DRAGON'S DUBIOUS TACTICS OF CONTAINING THE ELEPHANT

India,with each passing day, is gaining the economic weight, political respect,Global prominence and adding military might to its quiver of a rich cultural heritage and a proud civilization it aspires to be a global power but on the way getting mired in ugly unresolved border issues with its hostile neighbours. India and China, the posterchilds of the globalisation in the 21st century are playing the game of less co-operation and more confrontation in the region . The major source of discontent is one of the largest unresolved border disputes in the world between them which had drawn the two nations to war in 1965. China wary of India's growth in the last two decades started putting cogs to arrest the emergence of another global power in Asia through varoius dubious means like using Pak as a proxy to wreck havoc in India, triggering border skirmishes at regular intervals and cosmetizing India's hostile and freiendly neighbours with its questionable aids.

The Chinese always wanted to thortlle the Indian growth story through their dubious diplomacy with their all weather failed state friends to project itself as the sole powerhouse of the region. They are putting string of pearls in a necklace around the geographical border of our country starting from the failed attempt to instate a puppet regime in neighbouring Nepal to the so called infrastructure developement of the Srilankan ports in the gulf of Mannar for getting acess to that strategic sea lane to the cutting of Karakoram for getting access to Karachi port in the Arabian sea to the dabbling in the internal affairs of Myanmar for inciting the separatist movement in our north eastern borders. They are slowly encircling the sleeping elephant who is disregarding the imminent strategic threat that is looming large enough to warrant a quick response from our state. But our strategic foresight challenged politicians are turning a blind eye to the encircling giving a quick retort of no imminent threat keeping loads of faith in our largest hostile neighbour. Even when the PLA came to our territory in north-western and north eastern part making our motherland redpainted, nobody from the govt even dared to condemn it strongly in the public. They started giving stapled visas to the People of J&K which is an integral part of India and recently to the Kabadi team of Arunachal Pradesh which is unacceptable and totally uncalled for. How come they will deny visa to an army personel who happens to serve in Kashmir. Still the political establishment of the country taking them for an easy ride not showing strong displeasure or issuing diplomatic demarche over the treatment meted out to our citizens.

The Chinese are flooding the Indian market with their cheap manufacturing goods rendering the local entrepreneurs of the nation black and blue leading to a bloated negative trade balance. They even tried to scuttle the loan disbursal from Asian Developement Bank for infrastructure developement projects in Arunachal Pradesh which they succeeded in doing so. Such is the level of China's maladroitness of repeated attempts for putting break on NewDelhi's wheel of growth.The country that was chided for its criticism of the nobel peace prize to one of its citizen jailed for dissent tried to apply pressure tactic on us not to attend the peace prize ceremony at Oslo. The only time our govt stand upto them answerd them befittingly by attending the same.

The ruling political establishment lacks the courage and strategy to deal with the aggressive Chinese. Everytime they made an aggressive move, our politicians started to defend the wrongmove they have taken instead of dealing with a iron hand. It looks the Ministry of External affairs is so submissive that they are totally discarding the imminent threat inspite of evidence like the case of diversion of Brahmaputra.The MEA totally discarded it in the first instance but later it have to bite the dust after getting the evidences of the same. The ministry even taken a soft stand when the Chinese expressed their reservations over the visiting of our PM to Arunachal Pradesh. A country that aspires to become a global power cannt afford to have such a somnolent Ministry of External Affairs.

The govt should rise to the challenge of devising a aggressive counter China strategy to deal with the Chinese. Hit them hard where it hurts the most. Here are some of the issues that are anathema to China.Give diplomatic recognition to the Taiwan nullifying their one China policy. Clamour for free floating of the Yuan instead of manipulation by the state. Campaign for the human rights violation by the state and gather support from the littoral countries of South China Sea for international mediation for the resolve of the dispute. Create a bulwark of defence with the help of Japan, South Korea and USA in Asia.The quadrilateral military excercise involving Japan,US & Australia should be a priority for India to counter the aggressive Dragon in the Indian & Pacific ocean.

I hope the govt will learn from the past and have a counter China strategy in place so that next time when China throws aggression at us, our govt will stand upto them without bucking under mounting presuure.

Jai Hind.

INDIA: A NONPAREIL OF A VIBRANT DEMOCRACY

India is the envy of the world's democratic naysayers who spelled doom for us when we gained independence from the English and some even joked India is too large a geography to be democratic foreboding early balkanization. But we Indians proved them, the prophets of doom wrong. Here we are standing tall as the largest democratic citadel of the world, the 4th largest economy and an emerging superpower in the 21st century. The miracle of the 21st century is India's sailing through the chaotic democracy to the 4th largest economy in the echelons of world economic order.Yes, every state is having their own pros and cons irrespective of the type of government they have and so do we in a democracy. But the most important beauty of the democracy like ours is the right to every eligible citizens to chose their representative to govern themselves. In the wake of the Arab spring uprising, we feel lucky not to be ruled by the Mubaraks, the Gadafis and the Asads, our blogs in the internet not to be censored, not to be gunned down for protesting against corruption, not to be put down in jail for showing dissent to the government but we are unlucky to have our infamous Rajas and Kalmadia which is taken care of by a strong judiciary system of the country making sure the law of the land is supreme and equal for all. Those internationalists who thought Indian Democracy is a dishevelled one in the wake of 2G and Kalmadi saga should note that those who responsible for that are behind bars. The writ of the state and the law of the land are supreme and are equal for all even though you are a political heavyweight or a business tycoon. The pillars of the democracy have strong fundamental foundations inscripted in our constitution.

