Long Live Appeasement

When England and France finally declared war on Nazi Germany on September 3, 1939, disrupting a policy of appeasement towards Hitler, appeasement did not end there. Instead, it keeps rearing its ugly head from time to time and shows to the world that it remains a potent tool in the hands of weak and un-leader-like politicians who are unable to take a firm and principled stand on any issue. History is replete with examples of such leaders or kings who gradually lost their countries in the hope that by giving in to the seemingly modest demands of the bully they would be able to avoid war. But, it is not in the nature of bullies to be appeased. When their first demand is met, the bullies are emboldened to make their next demand, and so it goes on and on. There is no end.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, is a classic example of a weak politician who took the baton of appeasement from Neville Chamberlain within a decade of him (Chamberlain) laying it down reluctantly. Nehru’s appeasement of the British government and of Jinnah in the early forties, led to India’s partition and a permanent headache in the form of ‘Special Status for Kashmir under Article 370’ for generations of Indians. The repercussions of Nehru’s appeasement policy have kept India bogged down in a relentless faceoff with Pakistan, and provided an opportunity to Pakistan to hone its skills in waging and spreading global terror, since it cannot win a direct and conventional war with India.

Today, on June 26, 2020, I am seeing another Western leader, “Sleepy” Joe, as Donald Trump calls him, pick up the baton of appeasement and declare his full support for Islamists and Pakis by attacking the abrogation of Article 370, the CAA and NRC. It is hugely shocking that despite Mr. Biden having been in politics for more than half a century, he does not understand that by making such a statement, not only is he interfering in the internal affairs of India, he is also supporting a failed and terrorist state of Pakistan, and siding with a country that helped bring about the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. He is supporting a country that has always milked the United States of tens of billions of dollars during the long period of America’s War on Terror, by playing the double game of “running with the hares, and hunting with the hounds”. And, when President Obama was in the ‘War Room’ of the White House directing and watching the United States’ mission to kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan where he was being hidden by that treacherous country, did you fall asleep “Sleepy” Joe? Or have you been sleeping throughout the frustration-filled years of your one-way alliance with Pakistan? Have you slept through the seventy years of free India’s history during which your friend Pakistan has waged a proxy war on the world’s largest democracy, India, wherein its terrorists, jihadis, infiltrators, ISI, and the regular army have conducted non-stop warfare/shelling killing three or four people almost every day along or inside our border.

What is most shocking about this act of appeasement, is the fact that despite America being the land of immigrants where millions of people come to escape persecution and genocide, the president-in-waiting of this great nation sees fit to oppose India’s parliamentary passage of the CAA and NRC bills, the main purpose of which is to give citizenship and home to the persecuted (bordering on genocide) minorities in Pakistan and other Islamic countries.

Do Us a Favour, Mr. Kejriwal

I am writing to you, Mr. Kejriwal, because you have taken a number of bold initiatives to improve the living conditions of the common man during the last five years in Delhi. But we need to do much more since the previous governments have done precious little or nothing for our citizens.

Allow me to clarify, Sir. I have been living in Japan for over forty years, and I teach at Nihon University. During this period, I have had the opportunity to visit a government office for about 12-15 times to get a tax certification, new car registration, my signature or stamp certificate, and to register the acquisition of a new property.  Most of these things can be done at a local government 'ward office' (the interface between people and government) which may not be more than four or five kilometers away from anyone's residence. None of these tasks takes more than five minutes to do. When you leave the ward office after five minutes, you have the certificate or document in your pocket. Moreover, you can send your proxy to get this job done. You don't need to carry any document from your home to the ward office. Every document is there--in the government's vast data network. This is accessible from every ward office. Please note that the citizen is never asked to bring any previous receipt or document. It is the job of the government to check against its vast database that the statements made by the citizen are correct. As a citizen, I don't have to get my statements, documents and affidavits attested by a third person, because none of this nonsense is required to be carried. We in India make arrogant and pompous statements about our achievements; perhaps we should learn something from this little country, Japan. One thing we surely need to learn is to trust our own citizens, that, unless proven otherwise, he/she must be presumed to be telling the truth.

Now, back to Greater Kailash, New Delhi , where I spent my childhood and where I grew up and went to school. Why is it that whatever steps our governments take, whatever policies they make, nothing really seems to work.  Lots of new schemes are started with much fanfare, but the result is hardly visible. I can't even enjoy a walk to the market because there is no space on the sidewalk as cars are parked in all places. Everywhere in Greater Kailash, it looks like a huge junkyard of cars, leaving no space for people to walk. Similarly, the government's efforts in providing the two most essential things in life--clean air and water, leave much to be desired. Like fifty years ago, there is still only one hour of running water in the morning and one hour in the evening. If I do not get up at 6:00 in the morning and switch on the water motor to take water to the storage tank on the roof, that day becomes a dry day.

