your critics, I waited in anticipation to see if you would answer these following questions:

1. The Foreign Secretary, S.S.Menon said this was a case of bad drafting. Do you agree?
   
2. Minister of State, Shashi Tharoor said this was a not a legal document, so why worry? Do you agree?
   
3. If Baluchistan was included because the Pak PM raised the issue with you, why was your reply to Pak PM's claim not included in the statement?
   
4. Leave alone what changed in the two months between meeting Zardari and Gilani, what changed between four days of your External Affairs Minister telling Parliament that enough has not been done, and the joint statement?
   
5. What exactly are you expecting Pakistan to do? And if you are not happy with what has been done, why is there a sense of urgency to talk to them?
   
6. If India and Pakistan are interpreting the "delinking" clause according to each one's conveinience, what is the point in having that clause in the first place? Who was it intended to satisfy?
   

Sadly sir, I got the answer to only question number 4. You have mentioned in your reply that just two days before the summit, you received a 34-page dossier from Pakistan in which Pakistan accepted that the LeT was chiefly responsible for the attacks in Mumbai. Very well, sir. So, it took just two days for you and the entire foreign ministry and home ministry to read, analyse and arrive at the conclusion that this dossier is a good step forward, so let's drastically alter our approach too! Just 2 days, not even two months!

While you gloat over your contention that "The reality is that this is far more than the NDA government was ever able to extract from Pakistan during its entire tenure despite all their tall talk.", I would have given you full marks to that statement had you achieved this same result in the exact same circumstances that NDA government functioned under. Had you been able to extract this confession without so many terror attacks, you (and we too) have every reason to be proud about the "achievement".

I do not doubt your intention to bring in peace, but what severly bothers me is your sense of urgency to engage in dialogue with Pakistan while the wounds of the terror attacks have still not healed. In your hurry to outpace every other Prime Minister and propogate to the world that we are willing to adjust to changing scenarios more quickly than one would expect, you seem to be drifting away from the track laid by none other than you yourself! You are not happy with what has been done so far, your Home Minister is not happy, your External Affairs Minister is not happy, most of the people in the country are not happy, and yet we are witness to this spectacle of you walking more than halfway, in an attempt to appease the international community, because "this is much more than what has been done before". Where exactly are we drawing a line as to when to talk and when not to, sir?

From your statement yesterday (forgive me sir if I sound like the "opposition" you don't want to listen to), all that my small mind could sense was that our approach which was clear till a fortnight ago, took an unwarranted and unnecessary detour. We owe it to those who died and to those who mourn that we could have atleast waited till some substantial arrests were made, not when Hafeez Saeed was released because the case mounted by Pakistan was weak. We owe it to those died and to those who mourn that, in international fora, we sound stern and not appeasing. We owe it to them that they feel justice is being served, slowly but surely. Everything else can wait.

I believe the majority of people in the country agree with you that "dialogue is the only option, since war is ruled out." I belong to that majority, but the timing is just so ill-timed. Surely, it is not too much to ask to wait for a little longer, to verify and trust and not vice versa.

Yours sincerely,

Sudhir

The other side of the argument..

We've been hearing a lot about the fiasco in Egypt by the Indian delegation. If you are interested in listening to the other side of the argument (nope, it is not from the government!), today's article in The Hindu by Siddarth Varadarajan gives it. Click here to read the article.

I just thought we should also listen to the other side to get a complete picture, and I still stick to the fact this whole bungling could have been avoided. I will write more about this topic tomorrow, since the PM is scheduled to make a statement today in Parliament.

The Foreign Secretary said this was a case of bad drafting. The Minister of State for External Affairs said that this is not a legal document, so why the ruckus about it? The Minister for External Affairs said...well, nothing! Let's see what the PM has to say and then continue the debate ...

So many points, so litte time!

• LOL!! Seriously, you will also laugh out loud after knowing this! Pakistan's Intelligence agency, the ISI, wants us to talk to them directly!! LOL! "…Lt. Gen. Pasha came clean in stating that the ISI and the Pakistan Army were involved in framing Pakistan's India policy, along with the Foreign Office. He made the oblique suggestion that India deal directly with these three institutions if it had a similar three-way mechanism." Again, LOL! Someone should tell this Pasha dude that it is precisely because we don't have such a "similar three way mechanism" that our country is much more stable that he can ever imagine his to be! No wonder that country is in chaos, eternally. Well, with three power centres (reports are also suggesting that there is a rift between Gilani and Zardari. If true that makes it four power centres!) operating parallelly, what else can you expect but chaos?! You can read the full report here.
  
