Sohail Rahman

Clinton's diplomatic masterstroke in India

Was it just easier for Hillary Clinton to visit West Bengal in India on her way from the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka or was there more to this visit than just seeing the former British Colonial capital Kolkatta.

Meeting the state's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was a masterstroke in diplomacy and economic necessity. Two strong women who’ve risen up through the ranks of politics over a long period of time and are making their mark domestically and internationally.

Clintons visit wasn’t so much an opportunity to swap notes with a political sister. It was a chance to meet the woman who routed the communists after their thirty five years of rule in a state thought of as never to welcoming change.

Change did occur a year ago and Mamata, 57 who spent years fighting for her vision, finally took power as the victor in regional state elections.

She aligns herself with the ruling Congress party in the coalition UPA government.

No end in sight

It's the third day of the Hajj and back in Mina, a day after finishing our live broadcasts at Arafat - the site of where the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) gave his last sermon.

We stayed in the very adequate surroundings of a converted corrugated iron shed. The cows would have loved it! Sarcasm aside, the Saudis have looked after the media very well, we’ve been chauffeured in buses and coaches from location to location with relatively little hassle.

It’s been a God-send, or should I say, Allah-send. Seeing how the pilgrims have to travel by foot the few kilometers to Muzdalifah, another sacred site overnight, I’m counting my lucky stars I’m on a coach with a toilet.

Return to Mecca

Arriving in the late evening into Mecca was not plain sailing. Though I am part of a large media outfit, even being with Al Jazeera holds little sway with the police when they see you wearing the two-piece white sheets – ihram.

It’s a complicated catch-22 situation. To arrive in Mecca, in fact in Saudi during the Hajj month you have to state your intention religiously, so you wear your ihram as you fly into Jeddah.

However, we were not performing the Hajj as we’re guests of the Ministry of Information covering Hajj for the channel, so theoretically one might say you shouldn’t wear the ihram.

The problem arises when the police who patrol the toll plaza as you enter the city see who you are and what you’re wearing.

Pakistan's valleys of death

As our camera pointed towards the sky it was hard to believe that three weeks previously you couldn't see the sun.

Then it was blocked out by a thick grey cloud. Within the coming hours the heavens would open and rains would fall.

Nothing strange there, it was and still is the monsoon season.

The alarm bells began to ring when the rains didn't stop.

It soon became apparent that the rains were forming into floods and floods into a disaster zone.

Why weren't the alarm bells heeded I wondered?

As the helicopters, that had been dots in the bright summer sky, approached, I knew the prime minister had also asked the same questions of local authorities.

No weather forecaster since the floods has said why the predictions weren't heeded.

It's puzzling for a nation that relies so heavily on the rains not to take note of weather forecasts.

Talking politics