07-16-2004, 11:02 AM
Geo-politics has to be complemented with geo-culture.
A series of actions which have occurred during the last 10 years and
in particular, after the Berlin wall was broken down and after 9/11,
place Bharat in the epicentre of geopolitics vis-a-vis China and
islam-ism with the super-cop calling the shots.
Entry of Bharat into UN Security Council as a permanent member and
into G-8 (to make it G-10 together with China) is a work in process.
What needs to be done within Bharat is an awareness that the path to
achieving a developed Bharat vision 2020 shouldn't be riddled with
sycophancy and politicking of the type we have witnessed in electoral
politics. On this path, two key markers are: advancement of
fast-breeder reactor technologies to ensure that 20,000 mw of nuclear
energy gets produced by 2020 and the setting up of a National Water
Grid to empower the villagers of Bharat. These two swarajyam
development initiatives alone will take Bharat to its true place in
the comity of nations. If a geo-political perspective has to be added,
Bharat should take the lead in establishing an Indian Ocean Community
(Hindumahasagar Parivar) as a counterbalance to the European
Community. The Hindumahasagar Parivar stretch from the Straits of
Hormuz across Straits of Malacca upto to the west-coast of Australia,
a rim of over 60,000 miles. Rebirth of Vedic River Sarasvati, and
restoration of Angkor Wat (Nagara Vatika) as the cultural identiy of
this parivar has to be taken up with the involvement of all
Bharatiya-s celebrating Bali Yatra on Kartika Purnima day and
Sarasvati janmadivas on Magha S'ukla Pancami day, every year.
Bali Yatra
To commemorate the glorious past of commercial voyages to the islands
of Bali, Java and Sumatra by Orissa Traders, a big fair called 'Bali
Yatra' is held on the Mahanadi river bank at Cuttack.
Saraswati Puja / Shree Panchami
The day marked for the propitiation of Saraswati, the Goddess of
learning is known as Sripanchami or Basanta Panchami. The words 'Sree'
and 'Basanta' are significant to the festival. 'Sree' is beauty and
the other name of 'Saraswati' and Basanta is spring season which
brings beauty and pleasure to the Earth. Therefore it is a festival to
welcome beauty through worship of the Goddess
http://www.orissatv.com/festivals/
Glide path to 'Slide path' ?
By Inder Malhotra
All through the years since the then U.S. President Bill Clinton's
visit to this country, there has been much talk about India and the
United States being "strategic partners", if not "natural allies".
Both officials and analysts have spoken also about a "qualitative
change" in the relationship between the two democracies that had
remained estranged for more than four decades.
It would, of course, be wrong and unfair to dismiss this talk as mere
rhetoric without reality. But despite undoubted desire on both sides
to befriend each other, nagging problems have persisted. There was,
for instance, what the former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee,
used to call America's "double standards" on terrorism. This
inevitably attracted greater attention though the real focus always
was on the painfully slow progress on the key issue of transfer of
high technology to India that had been denied this country for long.
To begin the story from the beginning, it was way back in the 80's
that Indira Gandhi and President Ronald Reagan decided to make
technology transfer the main driving force behind an improvement in
the relations between the world's most populous and most powerful
democracies.
Shortly after her assassination, a comprehensive and highly promising
agreement on cooperation in the area of science and technology was
signed. Hi-tech savvy Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister by then was
enthusiastic about making the accord work. But, thanks to America's
geo-strategic priorities, nothing came of the muchacclaimed agreement.
On the contrary, the U.S. denied this country even a super computer.
This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for Pune-based Indian
scientists were able to build a supercomputer even better than the one
sought from Washington. Almost exactly 20 years and climatic changes
in the global situation later, the story is no longer so bleak but it
is disappointing nonetheless.
During the remaining two years of the Clinton tenure nothing could be
done because his policy on nuclear nonproliferation, even after the
1998 nuclear tests by this country as well as Pakistan, remained one
of capping, rolling back and eventually "eliminating" this country's
nuclear weapons programme. President George W. Bush was not so
hidebound. He had no use for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT),
Clinton's sheet anchor that the U.S. Senate had refused to ratify.
