For choosing the guest for India's Republic Day celebrations, the Foreign Office was give a specific set of criteria. First, the guest had to be a dictator and second, he had to be responsible for the death of very normal people.
Since our leaders are elected, the theory was that it is nice to have a guest who is chosen by other divine powers. It is a Yin/Yang thing. There were few people who matched this criteria, like Yasser Arafat, Joseph Stalin, and Chairman Mao. The Foreign Office tried to contact them, but were informed that they were all dead. The Foreign Office has put a tender to update their database.
Then they found that the Saudi King is alive and he met the criteria perfectly. It was only recently that hijackers from his country had crashed planes into the twin-towers, Pentagon and Somerset County, Pennsylvania killing 2986 innocent Americans. Saudi Arabia's other main export, Wahhabism had successfully created terrorists all around the world and were killing innocent civilians in the name of a God. Saudi Arabia was also an important buddy of Pakistan and that sealed the case.
When this King visited India, no one found the need to protest and no one called him a murderer or terrorist. When the President of United States visits India, people are lifting heavy words like "imperialism, neo-colonism, " and throwing on unsuspecting public. The protests are mainly by the Communists, the same set of people who murder people in the name of Mao and pour oil on women for standing in elections.
In a bid to sensationalize the burning of effigies and protest marches, newspapers have come up with headlines like "Indians protest the visit of Bush". While there are thousands of Communists and Muslims protesting the visit, it should also be noted that the remaining billion people are not protesting this visit. In fact, a vast majority of Indians have a positive image of America and consider President Bush as a friend of India.
Fareed Zakaria sums it well when he says
But India has many more ideologues, who are fighting against its forward-looking prime minister, Manmohan Singh. First there is the Foreign Service bureaucracy, which seems stuck in the 1950s—using stale concepts like nonalignment, colonialism and Third World solidarity. (No, this is not a joke, they really do think this way.) Add to them India's nuclear scientists, who have gotten very comfortable in their cloistered world. As in any protected industry, the scientists don't want to be exposed to international transparency, largely for fear that it would reveal that their products and processes actually are not cutting-edge. Then there are India's communists, who are in some ways stuck in the 1850s, when Karl Marx was writing his tracts on class conflict, for whom reflexive anti-Americanism is still a guiding principle.[Nixon to China, Bush to India]The only positive thing in this whole selective outrage industry is that the Verbal Terrorist has become a humor writer. This is what she had to finally say
Since the Purana Qila also houses the Delhi zoo, George Bush's audience will be a few hundred caged animals and an approved list of caged human beings who in India go under the category of "eminent persons." [.] So what's going to happen to George W Bush? Will the gorillas cheer him on? Will the gibbons curl their lips? Will the brow-antlered deer sneer? Will the chimps make rude noises? Will the owls hoot? Will the lions yawn and the giraffes bat their beautiful eyelashes? Will the crocs recognise a kindred soul? Will the quails give thanks that Bush isn't travelling with Dick Cheney, his hunting partner with the notoriously bad aim? Will the CEOs agree?[The Ink of Fury]Sandeep has the mandated-by-law fisking.
See Also: Landmines Under Trucks, Yet Another Harthal
Comments (6)
Bear in mind, nearly 300 Indian citizens were killed in the Twin Towers - so 9/11 was a tragedy for India as well. But don't expect Roy or the Usual Delinquents to mention that.
Posted by KXB | February 28, 2006 2:34 PM
Posted on February 28, 2006 14:34
The Chimp seems to have made rude noises ..
But anyway, since you quoted Zakaria: methinks he is a little baby Arundhati Roy by himself, especially when he says:
"As in any protected industry, the scientists don't want to be exposed to international transparency, largely for fear that it would reveal that their products and processes actually are not cutting-edge."
Don't we see glimpses of Roy in Zakaria's armchair psychoanalysis of India's scientists?
Posted by RR | March 1, 2006 9:11 AM
Posted on March 1, 2006 09:11
Why are you angry when the leaders of the muslim or communist countries were invited to India? (consider how we welcomed them and how we welcome the US president). I would like to know why you blame the government of Saudi Arabia for a few terrorists from their country. If the world thought this way, they wouldn't welcome any of the Indian officials anywhere in the world, considering the Ayodhya, Godhra incidents. And if it is the word "Islam" that irritates you, then I have nothing more to say here. Bush's case is different. Its not some terrorist groups in his country engaged in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay - it is not a few people in USA who denied food and medicines to the Iraqi children even before the Iraq capture, it is not a few groups of USA who has military bases in almost everywhere in the world. The whole world have seen the evil acts of Bush and that is why he is not welcomed by the people out here. Its not only happening in India or China. But in most of the other parts of the world like Latin America.
And eventhough the left parties support the protests (they might have their own political advantages of this) through out India against the Bush visit, there are a lot of independently thinking people who are engaged in these protests.
Posted by Jo | March 2, 2006 2:13 AM
Posted on March 2, 2006 02:13
Jo,
I am angry because the leader of Pakistan is responsible for the death of Indian citizens. As Indian Citizens we should have the biggest outrage for treating him as a guest. Apparently we are not at all concerned about the death of Indian Citizens, and we are more concerned about Iraqis, Palestinians, Afghanis and rest of the planet more. The sacrifice done by our soldiers did not even merit a protest by these Communists and Muslims who are protesting the visit of Geroge Bush. This hypocricy makes me angry.
This also proves that, it is not humanitarian concerns at work here, but just anti-Americanism.
As an Indian Citizen, I would have felt proud, if Pervez Musharraf were greeted with the same protests.
This selective outrage is a shame.
- Why is United States responsible for starving Iraqi children. Saddam was still living in palaces and minting money through a corrupt Oil for Food program run by United Nations. He could have paid for food, but he chose to starve his own citizens.
- Sure, United States has bases all over the world and it should. If the host country has no problem, then we have no reason to complain. They are not wasting Indian Tax Payers money.
- We Indians should focus on our own Maoists problem and the regular murders committed by Communists. Note that after 9/11, there were no terrorist attacks in US. Perhaps we can learn something from Americans here.
Posted by JK | March 2, 2006 7:16 AM
Posted on March 2, 2006 07:16
Now after going through a few discussions, I think the leftist way of projecting things made me go overwhelmed.
Posted by Jo | March 2, 2006 9:38 PM
Posted on March 2, 2006 21:38
Here is my final take on this:
Let Bush come if something good can happen which will help India to grow.
The people who protest against Bush has their own right to do so. I personally am against Bush's activities in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay etc. And am doubtful about the increasing # of military bases of USA across the world. I do not want to see another Hitler in the next few years. And I still do not understand why USA do not need nuclear inspection but they need to check everywhere else in the world when they have the largest # of nuclear weapons.
Posted by Jo | March 2, 2006 10:34 PM
Posted on March 2, 2006 22:34