What India can do differently?

  

After the Devyani Khobraghade episode, there was an outrage in India by the diplomats, media and people in general. Just as there were many America bashers, there were many American supporters who claim that the whole incident was politicized. May be yes, may be no. But what has politics to do with former president Abdul Kalam or former defence minister George Fernandes getting a patting down at airports, or our actors being harassed at the airport by immigration when the passport, visa etc are stamped and clear. One may say it is routine. 

Fine, let the Americans arriving here be given a patting down by our CISF personnel. There appears to be a method to their madness. But one thing is clear, friendship and bilateral relations should be based on equality. Many who have experienced American high-handedness at visa offices, immigration, airports and elsewhere will bear me out. The Americans expect special privileges in India and Indians in some cases have gone overboard to offer them the same. Give them the same treatment you give to citizens of other countries in India.

India is perceived to be a soft-state. ‘Atiti devo bhavo’ towards guests is fine, but the Indian hospitality should not be construed as weakness. In the north, we have China kicking us, Pakistan from time to time violates ceasefire unilaterally and even pushes terrorists into our side to bleed India. A tiny country like Togo holds our sailors illegally. America and some other European countries try to push us on policies. Even the Middle-East countries act stubborn at times. All this must change. India must act. It needs to be proactive, not re-active and defensive. Just as Brazil has shown the Americans; if you can pat or frisk their citizens, they too can do it and do it even better. Tit for tat diplomacy works and is respected. I wonder how the Americans will feel when they are patted down or frisked by menacing looking CISF men at the Indian airport?

This reminds me of cricket. Earlier nobody bothered about India. In the 40s and 50s, we played to show the British that Indians too could play the game. The in 60s and 70s, Indians would play not to loose badly and later to draw the test matches. This mindset changed in the 80s and 90s. Now the new generation of cricketers don’t care who the opposition is, they just want to win. They represent the new India that is ready to take on the world. That should be the attitude in other spheres too. Now the BCCI and Indian cricketers are respected and heard all over the cricketing world.

This attitude and spirit should percolate down to every Indian. Dignity and self-respect is more important, be it American or any country. India is recognized as a growing power with a steady rising economy. The world is looking at India and China, the growing economies in the world. Our politicians need to grasp this fact and behave in a mature and forceful manner keeping in mind the nation’s size, economy and influence in the comity of nations.

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Preet Bharara –‘Sheriff of Wall Street’ & Arrogant America

Is Preet Bharara following the letter of law in true spirit or is he trying to prove a point to the US masters that he spares no Indian? Preet is an American of Indian origin, hailing from Punjab, who guns for Indians in US and now became a household name with L’affaire Devyani Khobargade, the Indian diplomat.

Preet Bharara has prosecuted several Indians. He states: ‘We go after crime with a vengeance in a fair and appropriate way. It does not matter what their religion, race, nationality or name is.’ He has now charged India’s deputy Consul general in New York, Devyani Khobragade, with a visa fraud and exploiting the housekeeper. She was handcuffed, stripped, cavity searches conducted, DNA swabs taken, locked up with common criminals and drug addicts. Diplomatic immunity gives protection even in grave crimes. Consular immunity doesn’t. But if action is taken against Consular officer, it has to be done with due respect by reason of official position. This was flouted by the US.

Preet has a list of eminent Indians he has cracked down upon. His crackdown on insider trading resulted in a two-year jail sentence for ex-Mckinsey chief Rajat Gupta. Anil Kumar, also of McKinsey, and ex-intel Capital executive Rajiv Goel pleaded guilty in the same case. Preet Bharara also made former internet analyst Sandeep Agarwal plead guilty to providing inside information about a deal between Microsoft and Yahoo to a portfolio manager.

In a rare display of aggression, Indian government has hit back at US for humiliating the diplomat Devyani Khobragade. The government cancelled a host of privileges enjoyed by the American diplomatic and consular staff and cut security. This tit for tat response has made the ties between the world’s two largest democracies turn frosty. India has finally shown spine by a slew of retaliatory measures  against the US. This was in sharp contrast to its weak-kneed response to previous slights by the US – patting down of the former President Abdul Kalam twice on the same day during his visit to US and in India. He was frisked at New York’s JFK airport. In 2009, was frisked by staff of Continental Airlines at New Delhi airport.

