thecatapult.in

When the External Affairs minister Padmashri Shri Pranab Mukherjee landed in Beijing for his scheduled meeting with the Chinese leadership. He found that neither Hu or grandpa Wen could spare any time to meet him. But they instead fixed up a meeting with the newly appointed Vice President Xi Jinping who is currently assigned for dealing with crank cases.

That has left the Indian side including both the MEA and MEdiA quite confused and they are trying to figure out whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.The current leadership shows no inclination to meet him while at the same they arrange a meeting with the supposed future leadership.

Well let me help them out of their stupor. In one short sentence- It is a BAD thing and it is a straightforward diplomatic slap in the face.

Xi Jinping might be the chosen successor of Hu Jintao slated to succeed him in 2012. but the CCP history is littered with the corpses of such “chosen ones”. from President Lin Biao to Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang there are many who one day were on the path to superstardom only to find themselves in a dark dungeon the next day holding their intenstines in their hands and begging for mercy from the red guards just because of one small real or perceived misstep.

Xi knows this very well. So all that Pranab can expect from this encounter is more homilies, platitudes, joint declarations ad hominem but nothing of substance.

And one more thing that has missed the notice of most Padmashri Shri Pranab should have chosen a better day to make his trip to Beijing than preferring to go on the 19th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in an Olympic year when the whole world is trying to use the Olympics as a leverage to pressure Beijing to improve its record on human rights. It is said that diplomacy is a lot about symbolism. The posturing matters just as much as the substance. It is unlikely that the either Pranabda or the babus of the MEA were unaware of the significance of the day.

Now the timing is definitely not an issue between India and China. Most certainly the Chinese would have been just as boorish as they have been today even if the Indian foreign minister had landed on June 6th, 7th or 8th or whenever. it wouldn’t make a dime of a difference.

But where it will come to matter is in the court of International opinion which the Indian diplomats are trying to woo for myriad reasons and especially for their coveted permanent security council seat. For a country that is drumbeating its credentials as the largest democracy in the world to gain a seat at that supposed high table. It matters what message each of its words and actions sends to the rest of the world. This unfortunately has only sent the message that India really doesn’t have any courage of conviction to act on its own professed principles and again when they see the craven attitude of Mukherjee and his ministry in the light of Chinese boorishness it doesn’t raise their confidence that India has the ability to even stand up for its own self. No wonder governments in most world capitals do not take the Indian diplomats seriously.

it didn’t take very long for this to happen did it? barely has the ink dried on the post warning against Prachanda’s Charm offensive where this blogger contended that Maoist leader is merely trying to lull his enemies into complacency while aiming to seize absolute power for himself and his motley crew comes the news that the slimy snake that he is he has already began to hiss and bare his fangs.

Maoist chairman Prachanda, expected to lead the next government in Nepal, has warned the media against criticising his party, saying that “we will no longer tolerate criticism as we have already been elected by the people”.

Addressing a rally to celebrate the declaration of republic in Kathmandu Prachanda said his CPN-Maoist will not tolerate further criticism by the media and warned of serious consequences if it continued to criticise the party.

Targeting the Kantipur publication that brings out the largest circulated dailies Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post, the former rebel leader said, “You journalists did well to continuously criticise the Maoists before the constituent assembly polls, otherwise the election would not have taken place at all.”

“Now we will no longer tolerate criticism as we have already been elected by the people,” he said, adding that the other newspapers criticising the Maoist will also meet the same fate.[link]

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that it didn’t take him long to start operationalising the standard operating procedures manual used by the communists worldwide to incrementally seize absolute power by first threatening the Free and thriving Nepali media. simply because a free media with its ability to scrutinise their working is what the Communists universally dislike. since it is a huge obstacle in executing the next step of their manual, viz blowing off the heads of all the opposition leaders and supporters, subverting the autonomous institutions of the state such as the Judiciary, the Election commission and the Nepali Army, and installing a banana republic in place where a small privileged elite called the politburo led by himself ofcourse get to dictate the lives of millions of Nepalis.

and all this While the left-liberal Indian and Western media go gaga over Prachanda’s charm offensive and give him and his band of thuggies a free pass and look the other way while they get down to the work of destroying Nepal and terrorising its people into submission.