Bush also valued Indian democracy and economic potential much more
than his predecessor did.
Even so, it is a measure of the obstructive power of the
nonproliferation fundamentalists still entrenched in the U.S.
establishment, especially in the State Department, that things moved
at an excruciatingly slow pace, if they moved at all. It took more
than two years of strenuous negotiations at very high levels even to
get a firm American commitment to letting India have the technologies
it was seeking.
In January this year, President Bush and Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee made separate statements spelling out that the U.S. was
willing to transfer to India technologies in the areas of civilian
nuclear programme and space. Another encouraging part of the American
statement was a promise to be more forthcoming in the supply of "dual
use" technologies. To this "trinity" that had been under discussion
since November 2001, the American side added the arena of missile
defence as another area of cooperation but almost immediately there
was some backtracking on this. The "quartet" reverted to trinity" once
again. The Bush declaration was described as the "Next Stepsin
Strategic Partnership (NSSP). It was also given the alias "glide
path".
Surprisingly, within hours of Bush's declaration, welcomed by
Vajpayee, the U.S. Under Secretary of State, Marc Grossman, held a
briefing for the world press during which he poured buckets of very
cold water on what his President had said. What had been announced,
Grossman said, was a declaration of intent that might take "months, if
not years, to implement." The subsequent dragging of feet by the
American side underscored that he was right. The glide path was
turning into slide path.
Not a word of explanation of Grossman's peculiar performance, leave
alone an apology for it ever came from the American side. On the
contrary, U.S. officials embarked on some of the more curious
questioning and argumentation on the subject.
For instance, a U.S. delegation conducted, with Indian consent, an
"inspection" of the end use of a dual use technology imported from the
U.S. Without any evidence of any wrong doing, it declared itself
dissatisfied with its findings. Subsequent talks about "tightening"
Indian export controls turned into a dialogue of the deaf.
After months of nitpicking of this kind some movement towards
translating words into deeds has at last taken place. But regrettably
it is limited and confined only to "cooperation and commerce" in
relation to space.
Only the other day, the U. S. Under Secretary for Commerce and the
principal American interlocutor with India on technology issues, Ken
Juster, wasin Delhi on way to a huge and week-long conference on space
in Bangalore. He let it be known that next year the Boeing, the famous
American corporation and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
would collaborate in the first launch from Indian soil of a satellite
belonging to a third country.
But the vision statement issued by the Bangalore Indo-U.S. Space
Conference was long on platitudinous sentiment and short on a concrete
plan of action. It is in relation to the critically important area of
nuclear power generation, however, that the U.S. performance has been
most unhelpful and depressing. Citing its laws and other difficulties,
the Bush administration has virtually declined to transfer civilian
nuclear technology at a time when India's need for speedy augmentation
of its nuclear power generation is acute.
This, unfortunately, is not all. Several European countries, with
France and Russia in the lead, are keen to join this country's nuclear
power programme. To do this, however, they require the American nod to
a waiver to India from some of the conditions imposed by the Nuclear
Suppliers Group (NSG) which is not forthcoming. For, there is no way
India can either accept full-scope safeguards or sign the NPT or the
additional protocol on enhanced IAEA supervision. New Delhi is
prepared to accept facilityspecific safeguards, as in the past, but is
getting nowhere. Its plea is falling on deaf ears.
There are several ironies in the situation. One of these is that while
China has become a member of the NSG notwithstanding its prolonged
proliferation of both nuclear and missile technologies to Pakistan.
But in India's case even the mildest exception to the NSG rules is not
contemplated, never mind this country's inclusion in the NSG. China,
incidentally, has demanded, in a recent statement, that India should
fully implement the UN's resolution 1172 that requires this country to
give up nuclear weapons and sign the NPT as a non-nuclear country.
