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Where is India?
When we look at matters from a stand-offish pedestal, it is difficult to miss that India is in the most vulnerable position today. We have as our neighbours two nations who have a strong influence on world affairs in these times. On the one hand, we have Pakistan that is labelled by the world as the hotbed of world terrorism – I am not going into any details, because so much about it is already in the internet domain.
On the other hand, we have China, who unfortunately, are far ahead of us in any pecking order, except in democratic values. China has a dominating influence in world economics, which is the most powerful weapon of the millennia – money. China is also the strongest (not yet the most powerful) nation, just because its government neither cares for the views of its people nor of the world; it just goes and does what it wants to do – “jat mangini, phat shaadi” – a decided advantage over the democratic nations of the world. I am not discussing the lot of the Chinese people, as it is not relevant to the point I am making.
Then there is the third dimension. Islamic radicalisation threatening the world. ISIS, al-Qaeda, Taliban are all just different names easily interchangeable at the flick of a trigger. This is not a religious statement, as radicalisation that exists in other religions is insignificant compared with Islamic radicalisation, presently.
The internal dynamics in India, with the second largest Muslim population in the soon to be the most populous nation in the world, is a potent cauldron for radicalisation of religions – I am not suggesting anything except seeing this as a possibility.
The recent developments in Afghanistan have brought with it a new added dimension. It was always known that such a day will come. It is difficult to say at this stage what India should or should not do. It is naïve to suggest that India was unprepared for this development.
What we see is not what it is. I suspect, as is the norm in any nation, we may not know all. These are difficult times, when we do not really know who our friends are or who our friends should be.
Tailpiece: social media is just that; social talk; in other words, good old gossip – some inside information with a lot of masala.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.
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