(Please see two updates at the end of this post.)

‘Gotcha!’ That is the sound I hear in the Indian media and amongst patriotic fellow-Indians in response to the arrest of Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, an American citizen of Indian origin, by the Unites States Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Most analyses of the Fai arrest say it’s part of the ongojng tussle between the American CIA and the Pakistani ISI but some in India think it’s part of the American reward to India for opening up its nuclear energy and other markets to American corporations, thus creating jobs for Americans. This may have some truth in it, considering that the Americans asked their ambassador to take a flight to Srinagar four months ago to pat Omar Abdullah on the back for successfully presiding over the killing of 120 Kashmiris the previous summer, and for halting the killings when President Obama was in Delhi, so that the media attention on the President’s visit is not diluted. (And then Americans wonder why ‘Muslims hate us’). Continue reading The question we are not asking about Fai, Tramboo and Shawl →