The Pentagon alternative

To nobody’s surprise, New Delhi rejected Ukraine’s offer to sell the same radars in favour of the goods from Raytheon — even though, word has it, the Kiev version was many times cheaper.

Still, if the flag must follow (arms) trade, then New Delhi’s manifest interest in surface-to-air missiles and possibly, destroyers, couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment.

With India hungry to upgrade and diversify its mostly Soviet/Russian stock, its looking at a couple of key nations like the US and Israel, to fill in the blanks. Iraq or no Iraq, and whether or not the US organises a UN resolution which in turn could help New Delhi send troops to Baghdad, Ajay Prasad and Co. are likely to pop a couple of questions to Douglas Feith this week. By all accounts, it could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Bridges burnt, bridges built

There’s another word for ‘Paradise’ in the region and it’s not Kashmir, but Sri Lanka. The island’s tiny (18 million) population has a high 89-per cent literacy and majority access to health care. It helps that New Delhi and Colombo are topping a billion dollars in bilateral trade after a Free Trade Treaty was signed in late 1998 and that both sides are now looking beyond FTA II by opening up investment and services.

And despite Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa’s outright rejection of the ‘Hanuman’ bridge proposed to link Talaimannar with Dhanushkhodi in Sri Lanka’s northern tip — a bridge that would not only propel trade but also ease the travel of Sri Lankan Tamils, including thousands from upcountry plantations who continue to be stateless at home — External Affairs minister Yashwant Sinha is making his third trip to Colombo since he moved to MEA last year, on August 17.

Still, the worm in paradise is now turning again. The LTTE, which had stalled talks with the Sri Lankan government since April, is now believed to be considering a next round of parleys in France, after behind-the-scenes negotiations by the Norwegians. Six rounds have already taken place in Bangkok, Oslo, Berlin and Tokyo and although India has refused to be directly involved, all the host nations as well as Colombo keep New Delhi closely in touch.

Laloo in Lahore?

Meanwhile, the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) Track II jamboree to Pakistan seems to be getting more and more interesting, with more than 30 MPs on board the New Delhi-Lahore bus later this week. Mehbooba Mufti of the People’s Democratic Party is believed to have refused to attend, but in turn sponsored an MLA-MLC combine to do so on the PDP’s behalf. But turns out that the lone PDP member of the Rajya Sabha Harbans Singh will now represent his party, simply because he’s an MP and SAARC rules don’t require him to get a visa to cross Wagah.

Unfortunately, Laloo Prasad of the RJD could not make use of the same facility, even though he’s very much part of the Lok Sabha. Turns out that Laloo’s animal husbandry scam, for which he’s been accused by the CBI, is preventing him from travelling across the border. And so, while he’s shown his eagerness to be on the SAFMA team, he’s also petitioned the Patna High Court to grant him leave to hop across the border. The high court’s judgement is awaited on this score.

Himalayan blues

The action simply doesn’t stop in August, especially with Nepal. Later this week, the Maoists will return to their third round of talks with the Surya Bahadur Thapa Government in Kathmandu. By the middle of the month, Nepal’s Ambassador to New Delhi Bhekh Bahadur Thapa will say goodbye, after six long years in India. Bhekh Thapa, it is being widely rumoured, will return to ‘‘advise’’ Kathmandu on foreign policy.

Clearly, the time’s just right. Bhekh Thapa must be made up of equal parts of tact, brilliance, warmth and shrewdness — qualities that kept him and us in good humour in these six roller-coaster years. If he and the Indian bureaucracy often crossed swords — which in the aftermath of the IC-814 hijacking insisted that Kathmandu was never doing enough, besides repeated accusations of Pakistan-sponsored terrorists being allowed to take over Nepal — he didn’t let it show.

Instead, he persuaded Kathmandu to reexamine each issue, exhorting them to look at it from New Delhi’s point of view. The hijacking of IC-814 from Kathmandu to Kandahar, the Hrithik Roshan blame game in Nepal, so much wasted water down the Mahakali river, the parricide of the Birendra royals… clearly, its not been an easy six years. But Bhekh Thapa’s easy smile helped, as did the best momos that he served in town.