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Genocide, pogrom, Nazism and apartheid. Words that spell discrimination and cold- blooded massacre of innocents have sprung out of history books and today haunt India as never before. Sweeping accusations and sensational headlines have become the order of the day, hurting India no end. The carnage in Gujarat was a kind of apartheid — and has parallels with Germany of the 1930’s... The VHP and Bajrang Dal are the main instruments for realising the ghettoisation of the Muslims. The state bureaucracy is now busy covering up its acts of commission. “Genocide cases to be filed against Gujarat Chief Minister Modi in London.
Are these are a part of the plot of an author’s future magna opus? Or two rival political parties slinging mud at each other. Tragically, “No.” These are the undiplomatic outpourings from New Delhi diplomatic enclave. The culprits? Britain, the European Union (comprising 14 nations), Canada, Finland and Holland. Their diplomats have sent highly exaggerated, mischievous and astonishingly partisan reports about the Gujarat carnage to their respective governments. Worse, they have deliberately and diabolically leaked them to friendly (even obliging) media. These are the countries which have undeservedly anointed themselves as the moral guardians of the world and are now busy poking their nose in India’s internal affairs. This has made New Delhi livid and even invited from Prime Minister Vajpayee a sharp reaction: “Stop sermonising, lay off,” he said and added: “India is being preached about secularism. We do not need to learn from others what secularism and pluralism are all about.”
Some of the ambassadors summoned by the External Affairs Ministry have no doubt apologised for the media leaks. But they have not denied the contents of their reports. Even British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has apologised to his counterpart, Mr Jaswant Singh. A senior official of the European presidency in Madrid has clarified to India’s Ambassador, Mr Dilip Lahiri, that none of the 14 EU missions had used expressions such as apartheid, Nazi Germany or pogroms in their official dispatches on the Gujarat situation. But these apologies have not cut much ice with South Block, notwithstanding an improvement in New Delhi’s relationship with the USA and with the developed countries across the globe.
As the leakage on the Gujarat imbroglio shows, this does not add up to meaningful friendship. An acknowledged parameter of friendship is to respect each other’s sensitivities. No friend ever blackens the face or tarnishes the image of the other. In this case, our so-called friends have not only walked all over New Delhi’s sensitivities. They have also gone out of their way to paint us black internationally and, worse, continue to do so. All in the garb of moralistic overtones, mingled with moral outrage.
True, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies in international relations, only permanent “interests”. Be that as it may, the Western bloc’s interference in India’s internal matters violates the fundamental ground rules of diplomacy. On two scores. No diplomat worth his salt ever leaks his “Top Secret” internal report to his government, to journalists of the host country. Nor do honourable diplomats express their serious concern about the internal matters of another country publicly.
It is another matter that the media allowed itself to become a pawn of these diplomats. Distressingly, some journalists have given precedence to the freedom of the Press over national interest. Just to run riot with a headline or show themselves to be different. Forgetting that one of the tenets of this freedom is the ability to exercise responsibility and self-censor what is in the interest of the country and what is not. In the USA journalists are first responsible Americans, and then journalists. This was evident post-September 11 when National Security Adviser Condeleeza Rice requested the media not to carry the Osama bin Laden tape on various networks or print any of the “terrorist” messages as it was against national interest. They honoured it. Sadly, in India the obverse has been true for a section of our media. They have been journalists first and Indians later. Unfortunately, several among the Western diplomatic corps in New Delhi have conducted themselves like partisan journalists, who consider the freedom of expression as their birthright, however, exercised irresponsibly.
Even as this has left many in South Block red with anger, there are some also with egg on their face. Take the latter first. Raisina Hill’s new foreign policy of improving ties with the USA and other Western countries, and gaining their sympathetic ear on Kashmir and Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism was being touted until the other day as a feather in Prime Minister Vajpayee’s cap. Skeptics were brushed aside as clinging on to old suspicions when winds of new friendship were blowing in India’s favour. Today this feather has disappeared. “Instead of helping, our friends have hurt us bitterly,” remarked a senior Foreign Ministry official. “How dare they interfere in our domestic affairs. How dare they take liberties with us?”
Unfortunately for New Delhi, the world of Realpolitik has nothing to do with being natural allies. It is brazenly opportunistic, pragmatic and unethical with the devil taking the hindmost. Clearly, the West’s bottom line on India has remained unchanged. The world’s largest democracy continues to be a speck which can be tossed around like a football to suit their diabolical and mischievous ends.
Plainly put, the West is nobody to sermonise India about secularism or pluralistic society. The diplomatic community in New Delhi should realise that India is truly secular because it has a Hindu majority. India’s is the only civilisation that talks of the world as one family, as reflected in the Vedic ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.
Would Britain dare comment on discrimination in the USA where blacks are actually treated badly. Would it ever wonder that till date Washington does not boast of a Black President. Even the appointment of two black — Secretary of State Colin Powell and Condeleeza Rice — by President Bush made history of sorts. Notwithstanding the American civil war when the black Americans sought freedom from slavery, the suspicions about them continue to linger over the centuries. Would some European Union countries take the liberty of criticising the British policy on Ireland and the thousands of Irish killed in this internal strife? Doesn’t this merit to be called genocide?
What next? Given the inevitability
of India’s search for its own place in the global strategic community,
New Delhi needs to appreciate the realities and complexities of a unipolar
world. It is downright stupid to believe that the West will mould its foreign
policy to advance the cause of the developing humanity at the expense of
its own interests. No country ever allows moral norms to override realpolitik.
Foreign policy is not a one-shot affair. It requires long-drawn-out cohesive
planning. India should not allow itself to be fooled and kicked around
with million-dollar studded boots. The West needs to remember one basic
fact of life. When it points one finger at India, four point back at it.
Bluntly put: stop meddling.
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