International politics is a vast chessboard of economic interests, political alignments and military conflicts, not to speak of the lengthening spectre of jihadi terrorism across continents. Bilateral relationships can no longer be cocooned in a sealed frame; they operate within a regional context linked to a global order. So while, Messrs Modi and Trump will be engaged principally with core issues of trade and investment, they will inevitably discuss some of the combustible trouble spots, whether they be the South China Sea, the Korean peninsula or the worsening situation in the Middle East.
American policies in these areas, if one may quote Churchill’s words in a different time and context, appear to be a ‘riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.’ So much so that the US State Department voices one opinion on, say, the Saudi Arabian-Qatar stand-off, and the White House comes up with another. Having condemned Qatar as a fund raiser for jihadi terrorism, the Trump Administration has signed a $12 billion arms deal with it, in addition operates a large military base on Qatari territory.
US support to Saudi Arabia, including supplies of military hardware worth some $300 billion appears to have emboldened the Saudi Monarchy to issue an ultimatum so extreme that it is tantamount to a declaration of war. US and Saudi broadsides against Iran have a Syrian dimension as well. Iran Supports the Assad regime, the Saudis and Americans seek to overthrow it. Enter Russia: the US decision to shoot down a Syrian jet over Syrian territory has led Moscow to suspend all military cooperation with the US to keep the peace. Russia will now track US and coalition aircraft in the area, the next step a possible firing at one of their number. The confrontation has led Australia to withdraw its warplanes from US-led operations in Syrian skies.
India has close relations with Iran and a ‘privileged strategic partnership’ with Russia. Diplomacy cannot be a zero sum game. At least not for India, which jealously guards - has guarded zealously for 70 years - its strategic autonomy in good times and bad. The Korean confrontation has thrown up a conundrum, with the North Korean Ambassador in New Delhi affirming publicly his government’s support of Indian entry to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, to which China is resolutely opposed. Square this circle if you will.
Finally, the buzzing of a Russian plane over the Baltic Sea by a US plane was a reckless act, more so as the Russian Defence Minister was its principal passenger. A Russian Sukhoi aircraft immediately took to the skies, and with an adroit maneuver, displayed the missiles it carried.
The unpredictability and recklessness of recent US behavior is alarming, to say the least. It has led to avoidable tension and uncertainty. The calamities of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya were of America’s making. George W. Barack Obama, and now Donald Trump, it would appear, have given a green signal to military confrontation, cavalier bombings, mounting losses of innocent humanity, all accompanied by reassuring bromides and outright falsehoods. These are the delicacies the United States has brought to the table. The situation today bears some resemblance to the powder keg of miscalculation and dire irresponsibility that led to the Great War of 1914, whose scars disfigure Europe and the wider world to this day.
The Modi-Trump conversations, hopefully, may generate some positive outcomes for Indo-US ties. The spirit of the age doesn’t encourage further optimism.
Grenfell tragedy: Profit over welfare
The Grenfell fire in London in a high rise building of twenty-seven floors was the worst in the capital for over a century. The structure was gutted and the death toll stands at 79 and rising. The inferno has awakened the British public to the pitfalls of free market fundamentalism, where money counts more than human betterment.
It was Tory icon Margaret Thatcher who cast doubt on whether there was such a thing as society. In reining in Arthur Scargill and his coal miners union, she threw out the baby with the bathwater. The real achievements of the welfare state in health, education and housing were derided by the boast that the ‘lady was not for turning.’ The Thatcher cult took a battering during the Toxteth riots of 1982 in Liverpool, followed by massive urban violence in parts of London during the decade the fraught decade. Her poll tax was the last straw. She fell from grace and power in 1991. Her economic legacy was dismantling of British industry for a weightier financial City. The American economist Milton Friedman, a free marketer in every bone and fibre, is a prophet without honour today. His name once hallowed among the faithful is barely whispered now. The Wall Street crash of 2008 was the indecent exposure of deceit, crime and corruption, that convulsed America, Britain and the world beyond like no other since the Great Depression of 1931. The United States is yet fully to recover from the debacle of 2008. The plutocrat banking houses won immunity with the aid of a fixed system of untrammeled wealth and privilege upheld by an unquestioning, craven media.. The US Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz in an excoriating analysis, wrote that none of the guilty bankers were made accountable for their misdeeds, that they were regular guests at the banquets of the Obama White House. Indeed the frequency of their names on the White House guest list did much to further their prestige on Wall Street and added digits to their private cash reserves at home and dubious tax havens abroad.
America was Thatcher’s model. Look where it is today. Superpower wealth cheek by jowl with third world inner cities, of drugs, gun crimes, hate crimes, race crimes, desperate housing, homelessness, soup kitchens, lack of prtoper medical care, rudimentary education and much else. The social environment is polluted with toxic violence.
The Anglo-American ‘special relationship’ has lost much of its former lustre. It is surely time to pause and reflect. Whither Britain? The shock and awe of Grenfell should open the long sealed can of worms. Only then will men and women, young and old, rediscover the morality, justice and humanity, of which they were once proud as a national heritage.
Something rotten in the state of Indian cricket
‘Sweet are the uses of adversity,’ said Shakespeare, hence, one hopes, Indian cricket comatose after India’s rout by Pakistan in the final of the Champions Trophy at the Oval will recover sufficiently as a force on the international scene. In the aftershock of the wholly unexpected defeat, India’s cricket coach, the deserved and highly respected Anil Kumble resigned. He was one the country’s all time greats as an outstanding legspinner with over 600 Test wickets to his name. He is well spoken and tech savvy with formidable persuasive powers, thus able to convince the bovines of the cricket board to adopt the DRS system to aid umpires – as a hedge against human fraity. Furthermore, under his charge, India defeated top class opponents – New Zealand, England and Australia - in successive Test and ODI home series. It now transpires that amidst the glory and acclaim, relations between coach and captain, the hugely gifted and charismatic Virat Kohli, had deteriorated beyond repair, leading to Kumble’s abrupt departure. His resignation letter was gracious and dignified, which was no surprise. It would be premature to take sides without recourse to verifiable evidence. Kumble versus Kohli is not the Anecdotes doing the rounds suggest the coach’s over bearing presence in dressing brought on a crisis of confidence.. Other stories would appear to suggest cronyism in team selection, where the captain’s voice is paramount. Be that as it may, India’s cricket administrators emerge as incompetent as headless chickens. Selectors, it would appear, preferred age and past performances over budding, precocious, talent. Indian veterans are loath to forego their celebrity status. Celebrity culture and mollycoddling have reached heights of absurdity. Players determine the names of commentators, those deemed critical of players are eliminated from the panel of commentators. Columnists, - some former cricketers among them - were much given to flattering stars on the wane. Pace bowler Jaspreet Bumrah took umbrage at the tongue-in –cheek humour of a state police placard showing him over-stepping the line and delivering a no-ball to Pakistan batting star Zaman who was caught behind with a mere six runs to his name. Gifted this ‘life,’ Zaman’s blazing century shred the Indian attack to ribbons.
The police placard, with a picture of the erring Bumrah, warned pedestrians not to cross the traffic line for their personal safety, evoking from him a whimpering protest. Bumrah, herewith, should forsake his flannels for swaddling clothes!
