Why did Mrs.Clinton fly down to Tamilnadu?
At first glance it is a celebration of women power and timing. Mrs.Clinton has walked the corridors of power for a long time, first as a first lady, and later emerged from the shadows of her husband and made a valiant fight to secure the democratic nomination with aspirations to become the president of the USA. She was close and if not for the freshness and charm of Mr.Barack Obama she would well have become the president. But thanks to the reconciliatory gesture of Mr. Obama, she earned the position of Secretary of state of USA.(Everyone remembers the verbal punch she delivered to Mr. Obama on national television by saying,”shame on you Obama”. That was at one stage of their acrimonious fight to secure the nomination)
Coming to our present story, she had to rush to New Delhi to push the case of F35 aircraft fighters. India built up enough courage to rebuff the F-16 offer by USA and short listing the Euro fighter Typhoon and France’s Rafale fighters. (Note that Italy is one of the countries that is building the Euro fighter) It was rebuff that was hard for the US to digest. So much so the the U.S. Ambassador to India, Timothy Roemer, resigned. So Ms .Clinton rushed in to offer the state of the art F35 stealth aircraft. She made her pitch, made noises asking India to stand up (in reference to China, which annoyed China, but it was more of a diplomatic threat asking India to go for F35).
We are just now coming to our main story. Why visit Tamilnadu? Why call on Ms.Jayalalitha? If it was only for acknowledging women power she could have visited Ms.Mamta Banerjee or Ms.Sheila Dikshit. To know the reasons one should rewind to the year 2002. The then US ambassador Mr.Blackwill came to visit Ms.Jayalalitha apparently to discuss the 35 million aid that US gave for AIDS. But it was widely rumored that he came acutally to “persuade” her to roll back the anti-conversion law. Incidentally it was around that period that the anti-coversion law in Tamilnadu was rolled back. There was lot of glee in Tamilnadu christian circles and matching gloom in Hindu circles at that time on this issue.
Fast forward to present. Continuing the strong belief that Ms.Jayalalitha would heed to US intervention Mrs.Clinton visit could have been triggered by a secret understanding between the pro christian TN lobby and their masters in US. Their objective would have been to calm down Ms.Jayalalitha so that she does not take any similiar steps on the line of the anti-conversion bill. Mrs.Clinton’s visit was preceded by this statement from Mr. George of the Global council of christians of India, to Ms.Jayalalitha,“We also wish to remind you about the assurances given by your good self in the Kanyaykumari Conclave, that you would stand by the welfare of the Christian community in Tamil Nadu, as a large number of of Christians are your admirers and have worked for the success of your party throughout the state.”
Does that sound like a request? It sounds more like a subtle threat. Would any group or organization make that kind of a statement to the Chief Minister of a state? He had the nerve to word it that way because he knows that he has the soft support of his “masters” That was outright impolite. If an Hindu mimic’s his tone then the statement would run like this, “Ms.Jayalalitha you have resorted to send armed guards against the peaceful and non-violent sage Shri.Sankaracharya. In spite of that the Brahmin community has voted you to power in your own constituency. We urge you to take note of our contribution and revert all the cases against the Sankaracharya the same way you repealed the anti-conversion law”
Mrs.Clinton’s clarified Hindu doubts by her next action. She visited the Kalashetra dance academy in Chennai apparently to enjoy Indian classical dance. Readers would be aware of the pent up soreness at the happenings at this prestigious assocation. Ms.Leela Sampson, is the Christian head of the Hindu cultural academy.Her attempts to dilute the Hindu essence is well known. Mrs.Clinton’s visit to this cultural center was her way of saying, “Calm down you Hindus! I know why I am here and you better know why I am here” It can also be an attempt to re-assure the evangelical machinery that they can continue their work without any imagined hurdles.
Ms.Jayalalitha is a smart politician. and the most important thing a politician needs is power. She gave a new version to the age old Hindu adage, “Yatha Raja thatha Praja” Her version said, “Yatha Praja thatha raja”
However most Hindus are very naive, and take things at face value.
Mrs.Clinton at the Kalashetra Dance Academy!
