The lurking ‘Lucepower’ in Asian affairs

Published in ViewPointonline

 http://www.viewpointonline.net/the-lurking-lucepower-in-asian-affairs.html

Thursday, 04 April 2013 20:22by Atul Bhardwaj |  |  | 

It is important for the people of Asia to understand the true nature of the anti-Asia lobby in the West that is constantly pitching one nation against the other
Today, once again, the top most email in my inbox had an anti-China article - reminding me to take my daily dose of detest-China medicine. The latest from the Economist stable “Can India become a great power,” pokes India to be a man and “pursue an active security policy.”[1]
Teasingly, the article gives China second position in the class while India gets, ‘can do better’ remark on itsreport card. The reason for India’s ‘fair’ performance is that “66 years after the British left, it still clings to the post-independence creeds of semi-pacifism and “non-alignment”: the West is not to be trusted.”
Such conservative, hawkish literature - cut in the West is dutifully pasted on Indian thoughts. Its purpose is to inundate India with anti-China venom and besiege sensibilities that desire to see India prosper without the encumbrance of war.
An India-China relationship that is devoid of fear is unpalatable to the intellectual insurgents of the Luce-kind. The ‘Luce-ist’ insurgents penetrate mindsthrough myriad conservative and liberal think tanks and media houses. They use their pens and publications to push another war down our throats, much in the same fashion as they had in 1962.
Henry R Luce was the post war American media Mughal, the owner of Time, Life, Fortune, and the March of Time film and radio documentaries. This was at a time when “freedom of the press belonged to the man who owned one.” Luce used this power of the press in the most blatant fashion both in China and India. Luce was a publisher guided by missionary zeal. He wanted to see China as a Christian nation, gravitating naturally to perform its role as an American policeman in Asia Pacific.
Mao’s victory in 1949 put paid to Luce’s grand strategy. Luce refused to give up. He along with Alfred Kohlberg, a wealthy New York businessman continued to spearhead the ‘China Lobby’ that was fanatically anti-communist and pro-Chiang-Kai-shek. The Lobby’s aim was to guide Truman’s China policy and ensure that Indian military and political class was incorporated in the scheme designed to overthrow the Communist Party of China.
It was easy for Luce power to work in India because the Indian elite was fluent in English and more importantly a willing warrior in anti-communist crusades. Rajagopalachari, independent India’s first Governor General had openly declared, “I am here to save my country from the traps and dangers of the communist party. That is my policy from A to Z." Incidentally, Rajagopalachari’s political outfit, Swatantra party was in the forefront to demand war with China. Palpably, Luce’s Life magazine supported such ventures and wrote in its editorial in 1962, “TheSwatantra program could really get that huge country moving in a direction favorable to free institutions. The free world can wish this little party a big future.”
At the end of 1962 war the Time magazine gleefully commented, “The current slogan is a revision of the earlier cry for brotherhood with China: "Americans bhaibhai; Chinihaihai" (Americans are our brothers; death to the Chinese!).[2]
The ‘Luce-ists’ are now at work creating stories that sell the need for the Indian Navy to operate in the South China Sea. In August 2011, the Financial Times London was the first to report that the Indian Navy Ship INS Airavat had been challenged by a Chinese navy vessel in South China Sea Area.[3]
That this story was denied by the Indian navy spokesperson, failed to impress the editorial staff in Wall Street Journal that continued to suggest “India is being pulled into a complex and increasingly tense territorial dispute in the South China Sea.”
The media is unduly perturbed about the oil exploration possibilities in South China Sea on behalf of Vietnam. Similar zeal to report is missing when it comes to oil exploration in other disputed sites. According to media reports, ONGC Videsh (OVL) has also been negotiating to acquire 25% stakes in oil blocks from the Falkland Oil and Gas Ltd, off the disputed Falkland Island generally remains hidden in some remote corner of the media.. Exploring oil in Falkland may impact ONGC’s existing business interests in Cuba, Brazil and Venezuela is also never discussed. In Venezuela alone the total Indian investment is about $3 billion with the production from all fields expected to cross 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) by 2016. Do such huge investments not demand that the Indian navy develop capabilities for sustained operation Latin America, right under the British and American noses?
Instead, the ‘Luce’ press urges me to celebrate the 1962 war defeat, because they can’t ‘see’ young Indians befriending the Chinese. In the age of all pervasive media, the “Luce power” is even more lethal than what it was when Henry Robinson Luce exercised it in the 1950s.
It is important for the people of Asia to understand the true nature of the anti-Asia lobby in the West that is constantly pitching one nation against the other. If Asia is to prosper, uninterrupted peace in the region is paramount. It is also for Japan to realize that the United States is not Chicken pox that attacks only once in a human’s life time.
Notes:
[1] ECONOMIST, http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21574511-indias-lack-strategic-culture-hobbles-its-ambition-be-force-world-can-india
[2] India: Never Again the Same, Time, November. 30, 1962
[3]( http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/883003ec-d3f6-11e0-b7eb-00144feab49a.html#ixzz2LL0Li61Q)

