Sunday, July 29, 2007

123 Agreement : Deal or no Deal?

The long awaited and negotiated Nuclear Agreement, dubbed 123 Agreement from the no. of section in the relevant US law, is finally now in place. It has been one of the most criticized deal in India, while in America it is sure to be find a place in the most debated of the agreements. The congress is yet to approve the final draft of the agreement but it is only a matter of the time for that to happen.
The time factor is the crucial issue in the affair between Indo-US deal. While the United Progressive Alliance government in India want to showcase this deal as the one significant foreign policy achievement before it goes to public for a renewed mandate next year, the George W. Bush administration in US also wants it to be finalised before the 2008 presidential election. The UPA government in lead by the Congress party that was in abyss for the eight years before it came to power. The erstwhile BJP led National Democratic Alliance government pursued some aggressive foreign policy, of which the Nuclear tests were a major part and cemented friendlier ties with US, both in Bill Clinton and George Bush regime. UPA needs something to counter that success and this deal provides the best chance for it to do so. Bush administration’s predicament in Iraq as well as its almost failure in the war against terrorism is evident to everybody now. The need for the administration to illustrate one aspect where it has reaped some gains assumed significance now. That explains why both sides want to ink the deal as soon as possible.
The speed with which both sides moved has been amply demonstrated in the statement by the Assistant Secretary of State Nicolas Burns, who was a key figure in the negotiations that led up to the finalization of the agreement. As Mr. Burns informed the mêlée, the negotiations lasted for about two years and two day. But, “First of all, we were very careful when we began these -- the latest phase of these negotiations to remind the Indian Government that since the President and Prime Minister had their two agreements of July '05 and March '06, something else had happened: The Congress had debated over six, seven months those agreements and the Congress has passed the Hyde Act. …. First, in late May, early June, the Indians came to us and said that they were ready to build a new state-of-the-art reprocessing facility that would be under IAEA safeguards and that any reprocessing of spent fuel would be done in conjunction with that new facility, fully safeguarded, fully transparent to the IAEA and to the United States and to the international community. That was a significant development in the negotiations.” It was clear from the above statement that the matter was settled in just two months when the Indian government agreed to set up a reprocessing facility which will go through the inspection of IATA.
Even as the nod from the Congress is awaited for this agreement, Mr. Burns has sent cat among pigeons by announcing that the right of return from this agreement remains, as imbibed in US laws with the reigning presidents. That effectively nullifies Indian diplomat’s claims that India’s national interests are well preserved in this deal. But the matter of the fact is that neither US nor India are keen to keep their interests intact. Bush administration, especially President Bush himself, wants to achieve a diplomatic milestone by bringing India into the Nuclear non-proliferation Treaty ambit. That will make the administration boast of an achievement denied by the misadventures elsewhere.
A more larger sphere of this agreement lies within the intention of the Bush administration to make them take a lesson from this agreement. The motive has been explicitly told by Burn himself in the same meet. “The agreement also sends an important message to nuclear outlaw regimes such as Iran. It sends a message that if you behave responsibly in regards to nonproliferation and you play by the rules, you will not be penalized, but will be invited to participate more fully in international nuclear trade. India has not proliferated, unlike North Korea in the past. India is willing to subject itself to full IAEA safeguards, unlike Iran today. And India has not violated its nuclear obligations, as Iran has and continues to do. Iran, of course, has reneged on its most important international commitments,” he told the media. Mark the word, ‘responsibly’ and ‘by the rules,’ where the inherent meaning echoes wishes of the US administrators. The message is clear and same that of five years ago: either you are with us or against US.
This agreement will also have a larger impact in another field. That of the nuclear trade. Indian nuclear program, civilian as well as strategic, was hitherto pursued independently by successive governments owing to the sanctions by US and Nuclear Suppliers Group. But this agreement will bring it closer in relation to US which means US companies will have a major role to play in the near future in India. Mr. Burns said, “The final benefit will be that American firms will be, for the first time in three decades, able to invest in India's nuclear industry. American companies have the finest nuclear technology in the world, and we are looking forward to American firms having the opportunity to bring their latest technology to the Indian market. We are confident that American companies will have equal access to this huge market and that they will succeed there.”
This agreement, which will bring US many fruits in just a stone. Indian government have inched forward to sign on this deal and for what price! Going by the confidence of US authorities and confidentiality preserved in the matter, it is all possible that Indian government will not be able to show off this agreement as an accomplishment, but rather a misdeed, committed in haste and repaid in stretches.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Rajnikant : The new movie icon of India

