The Rediff Special /Chitra Subramaniam

So stunning was Bhutta that no one dared ask her how she could make such accusations when in her country women were half human beings and where minorities were treated like dogs

In her latest book, India Is For Sale journalist Chitra Subramaniam recounts how politicians, bureaucrats and other assorted Indians sell the country down the drain even as they claim to protect our economic and political interests. In this extract from the undoubtedly hilarious but savage book, the award-winning journalist, better known for her work on the Bofors scandal, reveals how Kashmir was 'saved' in Geneva.

Bhutta had sent her crack diplomats and spies armed with Indian newspaper reports about police atrocities in Kashmir. Pakistani spies from their famed secret service organisation, the ISI, as discreet and efficient as India's own Research and Analysis Wing sleuths, cruised the halls of the UN in Geneva looking for other spies.

Overnight, the Serpentine bar outside the UNHRC, a large airport-like lounge with black chairs and glass-top tables, became a reference library for documents on the Indo-Pak conflict. It was here that the issue was debated till kingdom come by Kashmiris of all hues and denominations. The ISI was succeeding. Pakistan knew which button to press to make India jump. And India was jumping.

"Human rights," said Bhutta, "is a dirty word in India", to the thunderous applause of the UNHRC.

The situation was desperate. So stunning was the lady in blue and so sparkling were the diamonds on her fingers that no one dared ask the prime minister how she could make such accusations when in her own country women were half human beings and where minorities were treated like dogs. The UNHRC, like India and Pakistan, had no time for details. It had its own agenda. The Loin sent his golf kit back to India and vowed to double his efforts. That meant six minutes per day.

The resolution circulated by Pakistan hit India and its MEA between the eyes. For years, Indian diplomats's leitmotif was they didn't want to internationalise the Kashmir question. Yet, it is no secret that till recently-- and even now--the MEA had been driven by a single point agenda called Pakistan. At the UNHRC, the tail was wagging the dog.

As Pakistan mobilised support for itself, India dug its head deeper into the ground. "We will not stoop to their level," the Indians stressed, but did just that. New Delhi pressed panic buttons in Indian embassies all over the world and anybody who could spell Kashmir was dispatched to Geneva to be on standby with a mobile telephone in hand.

Most of them did just that. They stood by and spoke to their friends and relatives all over the world at Rs 400 per minute phone calls to say they were saving Kashmir in Geneva.

The former said the UNHRC was a political forum that did not discuss human rights and that India should not make matters worse by playing Pakistan's game. They also claimed that the UNHRC was an annual mud-slinging forum where the more you shout and shake, the more you were allowed to shout and shake and that Pakistan should be given a long rope with which to do the needful.

Taking on Pakistan at the UNHRC on Pakistan's terms meant stooping to levels that would, in the end, demean all that India had stood for. The reasonable diplomats hastened to clarify that India was a democracy where people voted once every five years, where the press brought governments down and where the judiciary was relatively free. It could have been pointed out that Pakistan was using Indian press reports to back its case suggesting that Indian security forces literally had the Indian and foreign press at their heels.

The voice of reason wanted India to say in Geneva that indeed there had been human rights violations in Kashmir, but these were aberrations which were in no way condoned by the State (this was eventually said two years later). That, said the voice of reason, would have taken the wind out of Pakistan's sails. In fact, some people even went to the extent of saying India should co-sponsor Pakistan's resolution and call Bhutta's bluff. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that if a fact-finding mission was sent to both countries, India would emerge the victor.

Illustrations: Dominic Xavier

Excerpted from India Is For Sale, by Chitra Subramaniam, UBS, 1997, Rs 250, with the publisher's permission. Readers who wish to buy a copy of the book may direct their inquiries to Mr H S Sethi, UBS, Apeejay Chambers, Wallace Street, Fort, Bombay 400 001.

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