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Welcome to my world, my blog. In this e-page of mine I would discuss issues that concern me. Please do enrich my knowledge by sharing your thoughts and opinions

Barak Obama & The not so Noble Prize

Has the Nobel Prize become some kind of a joke? This is definitely not what Mr. Alfred Nobel had wished when he founded the Nobel Prize. It really defies common sense as to on what grounds Barak Obama has been conferred the Nobel peace prize. He has not even completed 9 months in office and in this period he has not done anything so worthwhile so as to make him eligible for the coveted peace prize. So the awarding of the Nobel peace prize to Barak Obama is nothing but the reiteration of the American Supremacy on the world socio-politico and economic system. As they say: The President of the USA is the most powerful man in the world. Obama, it seems is more of a showman than anything else and Hollywood would have been the perfect place for him than the White House. Many of his actions are actually a threat to world peace and he seems to have a hidden politico religious agenda. He has been constantly adopting a persistently soft attitude towards those rogue states like Pakistan and Iran which harbour terrorism. For instance, inspite of the CIA reports indicating that Pakistan had misused the American aid meant for fighting the Al-Quada in Pakistan and Afghanistan by diverting it for more armaments against India as well as using a part of the sum in financing terrorism, Obama has almost tripled the economic aid to Pakistan. Now where does one find any logic in these kind of decisions? He is rewarding the wrong doers for wrong doing which has infact become a kind of an incentive for wrongdoers all across the globe to engage in more wrong doing.So is the nobel prize for peace some kind of an appeasement then, especially to those who have very little to do with real peace? Well,all we can say is that the nobel prize is no longer nobel anymore, at least the nobel prize for peace.

The Irritating Dragon

The Irritating Dragon

For the past couple of days I was immensely disturbed, nay infuriated as were most of my countrymen I believe, over the recent discovery of an article published at the website of the China International Institute of Strategic Studies as was widely reported in the Indian electronic media over the past few days. I went to website of the institute (www.iiss.cn) aforementioned to check for myself the contents of the article, but to my dismay found that the site’s contents were in Chinese which I do not understand. So ultimately I had to depend on the on what was reported in the Indian electronic media about the article. Media reports in Times Now and Ajtak as well as NDTV indicate that the controversial article talks about how India, with a little effort from China, can be divided into 20-30 parts or separate countries by exploiting her ostensibly myriad social divisions based on caste,religion,region. The controversial article advises the Chinese establishment to fuel centrifugal and separatist tendencies in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and the North-east as well as in Jammu and Kashmir and a number of other areas, and to this end encourage and extend all possible political, diplomatic, and logistical help to India’s neighbours such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar. The article further goes on to add that it is necessary to divide India into 20-30 parts for the sake of social justice and reform which the Indian people have been hitherto denied as the Indian society is based on inherent social injustice and exploitation. The propaganda like article portrays India as if she is in the medieval age. We all know which of these two Asian giants need reforms more, political and social. The persistent brutal suppression of the Tibetian nationality in Tibet province, adjoining Sichuan province, the suppression of the non Han-Chinese Muslim Uyghur minorities in Xinjiang province,rising umemployment and growing public discontent against the Chinese Communist Party, the repression of any pro democracy movement like that of the Tiananmen Square student movement of 1989 when innocent students were crushed under military tanks, the denying of any freedom of speech and expression to its citizens by China, the monolithic one party system provide ample examples to put the case for the need for urgent social reforms in China into perspective. So the author of the hilarious article would be better advised to advise his dragon to divide itself into as many parts as it likes for the sake of social reform and justice, not the CPC’s notion of justice but the modern democratic concept of social reform and justice.

The Chinese Government or the Chinese Communist Party have neither distanced itself from the article nor have they tried to find out the identity of the anonymous author. So common sense would suggest that the author is either a full fledged member of the Chinese official establishment or has its full backing. The slogan of “Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai” was or has never been historically true. Infact, it was a major blunder of the Nehruvian era’s emotion based foreign policy. A brief discussion on the background of Sino-Indian relations and some recent developments would help elaborate my point further.

