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Rabble Rousing Random Ramblings by S Jagadish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
In November 2006, China's Ambassador to India confirmed what everyone knew: China still laid claim to Arunachal Pradesh. That he did it a few days before Hu Jintao's visit to India made his claim even more brazenly un-diplomatic.
If we thought the last couple of years has seen some improvement in relations over the border dispute, it is time think again. Going by news reports, earlier this month, Chinese troops intruded 1 km inside of Indian territory across the China-Sikkim border.
The Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha had called for an indefinite bandh in the Darjeeling area to up the ante over their demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland. The bandh resulted in a blockade on a national highway which is pretty much Sikkim's only road link with the rest of the country.
While it is not clear how long ago China's incursion happened and indeed if it is related to Sikkim being cut-off, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of it recurring especially of the blockade of the highway continues. In fact, External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, was in China in early June. If at all China had intruded into Sikkim then, they're basically asking India to go take a hike on the border dispute.
In this context, it is impossible to agree to Subramanian Swamy's plea in his article in 'The Hindu' yesterday that the two sides must look beyond the border issue. The maxim, with China, must always be "Don't trust, verify". In addition, I think India lost a golden opportunity to arm-twist China when there was large-scale rioting in Tibet. Earlier this year, when the monks wanted to go across the border on the anniversary of the uprising against the Chinese government, India should have let them go. The argument should have been that if China considered Tibet to be part of China, there should be nothing wrong in letting Chinese citizens go back to their homeland! That would have potentially given India a lot of leverage.
But, India ended up sucking-up bigtime with China, possibly in the hope that this would result in better relations and progress on the border dispute. Obviously China saw it differently!
On a side note, I really wonder why 'The Hindu' gives so much space to non-entities like Subramaniam Swamy or Veerappa Moily. Almost on a daily basis quotes, articles & comments from them end up in this newspaper. The other person is Deve Gowda, but at least he is a former PM and is still a major power centre in Karnataka. I don't even know when was the last time Swamy or Moily won a Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly election!
Labels: arunachal pradesh, border, china, dispute, india, sikkim, the hindu
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Water - the flavour of the fortnight
First, it was Canada's nominee to the Oscars, Deepa Mehta's movie 'Water', finding itself in the final shortlist in the 'Foreign Language Film' category.
Then, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had their usual tussle over the Kaveri/Cauvery. This time it was after the tribunal announced its decision. This resulted in most folks rushing back home early last Monday, a bandh yesterday and a total blackout of Tamil channels from cable television.
Here're a few questions for the morons who're responsible for this blackout, as well as others who support their stand:
- Do you seriously think an act of not allowing Tamil channels to be beamed to homes having cable TV is likely to get those sections of the Tamil populace who're still siding with Tamil Nadu, over to your side? I've been pissed off far too many times with this militant brand of Kannada chauvinism. I've reached the end of my patience. You've now officially lost any sort or empathy I'd have ever had.
- Are you protesting against the tribunal's decision? Last I checked, there were no Tamilians in the tribunal.
- Have you considered the fact that the politicians know that a review of the decision can be sought. Why do you need to cause hardship to the population at large if a review application is on the cards anyway?
- The bandh is over. You've had your bloody say and way. Can we have the channels back please? How long is this going to continue? Until you chaps have gone through the 1000-page order and then decided on which parts of Karnataka each of you is going to own for causing chaos?
- I'm unaware of the number of Kannadigas living in Tamil Nadu. I suspect the number will be far less than the number of Tamilians living in Karnataka. Yet, had the judgement gone the other way, consider the reality that one of those Kannadigas would have been writing a similar post, not me.
- Would you like it if say a relative of yours, living in Tamil Nadu and unable to comprehend/speak Tamil, was told summarily by a TNEB official to bloody well talk to him in Tamil since he was living in Tamil Nadu?
- Would you like it if that said relative was asked to shut up and bear the absence of Kannada channels since he should sympathize with Tamil Nadu's protests when he was in that state, else he could pack his bags and go? The above questions aren't rhetorical. I've had these put to me by officials at BESCOM and by my cable TV service provider.
The third water related issue that happened was Professor Raymond Lafitte declaring the India-Pakistan slugfest over the Baglihar dam as a draw, as was reported here last November. His decision gives Pakistan the boasting rights while India can move on with the construction of the dam, with a few changes, as Nitin writes. In total contrast to the transparency that it demands of governments, the World Bank as of now, doesn't even have a press release announcing the decision on its website. Purely going by Pakistan's attempts to paint the decision as vindicating its stand, it seems a classical case of the Tamil saying 'Kuppara vizhundhaalum meesaiyila mannu ottalai'. This is literrally translated as "Although I fell flat on my face, mud didn't stick to my face", and is a metaphor for a hopeless attempt at saving face!
