June 23, 2014 – Brown Pundits

?????

From a total outcaste to a favored friend and companion? We think this is fairly mad, but the liberal-left will probably be stunned by the audacity of change. It was a fight to the death, a bold and brilliant gamble…and they lost out to a tsunamo….

At a political level this is simply a victory for the majority-Gujaratis and like minded American browns, who stood behind their tea-server boy and watched proudly as the bird spread its wings. That is the Hindu truth and we live in a Hindu land for now and forever.

It is interesting (and significant) that such letters are usually written in bipartisan spirit. This exception points to (a) deep R-D polarization in Washington, and/or (b) discomfort amongst Ds with such a blatant u-turn so fast.

The most important question remains: what will Hilary think (or do)?
………..
Two
American lawmakers have written to US House Speaker John Boehner
requesting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi be invited to address a
joint meeting of Congress in September when he travels to Washington at
President Barack Obama’s invitation.

…

“India is a critical
partner of the United States. In every aspect, whether it be in
political, economic, or security relationship, the United States has no
more important partner in South Asia,” Congressmen Ed Royce [Republican from California-39] and George
Holding [Republican from North Carolina-13] wrote in their June 20 letter to the House Speaker, echoing
Obama’s oft-cited statement that US-India relationship will be one of
the defining partnerships of the 21st century.

Royce
and Holding said the US must now work closely with Modi to strengthen
the relationship given that he has promised to focus on private
enterprise, reduce bureaucracy, and strengthen trade ties with major
partners. Since 2001, US-India trade has experienced impressive growth,
but our commercial relationship remains far below the scale of our
markets, they said.

Royce, a California Republican who is
chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee and former co-chair of
the India Caucus, has been a ardent votary of a Washington outreach to
Modi even as some of his colleagues worked to keep the former Gujarat
chief minister out of the US in view of his alleged inaction during the
2002 Gujarat riots. The State Department complied with the pressure from
a few lawmakers and their human rights constituents.

…All
that is now in the past after the White House, pilloried for allowing
the India relationship to drift, initiated a policy turnabout,
ostensibly impressed by the mandate the Indian electorate gave the
Modi-led BJP. Efforts are now on to reset the relationship amid the
discovery in Washington of Modi’s many perceived strengths and virtues.

……..
…….

Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/American-lawmakers-want-Narendra-Modi-to-address-US-Congress/articleshow/36911669.cms

…….

regards

Madam President (2B) speaks her mind

No blow-jobs please…..“It’s like keeping poisonous snakes in your backyard
expecting they will only bite your neighbor”….

defensive……Mind your own business lady pakistan can handle this situation we do not
need any lectures from you…..
imaginative…..One thing seems clear here is that a US-India block and a Pak-Russia block is in the making…..
pragmatic…..She is going to be the next President of the USA. Better pay heed now or the relationship will really go south….

Hilary is supposedly a friend of India. But that was in the good old, pre-Hindu-Brotherhood days. She is definitely a liberal imperialist, and probably takes the Carlotta Gall line on Pakistan (USA is fighting the wrong enemy etc.). At any rate, the reactions are predictable to say the least.

Given how America and her best friends and allies behave (and talk), it is probably a good idea for all parties to step back, reduce expectations and keep a friendly and respectful distance.

In that sense, the India-USA relationship is probably just at the right temperature, not too hot and not too cold. In the meantime there needs to be strengthening of people to people links. Start with small steps: encourage more direct flights between India and USA (why not?).
………
Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has said that
Pakistan’s policy of seeking strategic depth in Afghanistan has been
proven wrong and the country now needs to focus all its strength on
dealing with the militants.
“Their idea, that they have
these groups to provide strategic depth, as they like to say, vis-a-vis
Afghanistan, or vis-a-vis India, I think if that were ever true, which I
doubt, but if that were ever true, it no longer is,” she told Indian
NDTV channel.
….
In the interview that focused on her new book,
‘Hard Choices’, Ms Clinton said that Pakistan also needed to make a hard
choice now, disconnecting its ties to various terrorist groups and
putting together all state powers to “once and for all go after
extremists, shut down their training camps, their safe havens, (and)
madressahs that are inculcating suicide bombing behaviour.”

