Geography is the core of geopolitics. Around this core cleave other multiple problems. To sift through these layers is the essence of foreign policy. Hence India’s relations with Pakistan are conjoined to the Sino-Indian relationship, as Pakistan and China are ‘all weather friends’ whose primary focus is India. Taking this a step further, Pakistan has long been using jihadi terrorism, from its incubation, funding organization and export, as an instrument of statecraft. State and non-state actors are part of this destabilizing enterprise.
So when China blocks India’s attempt to get the United Nations Security Council brand the jihadi Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar, - the mastermind behind multiple terrorist actions in India - an international terrorist, China stepped in to help its ‘all weather friend’ Pakistan by blocking the Indian move, drafted into a formal resolution by the United States. If the truth be told – and it rarely, if ever is, in this instance – Pakistan’s value to China lies in its partner’s willingness to make jihadi terrorism a weapon to bleed India. China’s economic corridor in Pakistan and much else related to it, is simply a secondary tool to blindside international opinion. China is the only member of the 15 who make up the US Security Council to block the resolution, or to put it ‘on hold.’ The Chinese casuistry wouldn’t fool a demented idiot as to its true purpose. The most recent Indian demarche to China will be brushed aside as others in the past have been brushed aside.
The American writer Andrew Small’s meticulously researched book, The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia’s New Geopolitics tells of Chinese nuclear weapon and missile technologies funneled to Pakistan. He quotes General Xiong Guandei’s boast: ‘Pakistan is China’s Israel’ – proof surely of China’s dysfunctional Great Power autism. Tiny Israel is a global powerhouse in science and technology, hence the comparison is breath-taking illiteracy.
Time and the unfolding, red hot coals on the ground may persuade the ‘all weather friends in Islamabad and Beijing to think again, and think hard. Pakistan-based terror groups have become an existential threat to Afghanistan, and beyond, to Iran as well. Uzbekistan and Tajikstan and kindred Islamic polities that were once part of the Soviet Union and now constitute part of the southern flank of the Russian Federation, are vulnerable to this baleful menace. Moscow’s invitation to India to participate in a conference in the in the Russian capital on the present state of Afghanistan, with similar invitations to Iran, Afghanistan, China, has been welcomed by New Delhi.
To this must be added the deepening concern in Washington on Pakistan’s links with jihadi terrorism. Republican Senator John McCain has requested the Trump Administration to re-examine US policy on Pakistan. Significant also is the open letter drafted by a constellation of leading American think tanks calling for a tougher US policy on Pakistan. Its signatories include regional experts such Lisa Curtis and Bruce Riedel and academic specialists such as Christine Fair and Husain Haqqani. They write: ‘US interests are not served by Pakistan’s strategic thinking, which is fuelled by the belief that India seeks to weaken and then dismember it. Nor are US interests compatible with Pakistan’s desire to steer Afghanistan events in Afghanistan and counter any Indian role there. Continued US aid, offered in the hope of a gradual change in Pakistan’s terrorism policies, provides Pakistan a cushion and better quality military equipment to persist with those policies.’
Diplomacy in its most absurd moments provides a level playing field for the devil’s advocates. Take, for example, Nafeez Zakaria, the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, who at a media briefing in Islamabad accused India of building what he described as a ‘secret nuclear city’ stockpiled with plutonium to be used for the clandestine manufacture of nuclear weapons to ‘undermine the strategic balance of power in South Asia.’ He also claimed that India had isolated itself from the international community.
There is, however, no copyright to absurdity. A former Indian foreign secretary, Ms Nirupama Rao, in a recent edit-page article in the Hindu newspaper, pleaded for the restoration of the Indian Consulate General’s office in Lhasa, which India had closed in 1962 during the Sino-Indian border conflict. What if Tibetans wishing to flee to India sought asylum on its premises? Should they be handed over to their Chinese tormentors? Would this not be further complication to an already fraught relationship? This is the sort of hallucinatory junk that is the staple of a broadsheet given to special pleading on China. With friends like Ms Rao on New Delhi’s cocktail counselling circuit, who needs enemies?
Anish Kapoor awarded Genesis Prize
Britain’s leading sculptor Anish Kapoor has been awarded the 2017 Genesis Prize, dubbed the ‘Jewish Nobel.’ His career has been little short of astonishing. Born in India to a well to do Punjabi Hindu father, who served in the Indian Navy and Jewish mother, he was educated at Doon School, spent time in Israel, hoping to be an engineer, then travelled to London and discovered his true vocation as an artist and sculptor. He was awarded the prestigious Turner Prize in 1991 and has received a knighthood.
The award by the Genesis Prize Foundation, the Office of the Prime Minister of the State of Israel and the Jewish Agency for Israel ‘recognizes the individuals who have attained excellence and international renown in their fields and whose action and achievements express a commitment to Jewish values, the Jewish community and the State of Israel.’
It has been a tradition for winners of the $1 million prize to donate the money to ‘meaningful causes they feel passionate about.’ Mr Kapoor decided to use his donation to highlight the plight of refugees. He said: ‘I am not a politician, and I feel I must speak out against indifference for the suffering of others. There are over 60 million refugees in the world today – whatever the displacement, the refugee crisis is right here on our doorstep.’
Among his sculptures, are the iconic ‘Turning the World Upside Down’ at the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem; ‘Holocaust Memorial’ for the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in London and ’70 Candles for Holocaust Memorial Day in Britain,’ in 2015 to commemorate the 70 th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, which is also situated in London.
Anish Kapoor explained: ‘As inheritors and carriers of Jewish values it is unseemly, therefore, for us to ignore the plight of people who are persecuted, who have lost everything and had to flee as refugees in mortal danger.’ Compassion is a reminder of our common humanity.
Art galleries for long distant trains
One of the features of long distance rail journeys is boredom. Apart from reading a newspaper – a relatively fast exercise – or a book, there is little to do save look out of the window as mile after mile flashes past. With moves afoot to make the railway experience more comfortable for passengers, the Railway Board has transformed the long corridors into art galleries through which customers can saunter as they look at the paintings and line sketches on view. For art lovers in particular these are moments to savour.
The works of art on the SHATABDI Expresses belong to disabled artists using brushes or pencils with feet or mouths. Known as Foot and Mouth artists, their venture began in London many decades ago with Christmas and New Year cards. Worthy causes mercifully travel as fast as unworthy ones. Disabled artistes in major Indian cities, like their British peers, are organized as collectives and market their products accordingly.
India has made a start with Western Railways launching the project on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Shatabdi Express. The plan is to extend it to other such long distant city to city trains. Says Mukul Jain, Divisional Railway Manager, Western Railways: ‘Our intention is to make the journey for passengers more interesting and, at the same time, collaborate for a cause. In this case, our association is with the Indian Foot and Mouth Artistes.’
The pictures displayed are high-quality digital prints purchased from the Indian Foot and Mouth Artistes organization at market prices. They carry the name of the artist with a small message alongside. Long may this venture endure and prosper and deepen public awareness of noble cause.
