Isn’t it amazing how quickly our political masters change colours? A stand that they had opposed when in Opposition, they support when in power and vice versa. It doesn’t help either that their staunch defenders in the media spit and run when confronted with reality.

Nutwar Singh, the Foreign Minister now wants to send Indian troops to Iraq in view of the recent resolution passed on Iraq. While in Opposition, his party had vehemently opposed even the slightest hint of India sending its troops to help the US in Iraq. “Sucking up to the Imperial US,” “Helping Empire,” and “Messing in the Iraq Quagmire,” were some of the phrases they employed to chide the Vajpayee government back then.

The situation is different now, of course. The US wants to withdraw in a phased manner (now that Iraq is in a total mess). Going by India’s earlier neutral stand–don’t bother us with your Iraqi Experiment, we’re neither with you nor against you–it is sensible to let things as they remain. However, what gives Nutwar’s new-found interest to put his foot in the infamous Iraqi Quagmire? The clue to the answer may lie here:

There is a resolution unanimously passed in the United Nations and there are Arab members in it.

So what do the Arabs say about this? They’re obviously thrilled at the prospect of having Iraq all to themselves, to work their fundamentalist designs on it, without US interference. Increasing violence, kidnappings and Kurdish separatism only help their cause. Time will tell the truth, but my guess is that Iraq will go the Iran way aka the Fundamentalist way. It is hard for the people not to be swept away by the voices that will soon beckon them to adopt the Islamic, jihadi way of life. Not to mention the likes of Saudi Arabia that till date, has kept alive the Palestine scourge, egging them on against Israel. However, when homeless Palestinians seek shelter in the land of their Islamic brethren, the Saudis say No. I may be off the mark in deducing all these but what the hell…

The fact is the reaction from the Arab world is very studied if not muted. Apart from Iran, no other major country has anything significant–apart from nodding their collective assent–to say about the resolution. However, the fact that Arabic nations were present when the resolution was passed, sends thrills of pleasure down Nutwar’s spine. So if the Arabic High Council has supported the UN Resolution, so should India, is it?

Sigh! There we go again, appeasing the Mullahs and the Sheikhs who seem to have a magic remote control over the Congress worthies in India. This is Nutwar’s desperate bid to regain (in futility) the confidence of the Arabic nations that had eroded thanks to the NDA’s tryst with Israel. At the same time, this can also be viewed as lending support to the US, because the US still needs to maintain armed presence until complete sovereignty is restored in Iraq. To that extent, Nutwar’s statement may seem to have a semblance of sanity.

But wait, Nutwar can’t make such statements without the consent of his party’s most prized ally, the Red. Here’s what they have to say:

• CPM rejects Natwar’s stand on Iraq troops

and

• Troops to Iraq: CPM seeks clarification

Whatever labels you may use to deride the Left, you should credit them with one distinction: they’re consistent in their lunacy of opposing everything: sensible or no. They consistently see a Gigantic Capitalist Fraud in everything, and the perpetrators of this fraud is always America.

External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh’s remarks that India will reconsider sending troops to Iraq drew a sharp reaction from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Friday. [...] The government must make it clear that there is no question of sending Indian troops to Iraq to bolster the American occupation

Poor Nutwar…