Author: जयकृष्णः | ജയകൃഷ്ണൻ

Tom Friedman's new book

One of my favourite books is The Lexus and the Olive Tree, which was a great introduction to the fundamentals of Globalization. After that I read two of Friedman’s books, Longitudes and Attitudes : The World in the Age of Terrorism and From Beirut to Jerusalem both excellent books. Now he has a new book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century.
The reviewer in WaPo writes

Friedman also does not have a compelling rebuttal for Harvard’s Michael Sandel, who calls Flat World’s new horizontal collaboration “just a nice name for the ability to hire cheap labor in India.” For instance, Indian techies had the manpower and ambition to do the “huge, tedious job” of fixing the West’s Y2K computer bug, giving India a surge of IT business that Friedman calls “a second Indian Independence Day.” But India’s Y2K windfall could be read just as easily as a sign of dependence, of reliance on tasks that American workers no longer want. Friedman rightly notes that “low-wage, low-prestige jobs in America . . . become high-wage, high-prestige jobs” when outsourced to India. But in an era where, as Friedman puts it, both pride and humiliation get served up to you via fiber-optic cable, it’s not at all clear we’ll like the long-term geopolitical consequences of having emerging powers reliant on scraps from the American economic table.
While The World Is Flat is not a classic like From Beirut to Jerusalem, it is still an enthralling read. To his great credit, Friedman embraces much of his flat world’s complexity, and his reporting brings to vibrant life some beguiling characters and trends. If his book is marred by an exasperating reliance on the first person and a surplus of catch phrases (” ‘Friedman,’ I said to myself, looking at this scene, ‘you are so twentieth-century. . . . You are so Globalization 2.0’ “), it is also more lively, provocative and sophisticated than the overwhelming bulk of foreign policy commentary these days. We’ve no real idea how the 21st century’s history will unfold, but this terrifically stimulating book will certainly inspire readers to start thinking it all through.

Secular Whitewashing

Let’s say someone hates you so much and goes around telling bad things about you. Then he calls a bunch of people and they walk around town raising slogans against you. But in the evening that person wants to come to your home for dinner. This is what happened to Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, a senior Shia cleric and vice-president of the All India Muslim Personnel Law Board who was deported from Chicago on a law applied to people who are terrorists. But anything happening to a non-Hindu is sacrilage in India and immediately the secular folks are angry.

Given the US

Hinduism in Saudi Arabia

Saudi religious police have destroyed a clandestine makeshift Hindu temple in an old district of Riyadh and deported three worshippers found there, a newspaper reported today (March 26, 2005).
“They were surprised to find that one room had been converted into a Hindu temple,” it said.
A caretaker who was found in the worshipping area ignored the religious police orders to stop performing his religious rituals, the paper added.
He was deported along with two other men who arrived on the scene to worship. [Makeshift Hindu temple razed; worshippers deported]

Question: Doesn’t Saudi Arabia make noises about Muslim persecution in India ?
Answer: They do. But who said that they have to provide freedom to minorities in Saudi Arabia. Be happy those guys came back with all their body parts intact.
Question: Shouldn’t India raise this issue with Saudi authorities ?
Answer: It might offend them. Also it might put a haddi in our secular kabab.
Question: Narendra Modi was denied a US visa because he was accused of persecuting minorities, so by the same game, shouldn’t all Saudi Royals be denied American visa from now ?
Answer: Saudis have oil and they are no pushovers like India.

Now it is not fair!

This denial of American visa story is getting very interesting. As you know Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi was denied a visa to enter the United States.

“The United States is sending a subtle message by cancelling the visa of Narendra Modi. The message is that the US does not approve of the sectarian strife and communal violence in India,” Kalim Kawaja, a leader of the Indian Muslim Council-USA, said.
“Frankly we did not expect such a move from the State Department. It was quite a surprise for us too. We welcome it and we are happy that the US has taken a clear stand on the communal issue,” he said. [Modi visa: Muslim bodies hail US move]

But before everyone could rejoice, Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, a senior Shia cleric and vice-president of the All India Muslim Personnel Law Board was detained at Chicago Airport, and later deported. According to the NDTV report,

The Section under, which the Shia cleric was deported is used on those who support terrorism.
It has probably been used since he is known to have organised a number of rallies criticizing America’s attack on Iraq. [US denies entry to senior Shia cleric]

And then suddenly all the statements about America when visa was denied to Modi has become invalid.

Protests by the Lucknow Shias against the treatment meted out to Maulana Kalbe Sadiq by the US immigration authorities erupted on the streets when hundreds of Muslims raised anti-American slogans after the Friday prayers at Asafi Imambara.
The protests followed after Imam-e-Juma of the Asafi mosque, Maulana Kalbe Jawwad assailed the American government in the

Subhash Bose: The investigations

The Central Govt extended the term of the Liberman Commission inquiring into the demolition of disputed structure at Ayodhya, but at the same time it has denied extension to the Justice MK Mukherjee Commission investigating the disappearance of Subhash Chandra Bose. Subhash Bose, was believed to have died in a plane crash in Taipei, but recently it was discovered that there was no plane crash at that time. There are theories that he was in Soviet Union at that time and the Commision is not visiting Russia to examine the documents due to lack of time. Why is the Congress Govt. not interested in finding the truth ?
So we come to our favourite whipping boy, Jawaharlal Nehru, who had infact setup a commision to investigate Bose’s disappearance.

