An American Diary

By M J Akbar

The biggest tourist attraction in America now is the immigration service at the airport. It evokes the same mild dread that was once reserved for Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon. Common sense suggests that nothing will happen when you encounter them, but who can erase the faint consternation that you could be the next big story in the news? There is never any logic to an accident. Surely the most famous face on the Washington-Boston air run is that of the unmistakable Senator Edward Kennedy, and yet he has been stopped, and even denied permission to emplane, six times. (Thought: which computer could have possibly programmed a likely terrorist with a name like Edward Kennedy? It must be Republican black humour.)

Senator Kennedy might grin and bear it, but one can see the apprehension on the faces of anonymous browns, particularly those with unfamiliar headgear or shaped beards. There is also the fear and loathing associated with fingerprinting. For Indians it must arouse the collective consciousness of disgust for the thana level of suspicion. Nothing is more greasy than the thought of the thumb being jabbed on carbon ink by a fat police hand before it is pressed again on smudgy government paper. Why do Indian constables insist on holding the victim's hand all through the process ? Middle class sensitivities are also affronted by the implicit suggestion of illiteracy. Only those who cannot sign must be fingerprinted, isn't it ?

Now for the good news. The immigration service at the San Francisco International Airport is as friendly, efficient and fast as it is possible for a government service to be. The premonition of long, horrible queues turns out to be a mistaken nightmare. This might be because my flight landed at 12 in the afternoon instead of 12 at night, but the pace of clearance was brisk and standardised. Someone has been dictating from the relevant chapter of How to Win Friends and Influence People. The thumbprinting is psychologically painless, since 19th century ink has been replaced by 21st century electronic ray. On domestic flights the democratisation of security is reassuring. You do not have to be a defence minister of India to take off your shoes. Everyone, white, yellow, brown or black, has to do this. A minor side-effect is that travellers have become conscious of their socks now that they are required to take off their shoes. Branded socks are in.

I have not fully recovered from the glow of my most painless journey to America in over two decades of travelling to the land of hope, glory and immigration. If the news changes, I shall report that as well.

******

Berkeley is the kind of campus they make for the movies: relaxed, sunny, gentle and anti-Bush. The weather is splendid with views (both geographic and intellectual) to match. One could make a career of doing a doctorate our here, and indeed many do. This is the first leg of a three-university lecture tour. The reaction to an alternative, Washington-sceptic presentation on Muslims, South Asia and the world after Iraq is absorbed and sympathetic from both faculty and students. Raka Ray, who heads the South Asia department, has unambiguous faith in her guests; she is unfazed by the fact that the lecture has been scheduled at precisely the same time as the Edwards-Cheney debate. My ego gets a boost when I learn that there is even a gatecrasher. It is quickly deflated when I learn, upon investigation, that he has come for the free wine and cheese. I actually see him stuffing his baggy and bedraggled pockets with cheese. What I once thought was pedantic dressing-down is practical for minor theft. He has been known to walk off with a full bottle of wine stuck in his waistband.

*******

Iowa is the heart of America, and the heart of America is serene, silent, rural and decisive. This is the kind of archetypal mid-western state that Dave Barry ribs when he is short of a topic for his weekly humour column. It is true that you are welcomed to Cedar Rapids, home to the University of Iowa, by a massive statue of a milch cow. The pavements of the two-avenue downtown are punctuated by large plastic eagles in American football uniforms. Milk and patriotism are the passions of Iowa. In a mellifluous piece this week in the New York Times, R W. Apple reveals that the information centre on the highway linking the capital, Des Moines, with Kansas City boasts a sign proclaiming 'Iowa---where exciting things happen'' but treat that as an advertisement. It is generally believed that the liveliest movement in the state is the swaying of amber fields of corn. Trust me, that corn on endless miles of flat, relentless plains can look beautiful. Apple notes that John Wayne comes from Iowa, but it is entirely in character that when Wayne was in Iowa his name was Marion Morrison. However, Iowa is poised to do the most exciting thing it has done in decades. It could be the decisive swing state in a close election between George Bush and John Kerry. The fate of the world could lie in te silence of Cedar Rapids.

