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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HG who wrote (5440)	10/16/2001 9:20:49 AM
From: LLLefty	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

HG >>>>>OT : The question was about progress of India, in comparison with that of Pakistan...... I think the socialist mindset of Nehrus is what has made India what it is today....self sufficient and free, not desperate and eternally hungry for foriegn aid.<<<<< 1.No, it was a short reply to Mr. Lal who commented that his middle class dad lived better than an American counterpart. Of course, he probably can afford a few untouchables to do the heavy lifting around the house. 2. Nehru and daughter set India's development back decades. Remember that "powerful" trio of Nehru, Nasser and Sukarno, the leaders of the non-aligned. Instead of lining up with his fellow democracies, the US, Nehru joined up with a pair of inept leaders in an inane fantasy that ill-served India. As for self-sufficiency, Nehru and daughter had it all backward. Nehru aimed to turn India into an industrial power with the assistance of the Soviet Union, neglecting the first priority of a national leader: to insure that his people have enough to eat. Instead, Nehru poured billions into setting up Soviet-aided steel mills and like, all of which rusted in short order. Had he really had the people's's interest at heart, Nehru could have "milked" the US for plenty of assistance since it was the time when the US, with equally inane antipathy toward Mao's China, was ready to assist India as a counterforce to China. Remember Hindi-Chini Bhai, Bhai? All the time, the US was providing food to help India's malnourished millions and Nehru continued his nonsensical non-aligned leadership with its heavy tilt toward the "progressive" Soviet Union. Comes along the border conflict with China. Nehru's military, under the sterling leadership of his buddy, Defense Minister Krishna Menon, is getting clobbered at 17,000 feet in the Askai Chin. His troops don't even have decent shoes and are sent up with no preparation; they die from the altitude without ever firing a shot. India, very possibly the aggressor (see Neville Maxwell's India's China War), panics and appeals for military assistance from its non-aligned buddies. Whoops, no answer. What do do? Desperate, Nehru calls Kennedy. It's 1962 and Kennedy has his hands full with Soviet missiles in Cuba. Kennedy says OK since we're worried about China, too. Swallowing hard, Nehru says he needs more and more is sent. Nehru swallows his non-alignment and asks for US forces. That's where Kennedy drew the line. Now that uneducated daughter takes over. Her two big econoomic moves are to nationalise the banks and take away the privy purses from the maharajas. India, a heavy oil importer, finds oil off the Bombay High, not alot but helpful if it can be retrieved. The only country that has the technology is the US. She says no thanks; she'll wait until the Soviets develop it. The few US companies with offices in India give up and go home. Can't do business with her either. Well, that's just a few tidbits of the Nehru family reign. And what helped India toward self-suffieciency? It certainly wasn't what you say: the "socialist mindset of the Nehrus..." That's what set back India. Foreign aid, which you disparage, helped keep the country fed during the many hard years. Today, many of us indeed admire India for becoming self-sufficent in food (must give few kudos to the Rockefeller Foundation for the "Green Revolution," though) and one of world's fastest growing industrial powers. Today, we have many Americans of Indian birth who are making enormous contributions in many fields.