The new frontiers

As the monsoon has set in the this nation, which is stretched from Himalayas to the Indian Ocean, the news of Sivaji-the Boss conquering one after another box office records are also pouring in. In the hitherto untreaded parts of the country, where regional films were strictly a no-no till now, the film is marching ahead to say the least. Not only in India, but even in overseas markets also it saw even the Hollywood blockbusters in the fray bite the dust in top ten charts. It seems that whole of India is rediscovering this Style King often derided for his mannerisms which many others have tried to ape but fail the produce the charm that Rajni has.
That also made the reigning Superstar of North India (devotees of Big B, please excuse me, but that’s the kind of address more often than not used in Tamil and other South Indian press) to attend a special screening of the film. The Boss was also there with him. And even BigB praised Rajni on the occasion. He has already praised the Thalaivar as the emperor of Indian cinema.





The next question

Now, question arises: Is Rajnikant the next movie icon of India? What Rajnikant has achieved is undoubtedly one of the biggest feats in movie industry in India as well as overseas. First of all, he climbed to the stardom in spite of any real backing from the industry. He has proved his mettle through his talents and mannerisms and most of all, his unparalleled ability to churn out films successively single handedly. In likes of MGR and Shivaji Ganeshan, not least Kamal Haasan, he created a place for himself that was unique in every sense. After appearing in some remakes of Amitabh Bachchan, he was described as Amitabh of Tamil movies.
Then in 1983, just eight years after he made his entry on silver screen, Rajnikant starred in the Hindi movie Andha Kanoon, which had Amitabh himself in what was said to be a `guest appearance’ role but extended to a large part of the film, convincingly. That success set up a train of some flicks, some of them making hay on box office while some bringing tears to the producers and distributors. Rajni then satisfied himself with some petty side roles in Bollywood while consolidating his position in his home (?) industry. But even so, his popularity and fan following in rest of India continued to grow. His image as an maverick was also reinforced through the new media like internet, even though there he was more present through the odd jokes.
But to speak of it, Rajinikant was the only non-Hindi actor to gain a large audience in the northern parts of India. His predecessors, like MG Ramachandran never quite entered in this specter, or some like Shivaji Ganeshan could only appear in one or couple of flicks. They never really have a base here. Even Kamal Haasan, who entered Hindi films with a bang through Ek Duje Ke liye (1980), could not make a mark here barring some odd films and a distant admiration from critics. (It was very later, in late ‘80s that Kamal made his re-entry through films like Appu Raja.) Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh, and Nagarjun…all these heroes came and went but except for registering their presence, they could hardly do anything. In that sense, Rajnikant was the first and only southern hero who could navigate the box office.
A large vacuum to fill

Now with Sivaji, Rajni has arrived on the centrestage and with what role, a man single-handedly taking the system by the horns. Many a Bollywood heroes had their careers built on this his image but in the last few years, in an era of globalization, Bollywood has largely discarded this category giving way to some ice-candy floss cinemas. While the former category of heroes and cinemas might appear old fashioned to some, in India these types of films do really capture the imagination of the people. That’s why actors in these types of films are more endeared to the public. This is the large vacuum, that now only Rajnikant can fill.
The process seems to have already started with Sivaji-the Boss gaining foothold even in non-Tamil speaking parts of India. If Rajnikant can bring the Tamil (or for that matter South Indian movie industry) with Bollywood, he will be the first to have this type of accomplishment. The day might be not far away when Bollywood, Kollywood and Tollywood would be amalgamated as one industry. The process has been already started with many a Tamil and Telugu films featuring prominent Hindi and Marathi artists in increasing numbers. And it will also be noted that the process was started by Rajni films whereby his Hindi films were dubbed in Tamil and vice versa (when the trend was almost non-existent.) His Dalpathi had Amrish Puri as the main villain.
In a nutshell, Rajnikant is set be a movie icon for the new India. Sivaji-the Boss’s collection records in UK and phenomenal rush it witnessed in Chicago, Muscat and Malaysia…you name it and he have it…only points to this fact. So toast to this new Sultan of the Indian Movies!