It is therefore imperative on all free thinking people both in Nepal and the rest of the world to frustrate the dubious Maoist-Communist agenda in Nepal. The Nepali people unfortunately conceded far too easily on the Maoist demands to abolish the monarchy which was a very big mistake. I believe they should have instead replaced Gynanedra with a more acceptable individual and retained the institution as a constitutional monarchy which would have been a symbol of stability for Nepal.

But now that the deed has been done it is doubly important that they do not concede ground on the Right to freedom of speech and expression. Prachanda’s contention that the Media should not criticise him and his party because now they have been elected by the people is laughable. if that is the case then no one should criticise George bush or Gordon brown or Manmohan singh or any of the parties they belong to since even they were elected by the people.

The Nepali mediamen did the right thing by immediately condemning Prachanda’s statement and asking him and his party to demonstrate their commitment to the democratic process.

On India’s part it is absolutely imperative that the Indian government should openly come out in support of the Right to Freedom of Speech and association in Nepal and roundly condemn this statement by Prachanda and demand that he disarm his militia and submit to the democratic political process in Nepal.

Update: Nepal’s newly minted Propoganda minister seems to have disappeared and is suspected to have gone to China on an all expenses paid trip sponsored by the Chinese embassy ostensibly perhaps for some advanced training on the nuances of terrorising the Nepali media into toeing the party line. coincidentally at the same time as his boss Prachanda has begun to threaten the Nepali media of “serious consequences” if they continued to hold him and his motley crew accountable for their actions.

One another item to add to the long list of inglorious achievements of the UPA regime that will haunt India in the coming decades is helping establish a pro-China regime in neighbouring Nepal which effectively brings the communist sickle right upto India’s heartland endangering its security in ways that will only become apparent as time rolls by.

One of the first acts of the Maoists after seizing power in the recently held elections was to dictate the end of Nepal’s 240 year old monarchy thus removing a sizeable thorn in the way of their ultimate aim of seizing absolute power in Nepal in incremental steps. They haven’t yet disbanded their militia and reports are that they used them extensively to intimidate opposition party candidates and supporters in the recent elections.

In the meanwhile the Maoist leader is on a charm offensive. In an interview with Karan Thapar on Devil’s Advocate he has laid out his vision for the future course of Indo-Nepal relations. It is a very charming interview where Prachanda or Pushpa Kumar Dhamal has tried to make all the right noises and lull his enemies into a false sense of security. In that he has learnt from the example of his predecessors from across the globe ranging from Stalin to Mao to Castro and others on how to charm the gullible left-liberals and use the enemy’s own free media against him. that in itself begs the need to keep an eye out for this hooded serpent.

Read the rest…

A little under two years ago on July 6, 2006, the Nathu-La Pass situated on the border between India and now illegally occupied Tibet was opened for border trade between the Indian state of Sikkim and the so called Tibetan Autonomous region.

At that time much of the media and officialdom had gone on an overdrive peddling the line that this was being done because China had finally recognised Sikkim as an integral part of India, in exchange for the India’s unequivocal recognition of Tibet as a part of China.

But since then though countless Indian officials, mediamen and politicians cutting across party lines have many times chanted the mantra that India recognises Tibet as an integral part of China without the slightest provocation, no Chinese leader has ever made a similar statement on Sikkim even when asked pointed questions in that regard. The closest that they ever came was when Chinese premier Wen Jiabao in his April 2005 visit to India in reply to a pointed question tactfully replied “It is well known that the issue of Sikkim is no longer the problem between China and India. This is the common consensus reached by the leaders of both countries.”

The Indian side unfortunately did not push this matter forcefully enough with the Chinese side and extract a unambiguous written statement from the Chinese declaring that they accepted that Sikkim was an integral part of India and chose to be content with the Chinese statement that “Sikkim was no longer a problem between China and India”.

Well now they have decided to make it a problem. A year after they demolished a makeshift bunker on the Indian side comes the news that they have now laid claim to a piece of land in North Sikkim.

