brahma chellaney: out of sync, out of mind

mar 5th, 2007

sorry no URL, so i will only post a short excerpt.

it is amazing how on-the-money brahma usually is. i haven't spoken to him for a while, but it's a pleasure chatting with someone who is so focused on the national interest and who does not suffer fools or charlatans gladly.

yes, when even the bushies are setting fire to mushy's tail, forcing him to cough up the odd taliban, the invertebrates are embracing him. despite akshardham, despite the parliament attack, despite samjhauta, despite bombay, despite godhra.

vajpayee did his thing in his 'uncle' mode, surely chivvied on by the obvious mole at the top. now the invertebrates are acting on their fantasies.

amazing. normally the invertebrates act as america's lackeys. how come here they are going even beyond america's embrace?

clearly a foreign-policy decision arrived at entirely by their own little lonesome selves, with lavish input from karat and yechuri and xinhua, and no input from the vatican and foggy bottom. what do they call it, 'independent foreign policy'? independent, my foot!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Harsh

Just when international pressure is building up on
Musharraf, India is cosying up to him

OUT OF SYNC, OUT OF MIND

By BRAHMA CHELLANEY

Hindustan Times, March 6, 2007

In the absence of a long-term strategy, foreign-policy
swings are inevitable. The pendulum has moved back and
forth on India's Pakistan policy with such frequency
in the past eight years since Atal Bihari Vajpayee
rode a bus to Lahore that any pretence of consistency
in approach has long been lost. Yet, even by that
standard, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's surprise
embrace of military-ruled Pakistan as a fellow victim
of and joint partner against terror puts India out of
sync with the growing international focus on that
country's descent as the fount of transnational
terrorism.

Just when Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf has come
under mounting pressure from his chief benefactor,
America, over his unwillingness or incapacity to crack
down on terrorist radicals in his midst, the first
meeting of the joint Indo-Pakistan anti-terror
mechanism is being held in Islamabad from Tuesday.
That meeting, dissonantly signifying that the victim
has joined hand with the assailant, is strikingly at
odds with the stern warnings a stream of US officials
have delivered to Musharraf, including two
secrecy-shrouded visitors to Islamabad — Vice
President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Robert
Gates.

As in May 2001 when the sphinx-like Vajpayee blithely
helped lift Musharraf's international-pariah status by
inviting him all of a sudden to Agra, India is out of
step again. It has eased the pressure on Pakistan just
when the rest of the world is beginning to exert
pressure over its metastasizing terrorism. Ever since
Dr. Singh made Pakistan a joint partner against
terror, Western officials increasingly are speaking up
about the Pakistani terrorist threat.

... deleted