New Year Wish

It is another New Year. A lot of good wishes from anyone and everyone to anyone and everyone. But alas, if only wishes were horses!

There are so many wishes for a common man today, the world over in general and in India in particular. What the West is thinking is of coming out of the Recession. Indians are worried of terror attacks, and natural calamities, of rising food prices. Are these wishes likely to be zoomed in?

Pollution is on the rise. May be, the recession will also reduce to some degree the intensity of pollution. The only silver line in these dark clouds!

In India, as an Indian, I want a strong Indian state, capable of protecting itself and its interests, in stead of looking at the world community (implying the USA) for the same. Why, and how, the US asks India to depend on Pakistan to against the terror roots while it had the audacity of attacking Afghanistan (and also Iraq for that matter)? And, why India is listening to it? It is not desirable to attack Pakistan. A war is not the in-thing today. But this does not prevent one from attacking a hostile training camp situated inside a not-so-friendly country. Israel has survived the Arab hostility this way only.

Wish, India acts.

Corrupt India

India is doing great! After the Mumbai attacks, India is all fingers on Pakistan. There are warnings "act or else...", "handover our culprits or else...". Then, India says "next time you touch us, I will teach you". Great.

This is the way, India reacts on terrorism. This has been the way, she has been made to react.

Our leadrs claim of superior firepower, better diplomatic acumen (really?), and strong and convincing evidences. But alas, we end up bowing, we end up negotiating, we end up postponing our wrnings to the next attack. What is implied is, another, and another ... attack is welcome, it is very much expected!

Why is the state of affairs here the way it is? I don't think it is the fault of our politicians. It is ours, it has been ours. Are we, as individuals as well as masses, strict and unanimous in our decisions and actions?

I am sorry to say, despite being an Indian myself, that as individuals we may be honest, but as a community we are corrupt people. So much so that corruption is part and pacel of our culture and our daily routine. We grow with bribing our Gods. The practice of मन्नत is the evidence of our bribe to the Gods.

We thn come to real, hard life where we keep bribing people to make our life faster and easier. We do not mind paying a TTE enough to let him allow a place in the train which is not rightfully ours. And we do not feel ashamed on it. We tell ths story of gallant to many people.

What is wrong then, if a lowly paid police constable allows an explosive laden vehicle inside a major town for petty 10 to 20 rupees?

The Prime Minister ( or whomsoever taking decisions in his behalf) takes a lifetime to decide if Antulay has done any wrong, and whether he has done any wrong. Suddenly, Antulay bcomes a Muslim leader!!!! He is yet to decide.

So India is doing a great job.