Siding with Russia under Stalin : Nehru (Congress)
Siding with Saddam during Gulf War I : VP singh / Chandrashekhar (Janata Dal)
Helping the current Sudanese regime : Manmohan Singh (Congress)

Congress + Left = Wrong side of every bad thing!

How about this?

Siding with Pinochet of Chile?
Siding with Musharref of Pakistan?
Siding with Mao Zedong and current chinese totalitarian regime?
Siding with Saddam before attacking him?
Covert siding with Osama Bin Laden during Afghan occupation?

You want more?

This support has nothing to do with the current government….in fact the Indian govt. has had a long-time relationship with Sudan.
ONGC is a joint owner/investor in oil-fields in Sudan. While this could imply a tacit support to the ruling regime, it allows India to cheap oil and large strategic reserves. Calling it wrong is just a matter of perspective.

Genocides/civil war etc. have been going on in Sudan for ages…. [going back into the last century]. And its not going to go away tomorrow or the day after. So its a good investment [while it lasts]. Western companies have not pulled out of sudan for “moral” reasons [as they might claim]… its more because they have been pushed out by a sino-india cartel (you can even find chinese red-army troops guarding pipelines in sudan…)

—Ashok

Ashok, thanks for the background on this. It does seem like more than a little hypocrisy at foot in India because they will support Sudan for oil, benefit from a natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan but call out US for the Iraq war :)

a. You can not find one govt in the world which will not act hypocritically at one point or the other.
b. Sameer, the Sudan-Inida oil pact worth nearly a billion dollars was signed under the watch of BJP. (Link)
c. Shanti, I agree with your last comment. However, there is nothing like a country supporting Saudi Arabia for oil, military base and also having Saudi as its main trading partner in the middle east. Don’t you think?

Hari, I agree with you it is stupid of the US to still pretend to be friends with the Saudis. I think they are moving the military base out of the country already and should stand tough on them and the Pakistanis and not give them quarter till they mend their ways.

Every country is in a race to ensure its energy supply. The middle eastern fields are not available for investments. What is available is oil & gas fields in Sudan, Nigeria, Iran and Myanmar. Therefore the asian countries are investing there.
One cant take just one example and conclude that a country has always been on the bad side. Its unfair to say that India has always been on the bad side. Even military use cant always be bad.
Did India not help Bangladesh acheive freedom was that bad? A coup in Maldives was averted because of Indian action, was that bad?
Every country or company makes a decision based on its perceived requirements. Yes they are taking a risk by investing there, but should their investment be construed as support of the sudanese government OR merely taken as fulfilling their energy requirements?

If you quote 3 things and say India is on wrong side. Think about Mobil, Exxon and Shell and also see how US always tries to side with dictators for its foreign policy. But you claim that US is for freedom. Read history to see how US acted in past 50 years with all kinds of dictatorship. It said communism is totalitarian but to fight that mostly it aligned with dictator regimes.

US works for its profit and it always do. I dont have a problem with that. Same way nobody can claim India should not work for what it thinks its profit. There is nothing like wrong side or right side. Only profit side or not.

All countries will pursue what they feel to be in their best interests.

What I dislike deeply is the hypocrisy in only condemning the US for the same actions that everyone else engages in.

Hari, the US in Saudi is a bit like India in the Sudan. Oh wait, I forgot. It’s completely different because the US is always wrong.

India and Indians dont go around claiming that India is the leader of the ‘free world’ and the Indians dont beat the self grandiosing drums of freedom either.

Chok and Mujahid, the topic is again India here - not the US. When someone is discussing something, adding “but they did it too” doesn’t do anything to the discussion.

When you say “Siding with Russia under Stalin, Saddam in the first Gulf War” then what about your beloved US reputation with Sadaam?

I need to bring that because of your argument based on simplistic notion about politics and business. All over the history each country tries to do something for its profit. When US does that and acquire so much of wealth you praise that and if somebody else does that you question that means it is a hypocrisy.

Also if you say that

“How does India end up on the wrong side of every bad thing that has happened in the world in the past two centuries?”

Wrong side of EVERY bad thing? That means in past 50 years whatever bad thing happened India was at that side. Then I have to point out that there are so many other bad things which India was not part of it but US was part of it. How can that be wrong?

Lalahoos Comrade Choka Mukta.

If you are upset that the US is backing a venomous regime in Pakistan which is sending in terrorist hordes to kill Indians, I am with you.

If you are upset that the US is speaking in forked tongues, that, for instance

a) while on the one hand it professes good relations with India but on the other its organs like the State dept run propaganda against Gujarat, or, that

b) it insists, though a bit weekly these days, on drawing dubious moral equivalences between India and Pakistan, or that,

c) it patronizes the financier of Islamic terrorism worldwide, Saudi Arabia, and that actually rewards the bigeest training ground in the world for terroists, Pakistan,

I am with you too!

