THE
AMERICAN CONNECTION
It is hotly debatable whether the much acclaimed
American connection is so much essential for our country. True, our new Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, till now a persona-non-grata for the US, was welcomed
with fanfare and assured of continued support and aid to us, but the point
remains whether the US itself is today in a position to help, and not wreck,
others. Of course, Modi was also vocal enough to state that the future belongs
to Asia but even the present, it is generally felt,
is looking towards this continent. Were Modi to invest even half the zeal and
energy displayed by him for cultivating America to the case of improving
relations with China, our bigger neighbor, whose President has so graciously
come forward to first visit our country, our commerce and industry,
particularly in the field of high speed railways, would have certainly
benefited several times more than what US could help to do. The vexed and
protracted border dispute with that country should be solved at the earliest in
a ‘give and take’ spirit, for which that side has always been and still remains
ready, without being bugged by the prejudices from the past. Perhaps a way out
for our ‘oil crisis’ can also be found in close relations with China than
banking on the Gas Pipeline that America is so ambitious, and genocidally
aggressive, to push through the Middle East for its greedy profits. It is said that
the aggressiveness of the US abroad and protectiveness at home go together and
due to the latter we may lose several thousand jobs, and more opportunities,
for our youths in that country which are available now. It doesn’t seem Modi
has addressed that problem at all though he gave effusive exhortations about the
Indian jaagaran at Madison Square NY,
sounding quite hypocritical in lauding Gandhi (who never visited that country), while completely forgetting or deliberately
overlooking Swami Vivekananda, who perhaps was our first ambassador of peace to
that land, let alone the indomitable Hindustani Gadar Party with patriots and
martyrs like Har Dayal, Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna, Karatar Singh Saraba and
Vishnu Ganesh Pingle, who began their valiant fight for our freedom from that
free land. Anyway, it is safer for us to remain at a respectable distance from
the US
