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Pakistan: Two Observations

May 28, 2012 Leave a comment

Pakistan threatens Yumm-rika-Mend your ways! Otherwise, we, Pakistan, will mend relations with India.
Pakistan's ability to 'self-launch' itself | Cartoonist - Muhammad Zahoor on Tuesday, April 27, 2004 | via Daily Times | Click for image.

Pakistan’s ability to ‘self-launch’ itself | Cartoonist – Muhammad Zahoor on Tuesday, April 27, 2004 | via Daily Times – ZAHOOR’S CARTOON:.| Click for image.

There’s a near-universal sense of victimhood and betrayal, which overlooks that if Pakistan’s borders are porous with respect to terror attacks on other countries, and its authorities don’t act on this, then ‘national sovereignty’ can’t be a hallowed principle and those borders are liable to be porous in the other direction as well.

Pakistani ire at the bin Laden raid as well as American drone attacks on its tribal territories may, however, have had a paradoxically beneficial effect. America has risen and India fallen in its demonology – facilitating a substantial improvement in India-Pakistan ties. In the long term, that’s the key to a peaceful and prosperous South Asia. (via Our mandarins, their mandarins – The Times of India).

One-way sovereignty?

Pakistani cannot expect its sovereignty and territory to be intact – after terrorists launch attacks on other sovereign nations from Pakistani soil. So, Pakistani ‘outrage’ at Abbottabad seems hypocritical.

Though the implications of Abbottabad for the Indian sub-continent are more ominous.

With Anglo-Saxon Bloc running amuck in Afghanistan and Pakistan, is India immune?

Hindi-Paki Bhai-Bhai?

The recent change in Pakistani mood towards India is only reactionary. Use India to blackmail USA.

Yumm-rika, if you don’t mend your ways, we will mend our relations with India. Then what leverage will you have with us is the idea behind Pakistani ‘warmth’.

This again for India means, that US and the West will keep the Pakistani dagger against India, sharp and shining.

If not always, for some time to come.

Related Articles
Categories: India, India-Pakistan Relations, Pax Americana, Politics, USA Tags: , ,

India & Bangladesh – A Worried West

May 27, 2012 1 comment

Even as it keeps West at a distance, Bangladesh has got the West worried.
Cartoon by Muhammad Zahoor (Peshawar, Pakistan); 2008 via Cartoon Competition Winners Announced!

Muhammad Zahoor (Peshawar, Pakistan)
via Cartoon Competition Winners Announced!.

the squabbling has turned into a crisis (see article) which threatens to make life still worse for the 170m poor Muslims who suffer under one of the world’s worst governments. Since Bangladesh’s political leaders show no interest in their fate, outsiders need to do so.

The outside world is trying to do its bit. The World Bank has scrapped a deal to pay for a big bridge because of its suspicions of corruption. EU ambassadors have denounced the treatment of Mr Yunus and the harassment of activists. Hillary Clinton flew to Dhaka this month to stand by Mr Yunus.

But the government seems unmoved. In a snub to Mrs Clinton, it announced a review into ownership of Grameen, a move to take over (and probably destroy) the bank. The only country to have much influence in Dhaka is India. Until recently the regional superpower tolerated Sheikh Hasina’s excesses, in part because Bangladesh has cracked down on Islamists. India now seems to be hedging its bets between the two parties. But if it still wants to have a functioning democracy next door, it needs to speak out far louder in favour of it. (via Bangladesh’s toxic politics: Hello, Delhi | The Economist).

First …

The Economist is wrong on one count – to start with.

Bangladesh is not exactly the hottest or happening economy in the world – or even the region.

Never was. Can’t get worse for Bangladesh.

In the past, Bangladesh’s political leadership has not displayed the calibre to win anything – except opprobrium. So, the new direction chosen by Bangladeshi leaders can only take Bangladesh up. Is there is a downside.

Talking about ‘political leaders (who) show no interest in their fate, outsiders need to do so’. In a certain part of the world, people have been complaining loudly.

Visibly.

Two …

Across Europe, riots, protests, elections, have only shown that the people of Europe have shown trust or confidence on their leadership.