I applied to the DDA in March to get our house converted from leasehold to freehold. It has been six months and we are still nowhere. Finally, I got a letter from the DDA asking me to produce a 'No Dues' certificate from the co-op housing society. This certificate had already been submitted along with a host of other documents, some dating back to the early seventies. I mean, this is a joke. The DDA website proclaims that the process of application has been simplified and people can expect to get their work done really fast, and can even monitor the progress online. Well, I can actually monitor my file on the DDA website, except that there is no progress and the site shows the file has been sent to the Cooperative Societies Dept., where it is still languishing since March. The DDA took conversion charges of over six lakhs at the time of application. I have tried to follow up by going to the DDA many times, but these people are from another planet. We cannot communicate. They not only refuse to understand, they usually are outright rude or hostile to everyone, including me, a senior citizen.

Mr. Kejriwal, I know you started your political career on the promise of ridding the government of corruption and to provide a clean and citizen-friendly government. You have done a few things for the poor which I fully support. How about the middle-class people of Delhi who regularly face harassment from government bodies such as the DDA?

I know that a majority of flats/houses in Delhi are on a lease, and thereby cause considerable stress to owners. People want to convert their properties to freehold but the process and harassment by DDA/LDA is daunting and scares people away. As a person who does not shy away from taking such initiatives, I wish to suggest that as the CM of Delhi, you promulgate an ordinance stating the Delhi government is opening a window for three months wherein people who wish to get their properties converted to freehold can do so from 1 October to 31 December 2019 at a considerable discount. Property-owners can go to any PSU bank with their lease deed and a copy thereof, and pay conversion charges at the rate of Rs. 500 per square yard/meter for plots/houses, and a similarly worked out plan for leased flats. The PSU bank official can calculate the amount to be paid by looking at the lease deed which shows the actual area of plot/flat. The copy of the lease deed can be attached to the copy of the Freehold Payment Challan so generated and sent to the concerned government department by the bank. Life can be simple, like here in Japan, if you make it so.

The people of Delhi would be ever grateful to you for doing this, and will raise your stature to the level of a hero or a game-changer. If you announce this scheme in the next two weeks, you will surely be voted-in for a second time with a massive majority like the BJP government was in May of this year. Please keep it simple, Mr. Kejriwal.

The people in our democracy do not elect their representatives so that they can go and live in multi-acre palatial houses in Lutyens Delhi. They elect their representatives so that they can terminate the trappings of the imperial raj, democratize the babus and the bureaucracy, enhance the quality of life of everyone, and create conditions for a holistic development of society.

Thank you very much, Sir, for your kind attention to this issue.

Nichidai Bloggers students of Satish Tandon

Today is the last day of Spring semester at Nihon University. On Monday, July 29, I am going to fly back to New Delhi to be with my mother. I will spend four weeks in Delhi, however, it will be really hot. I will share with you some information about New Delhi on my return to Tokyo. Enjoy your vacation.

Brutal and inhuman killings continue in Kashmir

I find it extremely reprehensible that while the Pakistan army and Kashmiri separatists continue to kill or behead our brothers in Kashmir and other border areas on a daily basis, we not only don't feel the pain but continue to play cricket with them as if nothing has happened. Will I play cricket with my neighbor if he has just killed my brother. Why do our armed forces and the police have to put their lives on the line and bear the brunt of an unjust proxy war far away from home, family and friends while Bollywood stars are busy inviting and partying with Pakistani actors. At the same time, the whole nation itself seems to be enjoying the game of cricket far from the killing fields in Kashmir.

For seventy years now, Pakistan has been waging a proxy war against India. Almost every day 2 or 3 policemen, jawans, or civilians are killed by Pakis or Paki-sponspored terrorists and/or Kashmiri separatists. What are you doing Mr. Modi? Why did you invite Nawaz Sharif to your innauguration three years ago? Why did you drop in uninvited at Lahore on your way back from Kabul? Did you think that Pakistani mindset will change by making such gestures? Or, did you think that their unending hostility towards India will simply end. No Sir, Pakistan cannot be reformed and its stated policy of wresting Kashmir from India by fomenting trouble in the valley will never end. Pakistanis are like a dog whose tail you can put in a straight pipe for 10 years, but when you remove the pipe the tail will immediately go back to its curve. Even if you give them Kashmir on a platter, they will come back again and ask for Agra, Meerut, Moradabad, and so on. Don't kid yourself Mr. Modi, you should know better. Don't just show your teeth. Use them for what they are intended.

