Shri Sharad Pawar's missive to the Congress President earlier this month is absurd, illogical, mendacious and clearly reflects his inability to think coherently. His main grouse is that Sonia was born in another country and therefore unfit to hold the offices of President, Prime Minister, and Vice President of India. His letter cited unspecified ``security'' reasons why no foreign-born person should hold such posts.

A fortnight after the letter bomb, he has not been able to furnish even one reason, even a poor one, how the security of the nation would be compromised in that eventuality. In Sharad Pawar's view, as of May 15, 1999, foreign-born persons could hold the posts of say, the Defence Minister, the Foreign Minister, or the Home Minister. It is another matter entirely that Sharad Pawar seemed extraordinarily reluctant to attack George Fernandes over the sacking of Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat. It is the same George Fernandes who is now in the process of extending all courtesies

normally reserved for State visits, protocolwise, to the aggressors in Kargil, including safe passage, and perhaps a layover in his Krishna Menon Marg residence after their tour of duty where they could exchange notes with fellow-travellers from other parts of the subcontinent.

The two matters are interrelated. In other words as our troops are busy laying down their lives in the front, George is busy handing out certificates of good conduct to the very persons who command the aggressors, viz., the ISI, the Pakistan Army, and Nawaz Sharif. In other words if we are to follow the logic of two common rules of the thumb things will be clearer. The first: Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you more about yourself otherwise (birds of a feather etc etc etc. we invite readers' suggestions as well).

The second one is A friend of an enemy cannot axiomatically be your friend as well. George Fernandes' friendly gestures to the enemy is confusing our jawans on the front, not to mention Indians who are citizens by birth and readers of Jaal as well. And George Fernandes, dear Jaal readers, is no foreigner even though his ways as Defence Minister are foreign in approach, implementation and culture in terms of the norm of expected behaviour. The expected behaviour of the Defence minister is to lead his men by example, not to stab them in the back. He was not born in foreign soil, and yet Jaal is yet to come across anybody who is prepared to risk declaring with the necessary explanatory notes, how George's words and deeds are consistent with that of a true son of the soil.

Isn't it strange, in a time pregnant with the possibility of competitive patriotism, how Sharad Pawar, a former Defence Minister to boot, maintains an inelegant and mystifying silence on the Kargil incidents? There is plausible reason to believe bonds between Sharad Pawar and George Fernandes run deeper than is now suspected. There can be no argument that the Government was tardy in reacting to events at Kargil. However, it may not have been as tardy in waking up to the situation. This is an important distinction, considering that they could have launched a muscular military offensive in Kargil at least a full week earlier than it did.

In the absence of the full facts before the readers of Jaal, it is reasonable to conclude that they did not do so for fear of driving the Congress controversy expressly generated by Sharad Pawar's unconstitutional stance, off the front pages and the prime time slots. His silence on Kargil must be seen in this context alone.

Pawar's son of the soil theory is load of bovine male nightsoil, bukwaas. Jaal would like to put the question to Pawar's loyalists, the sweaty masses toiling below the poverty level, the middle classes who send their children in search of greencard pastures, the generation X-ers whose dils mange more and more Pepsi instead of nimbu paani. The question: If they had a choice over a place of birth where would they rather they were born: India or Italy? Jaal is convinced that the other country they may not want to be born is may include Finland.

Twist in the tale: Isn't it amazing that those `infiltrators' who are dying on Indian soil in Kargil on behalf of Pakistan were not born in Pakistan but elsewhere in Afghanistan and Sudan? Any comments, Pawarji?