India had from the very time when the Communist party had come to power in China been maintaining a friendly and co-operative attitude towards China. It was because of her tireless efforts that the Communist state of China was not only recognized internationally but also made a member of the United Nations. Furthermore, India was also instrumental in obtaining for China a permanent seat in the prestigious UN Security Council. India (under Nehru) and China had in 1954 concluded the famous panchasheel agreement. The main spirit of the agreement was mutual friendship based on five principles including mutual non aggression, peaceful co-existence, mutual respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and peaceful settlement of dispute. While India completely trusted the Chinese, the dragons were engaged in preparations for an aggression on India which they finally effected in 1962 in which a large part of the erstwhile NEFA, now Arunachal Pradesh and a large chunk of the Aksai Chin region was gobbled up by China. Even now the Chinese have been consistently maintaining that Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh belong to it. The Chinese had been following a continuous policy of hostility towards India, somewhat resembling that of a cold war, at least from the Chinese perspective. In the late 1960 s and the 1970 s it provided training and logistical support to the various terrorist groups operating in the north-east including the ULFA and the NSCN as well as the now defunct MNF. It had all along been giving military supplies and political and diplomatic support to Pakistan in its conflict with India. The Chinese audacity had been on the rise day by day. A couple of years back when a team of IAS officers from India were on an official visit to China as part of an exchange program, a few IAS officers who were domiciled in Arunachal Pradesh were denied visas by the Chinese government on the ground that since Arunachal Pradesh was a part of China, people from the state did not need any visas to visit China. More recently, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Arunachal Pradesh China raised objections to the visit. As if all these were not enough, the Chinese had also blocked a proposed Asian Development Bank’s loan for Arunachal Pradesh. In continuation of its hostile attitude towards India, the dragon tried to block the special Nuclear Suppliers’ Group’s special waiver for the Indo-US nuclear deal known as the 123 agreement. The Chinese are encircling India by increasing their presence in the Indian Ocean region by building the so called string of peatrls. It has already established ports cum naval bases in Gwadar in Pakistan,in Myanmar, in Hambantota in Srilanka and in Bangladesh. Now here is a neighbour of ours which had been from the 1960 s following a ceaseless policy of hostility towards India and even in this situation our political leadership is still adhering to rotten Nehruvian the “Hindi- Chini Bhai Bhai” policy based on emotions rather than any real strategic or national interest. While the Chinese never miss an opportunity to show its hodtility towards India, our country is organizing joint military exercises with China, giving her trade concessions and supporting her at various international forums. In such a situation, our political leadership and policy makers seem to have simply lacked the basics of common sense diplomacy. It really defies logic,to say the least as to what is the need for following such a overly one-sided friendly policy to a hostile neighbour. Non-violence and satyagraha do not work in international politics which is purely based on national interests. Perhaps, our political leadership fail to understand that the problem between India and China is more than meets the eye. The problem between India and China more than just a border dispute involving Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Aksai Chin. There basically seems to be a clash of two ancient and extant civilizations which are mutually exclusive and incompatible. More than that the wishful Chinese desire of becoming the unchallenged numero uno in Asia in the immediate future and the most powerful state in the world some time in the future is what is driving China towards a persistent anti – India stance. The Chinese think tank realize the fact that the biggest obstacle to its becoming the number one power in Asia comes from India. So it not only wants to contain India but also wants to balkanize and destroy her. The fact that we had not been able to teach the Chinese an appropriate lesson for the misadventure of 1962 due to our inadequate military preparedness vis- a -vis China and the persistent soft attitude of India towards China has perhaps further emboldened her. Time has now come for a serious rethink on the Sino Indian relations. India should now put up a more stout front vis a vis China. Our policy makers need to realize that India is no Tibet that can be gobbled up by China at will. China may just be playing the game of brinkmanship with India . She very well realize the fact that a war with a nuclear armed India and backed by strategic friends like Russia and Israel would cost her dearly in terms of men money and materials. Furthermore, the relationship between India and the USA is improving day by day and both the countries are now moving towards strategic partnership. Moreover, India is a favourable destination for Chinese capital and goods and she is having a favourable balance of trade with India. So India has nothing to lose in this situation and can always exercise or threaten to exercise the option of economic sanctions on China. So it is advisable that India play the game of brinkmanship with China to the maximum extent possible to secure her interests like the way China had been doing with India since 1950 s. Lets face the facts and admit that a cold war like situation exists between India and China, at least from the Chinese perspective and the sooner the Indian policy makers admit it the better it is for our national interests.

