Picture-perfect parliament greets Shinzo Abe

JYOTI MALHOTRA

New Delhi, August 22, 2007 : A picture-perfect parliament was on display today as Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe sketched the beginning of a long and beautiful relationship with India, but minutes later both houses were a study in contrast as angry lawmakers stalled proceedings with the demand that strict action be taken against India’s ambassador to the US Ronen Sen.
In a stirring speech in parliament, the Japanese PM paid tribute to Radhabinod Pal, the lone dissenting judge who refused to condemn the Japanese as war criminals during the Tokyo Trials after World War II.
Abe’s determination to meet Prashanto, Justice Pal’s 80-year-old son, in Calcutta tomorrow, comes in the wake of some criticism back home in Japan, with people accusing Abe of playing to the nationalist gallery.
But Abe, despite his minority PM status, has remained unfazed. Partly because his grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, was one of those accused by the Allied powers of being one such war criminal, and partly because Kishi and Radhabinod Pal were good friends.
As Hiroshige Seko, special adviser to Abe told The Telegraph, ``The Prime Minister is going to Calcutta because he likes the city and believes it to be especially friendly to Japan.’’
In the same spirit, he told parliamentarians today that the Japanese people had undergone a ``discovery of India’’ and begun to look upon India as a partner in freedom and prosperity.
This was only the second time in recent years that a foreign leader was being given the honour to address a joint session of Parliament. But unlike the time Bill Clinton had spoken in Central Hall in 2002, when parliamentarians had vied with each other to shake the erstwhile president’s hand, the 14th Lok Sabha was a picture of decorum.
The parliamentarians applauded at the right places, even gave Abe a standing ovation at the end of his speech. But that special excitement associated with the Clinton visit was simply missing.
As for Abe, he invoked the title of a book by Dara Shikoh in 1655 called the `Confluence of the Two Seas’, saying that the Pacific and Indian oceans which washed Japan and India were now engaging each other in a ``broader Asia.’’
Clearly, the reference was to a rising China next door, whose increasing defence expenditure a senior Japanese official described as being of ``considerable concern.’’
In fact there was no mention of China in Abe’s parliament speech. But it was littered with implicit comparisons in terms of freedom, democracy and human rights – as well as the need to protect shipping routes between the two countries for trade and commerce.
Abe also proposed a new initiative called ``Cool Earth 50,’’ which went beyond the Kyoto protocol by promising to cut global emissions of greenhouse gases by 50 per cent by 2050.
ENDS