The BJP's inaction against Pakistan, contrary to the image of strength projected by the party, gave us Kargil during Mr. Vajpayee's tenure. Your inaction, Mr. Modi, is dragging us into a situation from which it would be almost impossible to extricate ourselves. Your overtures and gestures only make us look weak, and our inaction in response to daily nonstop provocations only emboldens the despicable Pakistani regime to further broaden the scope of their attacks. Pakistan is a failed state, and the hub of terrorism. India needs to learn from Israel--its policy of "if you kill one of us, we will kill one hundred" seems to work in the Middle East. Our nonviolence and restraint will only beget us greater violence, for these people do not understand the language of peace, in spite of Islam being the so-called "religion of peace".

India Goes to the Polls

The just-concluded national elections in India represent the hopes and aspirations of 1.2 billion, or one in six people living on our planet earth.

India is the world’s largest democracy, and the most complex. More than any other country, India represents a diversity of ethnic, linguistic, religious, and regional mix of people who exercise their democratic right to elect their government every few years.

Sometimes they get what they want, mostly they fail. Democracy gets hijacked by professional politicians, thugs, criminals and absentee landlords who spare no effort to ensure that people’s will is not reflected in the final outcome.

The new government has its work cut out for it—thanks to years of drift, extremely high level of corruption and lack of accountability. The issues of greatest concern which the new government will need to address immediately can be categorized in simple economic terms— on the supply side and on the demand side.

Governance deficit

The most important issue on the supply side is lack of governance. Governments are elected to provide governance. If they are unable to govern, as has been the case with the current UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government of Manmohan Singh, they have no moral right to remain in power.
All that he and his team have been keen on, so it appears, is to continue enjoying the perks of office without doing their job.

Troublingly, there has been very little governance in India even during the best of times, but the Manmohan Singh government has broken all records of non-governance (if there can be such a term) and drift. A new government, likely under the leadership of Narendra Modi, is expected to cap this governance deficit.

Corruption wherever you look

The second-most important issue before the new government will be corruption. It is widely believed that India is one of the most, if not the most, corrupt countries in the world. Left unchecked for too long by successive Indian governments, corruption has now seeped down to each and every level of society.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that corruption has become a part of our DNA. And yet, there were massive protests across India against corruption during 2011-12. These protests ultimately led to the birth of the Aam Aadmi Party (Common People’s Party), which swept to power in the local New Delhi elections four months ago, before it was forced to resign for lack of support on the floor of the assembly.

According to official statistics, the size of the Indian economy is approaching the $2 trillion level. According to an IMF report, World Economy Outlook, published in April 2013, the Indian GDP for the financial year 2012 was $1.8 trillion and was expected to be $1.9 trillion for the financial year ended 2013-2014.

The other economy

But there is another economy — the underground economy or black money, which is believed to be at least the size of the official economy, or even larger.

This is the money generated by corruption, money taken by politicians, money saved by not paying taxes, and money stolen from numerous government funds and projects like NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and the Food Security Bill, launched in 2013.

Most of this money is siphoned away to offshore bank accounts in Switzerland or Mauritius. Any new Indian government must institute adequate measures to tackle corruption and restore probity in public life.

It’s the infrastructure deficit, stupid

The infrastructure deficit is the third-most important problem that needs attention. India simply does not have the highways, the fast and efficient train network, ports and airports that any modern economy needs. As a result, it cannot handle the ever-increasing movement of goods and people from one part of the country to another.

In this area too, Mr. Modi’s commitment to create jobs and development projects will provide the vision and guidance to move in the right direction. And it will provide a benchmark, against which he must deliver — and will be evaluated against.

No discourse on contemporary India is complete without looking at the issue of gender. On the one hand, we have made great progress in achieving equality among the sexes. That is evident if one looks at the number of women who occupy important positions of status and power both in the public and private sectors.

On the other hand, crimes against women and girls continue to rise, largely due to government apathy and bureaucratic lethargy. The new government must act to ensure respect for women, and quick dispensation of justice for crimes against women.

What the Congress Party has wrought

The hopes and aspirations of the silent majority, over 800 million Indians whom development has bypassed, constitute the demand side of the Indian polity. Sixty years of governments headed by Congress — and hence its quasi monopoly on political power — has left this huge segment of the population earning less than 2 dollars a day.

For all the warm words spoken over the decades by the Gandhi clan, two-thirds of India’s population still waits for water, food, electricity, basic education and access to health/medical services.