It is not that China is free from internal problems. The obscure author of the wishful article as also the Chinese establishment would do well to remember internal problems that China is facing today. Firstly, it is common knowledge that the Chinese Communist Party is fast losing support within China. Social unrest, unemployment, lack of basic freedoms such as the right to free speech, the restrictions on the media, etc are eroding the faith of the people in the Chinese monolithic system dominated by the Communist Party of China. From my chats with the Chinese youths through social networking and chat clients I have learnt that most of them are dissatisfied with the authoritarian regime in China and want a break from the stranglehold of the CPC. The Tiananmen Square incident of 1989 when hundreds of pro democracy students and supporters were quelled under military tanks is still fresh in their memory. Secondly,Tibet, Sichuan, Xinxiang and Hongkong are the weak links in the Chinese system which can be exploited to balkanize China in much the same manner as the author of that controversial article has envisaged for India. We all know how Tibet was illegally and forcefully occupied and annexed by China in 1950. The Tibetans have still not reconciled themselves to loss of their independence at the hands of the Chinese. The Tibetans in Tibet as well as in various parts of the world are ceaselessly working towards their independence from the Chinese yoke. The Chinese are effecting a demographic change in Tibet by settling more and more Han-Chinese there and providing them with all the facilities to dominate the polity and economy of the region. This is giving rise to further discontent there. Moreover China seems to have forgotten that the headquarters of the Tibetan Government in exile is in India’s Dharmasala. The intense protests that erupted all over the world including in Tibet and the neighbouring province of Sinchuan before and during the Olympic torch relay speaks volumes about the mental state that the Tibetans are in now. India along with USA and other like minded countries can always exploit the situation at will and effect the independence of Tibet from China’s illegal occupation. The situation in the Western province of Xinxiang is no better where a secessionist movement is going on for quite sometime now as is the case in Tibet. The region is mainly populated by Turkic-speaking Uighur Muslims who share very little in common with the Han-Chinese majority and are leading the East Turkistan movement for their independence. Various terrorist organizations like the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), The Eastern Turkistan Liberation Organization (ETLO), The World Uygur Youth Congress (WUYC), etc have come up in the province who are also working for their independence from China. The recent riots between the Uighur Muslims and the Han-Chinese in the province have taken about 200 lives and most of them were killed in police firing. Though the police did not confirm whether most of them were Uighur Muslims or the Han-Chinese, it can be safely assumed that most of them were infact Uighur Muslims as it is the Han Chinese that dominate in every branch of power in China. Honkong, which was transferred to the Chinese on the 1st of July,1997 by the United Kingdom was used to a more democratic , westernized and a different political system that the rest of China are used to under the Chinese authoritarian system. So mainland China is compelled to manage the manage the affairs of the region in a different manner. Hongkong almost enjoys a semi-independent status. The wide difference between the political systems of Hongkong and mainland China can be aggravated and exploited to increase the psychological gap between the two parts of China and the citizens of Hongkong can be incited to push for independence on the grounds of incongruity of political systems and political and social values. India can join the USA to exploit the fear of Chinese aggression on Taiwan and arm it to the teeth so as to take on China in much the same manner that China is using Pakistan against India. The common man in China has very little political and civil rights. Through propaganda it is possible to preach the ideals of a modern democratic and free society among the common folk and once these democratic ideals take deep roots in the psyche of the Chinese common men , then they would be unable to reconcile themselves to the authoritarian regime of the Communist Party of China and would not settle for anything less than total democracy. And once this happens we will see a repeat of the process that the Soviet Union had witnessed in 1991.

All having said and done, it can hardly be denied that China is in the midst of a crisis of legitimacy .It is facing pressing economic, social and political problems and the Communist Monolith of China is nearing a slow but sure collapse. So to divert the attention from its domestic problems and to forge national unity in China which is on the wane, it is artificially potraying India as an enemy.