The Boston Blast: The April Angst in America

Courtesy: www.nbcbayarea.com

April ushers in spring and happiness. It is the ides of March that remind one of tragedy. But in American annals, April is a mixed bag month. 

On Monday 16 April 2013, the twin explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon killed three innocent people and injured hundreds. Like all such acts of cowardice across the globe, this one too needs to be condemned for its shamelessness and sadism.

Unfortunately, America registered another big tragedy in its history. According to Slate Magazine, This week of April is associated with many other “unhappy anniversaries: the Oklahoma City Bombing (April 19, 1995), the Waco assault (April 19, 1993), the Columbine School Shooting (April 20, 1999), and the Virginia Tech massacre (April 16, 2007), for starters. Two of those tragedies—the Virginia Tech massacre and the Waco assault—were on Monday, the Patriot's Day of those years. “

The Marathon Monday in Boston was a holiday because of its association with Patriot’s day. Patriots' Day is not a public holiday in other parts of the United States. “If Patriots' Day and Tax Day fall on the same date, the deadline for filing an income tax return is extended for the residents of some states.”

According various media sources, “Patriot's Day commemorates the battles of Lexington and Concord near Boston, Massachusetts, which were fought near Boston in 1775. Patriot's Day is annually held on the third Monday of April because these battles of American war of independence were fought on April 19, 1775.

This Patriot’s day is altogether different from “the Patriot Day, held on September 11 to mark the anniversary of terrorist attacks in the USA in 2001.”

Besides, Patriot’s day another coincidence, according to Dick Eastman, is that the Boston blasts occurred on the same day when the national defence drills pertaining to similar bomb blast scenarios was underway in America. Incidentally, at the time of 9-11, Madrid, and the 7/7 bombings too such drills were being rehearsed.

The Modi Man and Mr. Money Bags in Indian politics

I can see the first few droplets of the ensuing general elections on my TV screen. The main political parties are lining up to impress the industrialists to garner money support. Once the election begins to pour cats and dogs, the fat cats dive deep and the cattle class comes into prominence. 

Narendra Modi, BJP Prime Ministerial hopeful, was the first to kick-start the season by making an attempt to seek the blessing of the 1% super rich elite through the Wharton Business School route. When Wharton did not succeed, Modi applied “economy of effort” principle to reach out to both the businessman and their budding confidants through one single speech. He chose, SRCC (Sri Ram College of Commerce) that prepares young talent to go out and serve the global financial elite. He did a repeat performance in At the India Today Conclave. 

In order to avoid looking laggard, Rahul Gandhi, Congress’s reluctant heir apparent has also chosen to address the annual general meeting of lobby group Confederation of Indian Industry on 4th April 2013. 