Intriguingly enough (a fact glossed over nowadays), Nehru declared that the death of Netaji in Taihoku aircrash was a settled fact even before the committee could furnish its report. Its tenure was a mere four months and it dared not upset Nehru’s “settled fact”. So it recommended repatriating the ashes preserved in Japan’s Renkoji temple, fabled to be of Netaji’s, but is doubtful whether it is of any human being at all. The only accompanying “proof” was a death certificate in Japanese, which, when translated into English, turned out to be a Japanese soldier who had died of heart failure from exhaustion during World War II.
The opinion of other two members of the committee was at variance with that of Shah Nawaz but his (actually Nehru’s version) prevailed. After all, this ex-INA Major General was deeply indebted to Nehru personally. In Independent India, former INA members were debarred from entering the Indian Armed forces or try their luck in politics. Nehru found INA-people “disloyal, uncouth, and unpatriotic” and it was not until Indira Gandhi’s regime that they allowed pension. On the contrary, there was no such restriction in Pakistan as Taya Jenkin informs in her book, Reporting India.
Nehru was exceptional in patronising one ex-INA brass, Shah Nawaz Khan, who was recalled (virtually highjacked) from Pakistan where he had migrated after Partition, and was made a minister of state in Nehru’s Ministry. Such was the private reason for Shah Nawaz’s public statement endorsing Nehru’s views on Netaji’s “death”. However, Nehru himself was not convinced of Netaji’s death. Indians were given to believe as gospel what people like Shah Nawaz and Habibur Rehman, who had crossed over to Pakistan, said about Netaji’s fate. A battered Nehru, sometime before his death in 1964, had engaged in correspondence with Netaji’s elder brother Ashok Bose. Nehru therein had agreed that the truth behind Netaji’s disappearance should be brought out. Nothing unsettled Nehru’s “settled fact” like his own admission. [Netaji beyond Taihoku aircrash]

There are stories that Subhash Bose came later to India and lived as a monk in Uttar Pradesh. The present commision has investigated this monk and visited the places where he stayed and examined his belongings.
We may not know the whole truth, but some information will be available when the MK Mukherjee Commision submits its report soon.
There is also a new movie by Shyam Benegal titled Bose: The Forgotten Hero based on the last five years of Subhash Bose’s life.

Another report to ignore

Pakistani Govt is biased against minorities. We are not saying it, but the Pakistan National Commission for Justice and Peace.

The NCJP has said that the attack on minorities’ places of worship, instances of forced conversions, discriminatory laws are being used as weapons for political leverage and evictions of minorities indicate the state’s failure to ensure not only human rights but implement legislation for effective governance….[Pak commission says govt. biased against minorities via DhimmiWatch]

Since minorities are opressed in Pakistan, do you think anyone would refuse a visa to Musharraf ?

Adopting Globalization

1. Embrace Market Economy.
2. Red Carpet welcome to foreign investors.
3. Large scale private participation
4. Promote IT and Biotechnology
5. Close all sick PSUs
6. Get aid from World Bank and ADB
If I said this was the plan of Communists, you may not believe it. And even more unbelievable is that it comes from the Communists in Kerala. After systematically preventing any progress in Kerala, the Communists in 2005 have realized that they need to make it a prosperous state.

The CPM leadership in the state believes that its primary duty is to make Kerala a prosperous state. The leadership is realistic enough to realise that this cannot be achieved unless Kerala attracts a remarkable amount of capital to the state.
“Earlier, the party had adopted a to-be-or-not-to-be-stand on foreign capital and the aid from foreign agencies like the World Bank and the ADB. Now there is no ambiguity regarding this. The document will come out with more clarity in support of seeking aid from them,” the sources said. [CPM bid to do a Buddha in Kerala]

As the forces of globalization sweeps through commie land, how do the comrades explain this to their cadres who have been bought up on a diet of anti-globalization slogans ?
Related Links: The Marx Bros INC (Thanks Ravikiran)

The China formula

What did the Indian Communists discuss with Musharraf other than their shared goal of not letting India become a superpower? A new proposal for solving the Kashmir problem was generally discussed between CPI (M) General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet and General Musharraf. This proposal is called “China Formula” not because the Indian Communists open umbrellas when it rains in China, but since it is based on the formula followed by India and China to solve their border problems.

The

What superpower ?

The gloves are off. Far from trying to pacify New Delhi, King Gynanendra seems to be going out of his way to infuriate it. After he refused to meet Indian envoy Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, his government has rubbed salt into the wounds by imposing fresh restrictions on an Indian business venture.
United Telecom Ltd, an Indo-Nepal joint venture, has been asked not to register any more subscribers. Some 80 per cent of the stake in the company is held by MTNL, VSNL and Telecommunications Consultants (India) Ltd. The remaining 20 per cent is held by Nepal Venture Pvt Ltd.
South Block is upset and India plans to take up the matter with Nepal at the earliest. [Indian venture gets a rude wake-up call from Kathmandu]

We should quit saying we are the future superpower etc. We barely have any influence over our own neighbors, forget rest of the world. India has become a country which a superpower and a tiny country can slap around.