Posted on 02/28/2006 9:00:39 AM PST by Raj13008
On his triumphalist tour of India and Pakistan, where he hopes to wave imperiously at people he considers potential subjects, President Bush has an itinerary that's getting curiouser and curiouser.
For Bush's March 2 pit stop in New Delhi, the Indian government tried very hard to have him address our parliament. A not inconsequential number of MPs threatened to heckle him, so Plan One was hastily shelved. Plan Two was to have Bush address the masses from the ramparts of the magnificent Red Fort, where the Indian prime minister traditionally delivers his Independence Day address. But the Red Fort, surrounded as it is by the predominantly Muslim population of Old Delhi, was considered a security nightmare. So now we're into Plan Three: President George Bush speaks from Purana Qila, the Old Fort.
Ironic, isn't it, that the only safe public space for a man who has recently been so enthusiastic about India's modernity should be a crumbling medieval fort?
Since the Purana Qila also houses the Delhi zoo, George Bush's audience will be a few hundred caged animals and an approved list of caged human beings, who in India go under the category of "eminent persons." They're mostly rich folk who live in our poor country like captive animals, incarcerated by their own wealth, locked and barred in their gilded cages, protecting themselves from the threat of the vulgar and unruly multitudes whom they have systematically dispossessed over the centuries.
So what's going to happen to George W. Bush? Will the gorillas cheer him on? Will the gibbons curl their lips? Will the brow-antlered deer sneer? Will the chimps make rude noises? Will the owls hoot? Will the lions yawn and the giraffes bat their beautiful eyelashes? Will the crocs recognize a kindred soul? Will the quails give thanks that Bush isn't traveling with Dick Cheney, his hunting partner with the notoriously bad aim? Will the CEOs agree?
Oh, and on March 2, Bush will be taken to visit Gandhi's memorial in Rajghat. He's by no means the only war criminal who has been invited by the Indian government to lay flowers at Rajghat. (Only recently we had the Burmese dictator General Than Shwe, no shrinking violet himself.) But when Bush places flowers on that famous slab of highly polished stone, millions of Indians will wince. It will be as though he has poured a pint of blood on the memory of Gandhi.
We really would prefer that he didn't.
It is not in our power to stop Bush's visit. It is in our power to protest it, and we will. The government, the police and the corporate press will do everything they can to minimize the extent of our outrage. Nothing the happy newspapers say can change the fact that all over India, from the biggest cities to the smallest villages, in public places and private homes, George W. Bush, the President of the United States of America, world nightmare incarnate, is just not welcome
Nope, just a died in the wool leftist/liberal...oops, er, that would be pretty much the same in this case, wouldn't it?.
I didn't even read past that point.
I actually appreciated the writer just putting the agenda right up front so I can move on to other things today.
:D.
Well - the leftist MPs , who constitute 60 out of 570 , intended to raise slogans against Bush if he addressed the Indian parliament. They would have been shouted down by the rest of the parliament members. But it was thought better to avoid making a scene and so Bush is not addressing the parliament. Rather he will be addressing the various business delegations in India , meeting the scientists regarding the nuclear treaty , diplomants etc. Later he will be visiting the hi-tech city of Hyderabad , also called Cyberabad.
With Arundhati Roy , a lot is about half truths.Take it with a pinch of salt.
Why on earth would would we want millions of starving, uneducated Indians? For what purpose?
Thanks for posting this. It is interesting perspective. They're everywhere!
It is not fact checking per se, it is that they use "facts", true or false, as it suits their agenda.
When in 1990 Clinton was after the Dem nomination and the Nation thought him too moderate they ran stories against the Clintons including one about how Hillary legally represented a high tech landmine manufacturer in Mena Arkansas. (Electronic proximity fuse. They also make parking meters that reset when you drive off.) Etc.
Besides, there was no request from the American side for a joint-address at the Indian Parliament.
This piece is a good example of some unreal arguments of the New Age forces of the Antichrist.
Arundhati Roy, your last name looks suspiciously monarchist and triumphalist. Better watch out, or you will be sent in for re-education.
Pardon me Roy... is that the Stalinista choo choo....
Bush is headed to a country where the leader was assassinated by her own bodyguards. The wise thing for Bush to do is get a cold and stay home.
Reading the papers, it was often hard to tell when people were referring to Viagra (which was competing for second place on the front pages) and when they were talking about the bomb - "We have superior strength and potency." (This was our Minister for Defence after Pakistan completed its tests.) "These are not just nuclear tests, they are nationalism tests," we were repeatedly told.
