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Thursday,
June 12, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Not for asking Moving jobs Bharat Darshan |
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BJP has besmirched itself
Freely lanced
India and China are partners, not rivals
Dealing with bites and stings
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Not for asking There is an element of desperation in the American request to India for sending troops to Iraq. But the unjustified occupation of Iraq has thrown up issues that need careful handling, preferably by countries that understand the psyche of a hurt people. India can play that role to perfection. It has had special bonds of friendship with Iraq. Hence the pressure for securing the services of Indian troops for peacekeeping duties there. The situation in Iraq is alarming because American soldiers are in the direct line of fire. The regions that were once the strongholds of the Ba'athists are reportedly giving sleepless nights to the joint Anglo-American patrols. President George W. Bush is more worried than he would care to admit. Iraq may become another Vietnam for America. Only India can bail him out. Indian leaders have seldom attracted the kind of attention they are at present receiving from the American leaders. Visits by Indian Prime Ministers used to fill up the small news columns of most newspapers. This time it is a different ball game. Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani will have many tales to tell on his seemingly fruitful visit. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld specially flew out to New York for meeting him! The exclusive meeting between US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Mr Advani was hijacked by President Bush. He took up 30 of the 38 minutes the meeting lasted, discussing Pakistan and Iraq with the Indian Deputy Prime Minister. It is clear that the Americans have painted themselves in a corner on Iraq. Now a team from the Pentagon is on its way to try a bit of coercive diplomacy for securing Indian support for cleaning the mess it has created in Iraq. The Indian leadership will have to show tact and diplomacy in handling the unreasonable request for troop deployment. An inflexible position could jeopardise Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Indo-Pak peace initiative. The reasons for the circumspect response are valid. Indian troops have earned high praise as part of the UN peacekeeping force wherever they were posted. However, placing Indian troops at the command of the American military establishment in Iraq is bound to raise many uncomfortable questions. Who will be the boss and which flag will the Indian troops salute are just two of the many uneasy situations they will have to cope with if they are sent to Iraq. The most important question that should determine the Indian response is: How long is it going to take to hand over Iraq back to the Iraqis? It would be a grave political blunder to agree to help without a clear time-frame for ending the illegal occupation of a sovereign nation. |
| Moving jobs When the opening up of the Indian economy began in the early 1990s, the process came under sharp attack from critics, who warned of serious consequences of globalisation. Twelve years down the line, nothing damaging has happened. Instead, the growth rate has picked up and it is the developed world that is feeling the heat. There are protests in the US, Britain and Germany against the loss of jobs. Recession in Europe and the US has come as a boon for India. Western
corporates, under investor pressure to cut the costs and show results, are forced to shift jobs to low-cost countries like India, Singapore, Malaysia and China. US companies are already known to hire Indian IT professionals for their talent and expertise at relatively lower salaries. Of late, they have started outsourcing services from Indian companies. Apart from the IT-enabled services, textile is another sector where major corporates are striking deals with Indian companies to import clothes. There is now a noticeable boom in what is called “apparel BPO”. According to a report in a financial daily, Wal-Mart sources goods worth about a billion dollars, GAP worth $600 million and Tommy Hilfiger worth $100 million from India. No wonder, the fortunes of textile companies have started looking up. There is another report about British banks and insurance companies planning to shift some two lakh jobs to India. These are mostly administrative, processing and clerical jobs. Top business houses like HSBC, British Telecom, Channel 4, Thomas Cook and Prudential are moving their jobs to cheaper locations. While all this sounds good for this country, there are increasing concerns at the loss of jobs in the developed world, which is understandable. Faced with rising unemployment and discontent among the people of these recession-hit countries, politicians and policy-makers have started raising barriers to the flow of jobs in the name of outsourcing. Britain’s infotech industry is the latest to join the protesters. It has started exerting pressure on the government to plug a legal loophole that allows intra-company transfers, which means a ban on the transfer of professionals employed in their branches located in India and elsewhere. Such blatant violations of the World Trade Organisation norms have not deterred the outsourcing opponents nor awakened beneficiaries like India to raise the issue at the appropriate international forums. Leaders of developed countries keep extolling the virtues of liberalisation, but when it affects adversely their own people, they backtrack and stop practising what they preach. Outsourcing is in the interest of all, but short-term objectives come in the way of realising long-term goals. |
