Saturday,
January 5, 2002, Chandigarh, India
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Talk of war: time for retrospection Much is being talked about nowadays about the likelihood of a war with Pakistan. The pros and the cons. Unfortunately, much of the discussion in the drawingrooms of cities like Delhi is nothing but another topic to vacillate over, before progressing to more important subjects like New Year revelry. People in big cities are quite numbed into the realities of the prevalent crime, and the mafia — “Take what you want, but leave me alone” syndrome. Most are not bothered about what happens in far-flung Kashmir, or elsewhere, as long as their homes are secure. Even the attack on Parliament is taken in their stride: “Didn’t something similar happen at the Kapoors’ farmhouse last year?”. The insult to democracy is as nonchalant as a mugging in the New York of yore. It is unfortunate that some such people advise the government on matters beyond their faculties’ limitations. Even think-tanks can comprise people with myopia but having greater social than other skills. The “I-am-subservient” brigade does not help matters, either. Today is a time for retrospection, and a time to think of the nation’s image, and its future. If only the nation’s leaders had vision, India would be spared its misery. Let’s go back a few years in history. We made crucial mistakes in the Congress years — like releasing the 90,000 PoWs. If we had kept them for a few months, we could have asked Pakistan for the moon, and got it, but such was the charm of Z.A. Bhutto that Indira Gandhi could not resist. |
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