Looking at Europe’s decline in the last 50 years or even the last 100 years, the lack of trust and confidence is logical. Across the pond, in USA, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) will soon see its first anniversary on September 11, 2012.

Now compare European leadership with India and China. From historic lows, 100 years ago, even 50 years ago, China and India have assumed positions of significant importance in the world. Going by performance between Western leadership, Indian and Chinese leadership wins hands down.

Time for outsiders from China and India to ‘ensure’ that Europe gets its’ act together.

Three …

That brings us to the third point. Why is The Economist so worried about India having a voice in Bangladesh?

Maybe Bangladesh leadership is more intelligent than Western leadership. Maybe Bangladesh has learned lessons from Pakistan! We have seen how Pakistan has descended into incendiary situation on a permanent basis. Bombs, explosions, guns, assassinations, civil war – all the benefits of Western attention.

Still blame Bangladesh for not wanting the Pakistan Experience?

Related Articles
Categories: Global Finance, India, India-Pakistan Relations, Pax Americana, Politics Tags: , , ,

Bollywood Powers Ahead

May 26, 2012 9 comments

How and why does India produce as many films as China and US put together?
Cinema in China is booming. In 2010 box-office revenues grew by 64% to just over 10 billion yuan. | Image source & courtesy - economist.com | Click for image source.

Cinema in China is booming. In 2010 box-office revenues grew by 64% to just over 10 billion yuan. | Image source & courtesy – economist.com | Click for image source.

Cinema in China is booming (see chart). In 2010 box-office revenues grew by 64% to just over 10 billion yuan. More than 520 films were made—about as many as in America. Only India produces more. (via China’s film industry: Kung fu propaganda | The Economist).

What The Economist does not mention is that India alone produces as many as China and US together. And that Nollywood comes in at No.2 position.

Related Articles
Categories: China, India, Indian Economy, Indian media, Media, Pax Americana, Social Trends Tags: , ,

Behind Delhi Car Bomb Blast: Iran?

May 24, 2012 Leave a comment

In the last 65 years, only the Soviet Union took payment in rupees for oil. And now Iran. Why would Iran trigger bomb blasts in New Delhi?
Israel will still blame Iran even if it's a CNG blast, Saying the gas is Iranian | Cartoon by Ajit Ninan; 15 Feb 2012; source & courtesy-mumbaimirror.com | Click for image.

Israel will still blame Iran even if it’s a CNG blast, Saying the gas is Iranian | Cartoon by Ajit Ninan; 15 Feb 2012; source & courtesy-mumbaimirror.com | Click for image.

An explosion on Aurangzeb Road in New Delhi damaged an Israeli embassy car, and injured its occupants.Tal Yehoshua Koren, the wife of the defense attache at the Israeli embassy was seriously wounded. She is in critical care. She was on her way to pick up her children from their school. It is unusual for a diplomatic vehicle to be attacked on the streets of New Delhi. The Delhi police went into action. The international media wanted to know who had done the attack minutes after it was reported.The police was wary. Let us conduct our investigation, they said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went before his parliament and accused Iran of a terrorist act. “The elements behind these attacks were Iran and its protege, Hezbollah.” Iran, he said, is “the largest terror exporter in the world” and Israel “would act with a strong hand.” This was all the confirmation that BBC needed. It began to report the attack as an Iranian act against an Israeli diplomat on Indian soil.

Why would Iran conduct an attack on an Israeli diplomat in India, particularly as India is in the midst of trying to negotiate a delicate arrangement with Tehran to pay for Iranian oil? The question mystifies. (via Asia Times Online :: India’s dilemma: How to pay for Iranian oil).

For more on the Oil-India-Iran-USA matrix, read the first post in the related articles section below – titled Indian diplomacy: Heavy Lifting.

Related articles
Categories: India, Indian Economy, Media, Oil, Pax Americana, Politics Tags: , , ,

Are we not lucky?

May 23, 2012 1 comment

Why does the global debate revolve around One idea. Spend more on mega public sector projects, that will create more jobs and create ‘demand’.
Same ideas; different 'authors' | Eureka cartoon from newyorker.com; artist & publication date absent at source | Click for image.

