Opinion India,stay out

The task before Washington,it says,is simply to find an alternative leadership to replace the Mubaraks and the Gaddafis. “America’s hypocrisy is well known. It may theoretically want democracy to flourish in Islamic states but it will be more than satisfied if it can enthrone more liberal dictators in the seats of power. What the US wants is not the rule of democracy but the installation of certified puppets who will do America’s bidding and keep the oil barrels in safe hands,” it says. “Does India have any role to play in settling the ongoing turmoil in the Islamic world? Hardly,” it notes.

Amid reports that NATO countries are planning military interference,it says that whether in Myanmar or in North Africa,New Delhi should refuse to be party to any kind of military interference. “Strict neutrality should be our present — and ultimate — stand. We can’t change the world and we don’t need to be hypocritical in such matters,” it adds. “We don’t need to be labelled as pro-West… We are not living in colonial times when the British,for instance,used Indian forces to fight wars as in Iraq and elsewhere….. We should keep our hands clean,” it argues.

PM,not commander

The Organiser’s editorial says Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shamed the nation when he confessed in the Rajya Sabha that he had been kept in the dark about the background of CVC nominee P.J. Thomas. “With the prime minister’s credibility at its lowest and the nation sick and tired of listening to his silly explanations,Dr Singh tried to parade scapegoats of his own party to keep himself Teflon… And it backfired,” it claims.

The editorial says that “here is a prime minister who brazenly pronounces that he is not in command. I did not know,I am not aware,my advice was ignored,I was not informed,I was kept in the dark,these are my compulsions,I am sorry,I accept responsibility but please don’t doubt my credentials. These are the words the PM keeps repeating these days whenever he encounters an uncomfortable query on the numerous misdeeds of his government,” it says. It goes on to argue that “Singh is perhaps exposing the vagaries of the diarchy the country has come to suffer under the UPA,ever since Sonia Gandhi supposedly sacrificed the premiership and nominated Singh in her place,” it says.

The CBI as lackey

An article in Panchjanya takes on what it calls the double standards and hypocrisy of the CBI,saying that the investigative agency has been reduced to being an agent of the government. The way the CBI has moved to withdraw all cases against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi,“close friend of Sonia Gandhi’s family”,while at the same time reopening cases related to the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition has “proved that the CBI is a puppet in the hands of Sonia’s party and that this party can go to any level for its political ends”,the article says.

Tracing the history of the Bofors scandal,the article says “forces sitting inside 10,Janpath had murdered constitutional and judicial traditions” in India.