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Tony
Blair the prime minister of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland steps down to make way to his successor. Tony Blair was the focus of
contempt and hatred of the world community for joining hands with Bush in
attacking Iraq. This one act had diminished his reputation for smart
judgment on issues. Though he made a couple of mistakes such as the Iraqi
issue he surely can boast of some achievements.
Northern Ireland is Blair’s greatest success. He not only ensured that the
two sides agreed to a ceasefire but also succeeded in bringing Irish
Republican Army (IRA), which had the reputation as one of the most dangerous
terrorist organization in the world, to the mainstream.
Tony Blair was confident that he could solve the Ireland problem once he got
the power and he did it to a great extend. This success will remain the
milestone of his career as his predecessors had no guts to dare to risk the
sentiment in Britain especially as IRA had made an daring attempt on
Margaret Thatcher’s life. But Blair had the conviction to move on his
selected path.
He maintained a good ally with Bill Clinton, who had Irish roots and they
together were successful in persuading the IRA to stop their activities.
Blair winning his second term was a vindication of such daring policies he
took. Peace in Northern Ireland has made UK more prosperous, cohesive, and
globalised country. Though the Indo-Britain relationship was not smooth of
Blair regime, when we take the whole picture India enjoyed his friendship to
a great extend.
Blair came to
power when India was not much interested in building bonds with the country
and in fact the Prime Minister I.K.Gujaral had described Britain as a
third-rate power. It was when Blair had entered into his second year that
India declared itself a Nuclear Weapon State and Blair’s first foreign
minister Robin cook was very critical of India. But overall Blair was
friendly with us.
Today it is a two-way relationship where Indian investors are on an
investment spree in the UK and British companies are also flocking to set
their offices in India. Not only the corporate houses, the Law Society in
London is knocking on New Delhi's doors to allow UK companies to set up
offices in India and in turn they are inviting Indian giants to the world’s
financial capital.
Blair had sent troops to prevent the ethnic conflicts in former Yugoslavia
and was an enthusiastic partner in the war in Afghanistan which was actually
headed by the US against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. These interventions
earned him great reputation. But things went wrong when he joined hands with
Bush in the Iraq restructuring (or is it destruction?).
The world is angry that he defied the popular sentiment to stop the
intervention and had done nothing to bring back the soldiers from Iraq.
Ignoring this ‘one’ unfortunate fact, Blair was in fact a successful leader.
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Girish Raghavan for CalicutNet.com |
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