Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's decision to skip the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Australia deprives India of an opportunity to push its views on terrorism and the current border tension with Pakistan at the highest level to the largest gathering of its kind. Vajpayee, who was scheduled to leave for Australia on Thursday but decided to cancel the visit following the outbreak of communal violence in Gujarat, was to emphasise in his address the need for a collective response by the Commonwealth to the problem of international terrorism. Though External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh would represent India in the absence of the prime minister and convey India's sentiments, the presence of the prime minister at the meeting would have had a much bigger impact, diplomatic observers said.
If I was a real conspiracy theorist, I'd opine that the Council of Boskone/Ernst Stavro Blofeld/Professor Moriarty had ordered the riots up this week just to keep the PM at home. Perhaps there should be references to a Grassy Knoll in here, but the rioting otherwise appears pointless. Even in the Mysterious East, people only do things for a reason, even if the reasons are sometimes skewed. |