All governments indulge in spin. One should not, therefore, blame the government of Dr Manmohan Singh [Images] for indulging in spin in the case of David Coleman Headley, of the Chicago cell of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba [Images], and for trying to mislead the hapless Indian public with the help of obliging journalists that the plea bargain entered into by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with Headley was not a setback, but a great triumph for Indian diplomacy.

Our investigation into 26/11 runs on two parallel tracks -- the responsibility of the LeT, which the Pakistanis project as a non-state actor with which the state of Pakistan has nothing to do.

What the US has sought to achieve through the choreographed  plea bargain is that  while India will be able to highlight the responsibility of the LeT, it will not be able to establish the responsibility of the state of Pakistan. The Obama [Images] administration wants the world to perceive 26/11 as the crime of a non-state actor as claimed by Pakistan and not the crime of the state of Pakistan. That is the real issue here.

What did Headley know according to the FBI's own court affidavits?

He knew chief operational chief of Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami Ilyas Kashmiri of the 313 Brigade, who is close to Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden [Images] and who recently threatened to attack the Indian Premier League [Images] cricket matches and the Commonwealth Games [Images]. Headley had met him in North Waziristan in the beginning of 2009.

He knew many office-bearers of the LeT whose identities the FBI has not revealed.

He knew many serving and retired officers of the Pakistan Army [Images].

What he must be knowing?

The identities of the many contacts he made in India during his repeated visits.

The identities of the sleeper cells of the LeT, which have not yet come to the notice of the Indian investigators. If the FBI had allowed us to question Headley in time, we might have been able to prevent the Pune blast of February 13 if it had been planned by the LeT or its Indian associates.

The FBI had seen to it that we will not be able to find out all this by independently interrogating Headley. It is a great tragedy and speaks eloquently of the decay of  our sense of national self-respect that instead of having the spine to stand up to the US and protest loud and clear over the FBI's shutting out access to Headley, we are indulging in more spins to project what has happened as a triumph for Indo-US cooperation over which we should smile and not cry.

The Obama administration has been repeatedly kicking us in the back. It did so in respect of Afghanistan. It has done so in respect of Headley. Instead of having the courage and intellectual honesty to admit to our people that we have been let down nastily by the US, we are indulging in more spins to project the kicks as, in fact, bouquets from Obama with love.

Dear Dr Manmohan Singh, Dear Chidambaram, Dear Pillai, and dear journalists of the Hindu and TOI: Some weeks ago Mulla Baradar, supposedly No 2 in the Afghan Taliban [Images], was arrested by the Inter Services Intelligence in Karachi. He is in the ISI's custody. The US and Afghan intelligence wanted independent access to him for interrogation.

The ISI refused and told them he could be questioned in the ISI's custody. The US insisted on independent access and warned Pakistan of the likely consequences if it did not agree to it. This week's reports say that Pakistan has been forced to allow independent access to the Americans.

That is the way a self-respecting nation protects its interests and nationals. For the US, independent interrogation of Baradar was necessary to hold those responsible for American deaths in the past accountable and to prevent more deaths in future. It insisted on it and had its way.

India is not the US. The clout which it has over Pakistan we do not have anywhere in the world. At least we could have had the courage to protest --  loudly and openly -- instead of projecting every stab in the back by Obama as a kiss in the back.