The very idea of Narendra Modi as a leader of Indian democracy is reprehensible. By admitting Modi and his criminal coterie into its parliamentary committee, the BJP has rubbed salt into Guajarati Muslim’s wounds. The same BJP that finds it difficult to utter the word ‘pardon’ when it comes to Sanjay Dutt’s crime has no compunctions in condoning Modi who himself claims to be sleeping on his watch while thousands of Muslims were being lynched and burnt alive in Gujarat. 

BJP’s open display of selective mourning- obliterating Muslim misery from the nation’s collective consciousness and pasting masochist Modi’s image instead, is fraught with grave dangers for India’s well being. 

Those who support Modi are saying it loud and clear that the death of an India Muslim just doesn’t matter. This regressive agenda is pushing our social relations back towards the same old “paranoid-schizoid position - the struggle to eat or be eaten”. It is under such a state that divisive figures like Jinnahs’ begin to take shape and nations enter a state of civil-war. 

Modi may have managed riot-evidence in his home state and in the Apex court, but he knows that dealing with the Americans is difficult and that is his main fear. The international forces that are currently propping up Modi may pretend to overlook his weak spot, but they are quiet adept at exploiting it an opportune moment. So Modi as a Prime Minister will not only be weak but also pliable. 

Modi and his opportunistic party are stuck in a time rap. To look modern, Modi projects the image of a development man - a leader who can build roads, canals and lay the internet cable. But aren’t these the job of an able manager? 

Why do we need a tainted figure to perform these jobs for us? We have scores of professionals like E Sreedharan do give us the top class infrastructure and systems. 

A leader inspires people to take positive steps towards progress. Sadly, Modi’s performance in this arena is dismally pathetic. The developed world is tired of capitalism and is looking for viable alternatives and Modi is busy giving us lessons in profit making and ‘entrepreneurship’. 

Modi cannot talk inequality, because that is what he is being used to promote further. Modi has no transformative idea to present. All he can offer is fear of authority and that is exactly what the sixty odd Indian dollar billionaires are looking for in the leader that they need to anoint. 

The top-most Indian elite have lost trust in Congress leadership to protect their properties, it is for this reason that Rahul too is attempting to appease the captains of Indian economy, and pleading before them not to abandon the Congress ship. For the Indian Bourgeois, both the Congress and the BJP with similar economic agenda, but slight variations in their emphasis on the ‘national’ and the ‘social’ are best suited to maintain the semblance of democracy. 

It is for this reason that no alternative political thought is allowed to come up and the coroprate media makes sure that the Congress, BJP duo continue to maintain monopoly over “national popular collective will”.

Human Rights and the Sri Lankan Pinochet

70 years ago, during the WWII, when Japan bombed Madras and Cyclone, the ethnic divide between the Tamils and Sinhalese was hardly pronounced. Both were victims of great power politics that was being played out in the region.

In the 1980s the hegemonic politics once again attacked the region. This time, instead of jointly facing the imperial wrath, the Tamils and Sinhalese were victimizing each other on behalf of a new empire in global politics.

The trans-Atlantic alliance opened the flood gates of money and arms for Sri Lankan Tamils and their terrorist organization LTTE to give the world the gift of suicide bombing and 20^th century’s first terrorist navy.

Like in so many third world civil-wars, America and the West played a dubious role in Sri Lanka too. They first ignited the war – let it simmer – granted a sudden victory to Sri Lanka after 26 years and finally vanquished the victors by making them slit each other’s throat.

In this entire game, America had all protagonists playing for them. Both General Fonseka, the Sri Lankan chief of army staff during the war and his boss secretary of defense Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, were US green card holder and US citizen respectively.

Fonseka was and continues to be a US green card holder and enjoys the status of a resident alien. His two daughters reside in US with movable and immovable assets. Being in the army, the general must have acquired the card surreptitiously. Forget being a card holder of a foreign country – or having a foreign spouse – most militaries even debar their serving men from officially interacting with foreigners without proper permission. Needless to say, the General agreed to compromise his office to swap for a green card with the CIA.