| Bharat Darshan One of the fringe benefits of being a people’s representative is that you get to see the world in style — at taxpayers’ cost. And even when it is not the government that is organising an all-expenses paid jaunt, one can still go on a “Bharat Darshan” at one’s leader’s cost, the only condition being that he should agree to be part of the herd which needs to be protected from poachers. That is what the sheep — sorry, MLAs — owing allegiance to former Union Minister Ajit Singh are doing these days. If it is Bhopal one day, it is Srinagar the next. And then Shimla. The Jat leader is determined to make sure that the bunch remains together. While as a group the Uttar Pradesh MLAs exude camaraderie, it will be necessary to meet them individually to find out whether they are as solidly behind Mr Ajit Singh as he wants the world to believe. While it is indeed a picnic for some of them to be in the cool climes of Shimla away from the blistering heat of Lucknow, a few may be raring to make a break for greener pastures. Given the strict security under which they are kept, Mr Ajit Singh must be very wary of their propensity to bolt at the first opportunity. It will need someone like Mr Lal Singh of “Aya Ram Gaya Ram” fame to use the sewerage pipe to do the Houdini act. But then Haryana was the pioneer of such
derring-do. The rest of the states are yet to learn the tricks of the trade fully, although they are picking up fast. Yet, it will be wrong to castigate this brand of tourism as a result of the insecurities of Mr Ajit Singh alone. It is also true that Chief Minister Mayawati has tremendous capacity to poach on them and hijack them back to power and pelf that they enjoyed when their Rashtriya Janata Dal supported her government. And the danger is real and immediate not only in Lucknow. Since Ms Mayawati has the support of the BJP, Mr Ajit Singh apprehends that his brood is not safe in most other states either. That is why he has made it a point to travel only to the states where the Congress happens to be in power. Quite frankly, this conducted tour leaves a bad taste in the mouth, with the MLAs being moved from one place to another like bonded labour. Since politics has stooped to a level where it is not uncommon for a sitting Chief Minister to actually get the legislators opposed to him beaten up and make them sign blank papers at gun point, Mr Ajit Singh cannot be singled out for criticism for cutting off his supporters from the rest of the world. |
BJP has besmirched itself There is a time to be polite and there is a time to be blunt. Nothing short of brutal frankness would do in the case of the latest contortions of the BJP, the core of the ruling coalition at the Centre that has added one more squalid episode to its occasional waywardness during the last five years. The facts are simple and stark although the party’s spin-doctors, that include quite a few media persons, and top leaders themselves have tried to put a hell of a lot of gloss on the event in the hope of deluding the public into believing that nothing had really happened. In a short span of three days the party managed to make a shoddy spectacle of itself, largely because of the loquacity, thoughtless or otherwise, of its president, Mr Venkaiah Naidu. Ironically, it did so over the sensitive issue of whether Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as its most popular leader, would be its sole mascot in the next Lok Sabha election or whether he would have to share this honour with his deputy, Mr L.K. Advani. Having done so, Mr Naidu, his cohorts and, more importantly, his mentors proceeded to pretend that nothing had occurred and that the Prime Minister’s “sole leadership of the BJP, the NDA and the country” was never in doubt. The whole affair, they said, was the “creation of the media”, presumably in dire need of some sensation during the proverbial “silly season”. Probably nothing better could have been expected from the likes of Mr Vekaiah Naidu, to say nothing of his Urdu-speaking lieutenant in PR, Mr Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. But, for Mr Lal Krishna Advani to repeat exactly what these two bumbling men have been saying is shocking. Strangely, he was not content with repeating their fatuous theory of “the media’s creation”. He went so far as to lament that, as a former journalist, he “felt” sad and “ashamed” over the profession’s current state. No objective individual would deny the dismal decline in the standards of some sections of the media, both electronic and print. Advaniji should hold back his crocodile tears. For, in the context of what is under discussion, the real shame is that someone of his stature should have spoken the way he has. It is time for the Deputy Prime Minister to do some explaining for his unwarranted remarks. Was it a gang of sensation-hungry media persons that had forced the BJP president to declare one fine morning that “Vajpayeeji ka naam aur Vajpayeeji ka kaam” (Mr Vajpayee’s name and Mr Vajpayee’s work) would be the party’s sheet-anchor in the next elections? More importantly, what happened within the next 24 hours to make the redoubtable Naidu change his