But, what's of particular interest at this juncture is the absolutely wonderful job being done by our Government. So you ask, surely you are joking? Actually we are.

Consider this, this sarkar has almost managed to completely undo what several decades of carefully laboured diplomatic effort and statesmanship have attempted to lay a solid foundation for.

Point One concerns the well-enunciated stand that Kashmir is, and will remain a bilateral issue. There's no way that the country will allow outside interference. The United Nations understands that, even the Yanks appear to do so. And that made the Pakistanis just that much more desperate to internationalise the issue.

Now the situation has suddenly altered. For the worse. Given the likes of Madeline Albright a handle and she'll wrench the entire machinery. That's what happening here. First, the PM's factotum-in-chief Brajesh Mishra traipses over to cajole a couple of kind words out of the G-8 nations and also meets with the US National Security Advisor Sandy Berger (his name sounds icky, like the US policy towards Pakistan).

And then salivates over a G-8 statement that revels in ambiguity and appears to be a forewarning of taking a serious look at Kashmir.

In the process, the logical analysis, goes, the Government has virtually given up its claim to keeping the Kashmir issue within the borders of the two concerned nations. It's okay now that the US is busy with Kosovo. But even as that crisis seems to be blowing over, Baghdad's became the focus of attention again. And when another White House intern does her bit, perhaps Bill will train his guns upon Kashmir.

That's not too far fetched. After all, the Vajpayee Government, for all its flatulent talk of swadeshi, has been tripping on its own toes trying to suck up to the Americans. Thereby, what they have actually achieved, is to have provided what amounts to an open invitation to the US to ``mediate'' (a more polite synonym for ``interfere'') in Kashmir. They never learn.

Remember what happened last time? After testing the nuclear devices, Vajpayee immediately shot off a simpering letter to Clinton. In that letter, our Prime Minister stated that the real cause of anxiety for India was China with its arsenal of nukes.

Unfortunately, that was right before Clinton was to head off for Beijing for some major slant-eye ass-kissing and perhaps some more campaign donations. So there it was, in all its embarrassing wordage, Vajpayee's pathetic missive emblazoned in the New York Times.

Now, our foreign policy-makers have apparently promised the White House a comprehensive, detailed note about India's objectives vis-à-vis the present imbroglio. So, what that means, is that the readers of the NYT will get an idea of Indian policy (if it actually exists) before say the Rajya Sabha does, since the Government refuses to accept demands for convening of the House for a debate over a matter that is really of national significance. And one that cannot be left to a single conglomeration of parties to take decisions over.

Talking over ``Enemy Number One", China, in George Fernandes' immortal words, that no longer seems to be the Indian case. While the RSS speaks nuking Pakistan, Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh, he of the impeccable accent, hotfoots it to Beijing to try and get Chinese support for India's position on Kashmir. Wow!! Can they be this naïve?

Days after that publicised trip, the Chinkies invite Nawaz Sharif to visit. Does that say anything about the diplomatic acumen of this sarkar?

On the same subject, these guys appear to have conveniently forgotten that China is still sitting on kilometres of Indian territory, including parts of Kashmir that it has either forcibly acquired or gotten from the Pakis in exchange for ready-to-assemble nukes. That portion, by the way, is imaginatively known as the Line of Actual Control.

Not only that, China still claims Arunachal Pradesh as its own. In 1998, when then AP Chief Minister Gegong Apang was to visit China as part of an official delegation, the Chinks nixed it. According to them, there was a problem there. How could they give a visa to someone who was from part of their own country!!!