This marginalized majority of the population and its conveniently overlooked needs are also part of democratic India. For too long, these people have only been the footnotes of Indian democracy, treated like vote-delivering herds of cattle . Come election time, and these vote banks are approached by professional politicians. The poor are the repositories of power.

Having got what they need, the politicians then do the disappearing act, and what remains visible until next election time is their arrogance. It’s a tragic dance ritual really: First, they cast their vote to elect the very representatives who then officially become their persecutors for the next five years.

Will it be different this time? One can only hope so. Decades of neglect and exploitation, dashed hopes and broken promises may finally bring about a rejection of the monopolizing, self-appropriating elites and dynastic families from the Indian political landscape.

U.S.-Japan: A Difficult Alliance

U.S.-Japan: A Difficult Alliance

A Maid and Her Mistress

The recent spat between India and the United States over the arrest and humiliation of India’s deputy counsel in New York, Dr. Devyani Khobragade, threatens to create a wedge between the two (normally friendly) democracies. The Indian foreign service official was arrested and handcuffed last week in New York on charges of forging her maid’s visa forms and underpaying her in contravention of American law.

Interestingly, the person being charged for exploitation of a domestic worker and her right to a minimum wage, is herself from the 'exploited' classes, the so-called dalit or untouchables of India. Fifty years ago, neither she nor her father would have been able to rise to the status and position that they have been able to attain if it were not for the minotity-friendly and affirmative action policies of the government of India.

While the charge against Ms. Khobragade of paying her Indian maid less than the minimum wages may be true, it still does not warrant the rough treatment meted out to her in full public view. As is quite common in India, It is possible that the diplomat had assumed responsibility to pay for her maid’s air ticket for travel to the United States, to send money to the maid’s parents every month, or to help the maid in any other way. I personally know several people who not only spent tens of thousands of rupees at the time of the wedding of their servant’s daughter, they actually made it possible. Minimum hourly wage is not everything in India - domestic workers can, and do, get compensated in so many other ways. Many people consider it their duty to provide their domestic servant with additional means so as to enable him to send his child to a good school. If the United States law enforcement authorities were not aware of this social context, then, yes, the Indian diplomat may have broken the law.

On the other hand, there are numerous incidents of American diplomats or servicemen flouting host country laws, rules and customs. Just 3 weeks ago, a huge quantity of cocaine worth 50 million dollars was discovered on a beach in Yokosuka, close to the American base.

A U.S. Department of State diplomat and her husband tricked an Ethiopian woman into accompanying them as their domestic servant to Japan in 2009 on a promise of 300 dollars monthly salary, where they held her virtually as a prisoner in their home and forced her to work for them for less than $1 per hour and where the husband repeatedly raped the woman with his diplomat wife’s consent. A Virginia federal judge awarded the victim $3.3 million in damages on a default judgment against the couple. The diplomat retired from the State Department with full pension and then fled the country.

A few years ago in Tokyo, the (US) embassy paid-for-dormitory for domestics (so they did not have to live with their diplomatic masters) was found full of women not connected with the embassy, some of whom were prostituting themselves on and out of U.S. government property. The public restroom just outside the dorm was a known quickie spot for night time taxi drivers looking for sex. Things were handled nice and quietly by State and the usually compliant Japanese government (MOFA), and the story stayed out of the news and out of the taxpayers’ attention.

Harold Countryman, along with his spouse Kimberly, was a U.S. diplomat assigned to Seoul, Korea. Before leaving the country, he and his wife hired a Cambodian woman to work for them in the U.S. Harold falsified the necessary U.S. visa application to get the Cambodian woman into the U.S., falsely claiming he would pay her minimum wage. Instead, once in the U.S., the Countrymans “Held her passport,” says Chuck Rosenberg, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “Her wages came out to roughly a dollar an hour.” The woman was berated and sometimes assaulted. She was not allowed to leave the Countrymans’ house. Luckily, a neighbor noticed something wrong and called the cops, who luckily took it all seriously. This story has a semi-happy ending of sorts: The couple pleaded guilty to visa fraud, and are paying the Cambodian woman $50,000 in restitution. Harold Countryman, the diplomat, only received probation, however.

For a detailed account of the three cases cited above, and further analysis, please click here. Mr. Preet Bharara, the overzealous US Justice Department prosecutor, may not yet have joined his current employer when all this was happening.

And, what about other federal security and information-gathering agencies and their officials? Who in this world would not have been amused by the fact of NSA wiretapping Auntie Angela Merkel’s cellphone, presumably to eavesdrop on her conversations with Monsieur Sarkozy, causing jealousy to Uncle Sam. Your NSA is just “like the STASI”, she 'lovingly' complained to President Obama recently.