Same ideas; different ‘authors’ | Eureka cartoon from newyorker.com; artist & publication date absent at source | Click for image.

Bad times bring out bad ideas

With the global economy in a slowdown now for the fourth year, there is ‘consensus’ that the ‘government must do something’.

Apart from the problem of economic distortion that State intervention brings, there is an additional problem of consensus on what the governments must do.

Spend more.

The world, eurozone and UK economies are in a far worse state than expected. Yet Mr Cameron insists that “we are moving in the right direction”. Who is this “we”? UK gross domestic product is stuck at 4 per cent below its pre-crisis peak in what is the longest such slump since the 19th century, with no end in sight. Even if one believes that part of the pre-crisis output was an illusion, why should one accept that the UK economy has lost the capacity to grow altogether? How can Mr Cameron believe the economy is moving in the right direction when it is not moving?

As Jonathan Portes, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, argues in a recent blog post: “With long-term government borrowing as cheap as in living memory, with unemployed workers and plenty of spare capacity, and with the UK suffering from both creaking infrastructure and a chronic lack of housing supply, now is the time for government to borrow and invest. This is not just basic macro-economics, it is common sense.”

With real interest rates close to zero – yes, zero – it is impossible to believe that the government cannot find investments to make itself, or investments it can make with the private sector, or private investments whose tail risks it can insure that do not earn more than the real cost of funds. If that were not true, the UK would be finished. Not only the economy, but the government itself is virtually certain to be better off if it undertook such investments and if it were to do its accounting in a rational way.

Yet, instead of taking advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime to repair and upgrade the capital stock, as Mr Portes notes: “Public sector net investment – spending on building roads, schools and hospitals – has been cut by about half over the past three years, and will be cut even further over the next two.”

He recommends a £30bn investment programme (about 2 per cent of GDP). I would go for far more. Note that the impact on the government’s debt stock would be trivial even if it brought no longer-term gains. Indeed, it would be modest at many times this level.

The result is likely to be a permanent reduction in the output of the UK, not to mention permanent damage to a whole generation of the unemployed. I have words for such behaviour. Not on this list is the word “sensible”. (via Cameron is consigning the UK to stagnation – FT.com).

Create life and death situations - and then present, only one option | Old tricks served me well cartoon from newyorker.com; artist & pub. date absent at source. | Click for source.

Create life and death situations – and then present, only one option | Old tricks served me well cartoon from newyorker.com; artist & pub. date absent at source. | Click for source.

What’s wrong

And the spending must be on ‘productive’ asset building.

Build more schools, roads, bridges, airports, docks, et al. Anything wrong with this, could seem like a valid question.

Plenty. Plenty wrong.

Big Bucks for Big Guys

We already have a situation where a paltry twelve corporate entities control our food supplies, another selected ten control news and thought flows; fewer than ten companies control the global car industry.

How about an interest subsidy of GBP30 billion to small businesses? That will mean GBP600 billion of lending to small business – based on lending equal to 20 times of interest. If it takes GBP100,000 to create a job, we are talking of 6 million jobs – @10,000 jobs for each GBP1 billion.

But this is, I am sure, not ‘possible’. So, lets go back to …

Big Spending …

Who will get the contracts for all these roads, buildings, airports, schools, docks. The same 10-20 major construction corporations that dominate the global economy.

And we will get jobs.

Aren’t we lucky that so many people in the academia and media think about our jobs – and our welfare.

Related articles
Categories: Britain, Global Finance, Media, Politics, World Economy Tags: , ,

Bilderberg: Silly stories …?

May 23, 2012 4 comments

The occasional stories about Bilderberg meetings seem outlandish – make no sense at all.
What is it that Bilderberg wants to do, which is not being done already - in public knowledge | Chris Madden cartoon; more at chrismaddencartoons.wordpress.com | Click for image.

What is it that Bilderberg wants to do, which is not being done already – in public knowledge | Chris Madden cartoon; more at chrismaddencartoons.wordpress.com | Click for image.