*****

Frederick Smith and Philip Lutgendorf breathe life and energy into India studies. They are known familiarly as Fredji and Philipji. Fredji speaks Sanskrit like a Chennai pandit, from whom he learnt his classics. Philipji recites Tulsidas like a charm. Their Hindi, needless to add, is impeccable. Philipji makes a splendid cup of chai and his listening music includes Fifties' Hindi hits as well as Dil Se. We indulge in a lengthy and passionate conversation where I deliver myself of theories on Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar. Only one of them, Dev Anand, I argue, is a genuine iconoclast. Raj Kapoor weeps too quickly at the sight of mother earth, and Dilip Kumar weeps too quickly, period. We are in total agreement on Waheeda Rehman, the most glorious creation of the Almighty in the history of civilisation, with some competition from Madhubala. Philipji not only teaches medieval Indian literature but also a course on contemporary Bollywood. Later on, during my lecture, I use the excuse of a wandering question to trace the history of Indian Muslims through the confidence levels of Muslims in the film industry. The proposition is tentatively titled '' The Guilt of Dilip Kumar'' who was christened Yusuf Khan but was forced to adopt this nom de plume in order to become acceptable at the box office. True, even Hindu stars took on screen-friendly aliases, but they did not have to change their ethnic associations. Mehmood and Waheeda Rehman were the first important stars to retain their original names. It is a tribute to changing India that the three Khans, Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukh, are not required to play hide-and-seek.

****

The secret is out. The future of the world may lie on a couch. John Kerry's resurrection is being attributed to two reasons. He brought in some sharp Clintonians into the upper echelons of his strategy team. And they brought in Sigmund Freud. The way to George Bush Junior's jugular vein is through his dad. All you have to do to destroy Junior's composure is to praise his father, particularly on Iraq. That is what Kerry did, at judiciously spaced intervals in the first debate, now uniformly acknowledged as an unequivocal victory for Kerry. Bush Junior, also nicknamed Bush Lite, hates being told that his father showed more sense during the earlier war against Saddam Hussein. Kerry rubbed that nerve with salt, pepper and chlli: ''You know the President's father did not go into Iraq.. beyond Basra.. he wrote in his book, because there was no visible exit strategy. And he said our troops would be occupiers in a bitterly hostile land. That's exactly where we find ourselves today. There's a sense of American occupation.''

It has been whispered that Junior was at least partially motivated in his Iraq adventure by the desire to be one-up on his father, who defeated Saddam but refused to pay the price that destruction of Saddam demanded. That whisper has become a shout.

Kerry brought up Father Bush in the second debate as well, although Son Bush was better prepared to handle the trap. He was under strict orders not to scowl, or appear like a petulant rich kid watching his toys being taken away. But his advisers forgot to tell him not to blink. He kept blinking whenever Kerry spoke in the debate, like a faulty but obstinate neon light. His spin doctors tried some post-debate repair work. One of them told CNN, for instance, that Bush was having so much fun during this debate that he kept winking. Good try, but no goal. You can't wink with both eyes.

Success or failure is determined in these debates as much by what you say as what you do not say. Bush was damaged severely by his scowl in Round One of the Great Presidential Heavyweight Championship. He could lose on blinking points in Round Two. He was, generally, more assured in this round. There was a sense that if he messed up again he would be out of the count and he did enough to stay in the race. But Kerry was in command, of the facts, of the language, of the dynamics of argument. Kerry, to return to Freud, was the son that Bush Senior might have wished to beget; patrician, patriotic, educated and balanced rather than merely gutsy, guttural and plain old lucky. This remains an election that Kerry can't win unless Bush loses it.

21st Century Media

North Korea, Iran defy US diktats

By B L Kak

At a time when most people in the world have drawn the right conclusion that nuclear terrorism has emerged as a terrifying new threat, North Korea and Iran have admitted that each is eager to acquire nuclear capability sooner than later. The United States in particular and the international community in general seemed convinced that these two countries would not easily abandon their respective plans to emerge as nuclear states.

The US President, George W Bush, has repeated, on several occasions in recent times, his vehement opposition to nuclear arms programmes on North Korea and Iran, although he has yet to produce any workable plans for doing so. The North Korean and Iranian nuclear programmes are at the top of America's agenda. But it is disingenuous to ignore the fact that 95 per cent of the nuclear bombs are in the hands of Russia and the United States.

India and Pakistan tested their nuclear bombs in 1998. North Korea is close, if not already there. And Iran is not very far behind. In the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and the Korean peninsula, an escalation of conventional conflict into nuclear war has to be treated as a realistic possibility. George W Bush once lumped Iran, Iraq and North Korea together as an "axis of evil". But his decision to invade Iraq limited the diplomatic and military tools left available to influence North Korea and Iran.