READ ON...

http://orientalreview.org/2013/04/01/human-rights-and-the-sri-lankan-pinochet/

Gadar and the century of American wait to date India

Courtesy: www.indiapost.gov.in

PC Chidambaram, in his 2013 budget, has allocated a good sum of money to celebrate the centenary of the Gadar Movement. The proposed celebration plans include, upgrading the Gadar Memorial in San Francisco and honouring the ‘Gadari Babas’, the heroes of the movement. 

Gadar was the first American-German and Indian collaborative effort to overthrow the British rule in India. In 1912, the Hindustani Association of the Pacific Coast started publication of a weekly newspaper, titled Gadar. By 1913, Gadar was a political outfit with an aim to bring about an armed revolution in India. 

The Indian nationalist movement that began on the eve of World War I, ended with its culmination and the defeat of its German mentors. The Americans, who had willingly allowed the revolution to germinate on their soil, were the first to dig its grave at the end of war. 

The movement was almost killed in the court room at San Francisco with the murder of Ram Chandra and Ram Singh, the two activists being tried in the 1917 Hindu-German Conspiracy trial that lasted from 20 November 1917 to 24 April 1918. 

According to Young India of June 1918, “the trial costs the British government $2,500,000 and the American government $500,000. During the trial one Hindu became insane and two lost their lives by a tragic accident accidentally killed.” 

Thomas M Johnson gives a vivid description of the “tragic accident” leading to twin murders inside the courtroom - “Ram Chandra, the best known Hindu in America had given a testimony in the court that enraged some of his fellow conspirators. One of these, Ram Singh, now forced his way towards Ram Chandra, through the crowded courtroom. Suddenly, the brown man’s arm darted forward. There was a flash, a crash. Ram Chandra fell…Over him stood Ram Singh with a smoking pistol.”[1] But before Ram Singh could absorb his victory, he was instantly shot dead by another bullet by the US Marshal James B Holohan. 

It is difficult to say who was an Anglo-American agent, Ram Chandra or Ram Singh, but the fact is both were fooled. Apart from the direct killing of two Indians involved in the conspiracy, others were protected by the American administration. 

This was the time when ‘red scare’ was gripping the American imagination. Any whiff of Bolsheviks was enough to send the American elite into a tail spin. The question is why the Indian anarchists in Gadar party were, let off easy, with a minor punishment ranging from twenty-two months to sixty days? 

According to Karla K. Gower, who has studied in detail the “Framing of Indian Nationalists in Newspapers from 1915-1918” and the rather benign treatment meted out the Indians in the period says, “by presenting the Indian Nationalists as ineffective fools who were not to be morally condemned, the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, with the assistance of the Indians themselves, helped to create an atmosphere of tolerance for the Indian Nationalists and their movement.” 

Preventing Indians from - falling prey to the ‘nativistic’ fervor - and protecting them from the British who had been constantly demanding their deportation - the Americans were able to retain their so-called neutrality, friendship with the British and also their intelligence sources that they had cultivated among the American Indian community. 

In the aftermath of the war, the Anglo-Saxons were quick to shift the blame on to the Germans and add another conspiracy to long list of German crimes designed to humiliate them. 

The Gadar’s aborted takeoff paved the way for Mahatma Gandhi’s brand of non-violent politics to enter the Indian shores. After this the American interests in Indian receded, mainly due to the British possessiveness and insecurities related to India. 

However, in the 1940s, with Japan making great strides in Asia, America wanted to monitor the Indian political situation more closely. The American intelligence Office of Strategic Services (OSS) under the stewardship of William J. Donovan was actively courting the Congress party leaders and giving them support for quit Indian initiative. 

On 10 and 11 March 1942, President Rooselvelt wrote to Churchill offering him various suggestions to break the deadlock with the Congress over the issue of Indian support to war. Churchill was adamant; he threatened to resign, if the American continued to persist on Indian independence. 

The threats made Roosevelt to backtrack. According to Richard J Aldrich, “The President was now fully aware of the dangerous consequences of overt American incursions into the politics of India. Thereafter Roosevelt increasingly focused his own anti-colonial aspirations on other Asian countries, such as Indochina.” 

