Pakistan our neighbour !!

The tragedy of US Pak relations has been that of a superpower seeking a client state, and the client state biting the hand that feeds it. Pakistan has been the recipient of trillions of Dollars in aid, from the time of General Ayub Khan in the early 50's to present day, and what one sees of this benevolence is violent anti US protests on the streets, or rabid sermons of clerics from the pulpits against America.

Pakistan has a history of diverting money and arms given to them for a particular cause e.g. fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, Taliban etc, for use against India. The state of Pakistan formed by a partition of United India, subsists on a theory of constant paranoia of India wishing to destroy it existence -( something farthermost from India's mind ) and thereby keeps the arm race on by using US largess in its build up against India. So overwhelming is this obsession, that as recently as three months ago,they refused to deploy troops against the Taliban in the Swat valley, claiming they could not spare 20,000 troops from their Eastern front (read India border) and only under intense US pressure, did they re deploy their army in the Swat valley to fight the militants. The real fear that the US and the rest of the world live in is the fear of Pakistan's ever growing nuclear arsenal falling into the hand of the militants something that their establishment remain blinkered too.The US must realize this real threat,and halt their nuclear expansion and impose an embargo on its arms shipments - the money and weapons given to Pakistan is being used to fortify themselves against India and not the Taliban. To the Pak army and ISI, the real enemy is India - let's not forget,the Taliban is their creation is considered as a strategic asset by the establishment.

Carry on Mr. Singh !

The expulsion of Jaswant Singh by the BJP is another eye opener of the intolerance of this centrist fundamental party, masquerading as a secularist organisation, but unable to disguise its real agenda. Unfortunately, all of us have drifted away from the real issue - the intolerance and the fascist agenda of the BJP, and are involved in a debate about the roles of Jinnah, the Sardar and Nehru, and independence. The debate is not of the Sardar, Jinnah or Nehru, who's roles are well known, documented and accepted by history - but that of a viewpoint articulated in a book. Such a book should have been treated as another treatise on the historical journey of a country, and sparked a spirited debate and discussion, not expulsion and proscription. The agenda of the obscurantist has clearly been achieved by the BJP playing, willy nilly their game.The freedom that we all so cherish, the freedom of expression, is sought to be muzzled by the BJP brass, thereby exposing its narrow sectarian mindset.

The patriotism of Jaswant Singh cannot be doubted, and the BJP attempting to discipline him like a 24 year young party worker shows the arbitrariness in this moribund organisation. If at all they wished to 'discipline' him, they should have issued a show cause notice, and held an inquiry, and then meted equitable punishment, if the need was felt. For me however, it’s simply a case of freedom of thought and expression, and no one can snatch that away, no expulsions, no proscriptions.

Carry on writing Mr. Singh, it’s the BJP's loss, not yours!