I would like to supplement some of the points presented in the article
and at the same breath contradict some of the views. I fully agree that
we should condemn the latest acts of terrorism in US with strongest
words/action. Being one of the largest democracies in the world we should
play an important role in the long-term fight against terrorism. I would
like to disagree with the author on the India's stand after Sep 11 and
the offer of unconditional support to the USA. I strongly feel that
it is a smart move by India to offer full intelligence and logistical
support to US in their bid to capture Osama bin Laden. This clearly
helped US to secure support from Pakistan against its will and make
them fall in line even though the nation at large is against it.
We see everyday on the western TV coverage, many Pakistani political
leaders openly acknowledging that they were forced into this position.
They openly admit that they choose between the two evils. They fear
a civil war in Pakistan once the attacks on Afghan start. They fear
that even Musharaf may be overthrown and are worried about the millions
of Afghan refugees inside Pakistan with guns at their disposal. Pakistan
has reluctantly agreed because of the fear that India would capitalise
on the opportunity. There is no doubt that India's spontaneous offer
for unconditional support helped the west secure Pakistan's support.
West is least bothered about India or its opinion (for reasons, which
I will explain in the later part) and even if we had offered limited/conditional
support, it would have made no difference/influence on the decision
of US. The scenario may have been different if we had shared border
with Afghanistan and even then the west would have wanted Pakistan on
their side rather than India because Pakistan is a Muslim nation & importantly
a nuclear power. The west wants to engage Pakistan rather than alienate
which I fully support and think is the right way to move forward. Coming
back to the Indian support, having nothing to loose it was a clever
move to support US because India has realistically more to gain out
of this rather than loose.
It is very clear that the west wants to dismantle Taliban and bring
an alternative government. There are two options, the west can bring
the Northern Alliance to power which will benefit India tremendously,
as it is anti-Pakistan and already being objected by Pakistan. The other
option is to have a third party other than Taliban or Northern Alliance
in power, which also will be a gain to India. The reason Pakistan installed
Taliban in Afghanistan and continues to support it is for the simple
reason that it wants it western border safe so that it can divert all
its energy to the Indian border to fight India. So the fall of Taliban
is a great advantage to India and looking beyond India the fall of Taliban
would put an end to the international terrorism. Afghan toady is the
training ground for terrorist around the world and they grow drugs to
fund their operations. This should be stopped now at any cost and that
is the precise reason why the west not only wants to eliminate Osama
but also to remove Taliban. I don't believe in the notion that India
is acting as a slave or acted on external pressure. This notion will
fit 100 % for Pakistan not for India and I am very sure that there was
no pressure on India to offer unconditional support.
It is a wrong notion that America/west think that the military action
alone will bring an end to world terrorism. I am uncertain about the
media coverage in India and how much of that is received unadulterated
is a big question mark. Here, it has been insisted that they want to
embark on a three-stage strategy. First step is to have a military campaign
in Afghanistan to try and smoke out Osama and remove Taliban. The second
step is to use a grand coalition formed with diplomacy and political
influence to force other states to stop sponsoring terrorism. The third
step would be to ensure that finances of terrorists are cut-off. They
are talking of a long-term strategy. Nobody here fools themselves by
thinking that elimination of Taliban and Osama will solve the problem.
They have identified terrorist cells in 60 different countries and links
between all major terrorist organisations from Algeria to Chechnya to
mid east. They realise that it will be a time consuming long process
and the politicians here are preparing the people for a long and slow
operation. I am quite confident that they will achieve it because the
WTC has been taken very seriously by everyone. That is the reason why
Russia has accepted to co-operate. The threat of further attacks is
quite imminent here.
We now have a new USA, which has seen for it the effects of terrorist
attacks. We can term the US as pre-WTCA and post-WTCA. The other important
consideration is that the present White House is quite different from
the previous ones. The present team doesn't want to get involved in
international affairs unnecessarily and an important member of the team,
defence secretary Collin Powell patronises this view. As you may recall
Collin Powell was the hero of the gulf war and formed a Powell doctrine
to be followed by US. Previous to Gulf war right from Korean conflict
to Vietnam conflict to Somali misadventure, US troops have suffered
heavy causalities which evoked strong criticism at home about the involvement
of US in foreign conflicts. To put it short Powell doctrine is tough
talk, limited action, total victory. This will be applied in the present
scenario and that is the reason behind the delay of action in Afghanistan.