Ever since, the beginning on 20th century the Americans had desired India. However, their friendship with the British prevented them from openly expressing their love. The British departure from India in 1947, was a great relief for the Americans, they could now openly flirt with India. 

However, this open relationship could not last long. The Cold War imperatives forced the flirtations to go on under the cover of Non-Alignment, where the US even gave a tacit approval to the Indians to even sleep with the enemy (USSR). The Americans finally got their moment of peace with India after the demise of Soviet Union in 1991. 

By remembering San Francisco in his budget speech, one is not sure if PC Chidambram wants to honour the Indian Nationalist movement or he is paying off 100 years of American patience, persistence and plots (intelligence) to overtly date India. 

[1] Secrets of the Master Spies, Popular Mechanics Magazine , 1932

Pawns, Pygmies and the Pope in Fake Falkland War

Looking at the events that unfolded in 1982 – the phrase ‘fascist and fool’ is a more apt description of the Argentinean “strongmen and caudillos” – General Leopoldo Galtieri, and Admiral Jorge Anaya – than the two North American diplomats. The popular narrative that locates and limits the Falkland war in the internal political dynamics of Buenos Aries tells us that Admiral Anaya was the main architect of Argentina’s Falkland fiasco. The story goes that the Admiral had conceived Falkland operation as a young captain, after reading about the relatively easy and successful Goa operations that India had achieved against the Portuguese colonizers in 1960. Incidentally, Anaya’s prolong stint as naval attaché in London had failed to douse his desires to defeat the British colonialism. In fact, the Admiral’s confidence flowed from the fact that he had Lynx helicopters and Type 42 warships with the £ 45 million that the British Foreign Secretary David Owen had grated them in 1979.

If American diplomats were pygmies, the Argentinean military men were pawns in the whole game. Fooled by their spiritual and military mentors in Vatican and Washington respectively, the gullible duo plunged their nation into a senseless war in Las Malvinas that Galtieri named as Op Rosario – in honour of the Virgin of Rosario.Besides, the pygmies and pawns – the war-drama enacted some 8000 miles from London – had the powerful pair of Thatcher-Reagan as the chief protagonist and Pope John Paul II as the character actor.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE IN...

http://orientalreview.org/2013/02/15/pawns-pygmies-and-the-pope-in-fake-falkland-war/

INDIA-PAKISTAN - BACK TO SQUARE ONE

Courtesy: http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?239249

As a child, my mother always told me “don’t ever come home crying, if somebody hits you, give him back in the same coin”. One is sure, the basic parental wisdom is always followed by the armies of India and Pakistan, sitting on powder keg on the border. They sort out their matters locally - if one crosses the line or transgresses the cease fire norms, the other pays him back with equal ferocity. One doesn't expect them to come crying and cribbing on television channels to report the atrocities committed against them. 

However, on 08 January 2013, when the bodies of two Indian soldiers were reported to be mutilated by their Pakistani counterparts in Mendhar Sector at the Line of Control (LoC) - some sections of the Indian electronic media began crying hoarse. The pitch of mourns was so high, one felt, it was not the cease fire but the Indian army that had been violated. Listening to the television debates, one was almost convinced that the Indian army was a meek spectator to the beheading of its soldiers. 

The big question is why did the matter that was supposed to remain within the precincts of LoC, walk into the Indian drawing rooms - inflaming passions and jingoism.[1] One is not sure about the Pakistani motives in beheading the Indian soldier and escalating the tensions on the borders and derailing Indo-Pak peace talks, but one is able to discern that in India some media houses and pressure groups have tried to earn political and ideological capital from the incident. 

