Betraying Buddhists Again

In 2002, when India and Pakistan appeared to be headed for a war, Colin Powell, the U.S. secretary of state played a key role in cooling down the tensions. Apparently a significant part was also played by India’s huge software and information technology industry which asked the government to tone down the rhetoric. No one could have put it better than the metaphor maestro, Tom Friedman who wrote, “That’s right — in the crunch, it was the influence of General Electric, not General Powell, that did the trick.”

While business interests can avert wars, it can also cause nations to support dictators and be mute spectators to genocide. In 2006, when United States and its European partners wanted United Nations to pass a resolution to allow UN peace keepers in Darfur, it was opposed by China. China has leverage with the Sudanese government due to the vast investments in Sudanese oil fields, but has always withstood putting pressure on them. Chinese oil purchases have supported the regime and Chinese made AK-47s are used as the murder weapon in Darfur.

It is not just China which behaves like this. The main opposition to the Iraq war came from Russia, France and Germany who all had lucrative deals with Saddam Hussein. Our own Natwar Singh took kick backs and faked a moral opposition to the war.

With the protest of the Burmese Buddhist monks getting attention from around the world, analysts have concluded that if there is one nation that can exert pressure on the military junta, it is China. China is Burma’s largest trading partner and has the leverage, but it is a foregone conclusion that China will do nothing to help the monks. A nation which suppressed the Tiananmen revolution and brutally murdered Buddhist monks in Tibet would be least interested in bringing democracy to Burma. When the issue was bought up before the United Nations, China protested, similar to the protest in Darfur case.

Occasionally there is a mention that India could do something about the issue in Burma, then it as hilarious as the suggestion by one of the callers on On Point Radio, who said that all Americans should write to Wal-Mart asking it to do something about the freedom struggle in Burma. While the world was watching, India chose to be as insensitive as possible by sending the petroleum minister Murli Deora for business talks. Pranab Mukherjee went one step further and requested the murderers to conduct an enquiry into their own activities which is like asking Veerappan do his own post mortem.

Both India and China are least bothered about the plight of the monks and the human tragedy in Burma. Out of this, India’s behavior is shameful as it is a democracy selling arms to a cruel dictatorship in return for access to oil and gas. When China brutalized Buddhists in Tibet, India kept quiet and now probably to show that the foreign policy is consistent, it is keeping quiet when the show is being repeated in Burma. This was an opportunity for India to take a moral stand and distinguish itself from China, but instead it has chosen to let General Electric run the show.

(Image via Free Burma)

Tags: Burma, China, India, Buddhism

Buddha wins

Islamic terrorists, this time from Pakistan, continue their fight against Buddhist rock carvings.

There was, however, no damage to the image of the sitting Buddha carved into a 40-metre high rock in mountains 20 km north of Mingora, a town in the scenic Swat valley, northwest of the capital, Islamabad.

A group of masked-men tried to destroy the carving on Tuesday, said provincial archaeology department official Aqleem Khan.

“Militants drilled holes in the rock and filled them with dynamite and blew it up,” Khan said on Wednesday.

“The explosion damaged the upper part of the rock but there was no damage to the image itself,” he told Reuters.[Pakistani militants try to blow up Buddha carving]

Tags: Buddhism, Terrorism, Pakistan

Arunachal Pradesh: Taking a stand

It was the failure of Jawaharlal Nehru and V K Krishna Menon and those in India’s ministry of external affairs who were their advisers to understand the Chinese mindset, which led to the national humiliation in the Sino-Indian war of 1962.

Repeated warnings from the Intelligence Bureau about the large-scale Chinese intrusions into the Aksai Chin area of Ladakh and their construction of a road there were not only ignored, but these disturbing developments were kept away from the knowledge of the public and Parliament. They fondly believed that they would be able to make the Chinese see reason and withdraw from this region by observing a policy of silence and not articulating our concerns in public. Their fond hopes were belied.

It was not the Indian intelligence and security forces which were responsible for the 1962 debacle. It was the political leadership, which was living in an illusory world of its own creation [Tawang: Some Indian plain-speaking at last!]

Not much has changed from the days of Nehru in terms of preparedness, but now it is hard to hide such information from the public and Parliament and that in turn forces the Ministers to make hard hitting public statements.