This has been hammered home, over and over again. The bomb is India. India is the bomb. Not just India, Hindu India. Therefore, be warned, any criticism of it is not just ant-national but anti-Hindu. (Of course in Pakistan the bomb is Islamic. Other than that, politically, the same physics applies.) This is one of the unexpected perks of having a nuclear bomb. Not only can the government use it to threaten the Enemy, they can use it to declare war on their own people. Us.
When I told my friends that I was writing this piece, they cautioned me. "Go ahead," they said, "but first make sure you're not vulnerable. Make sure your papers are in order. Make sure your taxes are paid."
My papers are in order. My taxes are paid. But how can one not be vulnerable in a climate like this? Everyone is vulnerable. Accidents happen. There's safety only in acquiescence. As I write, I am filled with foreboding. In this country, I have truly known what it means for a writer to feel loved (and, to some degree, hated too). Last year I was one of the items being paraded in the media's end-of-the-year National Pride Parade. Among the others, much to my mortification, were a bomb-maker and an international beauty queen. Each time a beaming person stopped me on the street and said "You have made India proud" (referring to the prize I won, not the book I wrote), I felt a little uneasy. It frightened me then and it terrifies me now, because I know how easily that swell, that tide of emotion, can turn against me. Perhaps the time for that has come. I'm going to step out from under the fairy lights and say what's on my mind.
It's this: If protesting against having a nuclear bomb implanted in my brain is anti-Hindu and anti-national, then I secede. I hereby declare myself an independent, mobile republic. I am a citizen of the earth. I own no territory. I have no flag. I'm female, but have nothing against eunuchs. My policies are simple. I'm willing to sign any nuclear non-proliferation treaty or nuclear test ban treaty that's going. Immigrants are welcome. You can help me design our flag.
My world has died. And I write to mourn its passing. India's nuclear tests, the manner in which they were conducted, the euphoria with which they have been greeted (by us) is indefensible. To me, it signifies dreadful things. The end of imagination.
On the 15th of August last year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of India's independence. Next May we can mark our first anniversary in nuclear bondage.
Why did they do it? Political expediency is the obvious, cynical answer, except that it only raises another, more basic question: Why should it have been politically expedient? The three Official Reasons given are: China, Pakistan and Exposing Western Hypocrisy.
One of the biggest idiots India has ever produced.
Poor deranged, useful idiot. If those she praises and caters too ever come to true power she will meet a ignoble, useful idiot's end. While those she castigates risk their very lives to let her spout such drivel. And she doesn't have the common sense, the inegrity or the virtue to see it.
As I said...derangd useful idiot
And used thoroughly she is! More than a whore. By India's Leftists and Communists.
Considering the population balance, the US rather would make a good @ 28th state for India.
OK, thanks.
Arundhati Roy is indeed a socialist leftist prig, she can't stand the thought of India becoming an active US Ally in it's China Containment policy,NOR of the massive shipping that is about to flood the middle East through Dubai from India and the USA. Islam is about to become consumerized, just like India was at the protests of its screaming leftist mavins like AroundHaiti
Photo Caption:
Arundhati Roy
"I met Putin and his fish was this long!!! I don't know how he will ever find an oven large enough to coooook it!!"
Programme of US President Bush in India
* Wednesday March 1
> Arrival - 8.00 pm
* Thursday March 2
> Ceremonial Reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan - 9.00 am
> Wreath laying at Rajghat (Gandhi's memorial)
> Meeting with Prime Minister and delegation level talks - 10.35 am
> Joint Press Conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh -12.30 pm
> Call by Leader of Opposition LK Advani - 4.30 pm
> Call by Chairperson of UPA, Sonia Gandhi -4.45 pm
> Call on President APJ Abdul Kalam and banquet at Rashtrapati Bhawan- 8.00 pm
* Friday March 3
> Visit to ANG Ranga Agriculture University, Hyderabad - morning
> Visit to Indian School of Business, Hyderabad - morning
> Speech at Purana Quila, Delhi - 6.45 pm
* Saturday March 4
> Depart for Islamabad - morning
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Why don't you go join your socialist buddies over at DU? If you want, I'll send you a copy of a basic free market economics book. You do realize there are larger foreign policy issues with cozying to India right?
Good fishin buddy!!!
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