Labels: baglihar, blackout, cable tv, cauvery, chauvinism, dispute, india, kannada, karnataka, kaveri, oscars, pakistan, tamil nadu, water
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"No more remakes", swear Tamil and Kannada film makers
The following happened today, triggered by an event around noon.
Offices, shops, schools etc. shut down very early, in the afternoon in fact. There were incidents of stone throwing, tyre burning, dharnas etc. despite the presence of policemen. Tamil channels went off the air on cable television because the cable operators' association was also protesting.
No, these didn't happen because Rajkumar died again or because there was yet another bandh in support of Karnataka's claims over Belgaum.
All that happened following the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's ruling today. The overall perception in Karnataka is that the decision favours Tamil Nadu. There're accusations of Karunanidhi (ab)using his Lok Sabha seats to get the decision in his favour. This obviously indicates that had the Congress (I) administrators in Karnataka done their job in the previous election (In 2004, the Congress (I) won 8 seats in Karnataka while the DMK won 16 from Tamil Nadu in 2004) as well as when HD Kumaraswamy hoodwinked them last year to become CM, the decision on the river waters would have been in Karnataka's favour. I find that line of reasoning hard to accept.
Buses from/to Tamil Nadu were also affected. I'm unsure about the status of trains. I'm not going to take my TN registered (and lifetime Karnataka state tax paid for, by the way) two-wheeler out for a few days because of the thugs terrorists prowling the streets!
In fact, I'm fairly sure that the situation would have been similar in Tamil Nadu had the verdict been different. If anything, Tamil Nadu protests in an even more macabre manner, like ... umm ... by burning a bus with college students in it.
Yet, some good may come out of all this. Sources in the Kannada and Tamil film industries close to me revealed that they were actively considering stopping remakes. It is no secret that a lot of Kannada movies/film songs are heavily inspired blatant remakes of Tamil movies. It is also no secret that most Vijay movies in Tamil are remakes of Mahesh Babu's movies in Telugu.
Hence, film makers in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have apparently agreed that Kannada movie makers will cease to remake Tamil movies until the Cauvery dispute is settled. At the same time, since Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have still not sorted out the Krishna river water sharing, Tamil film makers, especially those who cast Vijay, will not do a copy-paste job from Mahesh Babu movies.
It is my wish that this would revive the Kannada film industry and also provoke Vijay into exploring other types of roles as well.
Labels: cauvery, chauvinism, dispute, kannada, karnataka, kaveri, movies, tamil nadu, water
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These Swiss people, they really do take their neutrality seriously.
Pakistan approached the World Bank to step in over the disputed Baglihar dam project in Jammu & Kashmir after bilateral talks had failed. Meanwhile, Pakistan's education minister declared that Pakistan should go to war against India over the issue.
Raymond Lafitte was appointed by the World Bank to do the job. A draft report apparently is worded such that both India and Pakistan can claim that their position had been justified. The report suggests that India should reduce the height of the dam as well as the storage capacity, but India would keep the sluice gates near the bottom of the damn.
Labels: baglihar, dispute, india, pakistan, water
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Madcap Pakistani Education minister's suggestion to resolve Baglihar dispute
A revolutionary, out of the box, suggestion emanated from the Pakistani Education minister in the Senate today in response to a question from an opposition member about the government's proposed action on resolving the Baglihar dam dispute with India.
Qazi Javed Ashraf said that war was the only option now. I can only hope that the Pakistani public didnt elect morons of this type and that it was the good general who made him a minister. Then again, Gujarat elected Narendra Modi and Maharashtra elected the Shiv Sena.
Labels: baglihar, dispute, india, pakistan, water
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You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours
Two totally unrelated developments between the Pakistani government and the World Bank.
Pakistan conferred the "Hilal-e-Pakistan" award (Moon of Pakistan, I think) on World Bank chief James Wolfensohn, who is currently visiting Pakistan. Coincidentally, a "neutral" expert was appointed to review Pakistan's complaint over the Baglihar dam issue with India, replacing one of Indian origin. Pakistan's obsession with things neutral extends to writing to the ICC about umpiring in Australia as well as asking for the UN to intervene in the issue of Jammu & Kashmir's status within the Indian nation.
If this isnt a blatant case of an attempt to influence a decision through corruption, point me to something worse. No, you are not allowed to mention the BCCI's decisions on choosing venues, awarding contracts or selecting players.
Labels: baglihar, dispute, india, pakistan, water
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