China has surprised India by laying claim on a small tract of land in North Sikkim, even threatening this week to demolish existing stone structures there. India has strongly rebutted these claims, lodged an official protest and barred Chinese troops from entering the area.

Referred to as the “Finger Area” by Indian armed forces, this territory falls north of Gyangyong in Sikkim and overlooks a strategically important valley known as the Sora Funnel. It contains several stone cairns, which are essentially heaps of stones that can be used for shelter. The area is in the northernmost tip of Sikkim, north of a place called Gyangyong, and appears like a protruding finger on the map — hence the name Finger Area.[link]

The bottomline is that the Indian side brought this upon itself by not extracting a written and unambiguous statement from the Chinese side that they regarded Sikkim as an integral part of India and lulling themselves into complacency. The Media is not entirely blameless in this episode as it had back then shirked its duty of playing the role of a vigilant watchdog and allowed itself to be taken in by the government line that the absence of an unambiguous statement from the Chinese side was not a big deal at all. so this despairing statement at the end of the article in the Indian express appears quite disingenuous.

But clearly, what was considered a settled issue once China recognized Sikkim as part of India is now making an uncomfortable re-entry into the boundary settlement discourse.

can we hear that collective refrain from the Indian establishment and the media- oh! the wicked Chinese not respecting the “spirit” of that “settlement” .

got news for you guys with Communist China even the letter doesn’t matter. but it would have atleast made you guys look less stupid now if you had only managed to get it.

This blog had taken strong exception to the statement by General Deepak Kapoor when in an interview to Karan Thapar for CNN-IBN’s Devils Advocate he had said that

“The Chinese have a different perception of the Line Of Actual Control as do we – when they come up to their perception we call it an incursion, likewise they do.”

Now considering the very high status and respect that we in India accord the Armed Forces compared to the rest of the civilian establishment. this shocking statement went unchallenged because it was an Army General who said it. If the same statement had been made by a non-uniformed defence minister or even any bureaucrat one could imagine the furor it would have caused.

Now Karan Thapar the interviewer has broken his journalistic stance of neutrality and has gone over to bat for the General. In his column in Hindustan Times he reiterates that the General was only “setting the record straight” on the Chinese incursions into Indian territory by saying that it was only a matter of “differing perceptions” and that when the Chinese side patrol right upto their claim line we call it a incursion and when the Indian forces patrol right upto our claim line then the Chinese call it a incursion.

It is amazing that a seasoned interviewer like Karan Thapar gave a easy pass to the General on this during the interview. For one he must be well aware that even after more than two decades and 11 rounds of talks the Chinese side have yet to exchange maps clarifying their claim line in the Eastern and Western sectors of the Indo-Tibetan border. All that they have done till date is refute the McMahon Line which India along with formerly independent Tibet accepted as the International border nearly a century ago.

so in the absence of a claim line from the Chinese side how can there be a “differing perception” of where the border actually lies? And where is the flip side of Indian soldiers violating the Chinese claim line if they don’t know where the hell it is in the first place. The Chinese seem to have a habit of protesting everything and anything, including a visit by the PM to Arunachal Pradesh. Or is this General hinting that he is such a hero that he is ordering his men to quietly violate the McMahon line itself and claim more land north of it??!! unlikely he doesn’t seem to like that old Army ad have it in him to do that.

So it is a open and shut case of the General offering a placebo to the Indian public by saying all is well by clearly misrepresenting the truth. Surely if a “dhoti-khurtawallah” or a certain “ex-Army Major” whom Karan is presently miffed with had said such a thing in an interview with Karan would he have given them an easy pass too? perhaps not. But now he wants us to accept nonsense only because it comes from a serving officer. And wants us to disregard wiser counsel from Jaswant Singh atleast in this case because he is only a “dhoti-kurtawallah” now and was a mere Major in his earlier avatar? who is this little guy cum lowly “dhoti-kurtawallah” to chirp against an Army General? Is this the way a clear headed and civilised discussion on facts and figures relating to ground realities to be conducted?