• Dr. Kalam was frisked and this incident came into light nearly two months after it happened. And then our frenzy media went into a tizzy, and then had debates whether our VIP's are overly pampered! For starters, the protocol only restricts 18 kind of VIP's, with former Presidents also being in the list. Secondly, it is also a major security breach that a person was bodily allowed to touch a former President. As much as the US airline is worried that a former President of the world's largest democracy is a security threat, our security agencies also have to be worried that the same employee can also be a potential threat to our former President. Thirdly, Dr. Kalam did not make this an issue, but we are and I think this time we are doing it rightly so. Sagarika Ghose of the CNN-IBN, eulogises in her blog how Tony Blair stood in the line and how she was impressed with it. Well, Sagarika, I wonder when you will write a blog about the simplicity of Dr. Kalam in many more matters than praising a former Prime Minister who was as responsible as George Bush for the killings in Iraq. I guess that's pardonable, for he stood in the queue at an airport! My point is this - these VIP's represent the state/country for a long time, both internally and externally. These VIP's ensure that the country moves forward ( at what pace is a different debate, but they do it right?). So extending them these small courtesy's in no way jeopardizes the "security threat" of an airline. Continental is guilty, period.
  
• She came, she saw, and she went. I think this is how we can summarize Hillary Clinton's visit to India! Her visit was so "hectic" that she could get to meet our External Affairs Minister (who is also officially her host) for just one hour in her 5 day trip. And just in case you are wondering what the result of that one hour meeting is, read the next point! Before that, I wanted to make one more point. She apparently visited the Taj hotel in Mumbai, and paid tribute in the book there. I think we need to stop this over-hyped obsession with Taj whilst equal or more number of people died at other location during those deadly attacks. This is just plain insulting to the memories of those who died. Maybe, the government should construct a memorial for all those killed in multiple attacks on Mumbai over the years, and that's where people should go to pay homage. Not just the Taj.
  
• After the 1 hour meeting between Hillary Clinton and S.M. Krishna, here's what happened. We will buy military equipment from the US, and then US has the right to inspect all our facilities that use this equipment! In layman terms, the US wants to make sure we don't mis-use these weapons (attack a country that they like), and therefore get the right to inspect our facilities. Please note, they get to inspect our facilities. As if this capitulation was not enough, here's more. The US will choose 2 sites where we can install nuclear plants with the technology they give. Yes, you read it right, US will choose the location for establishing 2 facilities. Read here, if you want to know more details.
  
• And finally, the Foreign Secretary has admitted that the Joint Statement was a case of bad drafting. Excellent, for he agreed to what most people in the country have been shouting from the roof top! Full marks for stating the obvious. I wonder what the government's reaction will now be? Ohh wait, I know what it will be – all of us "read his statement out of context". Here's what Menon said – "One can argue how good or bad the drafting was...you can say it is bad drafting, but the meaning is clear. These things happen, what can we do?"

No “forward movement” this…

Statement 1:
Excerpt from the Joint Statement issued by India and Pakistan in Egypt: "Action on terrorism should not be linked to the Composite Dialogue process and these [sic] should not be bracketed."

Statement 2:
Excerpt from the Prime Minister's answer to a query later in the day: "..dialogue cannot begin unless and until the terrorist acts of Mumbai are fully accounted for and the perpetrators are brought to book"

So, now, can someone tell me how both these statements are the same?! Which statement should we give credence to? The first one issued by the two governments, or the second one by our Prime Minister? Or is there going to be a third statement in Parliament after he returns?

According to The Hindu report, Indian side interprets the first statement like this: "Pakistan should not wait for the resumption of the composite dialogue to take action against terrorism" And the Pakistani side interprets like this: "..this meant the future of the dialogue process should not be held hostage to the perception in New Delhi that Pakistan had not done enough to stop the activities of terrorists operating from its territory". And therefore both sides see this statement as a breakthrough!! Wow, diplomacy and interpretation just took a new turn towards naiviety.

There is a third way to interpret this. With statement 1, we have tried to please the International audience. With statement 2, we have tried to please the National audience. My question is – why should we please the international audience?! How can we even agree not to link the action on terrror to talking to Pakistan on "outstanding" issues? Why are we sounding even more eager than Pakistan to talk? Our point till today, was very clear – we will not talk till something is done. And we are talking to them when nothing was done (oops sorry, something was done – Hafeez Saeed was let off!).

The Pakistani side sees this as a victory to its diplomacy. The head of GEO Television in Pakistan has this to say on rediff: ""It was a great victory for Pakistan but not a defeat for India. Surely, India gave concessions to Pakistan keeping in mind a long term goal. I think Dr Singh has made a sacrifice to gain bigger things in future. We understand he has taken a risk by going against public opinion in India. Dr Singh has shown some flexibility.""