With Beijing the matter can be taken up separately. The pertinent
point is that strategic partners have to do more than the U.S. seems
prepared to do so far. Juster was told this during his stay in Delhi.
http://www.samachar.com/features/090704-features.html
A series of actions which have occurred during the last 10 years and
in particular, after the Berlin wall was broken down and after 9/11,
place Bharat in the epicentre of geopolitics vis-a-vis China and
islam-ism with the super-cop calling the shots.
Entry of Bharat into UN Security Council as a permanent member and
into G-8 (to make it G-10 together with China) is a work in process.
What needs to be done within Bharat is an awareness that the path to
achieving a developed Bharat vision 2020 shouldn't be riddled with
sycophancy and politicking of the type we have witnessed in electoral
politics. On this path, two key markers are: advancement of
fast-breeder reactor technologies to ensure that 20,000 mw of nuclear
energy gets produced by 2020 and the setting up of a National Water
Grid to empower the villagers of Bharat. These two swarajyam
development initiatives alone will take Bharat to its true place in
the comity of nations. If a geo-political perspective has to be added,
Bharat should take the lead in establishing an Indian Ocean Community
(Hindumahasagar Parivar) as a counterbalance to the European
Community. The Hindumahasagar Parivar stretch from the Straits of
Hormuz across Straits of Malacca upto to the west-coast of Australia,
a rim of over 60,000 miles. Rebirth of Vedic River Sarasvati, and
restoration of Angkor Wat (Nagara Vatika) as the cultural identiy of
this parivar has to be taken up with the involvement of all
Bharatiya-s celebrating Bali Yatra on Kartika Purnima day and
Sarasvati janmadivas on Magha S'ukla Pancami day, every year.
Bali Yatra
To commemorate the glorious past of commercial voyages to the islands
of Bali, Java and Sumatra by Orissa Traders, a big fair called 'Bali
Yatra' is held on the Mahanadi river bank at Cuttack.
Saraswati Puja / Shree Panchami
The day marked for the propitiation of Saraswati, the Goddess of
learning is known as Sripanchami or Basanta Panchami. The words 'Sree'
and 'Basanta' are significant to the festival. 'Sree' is beauty and
the other name of 'Saraswati' and Basanta is spring season which
brings beauty and pleasure to the Earth. Therefore it is a festival to
welcome beauty through worship of the Goddess
http://www.orissatv.com/festivals/
Glide path to 'Slide path' ?
By Inder Malhotra
All through the years since the then U.S. President Bill Clinton's
visit to this country, there has been much talk about India and the
United States being "strategic partners", if not "natural allies".
Both officials and analysts have spoken also about a "qualitative
change" in the relationship between the two democracies that had
remained estranged for more than four decades.
It would, of course, be wrong and unfair to dismiss this talk as mere
rhetoric without reality. But despite undoubted desire on both sides
to befriend each other, nagging problems have persisted. There was,
for instance, what the former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee,
used to call America's "double standards" on terrorism. This
inevitably attracted greater attention though the real focus always
was on the painfully slow progress on the key issue of transfer of
high technology to India that had been denied this country for long.
To begin the story from the beginning, it was way back in the 80's
that Indira Gandhi and President Ronald Reagan decided to make
technology transfer the main driving force behind an improvement in
the relations between the world's most populous and most powerful
democracies.
Shortly after her assassination, a comprehensive and highly promising
agreement on cooperation in the area of science and technology was
signed. Hi-tech savvy Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister by then was
enthusiastic about making the accord work. But, thanks to America's
geo-strategic priorities, nothing came of the muchacclaimed agreement.
On the contrary, the U.S. denied this country even a super computer.
This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for Pune-based Indian
scientists were able to build a supercomputer even better than the one
sought from Washington. Almost exactly 20 years and climatic changes
in the global situation later, the story is no longer so bleak but it
is disappointing nonetheless.
During the remaining two years of the Clinton tenure nothing could be
done because his policy on nuclear nonproliferation, even after the
1998 nuclear tests by this country as well as Pakistan, remained one
of capping, rolling back and eventually "eliminating" this country's
nuclear weapons programme. President George W. Bush was not so
hidebound. He had no use for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT),
Clinton's sheet anchor that the U.S. Senate had refused to ratify.