Similar treatment was meted out to former central minister George Fernandes; George Fernandes was strip-searched twice in Dulles Airport when he was defence minister. Later US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage apologized. In 2009 actor John Abraham was detained at New York airport by FBI for having Afghanistan as a country visited on his passport. In September 2010, then Union Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel detained at a US airport over mistaken identity. A person with same name, date of birth was on US immigration watch list. In 2011, former Indian ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar was detained, body-searched by security officials at Jackson-Evers International Airport in Missisippi. India’s permanent Representative to UN Hardeep Puri was subjected to pat-down at Houston Airport in 2010 after Puri refused to take off his turban. Puri was then made to wait in the holding room. And the latest being the response to the phone tapping by the Americans of the Indian mission in Washington.

In August 2009, actor Shah Rukh Khan was detained for two hours at New jersey’s Newark International Airport, reportedly over his surname. Khan said, incident uncalled for and humiliating. Detained again in April 2012 at New York airport for hour-and-a-half. US embassy spokesman later apologized to him. Aamir Khan was strip searched and interrogated at Chicago airport when he visited the US in 2002. It appears there is a method to this madness. India has finally taken on arrogant America. This has been the strongest Indian action against US in years. Yes we want friendly bi-lateral relations with US, but with dignity, not at their terms. India is no banana republic.

Immediate was necessary or else other countries too might act in similar arrogance. There are instances of immigration staff in some European and Gulf countries acting rude with Indian tourists and visitors. A strong message need to be sent that their citizens could face the same treatment here with a pat-down from CISF personnel. Then they will realize what a pat-down or frisking means when their citizens are subjected to it.

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Indians Love Making and Breaking Records

For some it’s an obsession, to see themselves in the record books. The backgrounds of the aspirants vary. They live in small cities, remote towns and are not highly educated nor from very well-to-do families. The record certificates  are dear to them and worth more than their lives. India made the highest applications to Guinness in 2011. Many Indians are setting and breaking records, and some of them are weird too.

 

Anand Bansode from Sholapur, Maharastra, scaled the Mount Everest and strummed his guitar for 15 minutes to make a new Guinness record. Dr Rakesh Sinha holds the Guinness World record for removing the highest fibroid from a uterus. He applied for the record in 2000 was because he felt that Indian surgeons are under-rated internationally. Shashikant Khanvilkar holds the Limca record for rendering instrumental versions of Marathi songs on a comb. Kapil Gehlot pulled a 1,046kg car tied to his beard along a distance of 68.96 metres in 7 minutes and 28 seconds. He has a place in the Limca Book. Neutrogena – 1,056 people created a Guinness record for the largest umbrella mosaic.

Here are some of the odd records: Subash Agarwal holds the Guinness World Record for the maximum number of RTI applications. In Rajkot, 24,435 couples shook hands to create a Guinness World Record for the most number of handshakes simultaneously. In Dimapur, 368 musicians performed a song to break the previous Guinness record set by 250 guitarists in England. Jyothi Chindak of Belgaum, Karnataka, made the longest link with 500 butterflies in 2012. She used ceramic powder, foam sheet, paint and fine stone lace for the butterflies. Sucheta Kadethankar of Pune became the first Indian to walk across the Mongolian Gobi Desert, in 2011. She completed the 1,609km trek in 51 days, 11 hours and 40 minutes. She was among the successful seven of the 13-member international expedition team.

It isn’t only individuals who are keen for record; in September 2011, Greenpeace India collaborated with the Le Meridien hotel in Delhi to create the world’s heaviest baigan bartha (smashed burnt brinjal dish). The move was part of the campaign to protest against the introduction of genetically modified BT Brinjal. Some 500kg of organic brinjals, 50 chefs and half a day later, the world’s heaviest bharta was cooked in front of 500 people at Dilli Haat. For Sahara India Pariwar, a Guiness record was another way of reasserting their patriotic identity. This year, on May 6, the company got 1,21,653 of its employees together in Lucknow to sing the national anthem simultaneously, at one location to break Pakistan’s record for the same feat.

Wish to get into the record books? The Guinness and Limca Book of Records accept applications online and for free. The Limca Book prefers hard copy applications. Once Guinness receives the application, they will send information packs titled ‘Evidence Required’ and ‘General Info’ outlining the documents needed to be submitted. For a fee, record holders can hire a Guinness World Records adjudicator to authenticate their records. The Limca Book will require you to authenticate your record claim by a gazetted officer, school or college principal.

Once the application is received, Guinness World Records takes six weeks to assess it for an existing record and 12 weeks to assess the application for a fresh one. There are no cash rewards for record setters or holders. But the Limca Book of Records offers a 30 per cent discount on the cover price of the book. For details log onto www.guinnessworldrecords.com and www.limcabookofrecords.in . By the time this blog is posted, new records would be set or broken! After reading this many more applications may be added!

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India’s historic connect with Arunachal rejects China’s claim

Recently China objected to President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh just as it did when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the state in 2009. China keeps harping, India has illegally occupied its territory. To irritate India, it also started the stapled visa for the residents of the state or declaring, the residents don’t need visa as they belong to China.