Is this how Karan wants policy to be made? leave it to those who are supposed to know best? We all know how many avoidable disasters this country has faced by such personalised and adhoc policy making as opposed to institutionalised policy making keeping the nation’s interest as supreme. Nehru, himself in the very case with China is a good example. There is a long tail thereafter which reaches out to the likes of Krishna menon, K.M panickker, LB Shastri, IK Gujral, Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh and our current and former foreign secretaries.

Atleast in this case the Army General’s job is to command his Army and do as commanded by the duly elected government of the land even if he and his colleagues hold them in as much contempt as the rest of the Indian public does. His job is not to make policy but give clear, unambiguous and unbiased inputs to the policymakers to do their job and certainly not do a hatchet job for the current central government which appointed him by misleading the Indian public which pays its hard earned money in taxes to fund his military machine in the hope that they will defend the country’s frontiers come what may by saying that all is well on the Chinese front when it most certainly is not.

Update: The Complete transcript and Videos of the Army Chief’s interview .

The Army Chief Gen Deepak Kapoor in an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN to be telecast at 8:30pm IST(GMT + 5.5) tonight has gone on record saying that India can be held equally to blame of intruding into Chinese territory!

“The Chinese have a different perception of the Line Of Actual Control as do we – when they come up to their perception we call it an incursion, likewise they do.”

His shocking statement that India can be equally blamed for intruding into Chinese territory is based on a presumed logic that since the two sides have not agreed on a mutual Line of Actual Control both sides can accuse each other of intruding into their territories.

Infact the Army chief by making such a statement has exposed his ignorance of the history of the India-China border issue and also gives the impression that he is completely ignorant of the proceedings of the nearly 11 rounds of border talks that have been taking place since the last two and a half decades which coincided with much of his Army career.

He doesn’t seem to realise that technically India and China do not share a border. The entire length of the India-China border as it is today is actually the borders of occupied Tibet and Chinese Turkestan both forcibly incorporated into Chinese territory in the years immediately after the Maoists seized power from the nationalists in China in 1949. And the entire historical Chinese claim to these two territories is based on the premise that they were both part of Chinese territory during the Yuan dynasty of Kublai Khan.The so called “Middle Kingdom” hypothesis. The only fly in the ointment is that Kublai Khan was a Mongol vassal for much of his rule and thus it is more correct to say that Mongolia has more historical claim to China, Tibet and Chinese Turkestan rather than China has a claim on Inner Mongolia, Chinese Turkestan and Tibet.

The wily Chinese get around this by peddling the fiction that Kublai Khan became a “Chinese emperor” after the death of Mongke Khan and his subsequent defeating of his younger brother Arik Boke who had succeeded Mongke as Khan of the Mongol empire. That is absolute nonsense because after defeating Arik Boke, Kublai Khan had declared himself as the Khan of the Mongol empire the only problem was that the rest of the Golden family refused to recognise him as such. On the other hand Kublai Khan like a lot of other pragmatic conquerors in history also adopted some local Chinese titles and symbols to make himself more acceptable to the Chinese masses and cement his rule over the part of the empire directly under him [1] and by the time the Yuan dynasty was overthrown a century later by the indigenous Ming dynasty Tibet and Chinese turkestan did not form a part of their realm.

In short while the Chinese refuse to recognise the McMohan line terming it as a product of British imperialism their entire claim on Chinese Turkestan and Tibet which brings them to that Border line in the first place is itself a product of their past allegiance to Mongol imperialism which they cleverly disguise as the “Middle Kingdom” for consumption by gullibles!

Gen Kapoor has also conveniently sidestepped the fact that the Line of Actual Control remains undefined because the Chinese side inspite of nearly two decades of border talks have refused to exchange maps of the Western and eastern sectors with India while India’s own claim line is crystal clear for all including the Chinese side to see. It is therefore the responsibility of the Chinese side as a claimant to submit maps clarifying their own stand on where they think the Border in their opinion must run. India as a status quo power which has since the last 100 years adhered to the McMohan line cannot be held “equally responsible” in anyway for incidents on the border.