I would suggest you to read the full article here , but here's another excerpt from there "When asked why and how the Indian stand changed dramatically in Egypt when compared with its stand during talks between Singh and President Asif Ali Zardari in Yekaterinburg, Russia on June 16, Mir responded, "According to our information the meeting of India and Pakistan foreign secretaries in the last 48 hours in Egypt has been crucial. Pakistan's Bashir took a tough stand against Menon. Bashir told Menon if you bracket the Mumbai attack with the comprehensive talks between the two countries then there is no possibility of a joint statement.""

Pakistan took a strong stand against us?!?! Seriously?! If true, I don't even know how to react! And if false, isn't our climbdown on the "delinking" giving them enough leeway to make these statements? Why is it us, who always end up making compromises. What are we losing if there is no joint statement?! What are we losing if we don't to talk to a country that has least respect to our concerns? Some of the media still sounded optimistic ( The Hindu, CNN-IBN, NDTV ), and some gave the true picture ( Times of India, Indian Express ). Whatever the coverage is, the fact that the Indian side wants to generate a "feel good" factor is what disturbs us.

Optimism is good. I am not denying that. Till recently, even I was a big supporter of the dialogue process. Peace is what brings ever lasting prosperity, and therefore I sincerely believed the talks will lead to such peace. And each time, that peace was broken, we have returned to the table after a while. I thought this time would be different, but it did not turn out to be.

Ohh, and here's something I found hilarious. Apparently, the two countries have agreed to share intelligence regarding terror! Yeah right, ISI and RAW will work together!! You know what actually; the day ISI genuinely co-operates with RAW is when there will be forward movement. This summit in Egypt is no forward movement.

Stagnant Policy ...

• In November 2005, my first letter on the topic of India’s policy with regard to terrorism was published in The Hindu.
• Earlier in July 2005, I had written about the West’s unclear policy with regard to terrorism here.
• In 2006, I had again written about India’s flip flop regarding peace process.
• Later in 2007, I wrote about the then Home Minister’s innovative statements each time there was an attack.
• And finally in 2008 about Zardari’s hollow claims!

Though the content in each of the letters is different, the intent in all these letters was the same – how long is our foreign policy going to remain as stagnant as this?

Take the latest instance. From the day Mumbai was attacked, day in and day out, we were told that we will not talk to Pakistan. And then suddenly, we hear news that our Prime Minister might meet Pakistan’s President next week in Russia. And that too at a time when Pakistan released the mastermind behind Mumbai and many other terror attacks.

When I first heard the news of Hafeez Saeed’s release, I thought it was the court’s fault and maybe we should not blame Pakistan for it. But when I read the reason for this release, I was plain baffled.

After detaining a person, the police is supposed to let him know in 15 days explaining why he was detained. Can you believe that the government did not follow this rule, and therefore he was let off!!!

Here’s more shocking news. When the notice was served finally, there were no specific charges mentioned against Saeed in it. The notice talked about the UN ban on Saeed’s outfit, JuD (formerly LeT) had links with Al-Qaeda and… that’s it! Nowhere was a mention made that JuD is involved in Mumbai attacks.

And here’s the most shocking news of all. The court then asks the government lawyer, has the Al-Qaeda been declared a terrorist organisation in Pakistan, and guess the answer – NO!!! The Court therefore held that LeT having link with Al-Qaeda is not an offense! Read the full story on rediff here.

And we are willing to talk to this country at this juncture! We have neither bought this glaring glitch to the notice of those who can pressurize Pakistan, nor have we been able to achieve anything substantial in limiting Pakistan’s role in terrorist activity. That country is burning now, and every blast in that country is of its own doing. This is the moment when we try to impress to the whole world that Pakistan is itself responsible for the chaos. Yet, somehow we miss that opportunity.

Instead, we are told that we accept the reality and are willing to pursue the path of dialogue. Why don’t we just accept the reality that there is no credible leader in Pakistan and we have to come up with alternate strategies? Why are we making a fool of ourselves by saying “we will not talk” on one day, and saying the exact opposite, literally, the very next day?

Our whole foreign policy in recent years has just centered on the Nuclear Deal and trying to please the US. Read this article in The Hindu, on how so many of our companies have lost out business in Iran.

After so many years, I am still confused as to what our Prime Minister means when he says we will adopt a “zero tolerance on terror”. We have lacked a clear political direction in the ministry of external affairs. The show has primarily been run by the Foreign Secretary and the NSA, and by the time the new Foreign Minister gets a grip of happenings in the ministry, we would have missed another bus.

By the way, Outlook magazine has called the new External Affairs minister as the right man for the job because he is “suave, urbane and western educated”! Wow – when did job requirements get so simple?! I got a feeling of déjà vu after reading that – a la Shivraj Patil!