Bilderberg annual meetings are held in Europe – France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Denmark, England, Scotland, Norway – this US election year they’re again gathering at the Westfield Marriott Hotel in Virginia from May 30 to June 3. Either they’re very fond of that place… or of US elections… or both…!

A favorite Bilderberg method consists of inviting wannabe future heads of state to their meetings to determine whether they will go along with their agenda. We thus saw George H. W. Bush attend their 1985 meeting, Bill Clinton attend their 1991 meeting, Tony Blair in 1993, and Romano Prodi, former head of the EU Commission, in 1999.

So what exactly is Bilderberg? It’s neither an organization nor a lobby. The “Bilderberg Meetings,” as they dub themselves in their (apparently) official website http://www.bilderbergmeetings.com, is a “by-invitation-only” club of around 140 very high-power people from business, finance, oil, politics, media, industry, academia and nobility who come together in a very private no-media / no cameras / extremely-tight-security surroundings to discuss… Well… there’s the rub: what exactly do they discuss?

They describe themselves as “a small, flexible, informal and off-the-record international forum in which different viewpoints can be expressed and mutual understanding enhanced. Bilderberg’s only activity is its annual Conference. At the meetings, no resolutions are proposed, no votes taken, and no policy statements issued.”

True enough. Actually, they don’t need to because each individual member’s power is so very vast that whatever they agree will forcefully span the globe through their far-reaching leverage and clout.

Though very high up on the Pyramid, Bilderberg is not the Global Elite’s power center.

Rather, Bilderberg is a key group within a much more vast, more complex, less centralized, and highly effective Global Power Network, where they interact and overlap with other organizations, clubs, lobbies and groups, all having common economic, financial, social and (geo)political objectives in the Globalist Agenda.

This includes such key entities as the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations (long-term geopolitical planners), its London-based sister entity Royal Institute of International Affairs (aka “Chatham House”), RAND Corp., CSIS, the American Enterprise Institute (strategic affairs specialists), Tavistock Institute in London (mass psychology research), the Carnegie Endowment, and the Trilateral Commission “umbrella” entity (founded 1973 by Rockefeller / Morgan / Rothschild interests, geared to coordinating the Americas, Europe and the East).

These so-called “Think Tanks” in turn interact with consultancies like Kissinger Associates, The Carlyle Group (specializing in oil strategies and having the Bush, Bin Laden and Baker families as key shareholders), or Trilateralist Claus Schwab’s World Economic Forum.

Thus, Bilderberg is basically part of that very powerful Global Private Power Web; a “node” so to speak… And a very powerful one at that!!

European nobility regularly attend too: the Dutch Queen, the Spanish King and Queen, Norway’s Crown Prince…

Bilderberg’s high-power participants interact with, and are cross-represented on, the global private power web through membership and directorship in the Trilateral Commission, CFR, AEI, governments, corporations, banks, media and others.

Interestingly, also in attendance are founders and top executives of giant Internet management and intelligence gathering companies as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and Microsoft. (via Bilderberg power masters meet in the US — RT).

Declared and known

Is there anything that the rich and powerful cannot do? What is not in the public domain?

Salvador Allende, Patrice Lumumba – heads of state have been killed by the US. On any day, today, US Special forces are carrying out some actions in more than 75 countries of the world. Obama’s election was ‘foretold’ by a bestseller – by John Grisham.

So, what is not in the public domain.

Seeing is disbelieving

More than anything else, what makes me disbelieve tales of such ‘organizations’ is the fact that when Fortune-500 is already in existence, when the rich and powerful people meet at Davos openly.

Why would they need such a ‘secretive’ organization?

At all!

Why would the rich and powerful do anything furtively – when they are already doing everything in the open.

Murder, mayhem, poison, maim, torture, imprison, regime change, loot, pillage – everything.

Blatantly.

Old poisons in new bottles

After the end of overt and open Euro-colonialism, we have seen the birth of a covert Pax Americana. As Britain, France and the Dutch vacated colonies in Asia and Africa, America wriggled itself as a replacement.

Using groundless justifications like Domino Theory, creating fears of a Communist takeover (as though Communism was any worse), the US waged wars against recalcitrant countries.

Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea saw close to 5 million people killed. More than a million US soldiers were based in Asia between 1950-1975. Puppet rulers were installed. The USCAP strategy was implemented.

What more can the Bilderbergs discuss?

If all this is done, known – and out in the open.

2ndlook at global oligarchy

What You Dont Know and They Wont Tell – Pax Americana

–

Belgium regrets the assassination of Patrice Lummumba

–

War and crimes

Categories: BRICS, China, Europe, Media, Politics, Social Trends Tags: , , ,

A Genocide Debate: History, Cause & Effect

May 22, 2012 4 comments

How comparable are Rwandan warlords and Bosnia’s killers to George Bush in Iraq and Afghanistan? The genocide debate …
Comparing a Rwandan warlord with George Bush is gross logic. One is the head of a super-power while the other is a temporary and accidental upper-hand in a civil war | Cartoonist - Kevin Moore on 11/8/04; titled Mandate with the Devil; source & courtesy - incontemptcomics.com | Click for image

Comparing a Rwandan warlord with George Bush is gross logic. One is the head of a super-power while the other is a temporary and accidental upper-hand in a civil war | Cartoonist – Kevin Moore on 11/8/04; titled Mandate with the Devil; source & courtesy – incontemptcomics.com | Click for image

Though, in 1995, the women and children of Srebrenica were first removed from the killing grounds by Bosnian Serb troops, though the 8,000 men and boys they killed were a small proportion of the Bosnian Muslim population, it meets the definition. So the trial of Ratko Mladic, the troops’ commander, which began last week, matters. Whatever one thinks of the even-handedness of international law, and though it remains true that men who commissioned or caused the killing of greater numbers of people (George Bush and Tony Blair, for instance) have not been brought to justice and are unlikely to be, every prosecution of this kind makes the world a better place. (via My fight may be hopeless, but it is as necessary as ever | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian).

Here is an interesting Western debate – between members of self-identified Left. On the issue of genocide.

George Monbiot  of The Guardian tries to persuade Noam Chomsky, John Pilger that the Aboriginal genocide in Australia or the extermination of the Native Americans is somehow equal or problematic as civil war killings by warlords in Balkans and Africa (specifically in Rwanda and Bosnia).

There are two aspects that seem important to me.

One – There is a difference between systematic killings by the State – like in the case of Native Americans, Australian Aborigines, and the killings by factions in a civil war – like in Rwanda and Bosnia. There is also a good case that these two cases of killings (Rwanda and Bosnia) were in fact based on the structures erected and supported by Western imperialism.

Two – A significant difference is status of the killers.

Can a Rwandan warlord who kills nearly a million Africans in a civil war be an equal to a George Bush who initiated war against Iraq based on patently false grounds?

George Monbiot seems to say yes!

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Gold – Will the West buy or kill?

Looking Back At Arab Spring

Welcome to Libya’s ‘democracy’

What do good Christians do? War, Kill, Death, Bomb, Fire

‘Progress’ in Libya

Media Role In Iraq War

War On Terror – Desert Bloc Style

The Taking of Iraq

Shopping With Iraq’s $1.2 Trillion – What It Can Buy For The US

War and crimes

The shadow of oil

Onward, American Soldiers! Another million await death

Islamic world changing?

Carnegie, I can see you

How was Churchill different from Hitler …

Buffalo Soldier burial used to Whitewash ‘Red Indian’ genocide

Vatican uses short codes to blame Hinduism for Hitler’s Holocaust

Roma Gypsies face Northern Ireland ethnic violence

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Categories: Media, Pax Americana, Politics Tags: , , , , , ,

Who leaked Army CoS Letter to PM: ‘Cabinet secretariat officer leaked Army Chief’s letter’ – Hindustan Times

May 13, 2012 1 comment

Who leaked the Army Chief’s letter to PM Manmohan Singh? Initially, the Govt. indicated that it happened from Army HQ. When Army HQ called for ‘ruthless action’ truth came tumbling after …

A Joint Secretary-rank officer in the Cabinet Secretariat has been found guilty of leaking Army Chief General V K Singh’s letter to Prime Minister Manmohan

Singh about the poor state of preparedness of his force and has been shunted out. A probe into the leakage by the Prime Minister’s

Office (PMO) has also cleared Gen Singh of any wrongdoing in the episode, highly-placed sources told PTI here.

