Today as I was watching BBC news, I was shocked to see shoes being hurled at US president George Bush at a press conference in Iraq. Though I am not a big fan of “Bush Doctrine” it was outrageous to see the “President of world’s oldest democracy” and “Leader of the free World” dodging shoes hurled at him in an open press conference. After an initial shock I tried to recollect whether any other world leader suffered similar humiliation in a foreign land. All of a sudden an event closer home flashed in my mind. Yes, the clubbing of then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by a Sri Lankan navy honor guardsman at Colombo in 1987.

At the moment, “Muntadar al-Zaidi”, Iraqi T.V. journalist yelling and hurling shoes at US president will be making headlines in news channels across the world. But how many remember similar fate suffered by our then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in Colombo, Sri Lanka some 21 years ago? So a recap of events happened on July 30, 1987 at Colombo.

July 29, 1987 - the “Indo-Sri Lanka accord” was signed. This was opposed by both sides of the civil war torn island nation. Both the “Tamil” and “Sinhalese” extremists were against this pact, the latter in particular were more vocal.

July 30 1987 - the immediate next day, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was inspecting a Guard of Honor. All of a sudden a young Sri Lankan honor guardsman - “Wijayamunige Rohana” clubbed the Indian Prime Minister. But Rajiv was lucky enough to duck and fend off the blow. Thank God, “Rajiv Gandhi” – “Prime Minister of world’s largest democracy” was physically unharmed; the event broadcasted to the world “Indo-Sri Lanka accord” is not as rosy as it was presented.

So what went wrong for “US President” in “Iraq-2008″ and “Indian PM” in “Sri Lanka-1987″? Failure to read the mood of the nations they decided to intervene. Their intelligence agencies with “Super Power” ego had the tendency of urging their political bosses to intervene to be hailed as “liberators”. But often these intelligence agencies prove to be “COUNTER” yes “COUNTER” intelligence. They will be very poor in reading the prevailing mind set of the people. This we saw in “Indo-Sri Lanka accord” where “Indian Government” and “Sri Lankan government” signed a treaty to end the ethnic conflict ignoring the “Tamil extremists” the actual party involved in the conflict. Almost similar scenario is witnessed now in Iraq, where as “Barack Obama” rightly pointed out “US forces” does not know a role to play in the fighting as there is a civil war going on in that country between “Shia-Sunni religious ethnicities”.

Let us hope in future the world leaders learn from these incidents and take much more measured steps to avoid these embarrassments.

update(09/15/2009):- “Muntadar al-Zaidi” had been released from Iraqi prison. Good to see Iraq functioning as a democracy.

We met a friend from Pondicherry, India and were discussing about politics of that Indian Union Territory. We were talking about Pondicherry’s far flung territories which are unique to this former French colony.  The union territory of Pondicherry has its territories across South Indian states – “Yenam” in “Andhra Pradesh”, “Mahe” in “Kerala” and “Karaikal” – “Tamil Nadu”.

Later on searching more on this, we came across few interesting facts about “Mahe”.

We found many places named “Mahe” across the globe,
 - Mahe, A town in the Union Territory of Pondicherry, India.
 - Mahe, The largest island of Seychelles.
 - Mahembourg(Mauritius) - The capital of Grand Port district, Mauritius.

On closer scrutiny we found most of them were former French colonies. So why so many places in former French colonies were named “Mahe”?

Reason is, to honor a man called, “Betrand-Francois Mahe de La Bourdonnais”. This man served as a soldier and administrator in the “French East India Company” during the early eighteenth century. He is well known for his battle field exploits during Anglo-French conflicts in the Indian sub continent and also as an able administrator of “Mauritius” and “Reunion” during colonial period. So to honor his service all these places were named after him.

Surprisingly, though there are many European colonists like “Robert Clive” of “Great Britian”(who brought total India under British control) and “Hernan Cortes” of Spain (who brought South American continent under Spanish crown), no one has achieved the distinction of having so many places named after them as
“Betrand-Francois Mahe de La Bourdonnais” did.

Few more interesting facts,
- Mahe, India is the birth place of “Sixth Sense” fame Hollywood director
“Manoj Shyamalan”.
- There is a controversy in Kerala, India on whether
“Betrand-Francois Mahe de La Bourdonnais” actually gave his name to the place “Mahe” or he had adopted the original name of the place “Mahe”(“Mayaazhi” in “Malayalam language”) as a part of his name and popularized it.

If readers have any additional details on “Mahe” please post your comments.