Bush also valued Indian democracy and economic potential much more
than his predecessor did.
Even so, it is a measure of the obstructive power of the
nonproliferation fundamentalists still entrenched in the U.S.
establishment, especially in the State Department, that things moved
at an excruciatingly slow pace, if they moved at all. It took more
than two years of strenuous negotiations at very high levels even to
get a firm American commitment to letting India have the technologies
it was seeking.
In January this year, President Bush and Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee made separate statements spelling out that the U.S. was
willing to transfer to India technologies in the areas of civilian
nuclear programme and space. Another encouraging part of the American
statement was a promise to be more forthcoming in the supply of "dual
use" technologies. To this "trinity" that had been under discussion
since November 2001, the American side added the arena of missile
defence as another area of cooperation but almost immediately there
was some backtracking on this. The "quartet" reverted to trinity" once
again. The Bush declaration was described as the "Next Stepsin
Strategic Partnership (NSSP). It was also given the alias "glide
path".
Surprisingly, within hours of Bush's declaration, welcomed by
Vajpayee, the U.S. Under Secretary of State, Marc Grossman, held a
briefing for the world press during which he poured buckets of very
cold water on what his President had said. What had been announced,
Grossman said, was a declaration of intent that might take "months, if
not years, to implement." The subsequent dragging of feet by the
American side underscored that he was right. The glide path was
turning into slide path.
Not a word of explanation of Grossman's peculiar performance, leave
alone an apology for it ever came from the American side. On the
contrary, U.S. officials embarked on some of the more curious
questioning and argumentation on the subject.
For instance, a U.S. delegation conducted, with Indian consent, an
"inspection" of the end use of a dual use technology imported from the
U.S. Without any evidence of any wrong doing, it declared itself
dissatisfied with its findings. Subsequent talks about "tightening"
Indian export controls turned into a dialogue of the deaf.
After months of nitpicking of this kind some movement towards
translating words into deeds has at last taken place. But regrettably
it is limited and confined only to "cooperation and commerce" in
relation to space.
Only the other day, the U. S. Under Secretary for Commerce and the
principal American interlocutor with India on technology issues, Ken
Juster, wasin Delhi on way to a huge and week-long conference on space
in Bangalore. He let it be known that next year the Boeing, the famous
American corporation and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
would collaborate in the first launch from Indian soil of a satellite
belonging to a third country.
But the vision statement issued by the Bangalore Indo-U.S. Space
Conference was long on platitudinous sentiment and short on a concrete
plan of action. It is in relation to the critically important area of
nuclear power generation, however, that the U.S. performance has been
most unhelpful and depressing. Citing its laws and other difficulties,
the Bush administration has virtually declined to transfer civilian
nuclear technology at a time when India's need for speedy augmentation
of its nuclear power generation is acute.
This, unfortunately, is not all. Several European countries, with
France and Russia in the lead, are keen to join this country's nuclear
power programme. To do this, however, they require the American nod to
a waiver to India from some of the conditions imposed by the Nuclear
Suppliers Group (NSG) which is not forthcoming. For, there is no way
India can either accept full-scope safeguards or sign the NPT or the
additional protocol on enhanced IAEA supervision. New Delhi is
prepared to accept facilityspecific safeguards, as in the past, but is
getting nowhere. Its plea is falling on deaf ears.
There are several ironies in the situation. One of these is that while
China has become a member of the NSG notwithstanding its prolonged
proliferation of both nuclear and missile technologies to Pakistan.
But in India's case even the mildest exception to the NSG rules is not
contemplated, never mind this country's inclusion in the NSG. China,
incidentally, has demanded, in a recent statement, that India should
fully implement the UN's resolution 1172 that requires this country to
give up nuclear weapons and sign the NPT as a non-nuclear country.
With Beijing the matter can be taken up separately. The pertinent
point is that strategic partners have to do more than the U.S. seems
prepared to do so far. Juster was told this during his stay in Delhi.
http://www.samachar.com/features/090704-features.html