Foreign
Policy Initiatives
“Even Pakistan’s support from Saudi Arabia and Qatar
is lacking,” said Major General (retired0 Ashok mehra. “Inviting the Abu dhabi
crown prince as the chief guest for Republic Day signals the support of a
section of the Islamic world.”
But, India cannot afford to bask in the diplomatic
sunshine. Global affiliations are changing – Russia has cosied up to Pakistan
even as India has forged ties with the US. A little slip here, some complacence
there, and there could be a lot of unraveling.
China, for instance, is still not on the same page, “
They are worried about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,” said Bansal. “We
should offer them alternatives. Can we think of opening China to India through
a land route? We have to think of out of the box ways to engage with China.’
India, however, has to keep in mind the diplomatic
fallout, say experts. “ One point is clear. We’ve given a strategic massage
that our self-imposed embargo on the sanctity of the Line of Control is not
etched in stone, “ said Mehra.
There is
no perceivable evidence of India’s covert operation across the LoC, precisely
because it was what our special forces intended.
A surgical strike, says the Macmillan Dictionary, is
“a military attack, especially by air, that is designed to destroy something
specific and to avoid wider damage” The common military understanding is that
it is an attack carried out without warning and intended to deal only with a
specific target. Such operations are quick and covert, but the result is left
open for the world to see. The classic example is Israel’s air raid on Iraq’s
Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981.
What the Indian army did on the night of September
28-29 was a slow and laborious operation, which had troops creeping climbing
and crawling across the LoC and across two kilometers of rugged terrain,
avoiding stepping on land-mines or alerting village dogs, reaching largely
undefended targets, catching the enemy off-guard, killing him and destroying
his camp in the dark. No photos sent, no bodies carried back, no trophies. But
they did it.
7 million
jobs can disappear by 2050
India needs to go back to the basics and protect
sectors like farming, unorganized retail, micro and small enterprises, which
contribute to 99% of current livelihoods in the country. These sectors need
support from the government no regulation. India needs smart villages and not
smart cities in the 21st century,” PRAHAR said.
A small
look on internal security
While elsewhere in the country, Virat Kohli scores
double handreds, and R Ashwin claims his 200th wicket, records of
another sort are being broken in Kashmir. Here the curfew has reached its
century of days, the death toll is close to a century too, while bullet
injuries and blindings now number in the thousands rather than hundreds. The
records set by Kohli, Ashwing and company bring credit to Indian cricket. The records being set in Kashmir bring
shame to India and Indian democracy.
On social
& developmental aspects - Let’s talk about chronic hunger
In order to secure India’s borders forever, it is
essential to bridge the gulf of economic inequality that exists across the
country.
I is pertinent to mention here that the group of
children include both Hindus and Muslims. Slums don’t discriminate between
people on the basis of religion.
I wouldn’t have written on this subject had I not read
about India’s have written on this subject had I not read about India’s dismal
record in the fight against hunger in our sister publication, Mint. According
to statistics fromk the international Food Policy Research Institute’s global
hunger index, our country is worse off than Nepal, Bangladesh, Senegal and
Rwanda. We lag behind nations whose names most people haven’t heard of.
Those debating about national security, the martyrdom
of our soldiers, GDP, repo rate and urbanization often forget that in order to
secure our borders forever, it is essential to bridge the gulf of economic
inequality.
Why are subjects such as these missing from
intellectual and political debates?
