sep 26th
is this fallout from the iran affair, a crumb being thrown india's way via the yanks?
iran is apparently pissed at india, or so claims the bbc (which of course is run by pakistanis, so it's hard to take them at face value). as i have been asking, what exactly has iran done for india lately? offered to sell gas? cajoled india to agree to that stupid pipeline through pakistan?
despite mani shankar aiyar's desperate oil and gas deals, i dont think india really needs to panic and give into blackmail. india's ties with iran are based on long-term interests in containing the pak murderers, the isi-taliban. a small hiccup here and there doesn't matter.
6 comments:
Hi Rajeev,
Came across a nice link by a desi scientist based in US
http://www.indiacause.com/columns/OL_040321.htm
-Sameer
Thanks to our fantastic diplomacy.
LNG deal is off
Now what?
Perhaps our esteemed Foreign Minister and Tom Lantos will together produce all the LNG for our energy needs.
kapidhwaja, i am not sure we've heard the last of this deal. iran needs to sell its gas. india is a good customer. and indo-iranian ties have a long history and this little incident is not enough to throw that away for good. iranians are feeling increasingly isolated, and they need some friends.
also iran is acutely aware of the great game in central asia and if it doesn't watch out, the russians, the chinese and the americans are going to really squeeze them.
also look at the bright side. if this deal is off, then the iran-pak-india pipeline (one of the most brain-dead ideas in recent years, which could only have been formed in the brain of someone on the saudi payroll) is also dead.
michael porter of harvard talks about supplier power and buyer power. india as a major buyer has some leverage, and we need to use it more often and more brutally. if someone doesn't do things we like, we should cut them out of our list of approved buyers.
but then, the banana-republic-minded 'leaders' of nehru vintage cannot conceive of anything other than 'bogu' (bend over and grease up). they simply cannot conceive of india as a nation that can bully, threaten, cajole, strong-arm, arm-twist, etc. the funny thing is, the rest of the world can, not india's 'leaders'.
of course, this is very possibly because they are on the payroll of the saudis, vatican, baptists, or china.
the other possibility (not to be discounted) is that they're dumb, senile, or both.
If the Iranians have said no the LNG deal, it is better to find out now rather than be blackmailed 15 years from now.
That said, the Indian decision to vote with the US makes little economic or political sense.
Surely, it is the Congresswallahs can understand the dangers dealing with the likes of Frist-Delay.
Yet, for the first time since Independence, India has gone on the side of the US -- let us see what dividends this will bring India. I am not holding my breath.
TallIndian
Hello Rajeev,
Your columns are always a fuel for the soul - so many times you have put my thoughts in black & white.
Please note - it is not very obvious on the blog site, how to make a comment, at least on first sight for a non regular user.
Looking forward to more
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