Forgettable few weeks

The past few weeks have been rather sad for the country. Increasingly, it is being realised that we cannot safely let our Prime Minister speak on foreign policy. Apologists will continue to cover up for India's inability to influence our neighbours and protect ourselves. Any serious defense analyst would realise how we are perilously weakening our position in the world and viewing ourselves from the US worldview. As Chellaney mentions in his column for Singh:

to say India cannot emerge as a great power without making peace with Pakistan. “It is in our vital interest, therefore, to try again to make peace with Pakistan.” By linking India’s global rise to the placation of Pakistan, Singh has hyphenated India with that country even more strikingly than any international actor

Chellaney's columm on China is another case in point.

The BJP too has lost its ability to appeal to the "liberal" right-of-centre. The removal of Jaswant Singh from the membership of the party and the banning of his book in Gujarat has to rank among the most intolerant and graceless acts that the party has committed in recent years. As an admirer of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his vision of India, I had assumed that his ideals were also those of the party. Clearly that is far from the truth. I look, with just a tinge of anxiety, for a new alternative to the Congress that more closely seeks to build a strong, self-reliant and liberal India. That such an alternative offers itself quickly, has to be my prayer for this year as we celebrate the 62nd year of independent India.