Off The Front Page

For them, we8217;re only a part of this season of conflict. The 8216;deadly minuet8217; of threat and counter threat between India and Pa...

For them, we8217;re only a part of this season of conflict. The 8216;deadly minuet8217; of threat and counter threat between India and Pakistan has now settled comfortably alongside the American troops8217; hunt for al Qaeda in Afghanistan, the cycle of terror and retaliation between Israel and Palestine, and the US campaign for 8216;regime change8217; in Iraq.

Each of these conflicts runs on its own dynamic, conceded the WASHINGTON POST, but 8216;8216;they all are now linked by President Bush8217;s war on global terrorism8217;8217;. They are 8216;moving parts8217; that Bush and his aides must 8216;manage individually8217; in ways that don8217;t undermine the 8216;president8217;s larger war goals.8217;

In a fortnight when the American and British media obsessed about Iraq, South Asia briefly flashed into focus when US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage revisited Asia. The NEW YORK TIMES acknowledged, if only in passing, the irony of the Armitage mission: he was pushing for assurances from India that elections in Kashmir will be free and fair in the same week that Washington8217;s Most Favoured Dictator decreed 29 amendments to the Pakistani Constitution that put paid to any hopes of fairness in Pakistan8217;s elections in October.

Analysing Advani

The British press mostly ignored L.K. Advani8217;s trip to Britain. He was interviewed by THE TIMES, though. The paper noted that in London Advani was 8216;8216;at pains8217;8217; to 8216;8216;allay fears that he is a hawk8217;8217;8212; playing down India8217;s demands for a clampdown on British Muslims funding Kashmiri extremists and calling the Gujarat riots a 8216;blot8217; on his government8217;s record.

So, the TIMES8217;s Foreign Editor asked, is Vajpayee8217;s heir apparent 8216;8216;as bad for the country and its neighbours as his critics say?8217;8217; His verdict was remarkably tight fisted: 8216;8216;No, or at least, not yet.8217;8217; The paper said Advani shows 8216;little flexibility8217; on the issue where his influence is 8216;crucial8217;8212; Kashmir.

It laid down two tests for him: the handling of Kashmir elections and relations with Pakistan, particularly after its October elections. But, it said, the broader question is: is government by the partition generation still good for Indian politics and foreign relations?

The response to the visiting Indian cricket team was infinitely warmer. Ganguly8217;s boys so outplayed England at Headingley, wrote the GUARDIAN, that Naseer Hussain8217;s men must have been tempted to fill their dressing room with flannelled dummies, borrowed from the film Beau Geste in which dead French legionnaires were propped along the empty parapets.

Rushdie8217;s Fury

Story continues below this ad

It was writer Salman Rushdie8217;s turn to admonish the US for its 8216;double standards8217; this week. In an article in the WASHINGTON POST, Rushdie first distanced himself from the 8216;increasingly globalised phenomenon8217; of anti-Americanism, which, he said, can be contradictory, hypocritical, misguided, ugly.

But, he fretted, the Bushies have been getting things 8216;badly wrong8217;: the US, he said, blocked attempts by member states to mandate the UN to act during the recent Kashmir crisis; it winks at Pakistani backed terrorism in Kashmir; ignores Kashmiris8217; desire for an autonomous state; and does nothing to investigate US-based organisations that are funding Hindu political organisations that plan massacres in India.

Railed Rushdie: 8216;8216;Apparently, Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are terrorists who matter; Hindu fanatics and Kashmiri killers aren8217;t.8217;8217;

Saw Osama lately?

Some months ago, NYT columnist Maureen Dowd had called him 8216;Osama bin Later8217;. Dowd was jeering at the massive manhunt the US mounted in vain for bin Laden in Afghanistan. With 9/118217;s first anniversary around the corner, the latest on Osama is, well, that he8217;s still at large.

Story continues below this ad

Britain8217;s FINANCIAL TIMES reported that in their most recent assessment, Pakistan8217;s security officials have concluded that he died in Tora Bora.

The assessment coincided with a suggestion by General Tommy Franks, head of US Central Command, that the US-led campaign might be extended to countries surrounding Afghanistan. Pakistani officials were probably anxious this week to insist on bin Laden8217;s demise, lest even the faintest trace of him on their soil provokes the US to send in its troops.

Summit Stories

This was the week in which the weather almost beat the war. There was extensive and visceral reporting from the Earth summit at Johannesburg. There were the big questions: Forty years after the environmental movement began, where is it at? Has 8216;sustainable8217; in sustainable development come to mean what the market will bear, not the Earth? Should we talk more about birds or about jobs? Isn8217;t inequality the main issue?

NEWSWEEK said we need to focus on small projects initiated at the community level. Alleged the DAILY TELEGRAPH: 8216;8216;Today8230; the summit is the substantive action8217;8217;.

Pumps Reach NY!

Story continues below this ad

P.S.: Pumpgate put in a belated appearance in the NEW YORK TIMES this week. They called them 8216;gas stations8217;, not petrol pumps. And the RSS was unrecognisable as the 8216;Association of National Volunteers8217;.

But for the rest, it was the scandal The Indian Express exposed earlier this month, 8216;8216;8230;the stuff with which patronage is built, and political reputations burned8217;8217;.