India is under attack. Let us not beat about the bush. We are fighting a continual war in the most brutal battlefield in the world in Kashmir. At the same time, we are involved in a decades old territorial dispute with China, which claims our north eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. Then there is the matter of Aksai Chin, which is some 20% of the land mass of Kashmir, which has been under Chinese control since the 1962 war.
Meanwhile, the influx of refugees, migrant workers, and inevitably, drugs and weapons from our eastern and northeastern sector seems to follow multiple tracks, but lead to the same objective: the destabilization of India. Is there a controlling head? Is this head the ISI? Or is it the PLA?
KPS Gill, the man behind Operation Night Dominance which won the counter insurgency war in Punjab has described Bangladesh as a 'ticking demographic time bomb'. Whatever diplomatic and military goodwill had been gained by the war of 1971 and the liberation of Bangladesh has been squandered away. The fact that India could have used 96,000 Pakistani POWs as a bargaining chip to get back Kashmir seems to have been forgotten. As always, Indian leaders are magnanimous in the extreme, except when it comes to dealing with their own subjects.
The demographic composition of the border districts on West Bengal has changed. Huge influxes of refugees, or simply workers across this most porous of borders has been ignored by the State government in Calcutta. The CPI(M) led government has always exercised 'minority vote bank politics', and finds it expedient to tolerate this gigantic migration of people. Resources, both of land and of infrastructure in the State have been strained to the utmost. Yet, the politicians play off one union against another. The rank and file of, say, a bus driver union have precious little avenues of income if they decide to go against the union. And so everything remains at a status quo, and a miserable status quo at that. But what do our leaders care? If they fall ill, they can seek treatment at some posh hospital established by their NRI businessmen friends. And India is a land where a white Ambassador car with a red light and siren will always make it through the worst traffic jam.
Godhra has brought the spectre of communal violence back. The worst memories of the Partition are the new reality of today. In response, the Central Government deems it advisable to allocate separate development funds for 'minority communities'. May I remind the Honourable Prime Minister of India, that the last time something like this was done was when the British implemented separate electorates for Hindus and Muslims? Poverty and misery do not know religion or caste. Let us put money where it is needed, not use it to line the pockets of 'leaders of the minority community' who are long on rhetoric, but notoriously short on actual results.
The other perpetual nightmare is that of Naxalite insurrection. Naxalbari and Charu Majumdar happened 40 years ago. West Bengal limped back to 'normalcy', but the insurrection has only spread to other states. There is a simple lesson in this: when people are oppressed beyond all endurance, then something will give,.. must give, and blood flows. The Government hasn't yet woken up to the fact that this is the third front on which we are fighting a war. And remember, this is a war which can be won with food, medicines and schools.
.. to be continued.
Meanwhile, the influx of refugees, migrant workers, and inevitably, drugs and weapons from our eastern and northeastern sector seems to follow multiple tracks, but lead to the same objective: the destabilization of India. Is there a controlling head? Is this head the ISI? Or is it the PLA?
KPS Gill, the man behind Operation Night Dominance which won the counter insurgency war in Punjab has described Bangladesh as a 'ticking demographic time bomb'. Whatever diplomatic and military goodwill had been gained by the war of 1971 and the liberation of Bangladesh has been squandered away. The fact that India could have used 96,000 Pakistani POWs as a bargaining chip to get back Kashmir seems to have been forgotten. As always, Indian leaders are magnanimous in the extreme, except when it comes to dealing with their own subjects.
The demographic composition of the border districts on West Bengal has changed. Huge influxes of refugees, or simply workers across this most porous of borders has been ignored by the State government in Calcutta. The CPI(M) led government has always exercised 'minority vote bank politics', and finds it expedient to tolerate this gigantic migration of people. Resources, both of land and of infrastructure in the State have been strained to the utmost. Yet, the politicians play off one union against another. The rank and file of, say, a bus driver union have precious little avenues of income if they decide to go against the union. And so everything remains at a status quo, and a miserable status quo at that. But what do our leaders care? If they fall ill, they can seek treatment at some posh hospital established by their NRI businessmen friends. And India is a land where a white Ambassador car with a red light and siren will always make it through the worst traffic jam.
Godhra has brought the spectre of communal violence back. The worst memories of the Partition are the new reality of today. In response, the Central Government deems it advisable to allocate separate development funds for 'minority communities'. May I remind the Honourable Prime Minister of India, that the last time something like this was done was when the British implemented separate electorates for Hindus and Muslims? Poverty and misery do not know religion or caste. Let us put money where it is needed, not use it to line the pockets of 'leaders of the minority community' who are long on rhetoric, but notoriously short on actual results.
The other perpetual nightmare is that of Naxalite insurrection. Naxalbari and Charu Majumdar happened 40 years ago. West Bengal limped back to 'normalcy', but the insurrection has only spread to other states. There is a simple lesson in this: when people are oppressed beyond all endurance, then something will give,.. must give, and blood flows. The Government hasn't yet woken up to the fact that this is the third front on which we are fighting a war. And remember, this is a war which can be won with food, medicines and schools.
.. to be continued.
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