Talking to journalists in Shillong on June 16, Mukherjee said ‘he had made it clear to his new Chinese counterpart that any elected Government of India is not permitted by the provisions of the Constitution to part with any part of our land that sends representatives to the Indian Parliament.’

The minister added: ‘The days of Hitler are over. After the Second World War, no country captures land of another country in the present global context. That is why there is a civilised mechanism of discussions and dialogue to sort out border disputes. We sit around the table and discuss disputes to resolve them.’

Antony told journalists in New Delhi on June 18, ‘China has been building infrastructure (near the Line of Actual Control). We are also building infrastructure. Nobody can prevent both sides. There is nothing wrong in that. They have the right to build infrastructure on their territory. We have the right to do that on ours. We are also trying to hasten the development of our infrastructure. They have their perception (about Arunachal Pradesh). On our part, we are very categorical that Arunachal Pradesh is part of India.’ [Tawang: Some Indian plain-speaking at last!]

I wish they tried some of our suggestions as well.

Diplomatic Middle Finger

When members of the Royal Navy were captured by the Iranians in March, the Iranians made sure that the British were decently humiliated. The sailors had to apologize for straying into Iranian waters and later thank president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for magnanimously releasing them. The entire nation could do nothing, but watch this public humiliation in silence. Now displaying something called spine, the British have knighted Salman Rushdie providing employment opportunities for suicide bombers. The Iranians are upset and made the usual remarks.

There is a lesson from this for us. Now that China is making noise about Arunachal Pradesh (in the spirit of Hindi-Chini-Bhai-Bade Bhai) we can follow the British model and cause some discomfort to the Chinese. One great way would be to ask the Prime Minister of India to give the keynote on the first ‘Conference for an Independent Tibet‘ organized by Friends of Tibet from June 23-24, 2007 in Delhi. Later in the day we could organize a discussion on the teachings of Falun Gong and compare their spiritual practices with Indian spiritual techniques.

Yes, it is juvenile, but sometimes it is the best way to get the message across.

Culture Vultures

In Pakistan

However, photos in the Pakistani media have shown Bakhtiar being helped by a male instructor during a charity parachute jump in France last month to raise money for victims of the devastating October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.

Another picture shows a woman – apparently Bakhtiar – hugging the instructor.

Two clerics at Islamabad’s Red Mosque, in reaction to the media report, issued a fatwa demanding her dismissal, two days after setting up a court to deliver Islamic justice in a bold challenge to President General Pervez Musharraf. [I didn’t hug instructor: Pak minister]

In India

The cultural capital of the country Varanasi has reacted sharply to the kissing by Hollywood actor Richard Gere of Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty during an HIV/AIDS awareness programme at New Delhi.

The self-styled cultural cops of Shiv Sena took out a procession and torched an effigy of Shetty to register their protest at Luxa area here today. The Shiv Sainiks were raising slogans such as ‘Shilpa Shetty hosh mein aao’, ‘Hindustan ki sanskriti se khilwad band karo’ and ‘nari ka apman band karo’.[Sainiks torch Shilpa Shetty’s effigy]

Next time Manmohan Singh sees Musharraf, he better not hug him.

Triggering Musharraf's Dopamine System

Dopamine, a naturally produced chemical in the brain functions as a neuro transmitter, which means that it helps pass signals from one neuron to another. Dopamine is the reward center, so when something pleasurable happens, like news of Quattrocchi being arrested, dopamine is released in your brain. Understanding dopamine can help in your love life and explain Musharraf.

A recent study was conducted on 15 people who were mending broken hearts. They were shown pictures of people to whom they had intense romantic feelings and some neutral images. Magnetic Resonance Images showed that when they saw the pictures of their loved ones, the dopamine system in the brain was triggered. This implied that they still maintained feelings for their loved ones.

After 9/11, Musharraf had to part company with his loved ones, the Taliban and al-Qaeda, to whom he had intense feelings. If you do an MRI on Musharraf’s brain and show him images of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mullah Omar, Osama bin Laden or Mullah Obaidullah Akhund you will see that dopamine system is triggered. In medical tests it has been found that subjects with such failed relationships show brain activity associated with risk taking, and controlling anger. This risk taking mentality explains why Musharraf allows al-Qaeda to roam freely in Pakistan while denying it and we have seen intense anger when it is suggested that Pakistan is not doing enough in the war on terror.