In his letter, the Army Chief had highlighted the critical shortage of equipment and ammunition in artillery and armoured regiments.

The female officer belonging to the Indian Economic Service (IES) was handling the charge of intelligence agencies under the Cabinet Secretariat and was nailed after

interrogation of some suspected persons, they said.

The officer has now been repatriated to her parent cadre and further action can be taken against her for leaking such a sensitive document, sources said. (via ‘Cabinet secretariat officer leaked Army Chief’s letter’ – Hindustan Times).

So, the Govt. has found a ‘fall guy.’ In this case it is a lady.

Why would this lady IES officer leak a document like this – unless instructed?

Instructed by whom?

Related articles
Categories: India, Indian media, Politics Tags: , , , ,

Gypsy music – a rediscovered heritage?

May 12, 2012 Leave a comment

Modern and classical Western music is solidly based on the music tradition, structure, repertoire, of the Roma Gypsy.
Wax recordings of Roma Gypsy music being made.

Wax recordings of Roma Gypsy music being made.

Folk songs from Eastern Europe were a strong inspiration for the great composers Leos Janacek and Bela Bartok. Both of them travelled through the countryside – Janacek in the Slovak-Moravian borderland, Bartok in Transylvania – and recorded village singers using wax cylinders – the only equipment available at the time. The material they collected is still much sought after.

Yet this fieldwork is far from finished, and more musical gems still remain to be discovered – at least in the Roma settlements of Slovakia. These poor and muddy villages are probably the closest place to Western Europe, where Roma have managed to maintain their lifestyle untouched by urban life.

Jana Belisova - The Slovak ethnographer | Image source & courtesy - radio.cz | Click for image.

Jana Belisova – The Slovak ethnographer | Image source & courtesy – radio.cz | Click for image.

No wonder many Roma, who have settled in Czech towns have warm feelings for these villages – it’s where their relatives come from. Also, many songs now made famous by the Roma divas Vera Bila or Ida Kelarova come from these desolate regions.

Jana Belisova has spent the last 14 years travelling to these places, recording old Roma singers and musicians in their homes. But it was not until last year that she managed to launch her first CD Phurikane Gila and a beautiful book with some stunning pictures. At 38 years old, she is one of the leading experts on Roma music in Slovakia (via Radio Prague – Magic Carpet: Gypsy music – a rediscovered heritage?).

An estimated 6000 of these wax cylinders formed the back bone for Bartok’s music composition. Many other Western classical musicians used the Roma Gypsy themes and constructs in their compositions.

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Categories: Europe, History, Media Tags: , , , , ,

Making of the Indian Constitution

May 12, 2012 11 comments

The cartoon of BR Ambedkar which created a parliamentary furore was sketched by cartoonist Shankar, as he was popularly called.
Even though some reports suggest that this was a 1950's cartoon, it was probably before January 26th 1950, when the Indian Constitution was adopted by the Indian Constituent Assembly. ToI suggests that this was a 1948 cartoon. | Copyright - Children's Book Trust; source and courtesy - outlookindia.com | Click for source image.

Even though some reports suggest that this was a 1950’s cartoon, it was probably before January 26th 1950, when the Indian Constitution was adopted by the Indian Constituent Assembly. ToI suggests that this was a 1948 cartoon. | Copyright – Children’s Book Trust; source and courtesy – outlookindia.com | Click for source image.

The school textbook cartoon of BR Ambedkar which created a furore in parliament on Friday was sketched by cartoonist Keshav Shankar Pillai.

Shankar, as he was popularly called, later founded the publishing house, Children’s Book Trust, in 1957. He made cartoons for newspapers and his magazine, Shankar’s Weekly, started in 1948. The government of India honoured him with Padma Shri in 1956, Padma Bhushan in 1966 and Padma Vibhushan in 1976.

The controversial cartoon was probably first published in 1948 and has been a part of NCERT’s (National Council Of Educational Research And Training) Class XI textbook in Tamil Nadu since 2006. The cartoon is credited to Children’s Book Trust.