Gen Kapoor has clearly overstepped his brief in this case and this is not the first time, recently he held forth on the sixth pay commission on foreign soil disregarding all established norms that domestic politics stops at the water’s edge.The Government should either rein him in or relieve him of his responsibilities immediately if he continues to undermine the Indian position with his hollow moral grandstanding and continuous whining.That seems to be a long shot considering that the rest of the current government is no better in this regard.

It is also sad that Karan Thapar who has a reputation of being a “tough” interviewer who wouldn’t let even a bat escape on a dark moonless night gave a free pass to Gen Kapoor and did not challenge him with the fact that it was China which was being the obstacle in clearly demarcating the Line of Actual Control and India’s position in that regard is clear that it adheres to the McMohan line. Thapar would surely have pounced on any bureaucrat or politician if he had said such a thing. That he didn’t in the case of Gen Kapoor proves Pragmatic’s position that the Indian media and the public are in awe of the institution of the Armed forces and do not want to question them too closely for fear of offending them. This has to change. The Armed Forces like the rest of the state establishment should be held as much accountable to the Nation’s interest like anyone else.

Source: 1. Genghis Khan and the making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford.

In the guise of “Public opinion”. Buy it here

The UPA Govt is considering imposing an UK style Annual TV tax of Rs 500 for a colour TV and Rs 200 for a B&W TV to bail out its sick state owned entities such as Doordarshan and AIR collectively called the Prasar Bharati.

The point to remember here is that we the Aam Janta(in whose name the socialists in India and all over the world pretend to fight for while lining their own pockets and their families nest eggs) are being asked to pay not for some high quality programming which is becoming more and more expensive to produce over the years as in the case of the UK TV tax, but for the Prasar Bharati’s collective incompetence and inability to provide some good programming and compete for some respectable marketshare in the open market where the private players over the years have virtually captured the entire market in the past 15 years and pay its own way.

And the government is not even pretending that the money going to be collected in this manner is going to be utilised to set the house right and hereafter compete effectively with the private TV and FM channels. No, they are collecting this money to pay the babus in DD and AIR according to government pay scales, retirement and pension benefits, facilities like government accommodation and health benefits. And all this for not doing their job!

The Question is why should we the people pay even if it is to finance some “high quality programming”(UK, i’am looking at you) let alone to finance the nest eggs of some non-working babus? And why is the government in the broadcasting business in the first place?

Barkha Dutt in an article on Mayawati’s victory in the UP elections has besmirched the entire blogging community as

Log on to the Internet, and you will be stunned to discover how many bloggers — anonymous, or otherwise — have worn their obvious bias on their computer screens. Some even write about wanting to “leave India if Mayawati ever became Prime Minister” — all this without a trace of irony or shame. Their delusion is not just offensive; it’s positively frightening.

Barkha dutt is plain wrong. There is no such unanimous hostility among the bloggers towards Mayawati that Barkha dutt refers to. On the other hand this was one of the many blogs which welcomed Mayawati’s election victory either cautiously or wholeheartedly even taking into account all her faults and along with the realisation that she won’t be any better a politician than most of her counterparts across the rest of the political spectrum. A balance Ms Barkha towards the end of her article hopes that her own journalistic fraternity will be able to strike. Thus her generalisation of all bloggers as anti-Mayawati falls flat right here.

Perhaps Ms Barkha Dutt would do well to specifically say who are the ones she considers to be at fault. Like any blogger worth his/her salt it would be nice if she actually links to the posts of those she is critiquing. Otherwise such “hit and run” type of yellow Journalism where she makes a sweeping generalisation of such a vast and varied group of individuals simply doesn’t reflect well on her either as an ethical person or professionally as a journalist.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Ms Barkha dutt has tried to smear the entire blogging community with no evidence to back up her claims and this probably might not be her last. But this latest antic of hers has only strengthened the widespread public perception that the Indian mainstream media is already ploughing the depths of depravity and simply cannot be trusted to provide objective coverage of any subject whatsoever. This is one of the reasons for the continuing rise of the blogs as an alternative medium to the 24/7 drivel dished out by the mainstream media and could well be the beginning of the end of the mainstream media’s monopoly on shaping public opinion which they have enjoyed till recently. The sooner that happens the better.