Both North Korea and Iran appear to have been taught by the Iraq experience that the best protection against a preemptive strike is a nuclear arsenal. The Iraq experience has opened doors for other troubles that trouble the Bush administration. Bush now wants to ask the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran. This will bear no fruit, as many Council members, including major European allies, are not ready to do so.

On North Korea, Washington has insisted on discussions including Russia, China, Japan and South Korea as well as North Korea and the US. These have made no discernible progress. With the talks stalled, North Korea has all the time it needs to reprocess its plutonium into several nuclear bombs. American media has, of late, begun circulating reports about how North Korea and Iran want to achieve nuclear capability. And if these reports were any indication, North Korea may already have assembled test devices, while Iran may soon have all the technology and raw materials needed to proceed.

Even as there are suggestions favouring substantial economic, diplomatic and security concessions from Washington and other Governments in exchange for a verifiable dismantling of their nuclear programmes, North Korea and Iran may not oblige opponents of their respective nuclear ambitions and programmes. The steady spread of these weapons also increases the risk of backdoor sales of nuclear technology, as the worldwide arms bazaar run by AQ Khan of Pakistan so chillingly demonstrated. This creeping proliferation makes it easier for terrorists to acquire materials and try to fashion usable unclear bombs.

The gentleman who fathered the nuclear option in Pakistan knew every detail about how the clandestine market in this highly classified field operates. In plain language, scientist AQ Khan sold himself to market forces. And it will be thoroughly juvenile to suggest that Pakistan intelligence knew nothing about the whole thing. The US has the means to determine the modus operandi of all such transactions. US Secretary of State, Colin Powell's stated resolve to find out more about the whole murky business sounds rather dubious. Even if he is sincere, the present Pakistan establishment will conveniently pass the buck and say that AQ Khan was an independent agent — a genius in post-retirement blues.

Pakistan is hiding behind a very sombre smoke screen — since scientist Khan is a national in his homeland, he should not be touched. The hypocrisy needs to be smashed. Nobody can be a 'hero' if he consciously becomes a 'villain'. Khan could not have operated the way he did if he did not have important moles in the establishment at his beck and call. Dubious transactions of this nature just need to be clandestine. But it will be considerably naive to conclude that the veil of secrecy cannot be breached. Both America and Pakistan owe it to the world to come clean on this entire transaction. Trying to save scientist Khan should never be part of the process. The idea should be to get the truth out of the intelligent old man.

Meanwhile, the US satellites are said to be focused on North more and Iran, both of which have seen America's preoccupation with Iraq as an opportunity to surge forward with their nuclear programmes. According to some American publications, the challenge is so serious that the CIA is circulating warnings that North Korea may conduct its first nuclear test before the Presidential election in America. And the Iranians recently defied the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by saying they were resuming the enrichment of uranium.

In Iran, it is not just the mullahs who want the country to have a nuclear option. Many of Iraq's reformers want one too. It is about not looking like a weakling in a neighbourhood of nuclear nations — Pakistan, India, China and Russia. The Israelis, on the other hand, have begun to make clear that when they think Iran has passed some 'red line', they may have to consider pre-emptive action of the kind they took against an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981. That leaves Washington caught between Israel's fears and Europe's insistence on avoiding confrontation.

Iran is known to have acquired the capacity to enrich uranium to weapon grade levels. The US and other countries that seek to enforce the global non-proliferation regime rely on two arguments to support their contention that the Iranian nuclear programme has a weapon orientation. First, they maintain that a country rich in petroleum resources does not really need alternative sources of energy. Second, they contend that if the intention and purpose of enrichment is peaceful, uranium needs to be enriched only to much lower levels than Iran is currently capable of.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has tried to strike a compromise but the attempt has not succeeded mainly because it is under American pressure to take a tough line. Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Iran is, therefore, entitled to external assistance for its civilian programme. However, with Washington imposing sanctions in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, such assistance has not been available. Iran relied on clandestine methods to sustain the programme until 1995, when Russia signed a contract to build reactors for the 1,000 MW Bushier power plant.

Will Iran wind up its enrichment programme by October 31? Perhaps not, if one were to take into account Tehran's signal to continue converting uranium yellow cake into gas.