Notable turf wars

The MEA is red-faced over Nepal’s election results and with good reason. Its pre-poll forecast was way off the mark. The Indian government banked on the Nepali Congress winning and presumed that the Maoists would get a mere 15 per cent of the vote. National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan actually remarked to the media before the result that that the Indian government preferred the Nepali Congress as they were not really aware as to what the Maoists were all about. He ignored the cardinal rule of foreign policy that a country is not expected to go public on its political preferences in another country. After the results, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon explained belatedly that India had no favorites in this election. This is not the first time the MEA has goofed up in dealing with our neighbour. When the Nepalese king imposed an Emergency, the government was first inclined to support Gyanendra, not anticipating the popular uprising against the monarchy.

57 minutes past 6

The RSS wants the 150th anniversary of the 1857 uprising to be observed in a very special way. At the beginning of the year, it organised a programme to collect soil from the birthplace of 297 martyrs of the freedom struggle. The soil from different parts of the country was mixed together at Bithoor, UP, and then sent back. Thanks to Zee TV owner Subhash Chandra, many from the entertainment industry have volunteered to spread the message of remembering 1857. The plan is that on May 10 at 18:57 hours, which is 6.57 pm, people all over India will observe a minute’s silence in memory of the martyrs.

Cultural bonds

Vice President Hamid Ansari, who was recently in Kazakhstan, was moved by a Bharat Natyam performance by ten young men and women from the host country. The dancers, who had been trained by the Kalakshetra in Chennai, even went through the traditional ritual of first touching the feet of a Nataraja image. The vice-president felt that Kazakhstan, a Muslim country, had demonstrated true secularism and shown that cultural bonds can transcend narrow religious divisions. He wanted the Indian Council of Cultural Relations to spread this message to many more countries.

A hit abroad

Former President Abdul Kalam’s informal style and speeches straight from the heart are a big hit with foreign audiences. After demitting office, Kalam has travelled abroad frequently, since he receives numerous invitations. The former president is at present on a trip to Finland and Canada. In Finland, he was the guest of a foundation which hosted a seminar on collaboration in initiating new ideas in technology. In Canada, Kalam is to be a speaker at the University of Toronto and University of Waterloo. The Wharton Business School and the University of Kentucky were part of Kalam’s packed itinerary in the USA earlier this year. He was in New York at the invitation of all 33 Indian associations based there. Since the associations all have varied political affiliations, they seldom agree on the same chief guest. Kalam was the exception. Some time back, Kalam was in South Korea for the swearing in of the new president, who had struck up a rapport with the former president when he visited him in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Last month, Kalam was in Israel as the guest of the International Aeronautics Conference in Tel Aviv.