If Bush were to check with Dr Frawley

[Guest guest]

If Bush were to check with Dr Frawley

 

"If Mr Bush were to check out with Dr David Frawley of the American

Institute of Vedic Studies in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he would get a

fresh and wider perspective which would help him to navigate better

in the troubled waters of the present world. However, even long

before, American scholarship, through eminent figures like Emerson,

Longfellow and Thoreau, had already recognized the perennial worth

of Indian wisdom and its relevance for a peaceful existence."

Bush's India visit: Intelligent designs

 

-- Dr R Neerunjun Gopee

 

 

 

All thought is a dialogue with circumstance.

 

– Sarvepalli Gopal

 

 

 

When he learnt about the nuclear tests carried out by India in 1998,

President Clinton who was then in office is reported to have

exclaimed "we're going to come down on these guys like a ton of

bricks!" Subsequently Mr Clinton made a highly successful visit to

India where he was showered not with a ton of bricks but with

flowers and genuine regard if not actual love – though short of the

peck that was planted on Mr Bush's cheek in Hyderabad – all the way

during his four-day trip.

 

Since Mr Clinton's remark, things have clearly come a long way. It

is a sweet irony of the times that his successor, in only the third

ever visit by an American president to India in 28 years, has

clinched a nuclear deal with India. Many critics and the western

press traditionally hostile to India have not missed the opportunity

to once again vent their anti-India feelings and focus exclusively

on the signing of the nuclear agreement, conveniently sidelining the

more important aspects of Mr Bush's visit, namely the engagement

with business which comes in the wake of the highly

successful "India Everywhere" presence at the World Economic Forum

in Davos recently. Which country comes out the bigger winner

following this visit? One does not have to be a magician to see that

the win-win situation tilts rather more in favour of America, with

all the concessions that India has had to make before the carefully

and meticulously crafted memorandum was signed. Almost with glee,

The Economist wishfully notes that the American Congress may yet

scupper the deal. Were this to happen, this would be another golden

opportunity lost for the world's richest democracy to strengthen its

links with the world's largest and most stable democracy and lay the

foundation for a strategic partnership that looks

beyond "containment" to engage Asia's two emerging giants, and for

the threesome to be the engine of growth of the world along with

Japan and Russia, an argument that will be developed in this

article.

 

Specifically as regards the nuclear situation, it is widely

acknowledged that India is a responsible nuclear state. It is not a

rogue state, and it has a clear and transparent record on the

nuclear front ever since Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru charged Homi

Bhabha -- one of the world's youngest scientists to be elected to

the Fellowship of the Royal Society in England – to develop India's

nuclear sector essentially, and to this day, for civilian purposes.

This trend has been reinforced in the present nuclear deal, with 65%

of India's nuclear reactors dedicated to civilian use and coming

under international safeguards according to the terms of the

agreement. America should know: except for the Bay of Pigs incident

of 1962 which might have culminated in a nuclear standoff not of its

own making and the two atomic bombs dropped during the second world

war, it has never brandished nor threatened to use its atomic

warheads which number in the thousands. Nor has India, whose puny

arsenal of a few tens has been kept strictly as a deterrent, imposed

by a persistently hostile and expansionist neighbourhood. India has

consistently demonstrated that it has no territorial ambitions.

Instead, and in spite of the incessant intrusive terrorist activity

within its borders, it has succeeded against all odds to maintain

its internal stability and has preferred to "jaw-jaw rather than war-

war" with several countries in the region.

 

Witness, despite the risks involved, the people-to-people

initiatives launched by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during

his tenure, beginning with the Amritsar-Lahore bus service. The

present dispensation in India has followed up on this move which has

now expanded to include exchanges in sports, cricket notably, visits

by parliamentarians, artists, journalists, a train service, not to

mention the projected oil pipeline project with Iran which is not

seen by Bush as a major obstruction in Indo-US relations. India has

made its position clear to both the US and to Iran, with whom it has

long-standing relations. Shri Vajpayee also cleared the way for

openings towards China. Prime ministerial visits between the two

countries and high-level talks have deliberately relegated to the

second line concerns about the Siachen glacier in order to

concentrate, instead, on the partnerships that will take the region

further afield on the road to progress in the 21st century.

Cooperation in the pharmaceutical and IT sectors has already begun,

and is undoubtedly set to extend to other sectors.

 

It goes without saying that China and India have much more to gain

mutually by tapping each other's potential in the scientific and

industrial fields; with more of similarly enlightened leadership in

the region this benefit could rapidly spread to the rest of Asia.

