Stamps

31 st October is the day when both Indira Gandhi and Amrita Pritam left this world. Apart from both of them being contemporaries I find many parallels in their gritty and rebellious lives.

Amrita's life was a typical artist's life. She seems to have channelized both her personal sadness as well as public grief into an exquisite creative expression. So while her early work is driven by the loss of her mother at a young age and the colossal human suffering resulting from the partition of the Indian sub continent ; her later work drew more and more from her personal life. Her collapsing marriage , her unfulfilled relationship with Sahir Ludhyanvi and her eventual common law relation with Imroz probably firmed her feminist perspective. Her writings are intense and manage to take hold of you even in translation.

Indira Gandhi also lost her mother to TB at an early age . That fact seems to have shaped her personality to a large extent. Not only did this tragedy bring both father and daughter closer and made them interdependent , it also built a tough autocratic core to her . Again like Amrita she flayed convention to elope with Firoz ; not only many years her senior but of a different faith. That could not have been easy but obviously she got her way even in her youth. It is another matter that her marriage eventually was put on ice as she moved in to run her father's household. Leaving Firoz to his own devices. So both these women seem to have confronted personal relationship challenges. Great turmoil is a constant subtext of their life stories . Partition in case of Amrita and anti- sikh riots in case of Indira Gandhi.
As far as her life's work is concerned she has left an indelible stamp on modern India. Three things mainly stand out. Bangladesh war - the credit for winning that war has to go to Sam Manekshaw; Gen. Jagjit Singh Arora and the soldiers . One must say though that Pakistan did not stand any chance . What with open revolt in Bangladesh , most likely given enough time even mukti vahini alone would have done the job themselves. The political decision of helping Bangladesh to secede on the other hand is Indira's alone . In retrospect that has proved to be a poor decision. East Pakistan would have been a constant nag and a huge drag on Pakistan which suited Indian interests;. Instead now we have an ungrateful and hostile independent Bangladesh. Which is only another headache for India. However to be fair to Mrs. Gandhi it seemed like a good thing to do in '71.
Next in line is emergency that she clamped down in '75. Really no comments are necessary. It was a rank bad dictatorial move by her. A serious blot on her political sagacity. The last highlight of her political career is her Punjab policy which in association with Akali politics created terrorism in Punjab and culminated in Operation Bluestar. Aftermath of that ill thought action is still felt from Canada to HongKong. And of course that terribly shameful riot in '84,; that was more a handiwork of her legacy since she was already gone by then. Tragically felled by the bullets meant to protect her.

Lotus without Roots

Lotus has a root/stem that is quite a bit more useful than the flower itself. At least for a lot of people who use it as a food, throughout India and the world. In fact in some cuisines like in Kashmir, this part of lotus is considered a delicacy that has a star role. It is a 'must serve' in all banquets , feasts and on high occasions. In fact often during marriage season its demand far exceeds supply and the rates hit the roof. Thankfully there is a lot of it there and so the day is usually saved at some cost.
Imagine a day when lotus roots start disappearing or rotting away for some reason. How long can the flower continue ? How much of a use will the lotus be for the people ?
There is a lesson in all this for everyone. If you move away from your roots , no matter how beautiful you are , you'll shrink.
Is BJP listening to what people are telling them again and again. I heard a very weird explanation for their poor showing in Maharashtra. Apart from blaming every other party they called the electronic voting machines used in the election' crooked electronic cheating machines'. Their partner in defeat virtually called voters of Maharashtra names for not choosing them.
The voter's message of strictly limited use of a lotus without roots is sadly lost on them.

Bombs and US

Bombs go off everyday, specially in a place like Afghanistan. But bombs have to be set and they have to be detonated. Bombs have a target and an intended impact.
Who can benefit from bombing Indian Embassy in Kabul? Afghan's do not benefit by scaring them since Indians have only poured money into improving infrastructure in their country. Moreover more afghan's have got hit by these bombs than Indians. Taliban do not really benefit by antagonizing
their local support. Only other players in the field are the Americans and Pakistani's. It is the Pakistani's who do not value Afghan lives and if by expanding them they can hit Indian's as well. All the more better!

So nothing has changed as far as Pakistani support for terrorism goes. Pakistani's sees India's presence in Kabul as threatening , specially they are completely convinced that Indian trade mission's in other Afghan towns are center's of intrigue against the Pakistani state. The real reasons is that everyone is jockeying for an advantageous position in a post war Afghanistan. Indians want a friendly country that is not exactly a friend of Pakistan and Pakistani's want to use Afghan territory for hands free launching of strikes against India. They can't let a stable Afghan nation exist. American's are anxious to end this war one way or the other. They do not have the stomach or the political will to take on the real monkey in the work. The Pakistani ISI that is muddying the water for everyone to go away in order for them to hunt in Afghanistan unchallenged.

looking under the lamp post

USA's war on the terror reminds me of this story about this guy who was pacing up and down under a street light looking nervous and worried. A passerby asked him if he needs any help. "I lost my wallet." He said. " O.K. I will help you look for it . Was it around here?" Passerby offered. " No! Actually it was over there". "So why are you looking for it here", Passerby wondered . " Because it is dark over there"; the worried man answered !

Not only was USA's Iraq mission seriously flawed and totally unnecessary , remember no WMD's were ever found . Just because they were never there in the first place. Then came the quest for Top leadership of Al Quiada and US made a greater blunder by going into the wrong country again by moving forces into Afghanistan when they should have gone into Pakistan first. Have they found a single significant leader ? Without degrading Al Quaida's support systems nurtured by the Pakistan Army's ISI itself, no significant military objective against them can ever be achieved.
Remember Taliban is sandwiched between US Forces in Afghanistan and Pakistani army. You have to ask this question as to how and where does Taliban regroup and where do they get their supplies from. Which army is either incompetent or is sleeping on the wheel. Or maybe in direct cahoots with Taliban. Which army?

Although US is now trying to take the war to Al Quaida in the Pakistani territory by making some insipid drone attacks which have invariably hit civilians and done more damage to the cause. And believe it or not - by throwing more money at the Pakistani Army. Very same one which is long confirmed of secret links with Taliban and Al Quaida. This exercise also seems to be a case of too little too late and doomed from the start. Again a case of looking for answers in the wrong place .No wonder US allies are hunting for an exit strategy from Afghanistan without caring if the world is more unsafe than before. Remember Pakistan has a confirmed WMD and their national hero A.Q. Khan was running a nuclear Walmart just a while ago. Much as US would like to paint Iranians in the dark colors it is the Pakistani regime which has engaged in the proliferation . In fact that has been the mainstay of their nuclear programme. Do not be surprised if a couple of dirty bombs are lurking in some basement in Islamabad waiting for an opportune moment.

US may close its eyes to this , feeling that they are too far away for such a mess to be directed at them and it is more of a problem for India. Trouble is they have been wrong before . Before 26/11 they could not imagine such an attack on the American soil either. For a change they must try looking beyond the streetlights and focus on South Punjab province of Pakistan; they'll know who nurtures Taliban infrastructure both overtly and covertly. Also it must be clear to even the most dense US commander in the field that without emasculating the GHQ in Islamabad you can not win in Kabul. Question is how long it will be before they can convince their politicians to stop looking under the Lamppost.