The Pakistanis must also “begin to have a different view of themselves in the future”, she added.
Ms
Clinton said she believed the Asif Zardari government did not know what
the connections were between elements within the military and the ISI
and various extremist and even terrorist groups.
…
She also said
that those were under the mistaken view that having these kinds of
proxies vis-a-vis India, vis-a-vis Afghanistan were in Pakistan’s
interests.
“It’s like keeping poisonous snakes in your backyard
expecting they will only bite your neighbour and what we are seeing now
is the continuing threat to the state of Pakistan by these very same
elements.”
….
Ms Clinton said that when she visited India after the
Mumbai terror attacks, she was “very struck” by how the then government
said it was very difficult to exercise restraint. “I don’t think any
government could say anything differently.”
…
She said when Sonia
Gandhi and former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh conveyed the news
of the Mumbai terror attacks to her, she told them: “This is an element
within the military intelligence institutional base, but that the
civilian government was not involved. But I think that no country can
turn away from that kind of attack continuously.”
….
She noted that
the terrorists now had moved deeper inside Pakistan, attacking targets
in major Pakistani cities. “We’ve just seen the attacks in Karachi. And I
don’t see how Pakistan can ignore this much longer.”
Asked who
she thought was accountable for the terror attacks, she said: “We
certainly never had any evidence that it went to the very top, but that
may or may not be true.”

……..

Link: http://www.dawn.com/news/1114535/pakistan-needs-to-make-hard-choices-now-hillary

……

regards

Bloody Poila Baisakh (more blood on the menu)

Terrorists, who want to remake Bangladesh into a islamic nation where unislamic activities are banned through violent means are now likely to meet a violent end. We are unhappy with the death sentence though. Bangla society is probably too entrenched ideologically into two halves, for this sentence to be considered fair and just by all.

Just like the concept of Hindu truth and Muslim truth is gaining ground in India, there will now be a P-I truth (folks who believe in the spirit of partition I) and a P-II truth in Bangladesh. On similar lines we can also expect a Buddhist/Tamil truth in Sri Lanka and a Shia/Sunni truth in Pakistan.

Our expectation about Bangladesh is that it will (over time) follow the Pakistan trajectory. Just like Basant is now banned in Lahore, Poila Baisakh (new year) will eventually come to an end in Dhaka. As we have seen in Iraq, islamists have God on their side and will relish a fight to the bitter end. Hangings will create future martyrs for the misty eyed lads of today.
……..
A Bangladeshi court sentenced eight militants to death on Monday for a
2001 bomb attack that killed 10 people during new year celebrations in
the capital Dhaka.

“The attack was carried out to destabilise the
country and create panic, “Judge Ruhul Amin said as he delivered the
verdict in a crowded court in Dhaka’s old city.

The head of the
outlawed Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami (HuJI) outfit, Mufti Abdul Hannan,
was among the eight who were ordered hanged for targeting the
celebrations in Dhaka’s main park which they deemed un-Islamic.

The
judge also sentenced six others to life in prison for setting off two
bombs as thousands of revellers were celebrating the first day of
Bengali New Year on April 14, 2001.
“It’s a heinous attack and
unprecedented in our history,” prosecutor Abdullah Abu told reporters
after the verdicts were announced.
“We’re happy with the eight
death sentenced, but not satisfied with the sentencing of six people who
were given life terms. We’ll appeal against the life sentences. “

The
HuJI chief, better known as Mufti Hannan, is already on death row
having been convicted in 2008 for trying to assassinate the British high
commissioner four years earlier in a grenade attack.

A lawyer for
the defendants, Faruque Ahmed, told AFP that he planned to appeal the
verdicts which he said were politically motivated and designed to “make
people happy in certain quarters”.

Mufti Hannan, who fought
alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan’s civil war, is also accused of
having been behind a plot to assassinate the current Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina when she was leader of the opposition in 2004.

……

Link: http://www.dawn.com/news/1114609/eight-bangladesh-militants-to-hang-for-2001-bombing

……

regards