This was a 'requested' blogpost.
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We have discussed that England should have dropped a letter by post to Antara, around 2003, as a member of any of the investigative committees on Iraq.
It would seem that England had been given a scare, maybe from within India, Antara probably received the same scare, from multiple sources, "too fond of the British legacy in India, weren't we, quite forgetting British complicity in the Nazi Holocaust, wish all of us were equally familiar with the British, given the help they provide to Washington DC."
If such obvious scaremongering took place within democratic societies (both England and India were democracies), then Antara's situation in life would worsen, she'd find it difficult to enjoy the freedom of movement available to all citizens or even the right to save some money in her personal bank account.
Would Ajit and Anjali be able to hide behind the veneer of their CPI politics to explain their apathy or lack of worry about Antara's future? Did they try the US Marine Corps, if it would take Antara on as a reservist? Their CPI politics wouldn't have come in the way, everyone knew that Moscow wouldn't object if Antara stayed in India but had a reservist status within the US Marine Corps.
As it happened, Anjali had suggested something similar during the First Gulf War/Operation Desert Storm (1990-91), whether Antara (then in Class 6) would be part of the war effort. It sounded to Antara like a joke, maybe Anjali hinted at arranging a reservist status for her over the next few years, it would protect her from the likes of Chetla and the Alamo Girl?
"You'd be in Class 12 when your father retired, you'd just be 17 years old, he won't see you through college," Anjali kept telling Antara all her life. Enlisting Antara at 17, who or what would have been bothered by such a move?
Ajit was likely to be the person bothered by such a move. On Iraq, he seemed to owe more to his mother (who had passed away in 1946) than to the daughters who'd have to live through decade after decade of ceaseless CPUSA terror.
Influential Indians would argue on Ajit's behalf. "Surely he knew more about the Morgans than other Indian families. Indians thought that if you secured yourself to the Morgans, then the US Navy and the White House in DC would always support you."
To punish such Indians, the Military Sealift episode of 2012 upended the US Navy while only those that raged against the Morgans were allowed into the White House since 2012.
Good work Ajit, you showed gratitude for your mother's brief existence and thereby kept the Morgan-haters permanently established within the White House and its surroundings!
ii. What was bothering you, Ajit might ask Antara. That no one was appreciative of how clever you were, Antara the intellectual blog-writer? That there was no one to protect you from the Curzon-Gates assertions when those came from the Today Group in Noida? That the Agency failed Indians when they needed it the most? Whether militaries had any morality, any responsibility at all or did they just rush towards anything in uniform?
What was bothering us Ajit was Henry Kissinger's activities within BT's House in 1998 and how it hurt IAEA or any other globally mandated weapons inspection regime. What was bothering us was Jadavpur University's 2002 Convocation speech, what had made Antara furious (she was the Class of 2002, graduated with a first class as Master of Arts) but a speech you had thoroughly enjoyed.
"Why, I liked it, it was highly topical, about wars and weaponry and how Science and Technology could help." Ajit, seated among the audience at Jadavpur, Kolkata, December 2002, who didn't enlist Antara as a reservist.
Why would you want a world, Ajit, where weapons inspectors were reduced in stature but weapons-makers were the most important interest group? A world where Antara enjoyed no protection at all?
Had there been NS Road-Gupta meetings where females had not been allowed?
August 9, 2025
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