Sympathy for Devil

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL- US democracy, though badly damaged, has lumbered into actionTHE THIN EDGE RUCHIR JOSHIBahuj saras, I could say as a Gujarati, in fact, I would even say fankduthayu, meaning, respectively, “very good” and “what happened is fantastic”.As someone who has gone into print saying that Donald Rumsfeld should havebeen arrested as a war criminal the moment he landed in Delhi, and assomeone who thinks that Narendra Modi and his murderous gang belong,forever, deep inside the most draconian prison in India, I feel nothing butelation when I hear that Modi has been denied a visa by the Americans. What’s more, this wonderful news comes even before the waft of Condoleezza Rice’spoisonous perfume has faded from our corridors of power.Talking about smell, the whole thing throws up a complex and subtly fragrantbouquet of ironies. Despite its protests to the contrary, the Bushadministration has been brazenly indifferent to the fate of Muslims all overthe world. As long as their self-interest is served, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld& Co. don’t give a rat’s hindquarters whether Afghanistan goes from thetaliban back to rapist warlords, whether Pakistan keeps shoving all tracesof democracy into the shredder, whether Iraqi women come under the yoke ofthe Sharia for the first time or whether the tottering Ayatollahs get a newlease of life because of Washington’s cretinous belligerence towards Iran.And, while these countries and societies may have registered faintly throughtheir semi-opaque Ray-Bans, the plight of Gujarati Muslims certainly hasn’tgiven anyone at Rancho Dubya even a 30-second pause as they try and put alasso around the world. And yet, lookee here! — a visa refusal for NarendraMengele Modisevic!On their part, Feldwebel Modisevic and his supporters in Gujarat, USA andBritain have been the most skimpily-dressed, manically enthusiasticcheerleaders for Team Bush, squealing in ecstacy at each bomb going into aIraqi or Afghan house. “Doesn’t matter, kai vaandho nahi, Mussalman chhe ne?maaro!” Innocent or not, combatant or not, child or not, as long as theMuslim body-count piles up, Modi and his fascists have shown nothing butglee, proclaiming that the Americans, specifically these Americans, aretheir “natural allies”. And yet, oops!, the “natural ally” seems to havedelivered a kick right in the sangh parivar’s swaabhimaans.Since coming to power, the Congress and the United Progressive Alliancegovernment have dragged their feet over delivering justice in Gujarat. Thatwonderful blunt instrument of Indian statecraft, president’s rule, hasinexplicably been kept well away from the one place where its use is, forgetjustified, screamingly necessary — Gandhinagar. Now, with hardly anycompensation paid to the pogrom victims, with nary a conviction achievedagainst the best-documented crimes and criminals of the Gujarat massacres,the prime minister and the various ministries are tripped into proclaimingan injury to “national pride”. Why? Because India’s most notorious humanrights violator has been denied entry into a foreign country.We, as “a proud, sovereign nation”, will welcome Donald “Narendra” Rumsfeldwith red carpets, bow low to the toxic Condi Rice, and say not a word aboutAbu Ghraib or Guantanamo. We will mutter inaudibly about the stalled Kyototreaty or the Bushies’ world-wide jihad on contraception, AIDS-containmentand family planning, all things that impinge directly on our people’s rightto life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But when it comes to “anelected Indian official” being denied a visa, the government suddenly findsthe moral wherewithal to stand tall, drape a tricoloured cape around itsshoulders and go eyeball-to-eyeball with the Americans. Wow.Even people who loathe Modi, people who are under no illusions about thedepth and spread of the man’s personal responsibility for the Gujaratmassacres and the continuing aftermath, find a tripwire going off insidethem, some button being pressed that says: “I detest the man, but what rightdo these Americans have, to refuse one of our government officials a visa?”Goes one line of reaction: “He may be a mass-murderer but he’s ourmass-murderer.” To which I have to say — “Well...no. He may be ours, but heis a mass-murderer.” And the fact of the mass-murdering takes hugeprecedence over the shameful fact that Modi is “ours”. And the fact that thecurrent US administration is an emperor with no clothes as far as humanrights are concerned is, ultimately, immaterial.In any case, if you look at the graph of how the visa refusal came about youwill see that Rancho Dubya had precious little to do with it. Intime-honoured fashion, the current bunch of carpet-baggers occupying theWhite House would like nothing better than to fete yet another butcher aslong as he was, in some sense, their butcher. In this, Modi is firmlyembedded in a long tradition of “pro-American” monsters, the Pinochets, theShahs, the Bothas, the Marcoses, the Noriegas, the Zia-ul-Haqs, and evenelected ones like the Begins and the Sharons.The fact is, a small arm of the vast, badly-damaged contraption called theUS democracy has, for once, lumbered into action, painfully and slowlypushed over three years by a whole host of people including Indian humanrights organizations, retired Indian judges, Indian academics andintellectuals in American universities, Indian journalists, and, like it ornot, the majority of the Indian electorate who last year rejected the sanghparivar’s politics of hate along with the parivar government’s otherfailures. As someone ranked well above the stenographers’ pool in SouthBlock told me the other day: “I doubt the Americans would have had the gutsto do this if the BJP were still in power.”Be that as it may, the interesting thing is, it looks as if the rancid toplayer of the American administration has been obliged to act by a lowerstratum of political species, two Congressmen, a Republican and Democrat, acommittee on religious freedom (bad mistake, Mian Modisevic, attacking thoseChristian Dalits) and — hell, let’s give it to them — perhaps a visa officeror a fourth assistant to the US ambassador, a man or a woman of decency andconscience stationed at Fort George in Chanakyapuri.Let’s imagine it: “Mr. Ambassador?” says this good person, “Sir, I have avisa application for an Indian government official, but the man’s entry isembargoed by Congress.” The ambassador doesn’t look up: “Whyn’t you go aheadand deal with it? I’m trying to field Secretary Rice’s visit here forChrissakes!” The Un-ugly American smiles: “Sure thing, sir.” Boom. Let’sthen imagine the post-refusal scene at the MEA. High Indian Official: “Goodevening Bob, thanks for coming over, have a seat.” Bob (or Jane, or Dwight)sits down. High Indian Official (grinning from ear to ear): “Bob, myGovernment requires me to issue to you a protest in the strongest possibleterms as regards the refusal of a US visa to the Chief Minister of Gujarat,Shri Modi.” Bob (keeping a straight face): Uh-huh. I will pass that on to mysuperiors, Pran. Was there anything else?” HIO: “Yes. How much ice do youwant in your whisky?”At this current high point in mid-level Indo-US cooperation, and in theensuing spirit of buoyant optimism, let us also imagine our two charactersthree years hence. Pran, now stationed in our Washington embassy, issummoned in return to the state department. Bob: “Pran, are you guys crazy?You’ve refused a visa to a former vice-president of the United States!”Pran: “Well, Bob, Mr Cheney is an impeached and convicted formervice-president, and you know we in India don’t like criminals, no matterwhat high office they once held.” Bob: “C’mon Pran, all the old guy wants isanother heart by-pass! Pran: “Why can’t he go to Houston?” Bob (barelycontaining guffaws): “Because they’ll lynch him down there. You know Bushand this guy can’t go anywhere near Texas! Anyway, Cheney can’t afford a UShospital anymore.” Pran: “Well, you tell President Eisenhower that she cansend him to Iraq. Our Apollo people have set up a couple of very good,reasonably priced heart-clinics there. I recommend the one in Basra.”http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050403/asp/opinion/story_4538168.asp