Update- Prasanna Vishy has tracked down the person who made the comment which Barkha dutt found so offensive. Here it is in all its glory.

Priyanka Gandhi is far away. Rahul Gandhi has failed. Manmohan Singh is a puppet. I am aware that were a Lalu or a Mayawati were ever to become PM, I would have to choose to leave the country.

And this one does not come from any random blogger who in Barkha dutt’s own words is either anonymous or otherwise but a well known journalist from her rival channel CNN-IBN. His name is Hindol Sengupta and he wrote this article titled ‘Why I’am afraid of Mayawati’ in his signed blog hosted on the CNN-IBN website.

Looks like Barkha dutt is trying to kill two birds with one stone. She gets to hit back at her professional rival and also at the same time tries to malign the entire blogging community. Smart girl.very, very cunning i must say.

The Negotiations to formalize the Indo-US Nuke treaty with a 123 agreement has hit a roadblock. The Indians seem to have developed a spine and a sense of purpose and Uncle Sam is not very happy about it.

Indo-US Nuke treaty negotiations in a Soup

The (American) officials are incensed that India played hardball at the negotiations, with New Delhi continuing to express concern over certain provisions of the enabling legislation approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in December.

Amazing really! The Indian MEA actually has a backbone.

But the Indian Media as usual(including the rest of the above rediff column) is batting for the other side and begging the Indian negotiators to capitulate. ToI has an editorial today titled ‘Agni Pariksha‘ begging the Indian side to give in, rollover and play dead.It is not yet posted on their website. But one can pick a copy from the newsstand today. It is a shameful read. devoid of logic or substance. Their main line of argument is

1. It is a pity to let it fall on the last mile.

2. A combination of “concessions” from both sides and some “creative face-saving gestures” should suffice to see the deal through.

3. It is unlikely for example that India is going to conduct more nuclear tests

4. And ofcourse nothing ends without a swipe at the scientists and technical experts who the ToI editorial dismisses as having a “blinkered vision” and “all-or-nothing approach” and not being sophisticated enough to “appreciate political realities” .

For starters there is no room for emotions. This treaty is a serious matter which could affect India’s military preparedness in the face of two nuclear armed foes with whom India has fought 4 wars, one limited conflict and various skirmishes and still has unresolved territorial disputes. The only option for India in this critical situation is a strong credible nuclear deterrent of its own. And this treaty if not properly negotiated could seriously impair India’s strategic deterrent capability.

The Point No 2 is pathetic. This is the same rehash of the discredited Panchsheel type thinking and we know which side ends up doing all the “concessions” and the “face saving gestures” and their consequences.

Point No 3 is again a mess. A bunch of journalists from an non-scientific background (sorry for this swipe, no offence meant) can never understand how complex scientific systems really are. They are so used to switching on their computers and gadgets everyday and seeing it work without any problems that they never see the thousands of hours of rigorous testing that goes in to make those devices robust and workable in the real world before it comes into their hand.Every bit of equipment whether it is a small IC chip to complex systems like computers, software etc… needs to be continually tested, monitored and updated.

And a nuclear weapon is a serious piece of equipment.Thousands of times more complex and intricate than your desktop PC or Ipod. Without continual testing there is no way any serious scientist or technical expert will certify that the Nuclear weapon will actually do its stuff when it is used in a military situation. So that is where the CTBT and FMCT comes in. It is designed to make sure that no one else besides the P-5 get to build and maintain a nuclear arsenal.

India therefore is correct to insist on its right to test. If we surrender this right our nuclear deterrence will lose its teeth and become nothing but a dud. Pakistan and China have access to the nuclear weapons designs from the hundreds of Chinese nuclear tests done till 1996.What do we have till date? Data from a mere Six nuclear tests!

And regarding point no 4. What is good for the goose is also good for the gander. The Indian media and “intellectuals” can be accussed of having the same shortcomings.Having a “blinkered vision” and “all-or-nothing approach” and not being sophisticated enough to appreciate “technical realities”.

Update: ToI op-ed Agni-Pariksha, now available online.