Just another bone...

Kashmir is synonymous with alpine beauty and so is Arunachal Pradesh. That is a similarity of the positive kind. And some other ones are that both are Himalayan and Border States, and Indian too. As a matter of fact, Kashmir and Arunachal are analogous even beyond that degree as well.

The perception that Kashmir is the bone of contention between India and Pakistan is known too well to one and all at least in India and naturally on the other side too, that is, Pakistan…obviously. Now Arunachal is beginning to bear one more similarity to that with the exception that here the other side is not Pakistan but China. The state has become the other bone of contention though of a different kind. The contention here is not between India and Pakistan but between India and China.

China’s obsession with Arunachal is no longer a secret. For quite a long time, for decades, the communist giant is claiming the state, especially the Tawang part to be of her own. Such is the degree of obsession that they would not issue a visa to a government official from that state intending to visit the nation. China never misses out on an opportunity to make absurd utterances that the state belongs to her. They don’t give a hoot to the sentiments of the sons and daughters of the soil of the state. Whenever a controversy arises, the simple and honest Arunchalis would simply say we speak Hindi and we belong to India.

And can China be trusted? China’s past records are a distinct pointer to its clandestine character. The Chinese aggression of 1962 is a glaring one. What right did they have to act in an uncivilized manner? Even after failing in their evil intention to ‘annex’ Arunachal, they haven’t yet given up dreaming of making the state theirs. And how can India part with an integral part of it? The tug of war has not died down. China has shown no symptoms of giving up. It has become a chronic problem. The state has become the bone of contention between India and Pakistan. And Arunachal is fast becoming the next Kashmir! And heaven forbid, there would not be an area to be called China Occupied Arunachal (COA) at par with Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).

In their agenda

The northern neighbor has a long term agenda. She has plans to spread its tentacles over a large chunk of contiguous border with India. The vexed Tibet issue is a highly controversial issue. Peaceful Tibetans demonstrators were brutally cracked down. They have developed a railway line from its mainland to Lhasa, Tibet’s capital. With that they have tightened their gripped over Tibet. That’s not all; they are now planning to extend that up to Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital city. India’s small Himalayan neighbor would thus be under the Chinese web. These activities and plans do suggest that China has in their long term agenda, the intention to control the entire Himalayan belt near India. This would put China at a strategically vantage point and India would be at an awkward position. The weaving of the Chinese web has begun with Tibet. And in Myanmar, they are augmenting their influence by heavily investing in that country.

The fate

We all are aware of the fact that the nation beyond the border in this scenario is China. And China is not Pakistan! It is quite discomforting for India the Chinese activities in the borders areas. They are fast developing upgrading core infrastructures and infrastructures of strategic importance and in a massive scale. The implications of these activities along the border are too many. It gain exposes our neighbor’s intentions. Unless we develop the state on an unprecedented scale, we are going to pay a heavy price. Not just that, we have to carry that on in a war footing. It would be nightmare for us all if we...one day…will have to ask – Is the fate of AP is hanging by a thread? 

Or would Arunachal will remain just another bone of conetntion for an elogated and indefinite period of time? That is the big question.

Post Bin Laden Era: The First year

It was indeed a big triumph over terrorism when terror king bin Laden was terminated. The success of Operation Geronimo made one of the biggest news of the century. It sends a strong message to the whole world, that we can achieve a desired goal to contain terrorism if we are determined enough. The garrison town of Abbotabad in Pakistan where the Al Qaeda leader was killed by the US Navy SEAL commandos is located very near India. The town’s location is of significance as it is nestled in close proximity to India’s Jammu & Kashmir which the bone of contention for India and Pakistan and an area of cross border terrorism. He lived there for more than five years. So it also connotes that the highest value terrorist of the world lived well beside India and India didn’t even get wind of it during these five years or so!

