A QUICK SURVEY OF WORLD EVENTS
Dr. Santishree. D.N.B. Pandit
The heralding of the millennium, though
preponed by a year has not been easy for India’s foreign policy. The hijacking
of the IC-814 and the flight of the Tibetan Buddhist Lama from Lhasa
have created more complications. At a time when India wanted to ease her
relations with China on several fronts, especially trade and commerce, the
Tibetan issue has put the relations on a strain. The breaking up of Indonesia,
in particular its ethnic framework has indeed put relations between the Muslims
and Christians in bad shape. It is indeed a blow to the secular fabric in the
region. The human bomb attack on Chandrika Kumartunga in Colombo by the LTTE
has made South Asia rethink on the issue of terrorism.
Closer home, the problems in UP for the BJP with the expulsion of the backward class leader and chief minister Kalyan Singh will affect the image of the party. The Orissa cyclone was devastating and brought to the forefront the inadequate disaster management systems that India has.
The recent hijacking of the IC-814 from
Kathmandu to New Delhi on its flight on 24 December was an event that did
expose India as a soft state. In his classic two volume book, “Open Society and
its enemies”, Karl Popper did discuss this issue. For that matter all
democracies are soft states when compared to military totalitarian or Marxist
authoritarian regimes. But this does not mean that democracies cannot be
vigilant, for them, the only solace is that authoritarian backward looking
theocracies like the Taliban also had to taste its medicine. The recent
hijacking of Ariana plane to Kazakhistan, Moscow and finally to London has
totally exposed the Taliban ruling junta. It is clear that the Taliban is not
acceptable to the majority Afghans. This event has undermined the political
legitimacy of the Taliban to rule and as well as their benefactors Pakistan and
supporters UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Why are terrorists, especially foreign
mercenaries who are caught, kept in jails for so long at the poor Indian
taxpayer’s cost? Why this special treatment to these terrorists?
China-Pakistan nexus is threatening but not
for the USA who is their fi’iend
and ally. It is time that Indian
decision-makers took a serious
view to tackling terrorism, rather than adopting an ad hoc and weak-kneed
approach. Here we have a lot to learn from the Islamic world and China. India
will have to tell these terrorists and their supporters that human rights
cannot be given to those who do not practice them.
Following the hijacking crisis, before one
could recover was the arrival after a long hard trek from across Tibet to
Dharmashala was the fourteen year old Karmapa. His arrival is a big blow to
China’s Tibet policy and all its attempts to subdue an independent people that
refuse to accept Chinese sovereignty.
China has been resettling non-Tibetans
especially Han Chinese in Tibet and Xingjiang making the local people a
minority in their own state. Worse still is the instability on our borders. The
case of Indonesia, where there the Multi-ethnic fabric was maintained very
well till the great economic crash of 1997 which finally led to the
downfall of the Suharto’s regime. His party, the Golkar party was in power till
the elections. The elections gave a complex result with Megawati Sukarnoputri
emerging as the strongest contender but Abdur Rehman Wahid became the
President, who shrewdly took Megawati as his deputy. The clashes between the
Christians and Muslims started in East Timor, which independence due to the interest
of Australia. It was good that the Indonesian President’s recent visit to India
can help revive good bilateral relations and India has also started looking
east since the 1990’s.
The attempt on Chandrika Kumaratunga has been
unfortunate by the LITE. This outfit was a Frankenstein helped by India, which
has become such terror with its cannibalistic policies. What is unfortunate is
that now India is a victim of terrorism and has a lot of embarrassment? Once a
terrorist always a terrorist, he does not turn into a democrat any time. It is
time that India took some positive steps in the region with the help of the
smaller friendlier neighbours.
Terrorists with the arrival of globalization
is enjoying the benefits of a borderless world. India’s neighbourhood has
become the single largest genepool of terrorism in the world. What is needed is
a collective global as well Asian initiative. Russia, China, Israel, USA and
India are threatened by Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. These terrorists
enjoy global linkages. Afghanistan and
Pakistan are the havens of Islamic terrorists. The current head of the Islamic
radical group which assassinated Anwar Sadat, the former Egyptian President is
believed to be taking refuge in Afghanistan after its crackdown in Egypt. Many
of the Arab countries have not recognized the Taliban due to its complexity in
sheltering, aiding and abetting narco-terrorism. The Chechen leaders who have
run away from Grozny are the official guests of Islamabad and the Taliban.
The roots of this region having such a huge
terrorist network, the credit goes to the USA, which in its short steadiness of
opposing Soviet Russia was generous to these Islamic groups with weapons. It
was a CIA financed jihad. For all the human rights, that USA silently accepted
the killing of Najibullah in a brutal way by the Taliban. The killing was
un-Islamic as well and was not condemned by this great defender of freedom and
democracy USA. Russia has bluntly accused the USA of supporting terrorists and
separatists, the first time since the end of the Cold war. It seems to be
playing a double game in Kosovo, where the KLA was protected and the Serbs
attacked. This has put the United States in a fix for they are having
anti-terrorism squads and also have been the originators of the jihad groups in
Afghanistan. It is like a Catch-22 situation.
The US President Bill Clinton’s visit is
indeed an important event for it is during the tenure of Clinton that the
relations took a round about turn. This favourable turn is due to International
events as well as the Indian market. This indeed slowly did bring the relations
on track. The Pakistani adventurism in Kargil and their support to Islamic
terrorists who targeted the West as well as India, brought India and US even
closer.
At present Indo-US relations is much broader
and deeper than a single factor. It is a multi dimensional relationship, which
should be strengthened to fight, Chinese nationalist imperialism and the
Islamic terrorism that is transnational phenomena aimed at attacking all
civilized non-Islamic democratic states. Even the Chechen rebel leader is in
Pakistan to collect the jihadis. General Musharaf has pushed all these groups
to the LOC saying it is a holy war. This bilateral relationship between India
and the US transcended Pakistan.
The issue of Hindu right groups making an
uproar on the filming of “Water” is indeed unfortunate. I am a proud Hindu but
that cannot make me exclusivist. It goes against the grain of a pluralistic
civilization that I am proud of. It is here where Hinduism’s uniqueness and
strength lies.
The elections in Bihar has once again proved
that violence has been a part of the Indian democracy and this has been so in
this state which once was the birth place of the greatest Indian and the first
rationalist, Gautama Buddha. But now it is so backward that the elections had
proved that however corrupt Laloo is still popular in Bihar where there is a
high rate of illiteracy and poverty.
It is interesting to note that a study done
in Orissa by an institute on electoral participation has come up with
statistics that clearly show that an educated public and those that are
emancipated from all castes have
voted for the BJP. The Congress has got its support from the illiterate, poor
and the Muslims. This indeed brings in the argument that the larger the middle
classes, the larger the support for the B.J.P.
The review of the Constitution, which is a
simple straightforward exercise has got the most curious reaction. The Dalits
think that it is sacred as their leader wrote it. The fact is Dr. B. R.
Ambedkar was only the Chairman of the drafting Committee, but he did not write
all. There were several legal luminaries who also worked. It is a collective
document. It is not a religious book that is infallible. The Congress thinks
that as it has nothing else this can be made into an issue. A review is not
change and no party has the required strength. The hue and cry is just to
distract rather than participate.