Almost two and half years ago, I went to overseas on a work assignment. There on my first weekend I went to enjoy a couple of beers at a bar. While sipping the first beer, someone approached me with a question, “Are you a south Asian?”
“Yes, I am Indian. What about you?” I replied with a smile.
“I am from the United States of America.” He said it proudly with an emphasis on word ‘The’.
It was strange that he carried so much pride for the country he belonged to in the era where world is a global village. Perhaps, he had his own reasons for carrying such pride. Still we hit the conversation and spoke about few things but soon he changed it to sports and directed my attention towards television where a news program was on run and host incessantly talking about the corruption carried out by an Indian minister in common wealth games. I waited for a couple of minutes and left the place with a smile for that American along with half-emptied pint of beer.
That was the first time I really felt ashamed of my country. Then came 2G scam, 3G scam, iron ore scam, Coal scam, defense scam and God knows what not. Every day a new scam was started hitting newspapers. However, those unbearable scams were still bearable until a day came when Pakistani rangers beheaded two brave soldiers of Indian Army. If anything we Indians could now proud about were our brave defense forces but this dirty minded corrupt government of ours played the matter in such a way that that last hope of proud got vanished. Leaders from all across the country came forward, not for revenge but hollow speeches before media. Even our proud Army General said or I must say promised before media for proper action which later turned out a hollow words accompanied by no will or action. I never understood the meaning of ‘Flag Meeting’ which media always talk about whenever anything happens at border. Never seen a solution coming out from those flag meetings, yet it seems whenever our enemy feels bore or dejected they perform some mischief and wait for India’s reaction where obviously our responsible government officials follow the protocol of a flag meeting in which our enemy come and make a wholehearted fun of spineless Indian system and perhaps this way they get relieved from their idleness.
In the years of good economic performance India deluded itself with unrealistic feel of upcoming superpower. Really superpower!! From which angle do we look like a superpower? Get life – we can’t even produce enough basic weaponry for our soldiers and dream for Super Power, we can’t even produce a potent fighter plane without the help of Russia, Israel or France and call ourselves upcoming Super Power, we can’t even manufacture a potent assault rifle (let me inform you INSAS is not a potent assault rifle and on top of it it’s based on the principle of AK-47) for our brave soldiers and think of becoming superpower. Recently UN has declared India the largest arms importer in the world. Should we feel proud? I don’t think so; I think we should look for some shallow water and attempt suicide. Not just because we are the largest importer of arms but also because we don’t even have guts to use them to save the pride of would be Super power.
Let’s see the long timeline of would be super power. Starting with 1947, the first Kashmir war in which we lost more than 50% J&K to Pakistan in the form of POK and why, because our potent leaders didn’t have guts to resolve the matter within and instead they decided to take it to UN which instead of providing a permanent solution actually created a never ending diplomatic and defense problem. Then came 1962, the Indo-China war, in which we lost thousands of KMs to China in the form of Aksai Chin and on top of that in 1990s we agreed that Tibet is integral part of China while in return China never agreed that Arunachal Pradesh and eastern Kashmir are integral part of India. However, instead they still claim North East region of India as their territory. These reasons are enough I guess, else I have a long list of such international events where our shameless, spineless, corrupt, non-violent government of useless illiterate aged leaders almost sold the country. Even the most corrupt governments of this world has always learnt something from their past mistakes when they occurred in case of foreign policies or national security but our government never learnt anything from past blunders, they keep on repeating them as though they want to master them.
Hardly, any other country ever committed the kind of blunders India had and that’s the reason neighboring countries take India for granted. Though, India won all wars with Pakistan and still looks potent to win any future war with Pakistan, but being victor has India got what she deserved? Could we get resolution on Kashmir issue? Could we regain the lost territory to Pakistan? Could we stop them from harboring our state criminals? Could we put an end on cross-border terrorism? The answer to all these and many more questions is plain ‘NO’, we couldn’t reach any strong point. That means, though we won the war but always behaved like a loser and the Pakistan who lost every war but behaved like a victor. I guess it’s the attitude difference, being loser they still have the attitude of victors and being victor India carries attitude of losers. We had a wonderful chance to dictate our terms in 1972, but our honorable government decided not to dictate anything, instead signed Shimla accord and give back the land our soldiers occupied by giving their lives. Government not only betrayed our soldiers but the whole country as they allowed the chance to slip away from their hands which could have brought permanent solution to Kashmir Issue.
India’s weakness towards taking strong decisions is now in open. Every country knows that India doesn’t have the gut to take any strong decision. US airport authorities openly humiliated our former President APJ Abdul kalam by frisking him at New York’s JFK airport and that’s not just a single instance of such kind, there have been so many cases when Indian dignitaries are subjected to be frisked. Even recently a Minister from UP was taken into private for questioning though he carried a diplomatic passport. Every time such incident occur and our foreign minister or embassy high Commissioner lodge a complaint or protest. I mean, apart from a formal apology have India got anything? Could India put a stop to such humiliation? The answer is again Plain ‘NO’.
It seems India lost the meaning of word ‘Honor’ or has simply written off this word from the dictionary. Wait a second, no; India haven’t lost its meaning since people in India give so much importance to honor that to save it they perform the act of killing which is commonly known as honor killing. However, what does happen to such sense of honor when India is humiliated at international level?
Well that’s call for introspection.
The recent example of humiliation is the Chinese incursion in Ladakh’s DBO (Daulat Beg Oldi) sector. It’s been 3 weeks since they entered our land, build tents and set up supply line. With every new day they are getting stronger and our honorable foreign minister Mr. Salam Khurshid wanted to go on a visit to Beijing. Has he lost his mind or what, or has government altogether gone insane. Can’t they understand the meaning of failed flag meetings? Can’t they understand the meaning of Chinese stubbornness on the issue?
On the contrary, government keep on extending a friendly hand for more diplomatic talk which eventually Chinese are going to cut off. Every day government talks about negotiating the matter with Chinese instead of the fact that Chinese are in no mood of doing any talk. Indian media even doesn’t seem to be more interested in the matter somehow. Though, they are reporting the issue on daily basis but not interested in producing a national buzz that would put more pressure on government to take quick and strong action, while international media is altogether watching the deepening crisis silently.
Chinese incursion was an outcome of government’s inability to correctly estimate the moves and motive of China. It goes few years back, when China got complete access to Pakistan’s Gwadar port in Baluchistan province where they could even anchor their naval ships. Gawadar port is strategically very important for China since it gives direct access to Western Countries. Using Karakoram highway China can directly ship goods to Gwadar port. Using this trade route China can save a lot of time and money. While, at the same time they don’t want India to watch them and to serve this purpose they performed the act of incursion and claimed DBO sector their territory. DBO lead to crucial Karakoram pass through which India could overlook the Karakoram highway.
China knows the value of DBO and by sitting there they would serve their national interest but When India will learn to proactively safeguard her national interest and security. When would India free itself from robe of saint and look at the world as it is - a chaotic place. When leaders in government would learn that national interest and national pride is higher than all the selfish desire. The time has come for India to take some strong headed decisions and gets its actions straight else the time is not far away when we would have lost everything. India has already lost so many opportunities and its leaders played a great deal with her pride for their personal interest but now come and stand of one cause – India – else the day is not far away when every Indian would feel ashamed for being Indian.
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