Currently, the relationship between United States and Pakistan, like that between two old lovers has become mundane and not so exciting. Brain studies help here too. It has been noticed that over a period of time, the intensity of the romance between couples fades and something must be done to ignite the passion.

One set of couples were asked to perform new and exciting activities like sailing or an art class while another group was asked to perform familiar activities like dinner with friends. Couples doing new activities found that their quality of marriage got better as the novelty of the new experience triggered the dopamine system.

After 9/11, the relationship between United States and Musharraf has been like that between Charlie Sheen and Heidi Lynne Fleiss. The US pays some money, called aid, and in turn Pakistan offers some Taliban/al-Qaeda types at regular intervals. This worked quite well from 2001 and now after 6 years, the intense romantic feeling has died down. To rekindle the love, United States thought instead of money, why not send some F-16s, but still Musharraf’s dopamine system was not triggered enough.

Then what you need is a drug. Steven Kotler in his book, West of Jesus: Surfing, Science, and the Origins of Belief talks about an experiment conducted by Swiss neurologist Peter Brugger in which he gave the participants L-dopa, a drug used in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Such people had increases in the levels of dopamine, the drug which evolution created to get us to do the things we need to do to survive.

Apparently Dick Cheney has the same effect. We don’t know how much of Musharraf’s dopamine system was triggered by the exciting activity called one on one meeting with man who shot a lawyer in the face, but the end result is that Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, former defense minister of the Taliban government and #3 in the leadership council was arrested.

This also explains why India is not able to get Musharraf to budge on anything. Every time there is a Pakistan sponsored terrorist attack in India, all we do is re-issue previous warnings with just a change in the time stamp on the documents. Then there is the usual accusation/counter accusation new cycle and all goes still till the next terrorist attack. If we are able to pull a Dick Cheney on him, something tangible might happen.

The Safe Base in Paradise

Frederick Forsyth’s new novel The Afghan is about how Islamic Terrorists hijack a ship, convert it into a floating bomb and plan to explode it in the vicinity of another ship carrying the leaders of the G-8 countries. Like all other Forsyth novels like The Day of the Jackal and The Fist of God, this one captivates you till the end with edge of the seat suspense. In one of the scenes in the novel, two crew mates of a ship docked somewhere in the West Indies are murdered and two terrorists who are Kerala Muslims take their place. Forsyth explains that majority of the Indian Muslims are peaceful, there are some indoctrinated ones in Kerala.

There have been incidents in Kerala showing that trouble is brewing in the paradise. One such incident was the Marad massacre.

On May 2, 2003, armed men hacked eight fishermen to death in Marad, Kerala. The judicial commission report which probed this incident found all arms of the “secular” Congress Govt., which was ruling till now, guilty . According to the commission, atleast one senior politician belonging to the Muslim League, a coalition buddy of Congress, had advance knowledge of this conspiracy. The other findings of the commission are explosive and “vote bank” politics was explcitly blamed for this.[Courting the fundamentalists]

Recently it was revealed that Mohammad Fahad, one of the two Pakistani militants arrested in Mysore was based in Kozhikode.

Fahad, hailing from north Nizamabad in Karachi, was issued an Indian visa on November 30, 2005 for 45 days. The Karnataka police had confirmed that he overstayed his time. His stepbrother Abdul Khader, it is learnt, has been taken into custody by the Karnataka police. Abdul Khader is running a fancy shop in Mysore and both his kids are studying in Bangalore, while his wife is residing at Kappad.

Police sources said that the raids at the industrial unit had been carried out for two reasons. The police suspect that the company owner has some relationship with Abdulla Koya. Apart from that a blast had occurred at the site five years ago, the police said.[Massive search operation in Kozhikode district]

So far we have not seen any international terrorists from Kerala, but with political parties actively courting terrorists for staying in power, Kerala could serve a base for such folks.
Cross-posted to the INI Signal.

Musharraf on 60 Minutes

“The Director of Intelligence told me that he said, ‘Be prepared to be bombed.’ Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,” Musharraf remembers.

It was this quote from Musharraf, attributed to Richard Armitage following Sept 11, 2001 that caused quite a flutter in Washington D.C. this week. The program on which he made these remarks, 60 Minutes, was telecast tonight on CBS in which Musharraf spoke about al Qaeda, Taliban, and Dr. A.Q. Khan.