I used to think that the values, such as the right to freedom and equality, the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, etc., enshrined in the U.S. Constitution are universal. I did not know that these values are for the protection of Americans only, and become tools for prosecution of non-Americans. I now recall the greatest American announcement since the venerable Monroe Doctrine, almost two hundred years later, “If you are not with us, you are against us.” Like Iran and some Arab countries who refuse to recognize the existence of Israel, America refuses to understand that there are other, older, countries and social systems that have been around for five thousand years, and where things may be done in a slightly different fashion.

While I do not wish to defend the concept of domestic labor in India, the fact remains that poverty in rural India forces millions of people (mostly teenagers) to migrate to towns and cities in search of jobs. When these people arrive, they are invariably raw - innocent, illiterate (can’t even write their own name), unskilled, starving and vulnerable - and since they have neither an address nor an identity, few people will open the doors to their hearts and homes for them. In these circumstances, the most they can aspire to is a domestic job, and that too if somebody is willing to place their trust in them. Howsoever hard or bad, a job means a roof over the head, free food, clothes and medicine, and a regular monthly salary (most of which is sent back home to take care of siblings). NGO’s and other social activists routinely criticize the prevalence of child labor, but they seem to overlook the fact that in the absence of education and job opportunities in rural India, if these persons did not have a domestic job, their siblings and parents would most likely starve.

There are no statistics available anywhere to make a statement one way or the other about how domestic helpers are treated by their employers. But from personal observation by visiting homes of family members and friends in India, I noticed that in most homes domestic servants looked reasonably happy and cheerful, and willing to engage in simple conversation. Only in 1 place did I find some tell-tale signs of ill-treatment of the servant. As the economy continues to grow and expand in India, I see strong evidence of the working of the principle of supply and demand as regards domestic labor in India. Every year i go back to my home in New Delhi for my holidays, and find a new face. When I ask what happened to the previous maid/servant, I learn that the maid left because she got a better offer from another place. Some of the helpers who once worked at my home have moved on and up the economic ladder and have become shop assistants or ordinary office employees.

There are all sorts of situations, and, as everywhere, there are good employers and there are bad employers. Generally speaking, a stint of a few years as domestic help does provide an opportunity to workers to polish themselves and their skills, and better articulate their hopes and aspirations.

One friend with whom I was discussing this situation said that India must reciprocate its friendly feelings to the United States. He suggested:

Indian immigration officials should welcome the fatherly Mr. George H.W. Bush (if he visits India in the near future) in the immigration area and frisk him. This is in response to the frisking conducted on the former president of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, 80, at New York’s JFK airport when he visited United States in September 2011.

My favorite Ms. Condoleeza Rice, the former US Secretary of State, should also get special treatment in the immigration area when she visits India next time. She should be body- and cavity-searched. This is in return for the kindness shown to the former Foreign Affairs Minister of India, Mr. George Fernandez, who was strip-searched by officers of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service at Dulles Airport when he arrived for an official visit in early 2002, and again, in 2003, when he was passing through the U.S. on his way to Brazil.

We all love Richard Gere, the handsome guy who got ‘my’ “Pretty Woman”, but he must be seriously searched and re-searched when he visits India next time to see the Dalai Lama. Poor Richard… do you know what your fellow actor (the Bollywood king), Shah Rukh Khan, went through in April 2012, when he was stopped at New York airport for over two hours by immigration officials after arriving from India in a private plane to address students at Yale University?

‘India slams U.S. habit of detaining Shah Rukh Khan’ was the headline carried by The Hindu, in which it reported the complaint filed by the Government of India, stating that the apology offered by the American government for a previous detention of Shah Rukh Khan in 2009 was nothing but mechanical.

The actor himself made light of his detention, tweeting that “whenever I start feeling arrogant about myself, I visit USA. The immigration guys kick the star out of stardom.”

Not everybody is as magnanimous as Shah Rukh Khan. Many of my friends from Europe (original Europeans, not immigrants or Muslims) in the aftermath of 9/11 stopped going to the United States after experiencing similarly humiliating treatment at the hands of U.S. immigration officials.

In the light of incidents as described above continuing to occur, it is easy to understand the anger mounting in India against such behavior. And yet, there is no sign of an apology, not even an assurance. All we get is this: “American law enforcement did what they are supposed to do. No rules were broken. Charges against Khobragade will not be dropped.”

In bilateral relations, if one side continues to be adamant and consumed in its own greatness, there is precious little the other side can do. Still, a decision by India to quietly recall the diplomat followed by a new posting to another country, rather than transferring her to India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, might have been the path of least conflict. It would have also shown India’s maturity and statesmanship in international relations.