Rajan, With Ms. Rice as Secretary of State in the outgoing US administration and Ms. Clinton as Secretary of State in the incoming administration; and Chancellor Ms. Angela Merkel of Germany; and Queen Elizabeth II of UK; and Ms. Tipzi Livni as Foreign Minister in Israel -
the Indian Foreign office should learn to 'charm the skirts' instead of "charm the pants off Americans and other world audiences." The only pants to be charmed are those of Bernard Kouchner, Foreign Minister of France, but his President is known to like skirts too.:=)) To be serious, you are right, the "stuttering, doddering, apologetic oaf" are the guys of all major Indian political parties. They have been around the Indian political scene, at the National and State level, too long with little positive energy left to be dynamic, proactive and innovative. Many on this site would have preferred if you had titled your thread as "Who speaks for us Indians?" I think Goanet has enough of hysterical posts on the Mumbai tragedy without needing more divisive semantics. It is human tendency (and historical) to blame the (silence of the ) majority for the sins (violence) of the minority. This may be the actions of the Hindutva, egged on by the 'Hindu Nationalistic' political parties. Or the L-e-T (and other outfits) egged on and perhaps even trained by the ISI. And the Christian churhes blamed for the actions of one or two bible-thumping fundamentalists. Or even, the Inquisition in Goa blamed on the Catholic Church. There are varying degrees of culpability. The important lesson to learn is that only the majority of an ethnic group can be the first (and early) line of attack against the extremists of that ethnic group. Or else, some of the 'innocent majority' may / will pay the price for the actions of the "miniscule" extremists of the group, sooner or later. Kind Regards, GL -------------- Rajan P. Parrikar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: The Pakis are skilled in the PR department. They trot out smartly dressed Oxbridge-accented individuals on television who can charm the pants off Americans and other world audiences. The Indians, on the other hand, are missing in action. And when the Indian govt finally sends a rep, it will be some stuttering, doddering, apologetic oaf. ----------- Leftist frauds like Amartya ... tells us that we should not mistake the "miniscule" Muslim population for the larger whole. But in his periodic rants against Hindus, it is exactly the miniscule extreme Hindu fringe that will do it for him.