But even then, our greatest displeasure must be reserved for Pakistan, which is sitting on our territory and sponsoring terrorism in our country. But whenever you have to say something, it appears that you can’t but help whine about the US, while Pakistan’s murderorus ways seem to be nary a matter of concern to you. Why this morbid fixation with US when Pakistan must be worrying us more? What gives, bro?

Cheers,
RR

RR, Shanti doesnt want me to talk here other than the topic. She might complain about this. :( Anyway my stand on who is a problem for India means I will pick China rather than Pakistan.

I think we need to get economically successful and democratically powerful then pakistan will be begging for our friendship. So we need to concentrate to become a better country should be a priority than fighting a war with Pakistan.

I would like to curtail the support of US, China and North Korea to pakistan should be a priority than fighting them.

RR,
“while on one hand it professes good relations with India on another its organ like the State Dept run propoganda against Gujarat”….
I concur with you in condemning the temerity of the State Dept in actually calling on India to protect the 5 million terrorists (so called Muslims) in Gujarat.
As our commander of the Hinduvta faithful Shree Modi astutely stated “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction”
I wish the State Dept would stop maligning the good name of our beloved leader Modi and actually supply our trishul clad Hinduvta army with modern weapons so we can be more efficient in ethnically cleansing the 5 million ISI agents from Gujarat.

I agree that US is as (or more) hypocritic than India and has supported dictators in the past because of the profits involved.

Therefore, India enjoying profits in Sudan while genocide is going on and simulateneously questioning US on doing similar things in other countries will be symmetrical although ethically bad.

However, opposing war on Iraq (by condemning it in the Parliament) and through diplomatic means is totally different. An equivalent action by US was to oppose India when we liberated Bangladesh.

Also, I don’t remember President of US visiting any dictator and kissing or hugging him (like Indira Gandhi with Fidel Castro or I K Gujral with Saddam Hussein).

Allahu Akbar Mujahid,

As our commander of the Hinduvta faithful Shree Modi astutely stated “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction”

Supposing Modi said that, it means that he needed lessons from you. I mean, what’s with his arcane science language? With so many journalists and semi-literates around, how many know Newton?

So instead, like Mujahid, he could have said, thumping his chest: if people gotta be murdered, they gotta be murdered.

Or like Mukta Choka Nair Khanna Dilip, he might give out a war-whoop and yell: this is war, ugly things do happen, deal with it.

Therefore, it appears to me that Modi is very limited in his expressive powers, so you two can definitely teach him a lot there.

While at it, why not help the US state department too? I mean, bro, they will roll you a red carpet if you’re willing to “depose” on Gujarat, just as they have done to a Indian Marxist fundamentalist. Think about it, all hate is tiresome; there are reasons to love the US too, after all!

Cheers,
RR

Ashish, Do you think US didnt want to put a leash on our Bangladesh adventure? Or when Kargil happened? Or why it doesnt want us to get atomic weapon? All countries will and should think about its benefit. That is the rule US propagated for itself.

Also for your president meeting with dictators check Nixon - Mao meet ( which is a disaster for India), Eisenhower - Khrushev meet. Bush - Musharraf meet?

Also what about Rumsfeld - Sadaam meet? With US continuous support of Gia-Ul-Hag, Pinochet, Shah of Iran? All are not democratic leaders.

I have a problem with something. I can be a friend of a criminal. But I cant be a accomplish of a criminal. US is an accomplish in most of the dictatorship because it supplied weapons and money.

Yes I accept India did a mistake in supporting Arafat and Sadaam. That is because of politicians ( particularly congress) want to appease muslims in India. But that is not comparable to supplying F-16s to Pakistan and supplying stringer missiles for Afghan warlords.

I think US nationalistic foreign policies hurt India more. Afghan mess was created by US and after 1989 it turned into kashmir valley and we bleed. Now it is appeasing Musharraf and we will be in trouble. Bush is claiming justice to A.Q.Khan. Shanti didnt complain about that. But she complains that India side with wrong guys. I fear about Pakistan-China-North Korea axis. That is evil axis for me. But for Shanti I dont know whether she buys the Bush view on Axis of evil.

What’s erong with doing buisness with a government? …be it Sudan or North Korea

See my detail response, “Is India an useful Idiot?” at http://ashishniti.blogspot.com/2004/10/is-india-useful-idiot.html

My god to quote three examples and then label India as being onthe wrong side each time…that is ludicrous!