Enter The Dragon

Delhi did not see it coming.

I have been on record suggesting King Gyanendra is perhaps the Michael Corleone of his family, not the eldest brother, but perhaps the smartest. This was one of those moments when I relived that comment.

I disagree with him fundamentally. I see him as an ideological opponent. But that does not make him dumb. Krishna admired Karna, though he still edged Arjun to fight him.

This was a big rabbit that came out of the hat.

Now that the rabbit is out, how do I feel?

I am also on record suggesting the 19th century was Britain's, the 20th was America's, the 21st is to be Asia's. I am very much for China. I have a very healthy perception of Chinese possibilities. And in US politics the Chinese and the Indians truly are comrades in arms, part of the same racial rainbow coalition. I make it a point to take offense on behalf of the Chinese Americans.

Do I want China to gain some kind of a status within SAARC? I want to go beyond that. I want China to become a full member. I want SAARC to fundamentally revise its charter. I want SAARC to grow to become something called an AU, Asian Union, with its headquarters in Nepal's capital.

China and India are not enemies. There has to be a healthy sibling rivalry between them for economic growth.

The Chinese have no evil designs upon India either. India has nothing to fear but its own poverty and illiteracy and weak infrastructure.

So I say, welcome China.

The Himalayas are the most beautiful mountains in the world. But so far they have been thought of as the Great Wall of economic bifurcation. That can change. That has to change. Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet: all of them could be bathed in wireless broadband, the modern day highway. There is the economy of the body, and then there is the economy of the mind.

High speed railroads could be crisscrossing all over the Himalayas.

The future is now. That future has to be imagined.

The race is not to increase your sphere of influence at the cost of your neighbor. The race is to expand the per capita income of the people in all countries in the region. The rules of geopolitics have changed: they are not military, they are economic. You don't fight for territory, you fight for market share, you fight to expand the market. If done right, everybody wins. The pie can grow, the pie can be made to grow.

China could learn democracy from India. India could learn economic stewardship from China. Both could learn plenty from history.

This SAARC stunt also proves another point that I have made at this very blog before: the Chinese are pragmatic to a fault. While Delhi was engaged in vague ideological debates on Nepal over months, the Chinese had quietly been working to pull this stunt.

If the Chinese were in power in Delhi, they would have provided concrete logistical support to the seven party coalition to wage a decisive democracy movement and be done with in a month or two. The Chinese would have openly facilitated dialogue between the top Maoists and the top Nepali Democrats. They would have organized an open summit. They would not have been interested in hide and seek.

Indians could learn. And it is not too late still. At this blog I have offered the details of the kind of logistical support that could be extended. Get into the act.