It shows Ambedkar, a Dalit leader and creator of the Indian Constitution, seated on a snail with ‘Constitution’ written on it and India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, whipping the snail. (via Shankar made the Ambedkar-Nehru cartoon in 1950s – Hindustan Times).

What would Babasaheb Ambedkar tell his 'followers'? | Cartoon by Surendra; May 11, 2012; source & courtesy - thehindu.com | Click for larger image.

What would Babasaheb Ambedkar tell his ‘followers’? | Cartoon by Surendra; May 11, 2012; source & courtesy – thehindu.com | Click for larger image.

Up to speed

In a short period of less than 30 months, India wrote and implemented its constitution. It has been been a rather pliable constitution getting amended a number of times – and yet has been upheld and respected by all the extensions of the State.

Unlike Pakistan.

Now … or when?

After the boycott of the Simon Commission, from 1927, and the death of Lala Lajpat Rai (Nov 17, 1928), it was clear (especially to the British) that their days were numbered. Britain enacted The Government of India Act, first in 1919 and then in 1935. Some Indians have claimed the Indian Constitution is nothing original – based on the Government of India Act, 1935, by the British Raj.

This a claim not even worth examining, since this Government of India act, 1935, has been in public domain for more than 75 years. Pakistan had as much right to it as India did.

Why could Pakistan do nothing with it.

Documents do not make a country work! People do!! (Cartoon by Sabir Nazar; Courtesy - www.dailytimes.com.pk.).

Documents do not make a country work! People do!! (Cartoon by Sabir Nazar; Courtesy – http://www.dailytimes.com.pk.).

Get up … and get on!

In fact Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly dragged this Constitution-making exercise till October 1956.

Cut back to 1956 Pakistan.

Remember that 1956 was also the year when Pakistan became a republic – and the first constitution of Pakistan was adopted. Governor General Sahibzada Sayyid Iskander Ali Mirza (a Shia Muslim from Bengal, direct descendant of Mir Jaffer) became the first President of the Pakistani Republic.

Two years later, in October 1958, President Iskander Mirza staged a coup d’état and dismissed the constitution. Shortly afterwards General Ayub Khan deposed Iskandar and declared himself president. These shenanigans started the tradition of Army rule in Pakistan.

To an emerging Pakistan, after a 9 year struggle to write a constitution, two years later, the Army declared that the Constitution was worthless piece of paper. Another Constitution was written in 1962, and then a third.

The Shankar cartoon that was included in school textbooks which raised a furore in the Indian Parliament | Source and courtesy - outlookindia.com | Click for source image.

The Shankar cartoon that was included in school textbooks which raised a furore in the Indian Parliament | Source and courtesy – outlookindia.com | Click for source image.

Looking back

In the last 250 years, just 6 countries succeeded with Republican democracy without a significant breakdown in the first 50 years. Of the six, Sri Lanka (pop. 200 lakhs) Switzerland (pop. 80 lakhs), Israel (pop. 75 lakhs) and Singapore (pop. 50 lakhs) are tiny countries to generate any valuable data, models, norms or precedents. In any other day, age and society, the republican-democracy model would have been laughed off – and not studied by millions.

America became one of the first successful republican democracies – from 1789, when George Washington became the first elected President of USA. 70 years later, the strains were showing – North versus South. America was on the verge of Civil War – the main cause of which was the desire of the Southern states to remain independent (due to tariff issues) or at best as a loose confederation – not a federal union (actually slavery was a side issue).

Israel, (propped up by massive US aid) is another country which has been a republican democracy for more than 50 years. Switzerland (with guaranteed neutrality from the European powers) is another in modern history to survive 50 years of republican democracy.

The reason why India’s Republican Democracy works is because Indian genius has made it work. It is the commitment to make the system work, which is why the system is working.

Though some may cavil about how well (?) it works!

Coming to this cartoon, Shanker’s Weekly was a permanent fixture in subscriptions at my home, till its demise in the 1970s. Though respected in its time, it hardly made money.

Related articles
Categories: History, India, Indian media, Politics, Social Trends Tags: , , , ,
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