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India - Victim or Villain

The K-word is the major irritant in India's foreign policy. To be frank we do not have a clear stand on the issue. Or atleast the govt has one but they do not enunciate to the public. Irrrespective of what Pakistan claims, the world knows it is a state sponsored terrorism. Some express this and others do not. And the pro-India people of Kashmir believe the terrorism is the handwork of Pakistanis. And it looks like India needs to get this one solved to an extent before we get a place in the new expanded security council. With four of the Big 5 expressing their support for India's place in the new council, the US is not vocal about its position and it looks like they are pushing India for something before they make their stand known to the world. And what they are pushing for can be nothing but Kashmir. India needs to mend it fences with its neighbours. Solve the problems amicably and then make a legitimate claim for its place in the new council. But is this possible given the kind of neighbours we have? We have neigbours with Terrorism and support to anti-India elements as their state policy. Are we being victimised here to go soft or deal with illogical nations for a place we deserve in the new council.

But if we look back to 80s we can see a different India altogether. The central govenment under late Indira Gandhi and the TN state govt under MGR sponsored LTTE. They financed the group from its inception. RAW trained the militants. The pro-tamil supporters and sympathisers visited these guerillas many a times during the conflict. Anyone who oppsed this intervention is a political pariah then and now in TN. The LTTE were treated in hospitals of TN. The nation of Srilanka was burning. Suicide attacks everywhere. Thousands killed. A tiny nation like Ceylon cannot take all this. And who sponsored this??? India. Was this not a state policy then? Yes I accept that Tamils were subjected to some second class treatement by the Sinhalese majority. There was a problem in hand. We excacerbated this altogether. I remember people with kids begging in the streets of chennai. Kids were crying for food everywhere. It was a pathetic situation then. All this happened just because the armed conflict started. India basically destroyed that tiny nation with its irresponsible behaviour. And the result, a time bomb set on by Indira blasted on the face of her own son a decade later.

If we claim we are victims of state sponsored terrorism, we should also accept we were villains too.

Non-Violent Freedom Struggle - A Miracle

I still wonder how India won the Independence waging a non-violent movement. First time in the history such a movement was ever launched. No one would have ever imagined such an idea and its feasability. With inital experiments in South Africa, non-violence was mastered in India. Gandhi with the same influence he had over the people of the country, had he started a violent movement instead, I believe we could have still driven the British out or may be not? We can always debate the possible outcomes of such events. Why did the masses favour Ahimsa? Whether it was a Non-violent demonstration or a violent attack, the British responded with the same bullets and batons. No one received any special treatement. One set of people were unarmed when they faced the British and others were armed. And still the most popular by all means was the non-violent movement.

If we tweak the history a little bit and see what if had the rulers been someone else other than British. Say Japs or Germans. Then Gandhi would have chosen the gun instead. Or there will be no Gandhi at all to talk about. Japs or Germans might have killed him or imprisoned him the day he raised his voice against them. The situation might have looked like this - No newspapers, public meetings or demonstrations, shoot at sight orders all day, all night. Remember the "Rape of Nanking"? Japan made China surrender by rape and massacre during the second world war. Or the Ghettos and Gas chambers of Germans? British were angels infront these evils. By saying this in no way I support the British rule or other crimes they committed. But when put in comparison to what happened at the same time in history around the globe, we see the better side of the British rule.

The worldwide media attention received by Gandhi, and his movement was the biggest factor in its success. For example, NYT covered the Dandi March from start to end. Journalists came from worldover to meet Gandhi in his ashram. During the same time elsewhere in the world, Jews were trying to find cover whereever they can to avoid being killed. There was no movement of any sort against the Nazi Germany either inside or outside till the World war. Japanese ruled part of China and Korea with impunity. During the early part of the war Japanese had a policy of taking no POWs. They beheaded the enemy soldiers. Our freedom struggle sounds all but one of the biggest miracles in the history. It was later used in South Africa. But the biggest coincidence, it was against the British and British dominated govt. A pill which the British could not swallow is this Ahimsa movement. May be, had Northern Ireland followed this instead, there would have been a different outcome to their struggle.

