Three to Tango- Betwa Sharma
He wasn't a "good Muslim." So, the Iranian state-run television channel rejected Massud Imani. The journalist then applied to the United States for media studies. The US embassy in Turkey found him "too Muslim" and rejected his visa application. Imani, 36, enrolled at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and has lived in Delhi for almost ten years. "India accepted me," he says. "We (Iranians) love India like a second mother."
Imani's story is a prelude to India's dilemma of making new friends and keeping old ones. The budding "strategic relations" between India and the US have stifled the "civilizational ties" shared by India and Iran. New Delhi opposes Tehran's nuclear program, and the Iran-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline remains nestled in uncertainty.
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In June, Iran will hold its presidential elections. Now, with President Barack Obama's offer of "engagement" presenting a historic opportunity for ending three decades of antagonism, will the new Iranian president unclench a fist? India, too, will profit from a cessation of hostilities.
Today, 70 percent of Iranians are under 30. They endure student arrests, closure of newspapers, filtering of websites, dismal human rights and moral policing. Still, the veterans of the revolution jealously guard the bastions of power. Pant says that the cry for change are the "the cat paws put by the West to destabilize Iran."
The new-age Iranians will vote, not for radical change, but a stab at normalcy- freedom of speech, student movements, art, culture, fashion and a night-life. If a liberal wins, Kara Abdolmaleki, an English teacher in Tehran, predicts, "We can march and curse the supreme leader again. The energy to revolt will be in the air again."
Imani's story is a prelude to India's dilemma of making new friends and keeping old ones. The budding "strategic relations" between India and the US have stifled the "civilizational ties" shared by India and Iran. New Delhi opposes Tehran's nuclear program, and the Iran-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline remains nestled in uncertainty.
***
In June, Iran will hold its presidential elections. Now, with President Barack Obama's offer of "engagement" presenting a historic opportunity for ending three decades of antagonism, will the new Iranian president unclench a fist? India, too, will profit from a cessation of hostilities.
Today, 70 percent of Iranians are under 30. They endure student arrests, closure of newspapers, filtering of websites, dismal human rights and moral policing. Still, the veterans of the revolution jealously guard the bastions of power. Pant says that the cry for change are the "the cat paws put by the West to destabilize Iran."
The new-age Iranians will vote, not for radical change, but a stab at normalcy- freedom of speech, student movements, art, culture, fashion and a night-life. If a liberal wins, Kara Abdolmaleki, an English teacher in Tehran, predicts, "We can march and curse the supreme leader again. The energy to revolt will be in the air again."
posted by temporal at 3/08/2009
1 Comments:
What's wrong with these fellows? Iranian, Afghan communities in India and Bangladeshis pouring in by the millions and Ahmadis burning their passports so that they are not repatriated back to their "land of pure".
Haven't they heard of Gujrat, for God's sake?
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