Based on the mood in the television studios and screens, BJP, India’s leading opposition party, thought that the slaying of soldiers was the tipping point that could trigger the much awaited India’s ‘Tahrir Square’. Not to miss out on the opportunity to capitalize on the ensuing prospects of another urban protest - the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, declared, “if his ( the slain soldier Hemraj’s) head could not be brought back, we should get at least 10 heads from their side.”[2]

As things began to get out of control, the National Security Advisor, Shiv Shankar Menon, met the opposition leaders apprising them of the need to present a united front. The meeting resulted in charting a face-saving formula, where the opposition convinced the Prime Minster to alter his stance and announce, “Can't be business as usual with Pakistan”.[3]

In the initial days, the government had tried to cool temperatures. But as emotions began to flare up, united front became a necessity, especially, because conflicting signals were emerging from the ministry of external affairs and the armed forces quarters. While the armed forces were keen to reiterate its importance on matters pertaining to national security, the foreign minister was working to dissolve the issue through diplomatic means.[4]

Some hawks in the Indian security setup (or rather chess players), who tried to use the incident as a strategic tool[5] have actually ended up exposing the chinks in the Indian armour. The handling of the incident has exposed that Indian military is now an independent constituency on foreign policy matters - a development that will surely please the Americas working tirelessly on distancing the Indian military from the state. 

Inspired by the right-wing conservative media, a friend posted on the social networking sites “Where are social networking site shenanigans hiding now, why aren't they sitting at Jantar Mantar and lighting up candles, seeking justice for the armymen dying every day on the borders...” Such was the outpouring of emotions that one felt that the Indian army would be further enfeebled if the people did not come out on the streets to protest against the Pakistani atrocities. 

Many others, who have been vying for greater militarization of the Indian society and polity, used the occasion to reiterate their old lament and suggestion that the Indian government that was callous towards the plight of soldiers should learn from the US President who is always in the forefront, “whenever the armed forces suffer a serious setback.”[6]

The building up of hysteria also suited the right wing forces that promote patriarchy. These forces were shocked by the protests against the Delhi gang rape where young boys and girls challenged patriarchy that “allows men to be either rapists or protectors, or even both,”[7]

Furthermore, the young boys drifting towards the postmodern discourse that sees male masculinity in poor light too was unpalatable to those who constantly complain that India is a soft state and “India and Indians have had ambivalence about projecting strength. There is a tendency towards softness and sentimentality.”[8]

In the drama, enacted mainly on the television screens, “Journalism was the first casualty of war”. The truth was tossed around to flare up jingoism and the “falsehood of war” was used miserably to vitiate the atmosphere for political, ideological and commercial reasons.

---

[1] Shivam Vij, “In Multiples of Ten Ravanas”, Kafila, January 16, 2013, http://kafila.org/2013/01/16/in-multiples-of-ten-ravanas/

[2] Ravish Tiwari, As Sushma Swaraj calls for ‘10 heads’ from Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reaches out to BJP”, The Indian Express, 15 January 2013, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/as-sushma-swaraj-calls-for--10-heads--from-pakistan-prime-minister-manmohan-singh-reaches-out-to-bjp/1059464/

[3] “Can't be business as usual with Pak: Prime Minister”, NDTV, http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/can-t-be-business-as-usual-with-pak-prime-minister-to-ndtv/261949
[4] “Salman Khurshid downplays Army chief's stern message to Pak, says govt will handle the crisis”, http://in.news.yahoo.com/video/salman-khurshid-downplays-army-chiefs-124041479.html 
[5] Brahma Chellaney, “Is it time for India to inject greater realism into its Pakistan policy?” The Economic Times, 10 January, 2013, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/is-it-time-for-india-to-inject-greater-realism-into-its-pakistan policy/articleshow/17960866.cms?intenttarget=no 
[6] B Raman, “Neglect of welfare and Honour of Ex-Servicemen” http://ramanstrategicanalysis.blogspot.in/2013/01/neglect-of-welfare-honour-of-ex.html 

[7] Inderpal Grewal, “Protests Against Rape in India: Can the Myth of Male Protection Be Shaken?” Huff Post , World, 9 January, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/inderpal-grewal/india-bus-rape_b_2368032.html
[8] Narayan Ramachandran, “Contours of India’s national security”, Pragati, December 14, 2012, http://pragati.nationalinterest.in/2012/12/contours-of-indias-national-security/