New Definitions

Sacrifice(Pseudo) - The act tried by an Italian woman few months back in India *
Cricket - Where the loser is always named India *
Cell Phone - A commodity with a Billion dollar market in India ( Atleast 1 million/month sales * 100 dollars * 12) *
Secularism - Let the mob fight till there are equal number of dead on either side *
Secularism(Pseudo) - Ask Congress *
Twin Towers - Buildings that were too tall, they came in the way of flying airplanes *
Operation Iraqi Freedom - Operation Re-Election *
Bush - The family Kerry tried to Am"Bush" *
Rath Yatra - A (Pseudo Secular) Victory Parade if Karunanidhi sits in the chariot *
God - Something which one(Read Hindus and "not" Muslims/Christians) should not believe in according to the Dravidian Movement *
Rout - A future event in Pakistan on the face of Indian onslaught *

Follow up on the Naxals Issue

Anyone who has been defending the naxals way of achieving their cause must try to come up with an explanation for what is happening all over the state. Naxals are collecting sort of "tax" from every business ower, milkman, shop keepers, small time business men and whoever they feel has money. Who are they to determine who needs to be taxed and not? Who are they to say he is rich? When you dont pay tax, who are you to bomb railways stations and tracks? When you rob people at the point of guns, where is the morality you boast about? And something that is coming up time and again is the issue of weapons and all their actions point to their unwillingness to drop weapons. They are no different from Mumbai mafia and all it takes is nayaks led by a Gill style leader. In one year, the number of naxals will swindle to nothing.

What if there was no partition in 1947?

1. We will have a great cricket team, world class bowlers and world class batsmen. And everyone will fail to fire at the same time.

2. We will have two great scientists, APJ Kalam, developing technologies on one side and AQKhan stealing from world over.

3. World's largest and most professional army, with overseas operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, ..... and even in US

4. The safe haven in the heaven of the world. Osama can hide in Kashmir moutains.

5. "(Pseudo)Secularists" of India will oblige the Mughal rule continue.

6. Akthar will dance to the tunes of skipper Ganguly and not Ganguly dancing to the menacing balls of Akthar.

7. The flag of India will have vertical stripes of Safron, White and Green to symbolize coexistence of religions and no religion is above the other. And Ashok chakra replaced by the Crescent.

8. Rajdhani express from Islamabad to New Delhi to enable easy commute for
Jihadis.

9. Gandhi will be the Grand Father of the Nation and Jinnah the Father of the Nation. Nehru as always will be Chacha Nehru.

10. Jyothi Basu will always win in Bengal with no accusations of illegal Bangladeshi's voting for him.

11. Three pillars of India, Silicon Valley in the South, Jihadi Factory in the West and Cyclone city in the East.

12. Lastly, we would have had partition in 1948 instead.

Energy Crisis - A Perspective

India's ambition to become a Superpower in next 2 decades hangs on one issue. Its the Energy Security of the nation. Without an assured supply, the wheels of the nation can come to grinding halt incase of a long standoff in Gulf or near the Indian shores. A nation cannot become a Superpower if it cannot sustain itself under all odds. The US has huge reserves of the precious liquid Gold in Texas and Alaska. It is being saved for the "future of the US" when the oil wells go dry everywhere. Do we have a solution for our energy situation for next 6 months? India maintains a strategic reserve for something like 120 days. So given the best chances the country will bow down in 120 days if squeezed. Let us not equate ourselves with Pakistan regarding the energy scenario. And we must stop doing such a comparison at every level with Pakistan. Its a failed state with no objective but Terrorism. World outsources jobs to India and Terrorist training to Pakistan.

The booming automobile industry can prove to be our nemesis, if we do not come up with hybrid cars that run on alternative fuels. Indian Universities and Research Institutes need to focus in this aspect which determines the nation's future. And moreover hybrid cars will save the already degraded environment from reaching an irreversible state. And as sincere citizens we need to start avoiding use of cooking fuels for boiling water to start with. If we just consider the amount of energy spent to boil water at homes and restaurants when we have enough sun shine all round the year, it will be clear how much of energy is being wasted. Solar powered gadgets must be preferred wherever possible and this must be strongly encouraged by the government. With the purchasing power of the masses at an all time high and a strong real estate market, any such energy policy amendment will take us a long way into the future and push the crisis backwards by decades.

The Government is making the best use of its influence in the former Soviet republics to secure a assured energy supply. India's active bidding for Oil blocks in those areas is being welcomed by the respective govts. This area is the next energy rich region outside the Arabian Gulf. India enjoys a big brother status with some countries in this region, as many of them face the same Islamic terrorism emanating out of Pakistan.

And the crowning achievement of the govts policies is the establishment of India's first overseas Air Base in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The primary objective, protect Tajik republic from any threat. And this base will serve India to secure its oil supply routes and more importantly launch deep strikes beyond the Indian territory. Dushanbe being close the Chinese, Russian, Pakistani and Afghan borders, serves multiple purposes.

So what India needs is a strong internal energy policy that will tackle the problem inside out.