Despite their ideological differences, with an eye firmly on

business America has for long been engaged with China, even granting

it "Most Favoured Nation" status and rationalizing this stand

notwithstanding Tianamen. If this approach were to be consolidated

on a broader front – and Bush's visit seems to indicate that this

may be happening – then in lieu of an elusive counterweight, America

would have a vast market in which to leverage its competitive

business, scientific and technological prowess, effectively

spreading its soft power a la Nye in a more welcome and desirable

manner. The cold war being over, there is no reason why Russia, with

its own proven track record in science and technology, could not be

brought into this partnership by a nurtured nudging of Mr Putin,

making him see the clear advantages of being party to a spreading

zone of influence that can altogether change the face of the world.

And if America can reconcile with Japan in spite of Hiroshima and

Nagasaki, why may it not be able to work out a similar

reconciliation between Japan and China, perhaps with help from

Bishop Desmond Tutu or Nelson Mandela, to make them heal their war

wounds? That way, with the movers in the region --- constituting in

themselves a huge market – combining their proven competencies and

skills underpinned by their millennial value system, and with

America infusing its own dynamism into this vortex, this could

result in a massive "pull" effect on the rest of the world to lift

mankind out of its quagmire of terrorism and poverty.

 

If the nuclear "dimension" of the Bush visit to India is not

overblown out of proportion to its importance, it can thus be seen

that the fallouts of this new discovery of India by America can be

more far-reaching than either party could have imagined. India, of

course, has never belittled or been anti-American, even when its

post-Independence socialist thrust made it lean more on, but not

necessarily towards, communist USSR. This was spelt out by

the "original Mrs Gandhi (Indira)" – vide "India Today" of January

30, 2006 – in a fitting reply she gave to a journalist on Capitol

Hill during her visit to America in the `70s. I reproduce from

memory: the question was, "Mrs Prime Minister, we are aware that

there are two superpowers in the world. May I know which way does

India lean?" Without batting an eyelid, Mrs Gandhi shot straight

from the hip, "India leans neither to the left nor to the right. We

stand straight!" No one can accuse India of not taking principled

stands consistently. Like the liberal West, India has always been an

open society, sometimes too open even – to the point of porosity.

Appearances to the contrary, the primacy of reason is the… reason

for this country to be the oldest extant civilization, torchbearer

of mankind's most fundamental values.

 

If Mr Bush were to check out with Dr David Frawley of the American

Institute of Vedic Studies in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he would get a

fresh and wider perspective which would help him to navigate better

in the troubled waters of the present world. However, even long

before, American scholarship, through eminent figures like Emerson,

Longfellow and Thoreau, had already recognized the perennial worth

of Indian wisdom and its relevance for a peaceful existence.

 

As I watched the "strongest man on earth" listening to the most

erudite President today – Abdul Kalam – giving his speech at a

banquet in honour of his guest, I could not help telling myself that

if that wisdom could be combined with so much strength, we could

expect a real transformation in the world. Did Mr Bush know, I asked

myself, that an illustrious predecessor of his, President John

Kennedy, had, "as a gesture of respect for President Radhakrishnan,

set aside protocol and authorized for the first time the landing of

the helicopter bearing the visiting dignitary on the lawns of the

White House"? And that later, "he told the National Security Council

that Radhakrishnan had not asked for any economic or military

assistance but had created such an atmosphere of prestige for India

and such a climate of understanding of her hopes and aspirations

that the United States would feel ashamed if she did not assist

India."?

 

There are so many precedents of the fruitful interaction between

India and Indians and America and Americans. Profound scholarship,

an unremitting commitment to the pursuit of knowledge through reason

as well as intuition, a sharing of political ideals as expressed

through the ballot, a shared vision for a world at peace and rid of

the scourge of terrorism, an expanding portfolio of ventures for

mutual benefit and profit – these are some of the elements that are

defining the renewed interest of America in India. They come none

too late, for the world is weary of wars and conflicts and these two

countries have the wherewithal to show the way forward. When the

strongest and the wisest join forces, we have reason to hope for the

best.

 

Here in Mauritius, we missed having President Bush in our midst when

he made his African trip a couple of years ago. Luckily, for having

not had a taste of the strongest, we are having a taste of the

wisest, with President Abdul Kalam being our Chief Guest for the

National Day celebrations.

 

Abdul Kalam, scientist as well as scholar and man of letters, needs

no introduction. A warm welcome to the President of India.

 

RN Gopee

 

 

2005 Mauritius Times.

http://www.mauritiustimes.com/100306gopee.htm