 

This time however India reacted promptly by giving an appropriate response to Beijing. Indian officials firmly reiterated what Pranab Mukherjee said in Itanagar, that Arunachal Pradesh was an integral part of India. And any Indian citizen or dignitary could visit the Indian state.

India also challenged China’s territorial claims to Arunachal Pradesh by establishing a longer historical connection with this border state. On his first visit to the state, the President gently asserted India’s sovereignty over the state, delving deep into Puranic literature to establish the connect. It is believed that here, sage Parashuram washed away his sins, another sage Vyasa meditated here, and King Bhismaka founded his kingdom here. Lord Krishna married his consort Rukmini. So reminding China of India’s pre-historic ties with this place.

And China maintains the birth of sixth Dalai Lama in Tawang was reason enough to claim Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls Southern Tibet. Pranab Mukherjee used the same fact to claim India’s link to the border state.

Mukherjee also stated, Arunachal Pradesh as a ‘core stakeholder’ in India’s ‘Look East policy.’ He said – the North East of India provides a natural bridge between us and South East Asia. The essential philosophy of our ‘Look East’ policy is that India must find its destiny by linking itself more and more with the Asian partners. Our best economic interests are served by close integration with Asia.

Now whether China calls Arunachal its territory or not, India has made it amply clear that Arunachal Pradesh will remain an integral part of India. Its historical ties can’t be wished away because China claims so.

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Is Modi damaging his cause?

  

Yes, to a certain extent like all politicians of different shades, Narendra Modi too loves to put his foot in the mouth. Modi must shake off his ‘Feku’ reputation. Some people have even started calling him ‘motor mouth’ and ‘bol bachan.’ The more he talks, the more he exhibits his ignorance. Basically most of the time, he seems to be getting his facts all wrong. Earlier people overlooked some of the guffaw thinking it to be slip of tongue. But now people are aware about his limitations. He seems to be a man in a hurry. He speaks without verifying facts. He feels this is the best opportunity for a shot at the PM post. If he becomes the PM and makes such a goof up, he will be a laughing stock. Others admit Modi’s smart talk and style of functioning and the snooping case will further erode the image of BJP. BJP supporters will vote for him but fence sitters will not go for him.

In yet another slip up, Gujarat CM N Modi and BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate mispronounced the first name of the Mahatma, calling him Mohanlal Karamchand Gandhi instead of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The slip up comes days after his goof up between Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookerji and revolutionary Shyamji Krishna Verma. It appears his ace PR team is going overboard ignoring the basic facts of history and geography of India, economics and article 370, etc. This seems to be the weak link of N Modi. The impression one gets is that BJP is projecting him as the only hope of their party, and savior of the nation. It also gives the feeling, he is the only potent leader in BJP. This in the long run will do a grave harm to the cadre based party; claiming to be a party with a difference. People have already started accusing BJP of projecting personality. So where is the party with a difference, many skeptics ask.

N Modi criticizes one and all parties, except himself. His speeches are generally I, me, and myself with an arrogant attitude. This dictatorial trait is bad for Indian polity. This will isolate BJP further distancing them from their allies. He generally highlights the problems of UPA, but does not spell out any solutions. His statement on foreign affairs shows him to be a novice in national and international affairs. A successful CM may not necessarily be a successful PM. History tells us that governing a state is very different from governing a nation. A PM should be a person acceptable to all and who is able to carry all the allies of different shades and ideologies, accepting their opinion with grace.

BJP leadership too now feels Modi must avoid guffaws. His random statements are being tagged as hasty with self-opinions based on wrong or incorrect information. This gives hope to Congress and others that eventually Modi may score a self-goal and defeat the party’s plans of coming to power. They too are well aware, crowds do not necessarily mean votes. Forming a government means a lot of other factors come into play. BJP is well aware that poll mathematics is a different ball game all together.

Some poll experts have already started working on the outcome of the forth-coming general elections, irrespective of the election results of the states. According to some experts, BJP under N Modi might not work wonders for BJP. They predict a hung parliament . And Congress being a more acceptable party amongst the allies, may tilt in favour of Congress. If Congress get their arithmetic right, may make a surprise comeback and BJP might be left sulking.

Let us wait and watch the outcome with the flamboyant rhetoric of Narendra Modi and sudden bursts of fire from Rahul Gandhi. Who will count in the end – RaGa or NaMo? The third front is a wasted force with no real programme or policy. Ultimately most of the small outfits and regional parties will have to align with either Congress or BJP. Will Congress retain power or will BJP make a comeback is a million dollar question!

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