There was a near violent and undignified spat between President Hamid Karzai and President General Parvez Musharraf at President Bush’s recent White House dinner over the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.
Now back in Kabul, President Karzai is still forcefully insisting that President Musharraf is hiding the truth and Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan. This report is published in a leading Pakistani paper The Dawn.
India has been warning the USA for more than a decade that Pakistan is a training gound for terrorists. Now even President Karzai of Afghanistan has joined this Indian chorus. How many more countries should shout from their rooftops before President Bush wakes up to the harsh reality?
President Karzai is a democratically elected Afghani leader and President Bush describes him as a close ally. But for George Bush even military dictator General Musharraf is a close ally and a friend.
So why is President Bush favouring President Musharraf’s version that Osama is not in Pakistan, and is silent about the claims made by the Afghan President?
Is there any truth in the assumption doing the rounds that there is a vested interest in keeping Osama alive and protected?
Why are the US and NATO forces being put at such risk in Afghanistan if Osama and his men are not the targets anymore? For that matter why continue destabilizing the most volatile regions in the world?
I wish someone would help clear this mystery.
I am reminded of Winston Churchill’s famous remark, made with his tongue firmly in his plump cheek: “Americans always try to do the right thing — after they’ve tried everything else.â€?
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.