Author: Dina Nath Mishra
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: December 7, 2008
URL: http://dailypioneer.com/141434/India-losing-stature-Ridicule-goes-on-unabated.html
The Mumbai terror attack has shown us that
our political system is still in deep slumber, refusing to accept reality.
The Government does not realise that India's stature in the comity of nations
has fallen vertically as it has failed to harness terror-mongers
Public memory is proverbially short. This
is especially true for Indians. We don't bother about learning the lessons
of history. On the contrary, Israel, a tiny nation, suffered for about two
millennia and almost vanished. In an opportune moment, Israelis resurrected
their nation. Within six decades, it actualised its fighting and its defence
productive capacities. It has now made a place for itself in the comity of
nations.
On the contrary, India, a great ancient nation
with unparallel human resources, is unable to retain its territory intact
even after independence. For, we don't learn from the lessons of history.
For over a thousand years, Muslim invaders
and rulers and, later, Pakistan, including its "by-product" Bangladesh,
gave India ample opportunities to understand and draw appropriate conclusions
and lessons. Though, geographically, Pakistan was once a part of India, its
traditions and sociological structure separated the countries into two distinct
cultural streams. As a nation, Pakistan has inherited the national objective
to make India Dar-ul-Islam. From day one, Pakistan engaged in implementing
its Islamic mission. On every opportune moment, it remembers and recommits
itself to this objective. By every such act, Pakistan widens and underlines
its cultural difference. There is not an iota of doubt that in every aggression
of Pakistan, in every episode of low cost war in J&K, and in every terror
attack, it dreams about the Final Mission.
Whether it is Al-Qaida, Taliban, Lashker-e-Toiba,
Jaish-e-Mohammad, Huji, Simi or Indian Mujahideen, they are all working on
the jihad system. I have not come across any Pakistani ruler, Jinnah onwards,
who did not subscribe to the Islamic Mission of Pakistan. For a brief period,
it looked that Bhutto and Benazir were different.
Later, Bhutto said Pakistan will fight with
India for a thousand years. Unfortunately our rulers hoped against hope that
such-and-such new Pakistani ruler is worthy of talking about peace and we
entered into dialogue, which failed everytime. Even now, we have leaders ruling
the country who despite the recent Mumbai attack think of continuing the peace
dialogue and Confidence Building Measures.
After Mumbai attack, anger raged amongst Indians.
Such anger with retaliatory mood was not seen on earlier occasions.
A visiting American representative talked
of India's right to dismantle terrorist training centres by crossing borders
and invading the locations. This was a result of reactions of masses and not
of rulers. Rulers are still not ready to call a spade a spade. The Ministry
of External Affairs still does not call Pakistan a terrorist State.
The attack on Mumbai is a case apart. The
terrorists' selection of targets, comprehensive planning, collection of arms
and ammunition and training and planning of every essential part was impeccable.
And now, before our experts relapse in slumber, there is a warning that an
air attack is a possibility.
The situation is such that even the US is
being blackmailed by Pakistan. Pakistan's stand is that India may attack and,
in that case, it would have to withdraw its forces from the Afghanistan border.
The US would, thus, lose an ally to fight against terror.
Normally, the impact of a terror attack lasts
between a week to ten days. But the Mumbai attack was much bigger, shocking
and devastating. Its impact will continue for months in every small or big
forum and even among the Indian diaspora. Government and various authorities
are almost celebrating the successful operation against terrorists where India
used army, navy and air force to neutralise nine terrorists. It is a humiliating
story. From a distance, this may seem a small attack, but every self-respecting
Indian lost a part of his proud personality.
Pokharan-II was a historic moment that heightened
the stature of every Indian and its diaspora. Through the Indo-US N-deal,
we lost that stature. The recent attack, and the way it concluded, decreased
India's stature considerably in the eyes of the world's diplomatic community.
Resultantly India's economic stature has become the butt of a joke. Our Ministers,
particularly Home Minister Shivraj Patil, were the subjects of ridicule.
Politicians belonging to the UPA are insensitive
and callous towards the casualties we suffered. An example will be illustrative.
RR Patil, Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister of Maharashtra said that
we should be grateful to him as his Government saved the lives of 4,860 people
because the terrorists had planned to kill 5,000. Further, he said that we
need not make much noise about the Mumbai attack because such small (chhoti-moti)
incidents keep happening in a big city like Mumbai.
In contrast, in countries like USA, Israel
and many others, every death in such a situation is a matter of probe. The
three dead bodies of Israelis were taken back to their country with the greatest
honour and a massive crowd paid tribute to the departed souls. How safe is
India and its citizens?