position radically? Did a more frightening group of media mafia clobber him to proclaim to the wide world that not Mr Vajpayee alone but Atalji and Advaniji together would be the “joint mascots” of the BJP, come election time? This extraordinary statement, it must not be forgotten, remained on record for a full day until the BJP president reverted to his earlier theme of Atalji’s sole leadership of the party and the government. Remarkably, all through these three verbal somersaults, the Prime Minister was overseas which makes Mr Naidu’s performance all the more appalling. Even he should have realised that it was bad form - to put it no more strongly than that - to talk about the party’s future leadership while Mr Vajpayee was out of the country talking to world leaders. (If Mr Venkaiah was encouraged by Atalji’s interview to Der Speigel hinting at his possible retirement under certain circumstances, he alone can say.) It was on Day Four that Mr Naidu — who had meanwhile rung up Atalji in Geneva - arranged a gathering of government and party leaders at the Prime Minister’s House to congratulate him on his “successful tour of Europe”. And it was Mr Naidu who invited the media to the function. Surely, it was not the media that prompted the Prime Minister to deliver his famous and still resounding one-liner: “Let the party that is neither tired nor retired march to victory in the elections under Advaniji’s leadership”. In the stunned silence that followed, it was voluable Venkaiah who jumped up to declare that there was no question of anyone else leading the party because Vajpayeeji “was, is and would continue to be the leader”. Inevitably, others joined this course and thereafter anybody who is anybody in the BJP started singing the same tune. And it was at this stage that the damage-control effort degenerated into the pathetic attempt to blame the media for “creating a controversy where none had existed”. Mr Advani was, of course, present at the function where the Prime Minister made the devastating statement that was instantly dubbed “googly” and continues to be so described. Incidentally, according to authoritative sources, the author of the expression “googly” was someone in the Prime Minister’s Office but it immediately caught on and has since been endorsed by the Shiv Sena supremo, Balasaheb Thackarey, who is usually critical of Mr Vajpayee’s “soft” policy towards Pakistan. CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee is more to the point when he says that Mr Vajpayee’s “googly” has worsted those who were trying to project Mr Advani as the co-leader of the BJP and Mr Vajpayee’s successor as Prime Minister. There is not an iota of a doubt that Atalji’s position has become even stronger than it was before the latest drama. Sadly for Mr Naidu, his magisterial announcement that the leadership issue is “now closed” has invited the acid comment that an issue cannot be closed unless it was “open” at some stage. But this is nothing compared with what Mr Murli Manohar Joshi is doing by way of turning the knife into the wounds of not only Mr Naidu but also of those known to be his mentors and collaborators. To put the matter bluntly, few believe that Mr Naidu would have dared to float the trial balloon of dual leadership of the party without Mr Advani’s approval or acquiescence. This may be unfair to the Deputy Prime Minister who, to his credit, has always shown all due respect and loyalty to the Prime Minister, whatever his confidants and hangers-on might be doing or saying. But the widespread perception remains that below the surface the undertone of the Advani-Vajpayee tussle persists. Mr Joshi has his own axe to grind, of course, because he feels that he has been pushed down from his number three perch in the BJP hierarchy, largely at Mr Advani’s behest. He has, therefore, chosen to target Mr Naidu, a known Advani protégé. And he has raised a very pertinent question: Who had authorised Mr Naidu to describe Mr Advani as the “Lauh Purush” (the Iron Man) and Mr Vajpayee as mere “Vikas purush” (Development Man). Mr Vajpayee, according to Mr Joshi, is “Shikhar Purush” (the Man at the Summit). Consequently, the issue is far from being closed. The party, the NDA and the country are all bound to hear a lot more about it. |
Freely lanced Even more than one decade after I left my “employed” status to be a writer (Yeah, I understand the raised eyebrows but please hold the screech!) people gape at me and wonder whether I am not a bit touched in the head. They even tut-tut their sympathy as I fumble for a convincing (convincing to me, not them!) answer for my supposedly foolhardy decision. I distinctly remember my encounter with an elderly well wisher of mine when I decided to leave my “secure and sound” bank job to push pen! It went something like this-“I have decided to resign,” I announced grandly “I want to be a writer.” “But you write, don’t you? Keep it up by all means. What is all this about resigning and coming to the street?” he looked flummoxed. When I explained that henceforth I proposed to keep the hearth burning by earning from my writing he looked positively alarmed and shot worried looks at me wondering whether it was not time for me to be packed off to the nearest shrink. When I turned a deaf ear to all his arguments/entreaties he left bestowing upon me a sorrowful look as a cowherd would bestow on a favourite cow going to the butcher’s! And I became a writer and soon learned why George Simenon had said: “Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness.” I live in a place that is not a prime publishing centre and there are more writers for those publications to accommodate them. Payment for writing was something unheard of till then. One day I met an old and experienced editor of a reputed newspaper. I offered to write a column for him on socio-political issues. He seemed to be very much impressed with me and called his staff to have a look at this bold, daring, talented youngman” (me!) All the while I was blushing a decent beetroot. Then he asked me to start my column right away. It was all very nice till then But when I asked him how much he proposed to pay me for rendering this professional service of writing a column for his paper he looked scandalised. He gave me a wide eyed, sympathetic look as if I was off my onion and after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence he patted me on the back and exclaimed: “Service, my dear fellow? It’s we who are doing a service to the writers by offering a forum to them!” I took leave of him quietly. Even modern-day editors hardly understand the problem of freelancers. Everybody from computer operators to hawkers gets paid but the writer can wait. What is he investing, by the way? Mind is not visible, is it? Sometime back a newspaper changed hands and the former owner settled all liabilities save payment to free-lancers. Dispensable nuisance these freelancers, anytime can be conned, what? Besides, there are blokes who always fancy themselves to be writers and would give (not take) anything to just see their names in print! And the retired fellows? All the time in the world all the moolah in the bank to really bother about a few bucks from writing. Writers hardly get a raise year after year. There is this newspaper known for its fabulous payment to its staff; its remuneration structure to freelancers has remained the same for the last 10 years! I had a nice experience with the editor of a fortnightly down south. This chap was an eminent freelancer himself before taking up the editorial assignment and so understood the compulsion of his tribe. The payment was decent and the cheque came by the third week of the next month. Everything was running smoothly when the magazine folded up and both the editor and I were out looking for new pastures! Meanwhile, I had got some books published and as somebody had said I was in an enviable position of having my books purchased by people because they saw my name in print and editors printing me in their papers because people bought my books! But even after half a dozen books the royalty has not gone beyond a couple of thousand and my publishers are loath to furnish yearly statements of sale! So when some starry eyed youngster asks me tips for freelancing I asked him/her to be prepared to be freely lanced by one and sundry. You may write and write and not get published; you may get published and not earn any money, you may earn money but still not be a success. Go out and take it!
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India and China are partners, not rivals For those familiar with the long history of friendly relations between China and India, it is easy to name three peak periods in the interactions between the two great nations. The first can be traced two millenniums back when Buddhism bound China and India together in the earliest state of the historic exchanges between the two ancient civilisations. The second features mutual sympathy and support in their respective struggles for national independence and liberation in modern times. The third is marked by the good-neighbourly relationship in the 1950s between the two independent Asian nations newly emerging in the international arena and by the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence they jointly initiated for the world after World War II. The three peak periods have laid a lasting and solid foundation for the Sino-Indian relationship, a relationship which no remarks have better summarised than those made by Premier Wen Jiabao during his meeting with the visiting Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes in Beijing in April this year. The Chinese Premier said: “During the past 2200 years, about 99.9 per cent of the time we have devoted to friendly cooperation between our two countries.” The long-awaited visit to China by Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee is likely to take place as scheduled from June 22 to 26. It is 10 years since an Indian Prime Minister travelled to China last. During the past decade, sea changes have taken place in the world situation and the Sino-Indian relationship has been moving ahead steadily. Over that period of time, two major consensuses have been reached by both countries. The first one is that the two sides should in no way allow their historic baggage to stand in the way of the all-round development of relations between them. The other is that neither country would see the other as a threat. Based on the above-mentioned understanding, the Sino-Indian relations have made striking headway in the following fields: The two countries concluded two major agreements, one on maintaining peace and tranquility in the border areas, the other on confidence-building measures in the military field. The past 10 years' experience proves that these two instruments served their purpose well. The clarification and confirmation of the Line of Actual Control is still going on, and the two sides have exchanged