Politics

Somali waters, especially the Gulf of Aden has never been a very safe area for merchant ships. However the pirate attacks on ships have spiked to very dangerous levels in the past two weeks. There was the capture of an Ukrainian vessel and then an attempt to hijack an Indian ship that was unraveled by the Indian Navy. On Saturday, Somali pirates have reached the epitome of their exploits by seizing Sirius Star, a Saudi owned super tanker which is the largest ship ever to be hijacked by pirates.

These conditions have opened up a unique opportunity for the Indian Navy on its quest to become a true Blue Water Navy. After all, the Indian ocean is our own front yard. The United Nations has already made it the duty of its members to fight piracy and hence it is not only legal, but also encouraged by the international community to do the job.

Right now, the only protection by naval forces in the region for the merchant ships are offered by some NATO forces as well as Russian, Malaysian and Indian navies. However, so far these forces have not been effective as evidenced by the the continuing attacks on the merchant vessels. The main reason of the ineffectiveness is that these actions have been sporadic, on an incident to incident basis. This helps the pirates to stay low for a few days until the naval forces retreat to a safe distance and then act again.

One solution to this problem of piracy, across the Indian ocean can be the expansion of the blue water capabilities of the Indian navies. This offers a few advantages. Firstly, it offers a field of protection for merchant ships of all flags to operate without fear and thereby help international trade. This could only help the big time ambitions of many Indian ports to become major international hubs and thereby contribute to our economy.

Secondly, this could be a useful Readiness Operational Exercise (ROX) for the whole navy by keeping its vessels and personnel useful rather than keeping them idle and doing annual naval exercises. Also, with the ongoing expansion of the Navy with the addition of two more Aircraft Carriers – INS Vikrant in 2011 and INS Vikramaditya in 2012 (expected)- and many other Destroyers and Submarines, it could make it easier for the navy to do this.

Finally, this offers India to assert its strength and dominance in the region by controlling the Indian Ocean from coast of East Africa to Australia. Already, India is the only Asian power to operate Aircraft Carriers – INS Viraat- and as a rapidly rising major power in the world, it cannot afford to lose its control of the region and India should do everything that it can to keep the region safe.

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Tags: blue water navy, domestic avalanche, gulf of aden, indian navy, indian ports, indian ship, nato forces, naval exercises, navies, pirate attacks, Sirius Star, somali pirates, somali waters

The People’s Temple started as a church based on apostolic socialism for all people regardless of color, national origin or past and led by the pastor Jim Jones. After the initial few years in Indianapolis, Jones moved the church to California where it flourished. It became a home for everyone who was fed up with life and the membership soared to the thousands. People were attracted to the cult by the feeling of part of a utopian society that would be a model of sharing in a cut-throat world. They were lured by the charming way that he spoke. Followers were mesmerized by the way talked to them. They all saw him as the savior figure who was likened to God himself.

As his influence began to grow, he started wielding it for political power. He basically controlled a whole part of California and its politics. Even when reports came up about anomalies, money laundering and other atrocities that happened behind the doors at his temple compound, reputed newspapers like San Fransisco Chronicle were scared to publish them. Things slowly started turning ugly. There were beatings and other torture for followers who wanted to leave or raised objections to the way he did business.

These pressures made him to move his People’s Temple and most of its followers to Jonestown, a newly cleared village deep in the jungle in Guyana a small country in South America bordered by Brazil and Venezuela. That was a very bad decision for many of his followers. It was supposed to be a tropical paradise where his followers had a vibrant community based on equality and love making a living in the old agrarian ways. However, once he reached there, he turned more paranoid and more controlling. More people began suffering his tactics. Some managed to escape and come back to the US and told horror stories of people being held against their wishes at Jonestown.

This led to the fateful events in November of 1978. Congressman Leo Ryan, of California had a lot of his constituents moved to Jonestown and he decided to go over there with his aides, journalists and a few concerned relatives and investigate about the conditions in Jonestown. During the visit, initially everything went well but by the time he was leaving back to the US, many people wanted to get out of Jonestown. Congressman Ryan took a few people with him as it would fit in his airplane and promised to be back. This led Jim Jones to go totally paranoid and berserk. He ordered his guards to go to the airstrip and gun down the Congressman as he was getting ready to take off from there. The gunmen managed to kill the Congressman and a few other journalists who accompanied him for the trip.

Soon after, Jim Jones told everyone that the Guyanese and the American armies are waiting outside their compound and are going to kill everyone. He asked his followers to drink kool-aid laced with cyanide and commit suicide. Little children were injected the poison by their mothers and his followers- some willingly and some forced by gunmen- drank the poison and committed suicide. A total of 919 people died in Jonestown during the incidents on 18, Nov 1978. Please watch this video and fill it in because words cannot describe the hundreds of bodies piled up at the site when authorities reached there the next day.

To put this into perspective, other than the 9/11 incident, this was the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster. Leo Ryan became the only Congressman murdered in the line of duty in the history of the United States.

The moral of the story is not to discard this story as another cult of mad people who did something crazy. The fact is, those who died in Jonestown were real people, with families, friends, and loved ones. The best way to appreciate this fact is to read personal reflections by those with direct knowledge of Peoples Temple and its members. Jonestown Institute at San Diego State University is the best source of material, recollections, original audio of the incident (Yes, Jim Jones taped the whole incident before he too killed himself).

Remember this when you see the modern day Jim Joneses who claim to bring joy, love and peace to their followers. When you see these demi-gods, do not be blind and ask questions.

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Tags: domestic avalanche, Guyana, jim jones, Jonestown, jonestown massacre, People's Temple

We have this hullabaloo over the civilian nuclear cooperation treaty between India and the United States. Both the Left Front and the NDA have been vociferously against the agreement for a long time. We have to talk about the politics behind the opposition to the agreement. Let us analyze the agreement and see where the people who oppose it stand.

But before starting this discussion, let us have a look at the text of the 123 Agreement which is the India- US Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Agreement. Check the agreement yourselves at the following links

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/90157.pdf

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2007/aug/90050.htm

It is a long agreement, but a careful study of the agreement would give you some insights. I am just taking some excerpts to point out a few things.

“AFFIRMING that cooperation under this Agreement is between two States possessing advanced nuclear technology, both Parties having the same benefits and advantages, both committed to preventing WMD proliferation;”

This is a major step in terms of India’s nuclear capabilities. With just this one sentence, the US is affirming that India is a nuclear state with advanced technology. Well, maybe everybody knows that, but this is a huge since America is formally acknowledging about India’s capabilities.

“This Agreement shall be implemented in a manner so as not to hinder or otherwise interfere with any other activities involving the use of nuclear material, non-nuclear material, equipment, components, information or technology and military nuclear facilities produced, acquired or developed by them independent of this Agreement for their own purposes.”

It is clear that the circumstances have changed quite a bit after the election of Barack Obama as the president of the United States. This should make it more palatable for the Left who has been against the deal because of the sole reason that United States under Bush was very undesirable as a partner for India for the Left. So, including even the new developments, we should actually judge the agreement on its merits rather than offering a blind opposition. You be the judge.

- To be contd.

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