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        This year has the distinction of having been traumatised unnecessarily. That is true of most of the recent events abroad and at home. The blot in world history was engineered by a civilised savage who sought to serve his own ends by removing from the world his bete noir Saddam Hussein. It was the vendetta of a savage which stirred civil war that killed 3,000 American troops and injured 10,000 others besides decimating 1,00,000 innocent Iraqi civilians.

        The worst part of it was that the US endorsed Shia-Sunni divide like colonial rulers of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The war rooted in unconscionable falsehood exposed the savage logic of might prevailing over right. While it made Iraq an unfit place to live, it also released the centrifugal pulls of dissent in Arab world which indirectly served reinforce America's confidence that Arabs would not stand shoulder to shoulder to retaliate for the murder of an Arab supremo. Instead, they would be passive witnesses of American conspiracy to redraw the map of the Middle East.

        The opposition to Bush's Iraq policy cannot be trusted to alter this major consequence because there is a hegemon latent in American leaders cutting across party lines.

        As an essential move under India's 'Look East' policy, Manmohan Singh is trying to sell to the ASEAN the idea of a Free Trade Area. The point made by him is that ASEAN has 30 per cent share in India's global trade and the hope is that this volume would vindicate expectations of its growing to $30 billion, the target set for 2007.

        On close scrutiny, this seems to be too optimistic an estimate. Over the last two years, New Delhi has been trying to win ASEAN's support to the free trade area idea. The hitch is the 80 per cent duty imposed on imports of palm oil. Which falsifies India's claim about having brought down its import tariff to levels prevailing in ASEAN markets. India's excuse is that any reduction would have adverse effects on the prices not only of palm oil but other oils such as mustard oil which would be detrimental to domestic producers and would surely be resisted.

        Likewise the idea of forming a consortium for the sale of identical exports for eliminating internecine competition among Asian producers has not clicked. The idea of an Indo-Sri Lanka consortium for tea exports has been stalled because the stakes of the two countries are different. Sri Lanka exports the bulk of its tea production which accounts for a sizable share of its total export earnings while the proportion in India's case is much smaller.

        In another area of foreign policy, the Indo-US nuclear deal, the loss of Republicans in the recent polls weakens Bush's position which would mean much more when there is a change of administration. In this sense, the deal is badly timed. And this apart from the many reservations clouding the complexion of the agreement. India has conducted two nuclear tests and it has been able to take in stride the economic sanctions caused by it.

        The fact that the nuclear option would not be taken against a nation having its own bomb should not also be ignored. Also if uranium is not available, India should think of using its vast deposits of thorium. Unfortunately India has a Prime minister with a far too soft corner for the US.

        On the domestic front, the Singur controversy has helped expose the fact that, while subsidies are intended to be abolished as warranted by economic reforms, the West Bengal government acts like the real estate agent of a multi-national subsidising sale. It is humming and hawing over demands for offering to farmers the market value of the holdings to be taken away from them. This is the beginning of the emergence of many flash points in the farm sector. The irrationality of it is that plenty of non-cultivable land is available which can be sold to industries.