the maps of the middle sector of the LAC. The two countries have put in place an array of consultation mechanisms on boundary, security, counter-terrorism, foreign policy planning and other issues, which has helped enhanced mutual understanding and trust between the two sides. Cooperation and exchanges have expanded between the parliaments, political parties, mass media, scientific and academic communities as well as NGOs of the two countries, and military-to-military contacts are also on the rise. The China Eastern Airline has started direct flights between the two capitals. China and India have officially made each other an overseas destination for their tourists. Holding identical views on many major international issues, the two countries have carried out satisfactory cooperation at the UN, the WTO and other international organisations with a view to safeguarding the interests of developing nations. Since the assumption of my office in India, I have often been asked the question: “What do you think is the main stumbling block to the development of Sino-Indian relations?” In my view, it is nothing other than the inadequacy in mutual understanding between our two peoples. Many of my countrymen know about India only from the disaster reports on TV and are ignorant of India's success stories in agriculture, industry, software and other frontier scientific and high-tech areas. The Indian films they have enjoyed are no more than oldies such as “Awara”; they are totally unaware of the fact that other than Hollywood in the West, there is also Bollywood in the East which is home to hundreds of movies per year. Turning to the other side of the coin, we can find that the Indian public, like many of my countrymen, do not know much about what their neighbour is like nowadays. What is more, not few of them are skeptical about China, suspecting that China is either a threat or someone trying to contain India. Obviously, this is a misconception, for they fail to see the fact that China and India share enormous interests in maintaining regional and global stability, safeguarding national independence and developing their economy. This commonality far outweighs the disputes between the two countries left over from history. Given this judgement, China has repeatedly stated that it hopes to see a developed and prosperous India, an India that plays a greater and more active role in world affairs. That China deems in its own interest. Prime Minister Vajpayee made similar remarks when meeting with President Hu Jintao in St. Petersburg on May 31 this year, “The population of India and China constitutes one-third of the world's total. If these two countries are to join hands, the 21st century could be turned into the Asian Century.” History will eventually prove that China and India are partners, not rivals. The new generation of Chinese leadership has declared that China will persist in the policy of being friendly and good partner with neighbours, and that China would like to deal with surrounding countries on the basis of equality, live side by side with them in peace and harmony, and join hands with them through thick and thin to achieve common progress. China will enhance high-level visits and political dialogues with its neighbours for better understanding and a regional political environment characterised by harmony, trust and coordination. We will strive to foster a new security concept which features mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation in the region. We will adhere to the principle of resolving differences, disputes and conflicts through dialogue, and work with other countries to achieve a regional security environment of peace, stability and harmony. We will endeavour to intensify economic cooperation with regional countries, promote various regional and sub-regional cooperation mechanisms, and foster a regional economic environment that features mutual benefit and reciprocity. I would not end the discussion on the development of Sino-Indian relations without mentioning the striking progress made in the bilateral trade between China and India. It could be said that the trade has become a most dynamic area in our relationship. Thanks to the joint efforts of the two sides over the past decade, our two-way trade volume reached US$5 billion last year, which was nearly a 20-time increase over that of US$200 million-plus in the early 1990s. Such a boost is indeed outstanding in the world. Moreover, the bilateral trade is still going up with great momentum and it witnessed a growth of 70.8 per cent in the first four months of this year. During the same period of time, the Indian export to China increased by 100.5 per cent against that of the corresponding period last year, which resulted in a trade surplus of US$ 350 million in India's favour. When China was admitted to the WTO one and a half years ago, some people in the Indian industrial and commercial communities did fear that the Chinese-made merchandise would overwhelm the Indian market. But they are now full of confidence, believing in the immense opportunities in trading with China. If the two sides continue to work together, it would take just a few years' time to attain the target of US$ 10 billion in our trade volume, which was envisaged by the leaders of the two countries in 2002. Of course, there are huge potentials for the two sides to tap in mutual investment, contract project undertakings and technical cooperation. The author is China’s Ambassador to India.
