What's this?! You mean to say there are people out there with brown skin and different accents that like Howard? Dont' they all support the ALP because of their apologetic softness? Dont they feel Labor's solidarity against everything WASPish?
It would seem not because if this report in the OZ about what one of India's most influential foreign affairs pundits, Brahma Chellaney, has to say is true then there are some people against whom we play cricket that hate Rudd's guts.
The Indians are of course pissed off because Labor refuses to sell Uranium to them because they are not signatories to the Nuclear Non-proliferation treaty. They have nukes. Then again so does China, and we sell to them.
[quotes in italics]
Mr Chellaney noted that Mr Rudd was the free world's first Mandarin-speaking head of government, saying he "has made plain his intent to cosy up to the world's largest autocracy, China, while nullifying an important decision that his predecessor took to help build a closer rapport with the world's largest democracy."
Chellaney lashes Rudd's stance on the NPT.
"In touting its ideological resolve to uphold the NPT, the Rudd Government wants to be more Catholic than the Pope. Far from the NPT forbidding civil exports to a non-signatory, the treaty indeed encourages the peaceful use of nuclear technology among all states.
And how's this for being diplomatic?
The Indian Government was irked when, in January, it sent special prime ministerial envoy Shyam Saran to see Foreign Minister Stephen Smith in Perth and found itself being bluntly told - even though it had not asked - there would be no sale of Australian uranium to India.
Indian sources insist Mr Saran was taken aback by the minister's forthright stance as he had gone to Perth only to brief Mr Smith on New Delhi's negotiations with Washington over its civilian nuclear deal and specifically not to ask to buy Australian uranium.
Apparently shadow foreign minister Andrew Robb has said the Government's handling of the relationship with India had been "clumsy". More like downright provocative, as with the Japan and the whaling. Rudd is either stupid or deliberately annoying China's regional competators.
But we all know Rudd is on trainier wheels. They are learning and the Japan case is one example. They wanted to send the Navy to confront the Japanese ships. In the end they hired a p&O vessel of something. Friends of mine think the Navy refused to provoke their allies, and refused to be reduced to the level of spies, and Rudd backed down.
This goes to show how much power opposition forces can wield. The tyranny of the majority can and should be checked. All interests in the community need to state our cases cleary even if we are not represented by those in power. Rudd is shitscared of getting things wrong. Rudd is still me-tooing Howard.
Let the Indian community in Australia stand up and be counted. C'mon guys. We know you've got nuts. You beat us at the SCG last night. Let's hear it for the worlds largest democracy. Forget the Andrew Symonds nonsense. All the Asia pacific democracies are our mates, US and Japan included.