India has been one of the worst sufferers of terrorism for a long time and as such India has a vast experience in dealing with terrorism. The experience can definitely work in favor of India. Various terror outfits in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India are linked to the world’s most dreaded terror outfit Al Qaeda which is responsible for the 9/11 attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York city. The US executed Operation Geronimo thousands of miles away from its mainland with astounding precision. But can India even fantasize of carrying on an operation like that and that too in a place very near to it? If India has the capability and would not opt for such type of operation is a different stance altogether. The idea is not blame India for anything. India might have never been interested in zero in on bin Laden instead of Dowd Ibrahim as Laden or his Al Qaeda have never been directly involved in activities against India. But at the same time various terror outfits in J & K or from across the border are linked to Al Aqaeda in some way of the other which pose a threat to India’s internal security as well. It si of utmost necessity for India now and in the current scenario is that it must tremendously upgrade its terror fighting capabilities basically on its own although doors of cooperation with other nations are always open. Although bin Laden’s termination was the biggest blow to global terrorism, we cannot assume that India’s own terror problem would be on the wane and in fact the problem will linger on. The scourge of it is far from dead anywhere. India must attach due weight age to its own terror problem to tackle it. Assam is one of the states in India that is for long brushing with the terror headache. Unless and until the country intensely draws up its long term terror control strategies, we cannot contain the scourge of it. However it is a fact that terrorism or the overall law and order scenario in India and especially in Assam is much better which is obviously a silver lining. But complacence can take a toll. On the other hand The Assam government too should prepare it own plans to eliminate terrorism in the state. Another positive feature is that now the people of Assam is more politically mature, economically better off and much more aware and alert of her security and law and order scenario compared to the what it was a decade ago. We cannot welcome political bickering or for it to continue for a longer time which will deteriorate the law and order situation in the state. India is surrounded by hostile or not-so friendly neighbors. Assam and the northeastern region are surrounded by unstable regimes and hostile nations. We cannot yet say we have good relations with Bangladesh or Myanmar. Bangladesh is a terrorist infested nation and is loaded with numerous Jihadi groups. Of late the India’s relations with Bangladesh have considerably improved which bodes well for the region. And you can never tell how Nepal will act in the future. Another neighbor China is powerful nation and this country is not Pakistan! Bhutan is the only nation India can trust which is already proven and tested. It is of utmost strategic necessity for India to upgrade her diplomatic clout while continually and considerably upgrading her defense infrastructure and technology. The trajectory of events provides a pointer that the nation must also create a formidable world class elite army as well.

The Pakistan Pandemonium

And Pakistan? What can be said of that country? Everyone, even the layman is aware that the nation has become synonymous with terrorism. It’s a pity and it’s a shame the neighboring nation of ours has become a hotbed of terrorism. After the bin Laden episode Pakistan’s embarrassment reached its pinnacle. Pakistan has the unique and notorious distinction of having the highest density of terrorists in the world! If that is not enough the international community has already labeled Pakistan as thenumero uno terror harboring nation. It is pretty unfortunate that India’s neighbor and one time integral part has become a terror breeding ground. So can India live peacefully? Pakistan is our neighbor we should always have friendly relations within that country for the sake of peace. The country has now ended up being the laughing stock. Its pride has razed to the ground. Pakistan has paid a heavy price for not controlling her terrorism problem long back. It is now hard to digest the fact that the Pakistan was once a part of India! What a strange, fatal fate!

The Post Laden mathematics has just begun!

Indo-Pak relations have gone sour after Laden’s death. Both countries are throwing tantrums at each other. Pakistan has sternly reacted to India’s statement that India too can execute an Operation Geronimo type mission if necessary. China is reacting in a subtle way that tends to only comfort Pakistan. Now that the Pak-US relations have gone awry, Pakistan is trying hard to salvage it by allowing the CIA to interview the four wives who are now in Pakistan’s custody.

The entire bin Laden episode up to its deadly end should be an eye opener for India. India can learn from the ‘mission to terminate Laden’ and can draw many conclusion probing and interpreting from India’s angle. The nation cannot afford to remain complacent, tardy and lethargic. Last but not the least India needs to overhaul its intelligence machinery.

