T
There should be no sentiment in war. Let Shourie and Karat lead. Surely people will follow?
After the deal, India lost its independence. That’s what the Left and the Right had forewarned. We must therefore fight to regain our freedom. To fight that war the Left and the Right must unite. One hopes we will be led in that war by Arun Shourie and Prakash Karat. Together they could march, Left, Right, Left, Right....
For 60 years, India was free. We exercised our freedom to accept the partition of the country even three months before bloody post-Independence riots forced the transfer of populations. We were free to violate our solemn pledge that we would accept Partition only over our dead bodies. We were free to appoint a British citizen as the first Governor-General of India. We were free to accept a British citizen as our army chief while we fought a war against free Pakistan—also led by a British army chief.
We were free to ignore our unanimous pledge to Parliament to have no truck with China unless it vacated every inch of forcibly occupied Indian territory. We were free to assure the Dalai Lama we would protect Tibet. We were free to tell him we won’t. We were free to snub President Ayub Khan of Pakistan in 1959 when he offered Indo-Pakistan joint defence. "Joint defence?" we sneered. "Against whom?" We were free to approach him and get rebuffed after China humiliated us in 1962. We were free to have a rupee trade for decades with the Soviet Union when the Russian rouble was priced for us four times as much as it was for the Warsaw Pact countries.
But enough! Let us not get nostalgic about our wonderfully free past. Let us worry about our future. How can we regain our freedom? Let us strengthen the hands of freedom fighters like Arun Shourie and Prakash Karat. One hopes they will observe the first principle of warfare: the enemy’s enemy is a friend. Shourie must forget his past and tie up with President Ahmadinejad. Karat must forget his past and shun President Hu Jintao. President Hu betrayed Karat’s India by not blocking the N-deal.
There should be no sentiment in war. Let Shourie and Karat lead. Surely people will follow?
(Puri can be reached at rajinderpuri2000@yahoo.com)