Friends, my apologies for writing the second article of this series after such a long time!
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This article has been inspired from a dialogue from the Marathi serial Raja ShivChhatrapati on Star Pravaah.
THE SITUATION
Shivaji Maharaj is trying to bring the densely forested and strategically important Jawali valley under his control while the current ruler of Jawali, Chandrarao More not only refuses but also insults Shivaji’s ambassador to the court of Chandrarao More. Enraged at the arrogance shown by More, Shivaji Maharaj decides to take Jawali by force and this is when this dialogue is uttered in the serial and the subject is Chandrarao More. It goes like this:
आले, तर त्यांच्या सोबत!
नाही आले, तर त्यांच्या शिवाय!
आणि आडवे आले, तर त्यांच्या छाताडावर पाय देऊन!
पण स्वराज्याचा भगवा हा फडकलाच पाहिजे!!
Literal Translation:
If he (Chandrarao More) decides to cooperate, then we will progress with him!
If he does not want to come with us, then we will progress without him!
If he tries to put hurdles in our path, then we will trample him and then progress!
But the Flag (Bhagwa) of Swarajya shall fly high, come what may!!
The contrast between the meaning of this dialogue and the present state of affairs in India is what struck me. India is a soft state. Any small country, terrorist organization can get up tomorrow, slap India and still escape unscathed.
Why?
Is it because India is not aggressive enough? Are we scared of our neighbors? Are we scared of terrorists? Is it because we do not have the capabilities to respond in kind to them?
I do not think so.
It is because of our great attitude of forgiving and worse, forgetting.
SOME EXAMPLES FROM THE PRESENT
Let us talk examples.
Remember IC 814? Remember it being hijacked?
Do you remember why it went to Kandahar?
Only because the delay in taking a strong decision on using NSG Commandos to neutralize the hijackers and rescuing the hostages! Only because the Punjab Police who were ready to immobilize the aircraft at Amritsar did not recieve the approval from New Delhi!
Remember the attack on the Indian parliament in 2001?
What did we do in response to the attack?
Operation Parakram? That build up of forces on both sides of the border?
It gained nothing for India…Only outcome was that we lost more than 300 soldiers in various incidents including accidents, shelling and firing.
And on top of that, the killer Afzal Guru has his pardon pending at the President of India’s office. That same Afzal Guru who killed Indian soldiers and policemen in the Parliament attack.
Remember our Nuclear Weapons Policy?
The shitty no first use policy?
I respect the fact that Nuclear weapons should not be used as they lead to irreparable damage to the nation against which it is used and also for humanity. But the fact your policy says that you will not use Nuclear weapons first indicates to your enemies (and India has many!) that this state is a soft target.
The policy of no first use gives the edge to our enemies who can attack our cities first and then get away with it as once again India is known to bend over easily to foreign pressures.
Or was it really foreign pressure solely responsible for what happened in Kashmir in 1948 or for that matter stopped us from crossing the LoC in 1999 Kargil mishap?
Or is it the Foreign Pressure coupled with the disregard for the lives of our soldiers, countrymen and the general attitude about being a peace loving state? What our politicians fail to understand is that being a peace loving state does not mean you never go on an offensive! You have to be offensive to preserve your peace!
Suddenly, one day the Bangladeshi Rangers feel like venting out their frustration and having target practice and fire on Indian BSF soldiers and kill 16 of them.
What do we do?
1.Condemn the act on a global stage
2. Express ‘our deep & heartfelt sadness’ at the death of our soldiers
3. Do nothing about it.
Why do we behave like this? Why does a puny state like Bangladesh not respect us? After all they are what they are because India created them and Indian soldiers laid down their lives to free Bangladesh.
If they cannot respect this fact and fire on us we should have retaliated back with deadly force and taught them a great lesson in respecting elders. Why did we not use artillery against their posts and blast them away? Why did we not cripple their military installations just to bring them to their senses and also avoid loss of civilian life?
I respect a state like Israel for the fact that they follow the meaning of the dialogue written above to the word.Remember their 6 day war fought against Egypt? Remember the offensive they launch against Palestine (although the issue is debatable, I will just take their display of national pride into consideration) when a suicide bomber explodes himself in Israel? Once Israel’s premier Ariel Sharon had come to India on a visit and a suicide bomber blew himself up killing six, mind that only six, Israelis.
Ariel Sharon packed his bags and left. Now that is called having a value for the life of the countrymen. Each citizen is an asset and must be protected at all costs!
While back in India,the situation is merry! We have abundant population and if 50 or so people die then we can always cover up the deficit in a matter of minutes!
Remember the Dantewada massacre?
75 policemen slaughtered like insects as they were ambushed by Naxalites. (Still these men fought till their last breath!) But not much has changed. If I may guess, the infrastructure provided to these men is still bad. Bad food, Bad water. They have to battle nature as well as naxalites at the same time. The situation is not much different for our defence personnel.
Why do we stick with this sick mentality of tolerating every attack on our nation?
Why do we treat our criminals and terrorist in such a way that they become royalty?
Why do we not hit hard and nip the matter in the bud? Why do we wait for foreign intervention and the support of countries like US?
After the 1962 Himalayan blunder with China, there was a resolution passed in the parliament. The content was something like this,
“India vows to get back every inch of land that China has aggressively and illegally acquired”
This resolution now hangs framed on a wall in Indian Military Academy.
Ladies & Gentlemen, the rest as they say is history!
We have not even taken back Kashmir from Pakistan, how do we plan to take back Aksai-Chin that was lost to China? Although one commendable matter in this case is the timely acquisition of the strategically vital Siachen Glacier in 1984.
The only exception to this was the only real ‘Mard’ Prime Minister that India had. Mrs. Indira Gandhi had the guts to tell Richard Nixon at the time of India – Pakistan war of 1971 when he threatened India with his 7th Fleet to ‘Do what he wanted, The Indian Navy was more than capable of taking care of the 7th Fleet of the US Navy, but we will fight a war when our land is threatened!’ .Now that is leadership and the right attitude!
THE PAST
Shifting our focus to Shivaji Maharaj.What did he do when Chandrarao More of Jawali valley responded in a hostile manner and challenged him to enter Jawali forests and try to leave alive?
He launched an assault on him using Guerilla techniques and killed Chandrarao More and captured Jawali valley. Furthermore he strengthened the area by building a ring of forts including the famous Pratapgad where the Adilshahi general Afzalkhan was killed by Shivaji Maharaj.
THE LESSONS TO BE LEARNT
This is the attitude which India needs to adopt.Not only against attack, both diplomatic and military, by the ‘unfriendly’ states but also against internal problem creators like criminals, naxals, the underworld and the corrupt politicians.
Kill the weeds before they spoil the garden.
I will now sum up the attitude that India must adopt in the form of the above dialogue.
आले, तर त्यांच्या सोबत!
नाही आले, तर त्यांच्या शिवाय!
आणि आडवे आले, तर त्यांच्या छाताडावर पाय देऊन!
पण हिंदुस्थानचा तिरंगा हा फडकलाच पाहिजे!!
If they decide to cooperate, then we will progress with them!
If they do not cooperate, then we will progress without them!
If they try to put hurdles in our path, then we will trample then and then progress!
But the Tricolour of India shall fly high, come what may!!
Jai Hind!
Regards
Pranjal Wagh
06 Sept 2010
This work by Pranjal A. Wagh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License