Unlike Katie Couric’s interview of Condoleezza Rice which preceded this program, Steve Kroft, the interviewer did not give a good time to Musharraf, especially when it came to A.Q.Khan.

Musharraf describes Khan as a self-promoter obsessed with fame and power, a lone wolf who exerted person control over key aspects of Pakistan’s nuclear operations and was able to transfer top secret technology with no official help.
“By your own account in the book, A.Q. Khan shipped two dozen centrifuges to North Korea and 18 tons of material and centrifuges to Libya and Iran. How was all of this material moved without someone in the government or the army finding out about it?” Kroft asks.

“First of all, bringing these centrifuges or their parts, these are not huge elements. They can be put into your car and moved,” Musharraf replies.

“You think he moved 18 tons worth of material in his car?” Kroft asks.

Musharraf says the materials, heading to Libya and Iran ” must have been transported many times.”

“But we’ve been to your nuclear facilities enough to know that they’re very heavily guarded and the military is all around them,” Kroft remarks.

How did all this material get out and get sent to Libya?

“What is the military meant for?” asks Musharraf. “That is to safe guard them from outside attack.”

“So obviously your internal controls were a little weak,” Kroft states.

“No, they were not weak,” the president disagreed. “They were very strong.”

“Except for the man who was running the operation,” Kroft remarks.

“Yes of course. He tells his security man this vehicle has to move, okay, to the airport. Okay. Put it in a C-130 and send it,” Musharraf says.[Musharraf: In the Line of Fire]

The interview was short and was a teaser for his upcoming book In the Line of Fire: A Memoir. But it ended on an ominous note citing that his predecessors have either been exiled, imprisoned or died under mysterious circumstances.

Rashomon Effect – Episode 5

President of Pakistan on how he became an ally in the war on terror:

In the CBS report, Musharraf said, “The intelligence director told me that [Armitage] said, ‘Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age.’ “

President of United States

“All I can tell you is that shortly after 9/11, Secretary [of State] Colin Powell came in and said President Musharraf understands the stakes, and he wants to join and help route out an enemy that has come and killed 3,000 of our citizens.”

Musharrafistan

Musharraf knows where bin Laden is, but he cannot catch him because there is a new agreement with the terrorists that the Army won’t chase them. The British and Americans are discovering that the genesis of every terror plot happens in Pakistan. Billions are being poured into plutonium processing plants while science and math are not taught in the madrassas where the next generation Wahhabis are being trained.

Citing all these, Manzoor Ijaz has a scathing op-ed piece in WSJ on Musharraf’s Pakistan.

Neighborly relations are equally dismal despite recent attempts to shore them up. Gen. Musharraf continues to court Tehran’s mullahs, raising Washington’s ire, in hopes of building an Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline that could fund a revival of the Kashmiris’ militant insurgency against India, and keep his restive Inter-Services Intelligence minders happy. His peace overtures to New Delhi, including his recent commitment to restart stalled peace talks at a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Cuba, ring hollow after evidence seems to prove time and again that Pakistani soil — and resources made available from Pakistan — are being used to back terrorist attacks against India.

Pakistan has lost its identity. It is a client state for sale to the highest bidder for the purpose that suits the moment: to the U.S. after 9/11 as the staging grounds for hunting down terrorists; to Saudi Arabia since the Iranian revolution so that Wahhabist Islam could flourish next door to Shiite Iran; and to China as a strategic counterbalance to India’s growing power. While this short-sighted strategy may help ward off complete state failure, it does not provide fertile ground for imaginative plans to realize the country’s potential. Gen. Musharraf must stop being all things to all people, and gather the resolve to tackle what is wrong with Pakistan — or step down from power

Pakistan’s neighbors no longer have cause to want to destabilize it, and, in fact, would prefer a strong and stable country on their borders. India is busy building a world-class economy; making peace with Pakistan over disputed Kashmir is an important priority in that effort. Meetings and dialogue between the leaders of both countries are important, but it’s time to end the talk and walk the walk. Jihadists are not the solution for Kashmir, a fact that Pakistan’s next leader must recognize from the outset. Wresting Kashmir from India by force is not possible, and militarily not prudent. Furthermore, a Pakistan at peace with India would no longer require “strategic depth” by controlling or manipulating affairs in Afghanistan.[Musharrafistan (subscription reqd)]