With the talks breaking down in 1993 between China and Tibet's exiled government headquartered at McLeodganj in Himachal, many Tibetans had lost hope. But the two successive visits in 10 months by a four-member Tibetan delegation to Beijing and Lhasa have not only broken the gridlock, but also set an agenda over the Tibetan issue. The Secretary to the Dalai Lama, Mr Tenzin Geyche Tethong, says that the envoys of the Dalai Lama visited Beijing in the last week of May. The talks, he said, are the continuation of the process that began in September last year. The Dalai Lama is happy with the development. While the Chinese regime has always accused the Tibetan spiritual leader of being a separatist, this ageing leader advocates the resolution of all conflict by dialogue. The Chinese leadership has responded only after the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, made it clear that he was just asking for autonomy for Tibet within China. Many Tibetans in exile, despite suspecting China's intentions, are happy that a beginning has been made. There are a little over one lakh Tibetans living in exile in India -- 30 per cent in the South, 20 per cent in Himachal Pradesh and the rest in places such as the Northeast, Ladakh, Sikkim, West Bengal and Bhutan. Nearly 3,000 Tibetans flee their Chinese-controlled country each year, with a majority of them arriving in India via Nepal. The Dalai Lama puts the Tibetan population at six million. The Dalai Lama is himself very optimistic about the outcome of the talks with China. In interviews to the foreign media he has said, "My envoys' visit to China is a very good start. Eventually, if possible, I would also like to invite Chinese officials to visit Dharamsala so they can see (for) themselves the situation here. The best way to resolve any problem in the human world is for all sides to sit down and talk." The writer was in McLeodganj (Himachal) recently |
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Dealing with bites and stings Most of us will delight in the warmer weather typical of this time of year, and balmier temperatures certainly seem to lure us outside. The trouble is we're not the only species of animal that the heat tends to bring out in droves. The buzz that accompanies the summer months all too often comes from insects and bugs that may blight our enjoyment of the great outdoors. Bites and stings can cause considerable discomfort and may pose significant health hazards for individuals prone to overblown allergic reactions. In some far-flung places, the threat of insect-borne infectious diseases, such as malaria, hover over us too. Fortunately, natural medicine offers quite a few effective means of protecting our bodies from the unwanted attentions of tiny winged creatures. Garlic, for instance, has long been believed to have insect-repellent potential, as this herb does not just taint the breath, but the sweat, too. Garlic odours literally ooze out of our pores, and it appears this may act as a deterrent to insects. One study found that individuals supplemented with garlic capsules were much less likely to be bitten by ticks compared to those taking placebo. In this study, the dose of garlic used was 1,200mg (1.2g) per day. This is roughly equivalent to one clove of garlic a day. Ideally, the garlic should be taken raw, as cooking tends to reduce its pungency and may diminish its repellent effects. Food-based approaches may help in the treatment, as well as the prevention, of bites and stings. One favoured remedy is an extract of pineapple known as bromelain. This has natural anti-inflammatory properties and can ease itching when taken as a supplement (500mg of bromelain should be taken three times a day on an empty stomach). Also, a ground-up bromelain tablet, or contents of a capsule, can be made into a paste with water. Coating the affected area with this two or three times a day seems to help quell pain and irritation from both bites and stings. Those looking to protect themselves from mosquito bites may do well to pack a citronella candle. In one study, burning a citronella candle reduced mosquito bites by more than 40 per cent. However, the use of a repellent applied to the skin will almost certainly give greater protection. The insect repellents most commonly advocated in high-risk areas are those based on the chemical DEET (diethyl-m-toluamide). I got put off using DEET some years ago in Thailand, when a bottle of the stuff leaked in my toiletries bag and dissolved my toothbrush. I have since learnt that DEET is potentially toxic and has been known to cause seizures in children. Those seeking a safer alternative may prefer a eucalyptus oil-based repellent, as one study showed this offered more protection from mosquito bites than one containing DEET. Taking a natural approach will help to ensure that the bugs don't bite this summer.
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O Mother earth Let thy bosom be free from sickness and decay. May we through long life Be active and vigilant And serve thee with devotion. — Atharva Veda 12.1.62 Soul, Thou hast two wings of eagle — wisdom and valour — To carry thee to heavenly heights — Yajur Veda 12.4 |
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Since the annexation of Tibet by China in 1959, hope has rekindled for the first time in the hearts of thousands of Tibetans living in India. Though "Free Tibet" has become a commonly chanted slogan in the community and its western supporters over the past five decades, it is only recently that China has begun to respond. Call it mounting pressure by the international community or China's need to improve its human rights record ahead of the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese government has expressed its willingness to talk about Tibet.