They are trying to bring in as many Muslim nations into the fold as
possible. They now understand the need to bring all the rogue nations
together and engage them instead of alienating. The classical case is
Iran where British foreign minister toured after a gap of 20 years.
And already Collin Powell has stated on record that terrorism in Kashmir
will also be taken into account.
Even here in the UK , everybody agrees and knows that the IRA has
been getting its fund from USA, but still they are standing shoulder
to shoulder with US on the fight against terrorism. On the arms de-commissioning
negotiations, the IRA has come to negotiating table now after the Sep
11 events because of the pressure from the USA. It is worth noting that
now USA has applied tremendous pressure on Israel to come to the negotiating
table after 1 year of fights. I am sure that US realises and understands
the danger of terrorism in any form and you will see that their attitude
will never be the same that used to be . Even if Pakistan insists on
US interference in Kashmir, US might intervene only if India agrees
to it.Us may give a lot of financial concessions to Pakistan in return
for its support in Afghanistan but not any form of backing on Kashmir
issue.
I fully agree and support the thoughts reflected on the last two paragraphs
ofthe article about Sep 11 being declared as Anti-Terrorism Day and
all other steps outlined to combat terrorism. I fully agree with the
suggestion that big powers should take more responsibility for their
actions and lead by example. They should take more interest in the world
affairs irrespective of the financial gains. Today's state of affairs
in Afghanistan is a good example for irresponsible behaviour by super
powers.
I like to put my views on why the west or for that matter the rest
of the world doesn't attach importance to Indian voice or views. To
put it simple why doesn't India enjoy international clout that Indians
like you & me feel it richly deserves. As a patriotic Indian it has
always been puzzling me for quite sometime why Indian news doesn't find
a place in western media when countries like China, Taiwan, Philippines,
South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore do find. When I was in US and now
in UK, I have longed to hear about Indian financial news or for that
matter any Indian news, but have always been disappointed at the coverage
we get. It has always irritated me why small countries get coverage
whereas as a great country India is not getting the share of recognition
it deserves. When there is a stock market collapse or when there is
a coverage on world stock market, I have always been pained to see Indian
stock market report being missed. When I started thinking more deeply
about it, it dawned on me that not very many western companies have
base in India whereas in the above-mentioned countries there is abundant
amount of foreign investment. So any event happening in those countries
have a direct impact on the people that share investment and so they
are being reported regularly on the western media. This clarified why
the western media shunned us, but it still left a question in my mind
why the nations don't look at us with interest. I went in search of
the truth. I went to the World Bank website in search of answers to
learn how India is ranked by world on the economic front and compare
it with other nations. I was in for a major shock, world bank has divided
countries on the basis of its GNI per capita. Every country's economy
is classified as low income, middle income (subdivided into lower middle
and upper middle), or high income. Guess where we would be falling under?
I have been asking many Indians and almost every one say that it will
either be in the lower middle or upper middle and some proud Indians
even guessed as high income. But the painful fact is that we have been
grouped as a low-income economy along with Afghanistan, Somalia, Vietnam
and Ethiopia. The only solace is that our neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh
and Nepal are with us. I was surprised to note that Iran & Iraq are
lower-middle income economy. China, Sri Lanka and Taiwan are also in
that group. Needless to say, UK and US are in the High-Income economy.
Now I was convinced about the reason behind our poor international clout.
Yes, it dawned on me that nobody attaches significance to average or
below average person in life. Even in our society the rich & wealthy
get the best attention and the priority for the poor is always low.
The attentions to poor man's problems are lower compared to the rich
man's problem. I am sure Chennai gets priority over Madurai and in US
the eastern states get more than the western states. So I decided that
instead of worrying about what importance we get, we should look inward
to make our nation a wealthy and strong nation. The nation that came
to my immediate attention was Japan and the determination with which
it bounced back to the world stage after its World War II annihilation.
It is wise for all of us to work towards building our nation so that
we get the importance we feel we deserve instead of grumbling at the
lack of attention.
