When will thy wake up?

 

 

In the last few months the common man in India has suddenly got used to viewing the Sri Lankan and the Bangladeshi soldiers in the prime time news and front page of newspapers like never before. The Army in both these countries have undergone a magical transformation in the last few years. So if it was the LTTE that forced the Sri Lankan Army to get more professionalised, in case of Bangladesh, the increasing threat of fundamentalism forced the change in Bangladesh Army. And the most striking illustration of the change is the type of assault rifles both the countries use nowadays. The Chinese made T-56 assault rifles used by both is also a reflection of the increasing Chinese influence (which is no more just restricted to Pakistan) in these two countries giving much fuel to the theory of 'String of Pearls'. At the same time, India’s inability to push through its indigenous INSAS assault rifles to these neighbouring markets is in reality a manifestation of its own foreign policy failure. The fact that Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked for help from FBI of US and not India, to unravel the conspiracy behind the BDR mutiny vindicates further the decreasing Indian leverage in the subcontinent.

Not long ago many countries in South Asia used to look up to India as a guiding force. Even China and South Korea used to hail India for its success with democracy and leadership in the Non-Aligned Movement. Yet it’s one thing to chest thump as a regional powerhouse, quite another to act like one in times of need. In the late 70’s China went ahead with economic reforms while India continued with its half hearted experiments with licensing system and swadeshi movement. Thirteen years later, India was forced to abandon its own idiosyncratic path and follow the Chinese footsteps. And since then India has never led again.

In the last one decade or so, almost every neighbouring country of India has gone through intense internal turmoil. It was incidentally the same time when India has been transforming its inward looking fragile economy into an economic powerhouse by judiciously utilising the opportunities ushered by globalisation. Yet every time it was time for India to extend a helping hand to these countries in turmoil, it preferred to play the pious card by stating that such incidents are internal affairs of the concerned countries and that they should solve them amicably on their own. And the more India created a vacuum of leadership in South Asia, the more China stepped in. Today Bangladesh and Sri Lanka buy all their military hardware as well as economic essentials from China or rather consider China as a better friend in need than India who would not turn face away in times of crises with the hypocritical excuse of internal affairs.

Today, Pakistan is no more in an ordinary turmoil. It’s only a matter of time when this country literally splits apart and would be hijacked by fundamentalists, the spillover effect of which would fall more on India than on any other nation. Yet India continues with its NAM inspired spineless neutrality even in such grave situations. Today, it’s time for India to reach out to the moderates and younger generations of Pakistan and rescue them from this tirade of fanatic extremism. In an era of globalisation of both economies and terrorism, there’s nothing called internal affairs of any country as each has an impact on the other. And the sooner India understands it, the better for her future and future powerhouse aspirations.