10-19-2007, 11:37 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Dr Hollow Cause </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Manmohan is economical with history
When in trouble, divert attention. It is the oldest trick in the politician's armoury and for an apparently non-political person, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has learnt it fairly quickly. Under fire for capitulating to the Left and all but abandoning the India-US nuclear deal, he has hit back by questioning the BJP's "moral authority". He has likened the Gujarat violence in 2002 to the Holocaust and reminded Mr LK Advani, the BJP's senior leader, of the "fiasco" at Agra in 2001, when talks with President Pervez Musharraf broke down. It is telling Mr Singh's use of the expression "Holocaust" pointedly referred to the riots that broke out across Gujarat on February 28, 2002. He was not referring to the incineration, a day earlier, of 58 innocent pilgrims, including little children, by an Islamist mob, but that is integral to a hypocrisy that one has come to associate with the UPA Government. If Mr Singh is so convinced of his logic, let him repeat the "Holocaust" remark at an election meeting in Gujarat. It is tempting for a political leader to cite precedents and past instances to make his point. For Mr Singh's party, this is a double-edged weapon. The Congress has ruled India simply so long that it is guilty of almost everything it accuses other parties of doing. The turbulence in Gujarat five years ago pales in comparison to what Congress goons did to countless Sikhs in the aftermath of Mrs Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984. People had their homes and livelihoods looted and destroyed, many were killed or burnt alive; the scars still haunt "resettlement colonies" in the heart of the national capital. How did the then Congress president respond? He dismissed the pogrom, saying: "When a big tree falls, the earth shakes." To many people, it sounded like an explication of the "Final Solution"; to Mr Singh, however, it was anything but a "Holocaust".
The Agra summit was doubtless a failure. The NDA Government walked into it unprepared and without taking the professionals in the Ministry of External Affairs into confidence. It sought to reduce foreign policy to a few, short blockbuster moves. The mistakes were acknowledged by the leaders of the NDA Government almost immediately. Yet, consider how Mr Singh treated the nuclear deal negotiations with the United States. He walked into it without preparing the ground back home, without selling it to a domestic audience. He bypassed the professionals in the Ministry of External Affairs and converted the deal into a one or two-man show. He reduced the building of a long-term strategic partnership to a few, short melodramatic moves. In short, he repeated every mistake of the Agra "fiasco". Indeed, from the ceasefire in 1948, with a part of Kashmir, including the crucial Northern Areas, under Pakistani occupation, to the series of giveaways at the Shimla summit of 1972, the Congress has a long tradition of such strategic blunders. Today, by first hyping up and rolling back the nuclear deal, Mr Singh has done his country another disservice. He has muddied the waters for any future Government that may want to revive the deal. His Government has also, unnecessarily, sought to project the deal as the defining factor in the India-US equation. If after all this he can only blame the BJP, good luck to him.
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The Pioneer Edit Desk
Manmohan is economical with history
When in trouble, divert attention. It is the oldest trick in the politician's armoury and for an apparently non-political person, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has learnt it fairly quickly. Under fire for capitulating to the Left and all but abandoning the India-US nuclear deal, he has hit back by questioning the BJP's "moral authority". He has likened the Gujarat violence in 2002 to the Holocaust and reminded Mr LK Advani, the BJP's senior leader, of the "fiasco" at Agra in 2001, when talks with President Pervez Musharraf broke down. It is telling Mr Singh's use of the expression "Holocaust" pointedly referred to the riots that broke out across Gujarat on February 28, 2002. He was not referring to the incineration, a day earlier, of 58 innocent pilgrims, including little children, by an Islamist mob, but that is integral to a hypocrisy that one has come to associate with the UPA Government. If Mr Singh is so convinced of his logic, let him repeat the "Holocaust" remark at an election meeting in Gujarat. It is tempting for a political leader to cite precedents and past instances to make his point. For Mr Singh's party, this is a double-edged weapon. The Congress has ruled India simply so long that it is guilty of almost everything it accuses other parties of doing. The turbulence in Gujarat five years ago pales in comparison to what Congress goons did to countless Sikhs in the aftermath of Mrs Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984. People had their homes and livelihoods looted and destroyed, many were killed or burnt alive; the scars still haunt "resettlement colonies" in the heart of the national capital. How did the then Congress president respond? He dismissed the pogrom, saying: "When a big tree falls, the earth shakes." To many people, it sounded like an explication of the "Final Solution"; to Mr Singh, however, it was anything but a "Holocaust".
The Agra summit was doubtless a failure. The NDA Government walked into it unprepared and without taking the professionals in the Ministry of External Affairs into confidence. It sought to reduce foreign policy to a few, short blockbuster moves. The mistakes were acknowledged by the leaders of the NDA Government almost immediately. Yet, consider how Mr Singh treated the nuclear deal negotiations with the United States. He walked into it without preparing the ground back home, without selling it to a domestic audience. He bypassed the professionals in the Ministry of External Affairs and converted the deal into a one or two-man show. He reduced the building of a long-term strategic partnership to a few, short melodramatic moves. In short, he repeated every mistake of the Agra "fiasco". Indeed, from the ceasefire in 1948, with a part of Kashmir, including the crucial Northern Areas, under Pakistani occupation, to the series of giveaways at the Shimla summit of 1972, the Congress has a long tradition of such strategic blunders. Today, by first hyping up and rolling back the nuclear deal, Mr Singh has done his country another disservice. He has muddied the waters for any future Government that may want to revive the deal. His Government has also, unnecessarily, sought to project the deal as the defining factor in the India-US equation. If after all this he can only blame the BJP, good luck to him.
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