The 3 km leash

If the world needed proof that the Indian government is kept on a tight leash, we have gone and shown them exactly how tight it is. Indian authorities have considerately cut the Olympic torch route in Delhi by more than a tenth of what it was the last time, just in case China’s big occasion is disrupted by a bunch of Tibetan agitators. Three kilometres will be the full length of the relay route, and it reveals the extent of the government’s self-inflicted humiliation. Of course, we have extended hospitality and succour to the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exiles for half a century now, but the government seems to have been bulldozed by its allies from the Left into buying the Chinese desire for zero-tolerance of the protests. Call this independent foreign policy?

In giving itself the 3 km comfort, the government even misunderstands the idea of the Olympic torch. The Olympics are the great games of the world, not China’s personal coming out party. While the torch is on Indian soil it is by no means representative of any other country. Was it so hard to stick to the Indian Olympic Association’s plan for the torch relay? Yes, there might have been Tibetan protests — but why shouldn’t there have been, even as greater numbers of Indians would have celebrated the flame? Also, why should we behave as though China’s interests are the same as ours, instead of improving relations from a position of self-aware strength? The Chinese government summons the Indian ambassador at 2 am to voice displeasure about Tibetan protests at the embassy in India, and we meekly await a forthcoming certificate of good behaviour. The unsettling thing about India’s official reaction is how it denies its own history. Of course, India cannot and must not advocate secessionism anywhere in the world. But we have lived through a parade of violent protest movements. And through those protests we have arrived at negotiated peaces. Let us deal with this our way. The right to dissent is a cherished freedom in India. After all, the Tibetans who protest have been around on Indian soil for decades.

Or could it be the case of the UPA’s allies that we reconsider the residency given to the Dalai Lama? After all, that is the slippery slope the government has been going down ever since it drove Taslima Nasreen away.