Monday, June 06, 2005

The US on Iran-Pakistan-India gas deal and on human rights violations by China

A project to pipe gas to India from Iran via Pakistan could begin next year, India's oil minister says. Mani Shankar Aiyer has said, "It may not have become reality but has become a certainity".

Who'd you expect to throw 'reservations' into this seemingly prosperous (financially and politically) deal?
Who else? The US of course!

Mr Aiyer dismissed US reservations over the purchase of gas from Iran and said Pakistan and India would not accept any pressure in this regard. I think he should just disregard US concern/interest/opinion on this issue.


I also read here that the US had called upon China to come clean on its human rights violations in the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident in which security forces apparently used exessive force in clearing an apparently peaceful student demonstration. What happened there was indeed a tragedy, I am not condoning the act of using armed force against students protesting against the communist party but for the US Secretary of state to issue a statement calling for China to 'come clean' on this issue is, I think, going too far. The Foreign Ministry in Beijing said the US should pay more attention to its own human rights violations. I think this reply is befitting of the dichotomous reality of human rights violations by the US. They talk a great deal about it but in practice mostly never seem to adhere to it. Its not enough to have policies that deal with human rights violations if none from your own side really follow it and it definitely doesn't justify booking someone for similar offenses.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the relentless manner in which the US tries to influence every little nation's internal governance is condemnable, especially since there's always an ulterior motive to it. All US is concerned about is how far and how deep its tentacles reach into the globe since this helps them leverage their 'points of contact' when they're ready for their next game - a war on an unsuspecting and already helpless victim. Here's a story on Uzbekistan's recent Anjidan massacre and the United States' "apparent" concerns over their favourite topic - human rights violation.
( http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=645053 )
You don't really have to read this twice to get an idea of what really concerns them. Human rights be damned, its the fear of giving up their expertly positioned air base and the 'asset' turning into a liability :-)
Even if they do succumb and close their base( which I doubt), I'm sure they'd have found a hundred more places to relocate their forces without anyone even noticing it. And oh, let's not forget - its all for the 'Fight against Terror and Human rights violation'!
~ Nandini

Anonymous said...

With increasing demand for oil resources to meet increasing energy needs China and India join the race of "hunt for oil". Though India a late entrant in this race.
The two Indian government initiatives Iran-India, Myanmar-India are facing shake ups now.
Internationally sensitive issues, make both the projects difficult to execute. Lets leave behind the "US Reservations" for a while.

the regions through which both the two pipelines traverse are countries with history of terrorism, insurgency, narcotics ( lets not forget that its also controlled by WarLords). Iran, Myanmar are condiered Rouge Nations. And the countries Pakistan and Bangladesh, the nations through which these pipelines are to be routed are considered breeding grounds for Jihadi's. Is it safe for India to get in a deal which faces a possible threat of damages of the installations ? Consider the ruthless rulers of Myanmar, internal turbulences in Bangladesh where some parties share "Hate India" sentiments. Don't you think they can be potential threats for damage of these projects ? Since these pipelines are very expensive, another factor for India to consider is the cost of security for protection of these lines.

Another factor, no I will not be talking about U.S dominance.
For India it is imperative that these projects come through but it has to fight these political-economic situations to bring these projects into light. It also have to fight against the US, did India exhibit these skills in recent years.Its been so busy occupied by its internal politics, can it make a timely decision ?
India will have to address these sensitivities collectively if the projects have to become a reality.