Definitely we now find ourselves in post Laden era but not in post terror era where we all the peace loving lot can live peacefully in a peaceful and safer planet. Today bin Laden is dead, but not terrorism…

September Eleven and Beyond

9/11 was an enormous blot on humanity. It was a crime of unfathomable degree against entire humanity and an irredeemable sin. It reflected the best and the worst facets of humanity. Now as humanity huddle together in retrospect on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, they, once again, are in heartfelt remembrance of victims and heroes who fought hard risking their lives to save others. But this time it is of special significance because of the fact that in this very year 2011, the source of the evil ray of sin called Osama Bin Laden has been obliterated.

From September 11, 2001 to April 31, 2011, all the years in between, the entire humanity waited with patience with a heavy heart seeking justice, while America worked inexorably all through these years, each day and each night was ticking. And justice did come in the long run on April 31/2011, justice for those lives extinguished all at once because of a reprehensible act of a group of evildoers , of an act that reached the nadir, and of an act that had put the entire humanity into shame. Apparently the terrorists’ prime target was the Americans. How far have they succeeded in that? True, thousands died, but these thousands belonged to more than 90 countries. At the end of the day, what they did was massacre innocent thousands from across the globe.

Now the families, friends and loved ones of the 9-11 attack may find closure – president Obama declared said on Bin Laden’s death. Referring to Bin Laden’s death, the Prez said ‘Americans feel a great sense of closure because of that’. The firefighters and the police personnel gave their lives for a cause. They have their relatives and friends who will always remind us of them, who have turned twinkling like diamonds in the sky.

An Introspection:

Let us now switch to the introspection mode. Why it happened at all leads to another question. Did America or even the entire world imagine an incident like 9/11 before? No, they didn’t, not even in their wildest dreams. And America was too immersed in basking in the glory of being a superpower to foresee. It was a ‘virus’ that had eaten into the system. And they system had failed. The chronic nature of it built complacence which engulfed the nation. Complacence was the culprit. Braced and graced by the Atlantic in the east and the Pacific in the west, the United States of America is geographically nestled in a uniquely safe location. Add to that advantage the fact that the nation is only one in the whole wide world with super-nation status after the collapse of the erstwhile Soviet Union. The super-nation theory does justice if we not just look back on the two Great Wars but also on the tremendous developments in the spheres of science and technology as well. America’s superpower or super-nation status came into prominence mostly after the Second World War. And one day America stood ridiculously alone in the citadel of superpower with Russia’s loss of super-power status due to its break up and subsequent serious economic downturn. America became a lazy and complacent nation not knowing who to fight against now as the once very powerful Russia was no longer a foe. Maybe America needed a foe to flaunt its incredible strength and they found it in Osama Bin Laden and his terror outfit Al Qaeda, though in the initial stage the United States downplayed this foe as ‘wasn’t worth a hoot’. The cumulative euphoric feeling led to a notion like ‘We are invincible’. ‘No one can harm America’ had been the mindset for quite a long time. This sensitivity of pseudo-invincibility and complacence grew on America too well. Well now look at this…’no one can attack mainland America’ meant in a way, the nation was un-attackable from the outside only. But what if it is attacked from within? Well that was the striking theory the perpetrators of 9/11 resorted to. I would call this pregnant crab theory where the baby crabs tear up the belly of their mother from the inside to come out to the world. America never really went into the introspection mode as deep as this.

That fact that no nation is invulnerable holds true even for a superpower. Even a Goliath can be vanquished by a David. Here let me to draw your attention to a historic incident which was till that period unprecedented and the most shocking one in the history of independent America – Pearl Harbor! The heist of 1941 comes to the fore because of its relevance as we talk about America’s unparalleled trajectory of ‘defending’ since independence. In 1941 Japan did attack America from the outside but the attacked part Pearl Harbor is geographically well-detached from the mainland and is located thousands of miles away. However, it was a huge success all the way for Japan in the historic air-raid because of a big loophole in the American defense mindset as they were used to playing down the old adage ‘Never underestimate your enemy’. The incident had exposed America’s unpreparedness for such a transgression by a foreign party. After the catastrophe, the Americans were immediately filled with the feeling of compunction.

As more than seventy years have passed since Pearl Harbor, it was as if another catastrophe was on the prowl for 60 years to befall the humanity…to cause deaths and devastation… – Nine Eleven!