A vibrant democracy 's strength multiplied by many a fold with a stronger judiciary system and a vibrant media. The Indian media played a vital role in our quest for a corruption free society exposing the scandals, taking the cause of common man, raising environmental issues , finding the developemntal gaps in the hinterland and making aware the citizen about their rights. Every wrong move of a public servant is questioned and challenged and thrown to the public.We dont censor our press and issue gag order to our journalists unlike some muzzling every form of media having a sate control over it in the fear of a public backlash. Can we muzzle the press in India ?It seems to be alien to us. Moreover why we at all will muzzle the press, we are not doing forceful eviction of people for big projects and not beating up the dissenters and not feared of netizen bloggers.Our media is ultra proactive in keeping the govt at its toe in delivering its responsibilities. The media amplifies the sound of our chaotic democracy to a higher decibel.

Those economists/developement pundits who hold our democracy responsible for not achieving double digit growth, for our slow decision making process, for not speeding up the reform process and for not getting the lands for big ticket projects should keep in mind that we work in a people centric democratic enevironment where everybody have a say unlike authoratarian approach in some of our neighbouring country. Yes we are slow in decision making process and so on.. but we take pride in taking every stakeholder onboard for a unanimous decision with a sustainable approach without coercing them to agree with. It may dilly dally the process, but in the end it will be the people's decision. If at any point of time the govt became autoctaric, not responsive to people's demand, afflicted with corruption, contaminated with nepotism, people with vote them out like the recent assembly elections in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The biggest weapon in the hand of the common man to fight for his rights is a vote with a strong judiciary system and a vibrant fourth estate.

We always remain a open democratic society, where the democratic values are held high, opposition's view are respected, people's voice are heard, law of the land are obeyed, where every religion coexists, where every human rights values are respected, every govt is held accountable to the public and every citizen is guaranteed his constitutional rights. This is India, a nonpareil of a vibrant Democracy to the world.

OBAMA'S SOUTH ASIA STRATEGY:WAITING FOR A TECTONIC SHIFT

The murderer is murdered, the haunter is haunted, the terrorist is shot down,the devil has gone to hell, the world became a safer place. The hunting down of the most wanted terrorist of the world in the midnight of the sunday by the elite USA navy SEALs in a millionarie mansion in Abottabad, a fortified garrison town home to the Pak military academy without the knowledge of the pak military surprised the world. The americans erupted in joyous celebration waving national flags across america welcomed the death of one of the greatest murderers of the mankind in the modern era. The president of USA jubilantly said Justice has been done and that day was a good day for America. While the USA and its allies revelled in the successful hunting down of the dreaded criminal after almost an decade, it throws open some important questions. What will be America's next strategy in the South Asia? What about Af-Pak Policy? where it will go now?

America's south Asia policy mainly revolves around India, Pakistan and Afghanistan which are separately discussed.

Pakistan's war on terror is exposed and its military militant nexus became public. The Americans are furious on Pak. How come a country getting billions of dollars in aid annually for the fight against terror can shelter the most wanted terrorists right inside the garrisson town near the national capital. The former dictactor Musharuf had repeatedly told the world that either Osama is killed or is in Afghanistan. How can Pak defend itself from such a blatant lie. Adding salt to injury America unilaterally publicly declared that the operation was carried out solely by american military without the involvement of Pakistan. The already strained relationship after the incident of CIA agent Raymond Davies is heading towards south. The congress back home in America will question the logic of continuing the aid to Pak through Kerry Lugar Bill. If they block the aid then pak will asphyxiate for its economic and military sustenance.The higher echeleons of USA started questioning the committment of Pak on the war on the terror. Without the American aid and support Pak will be left in the lurch with its all weather friend China in the region. The role of Pak in Afghanistan will be questioned overtly in international diplomatic circles. USA will now no more be blackmailed by pakistan for more aid in return for joining the war on terror after the death of Osama, who was the bargaining tool for Pak. The bad news already doing the rounds is that President Obama will not visit Pak which he promised during his visit to India in last November will be another blow to Pakistan.

The death of Osama would not have come at a better time than this when Obama administration is chalking out its exit strategy from Afghanistan. This will definitely boast the rating of Obama in the coming presidential election in 2012. The strong statement made by the secretary of state Hillary Clintron to Taliban after the death of Osama signifies that the process for flushing out Taliban will be hastened and the responsibility of security will be handed over to the Karzai Govt in a phased manner very soon. The bulgeoning defence budget is already putting strain on the national exchequre snowballing the budget deficit. So the Af-Pak strategy will be recalibrated where Pak will have minimal say unlike before.

Now everybody around the world including USA knew it is a open secret that who give sanctuary to the terrorists which India is saying to the world for the decades. The perpetrator of the 26/11 are still roaming free in the alleys and labyrinths of Pak with impunity where the state protects them like Osama in a masion in a cantonment area. The nothward juggernaut of Indo-US relationship and the southward Pak-USA relation is a boon for India. The tightening of the aid will definitely restrict the military procurement of Pak meant to be used against India. The Image deficit of Pak military,ISI and its civilian leadership will put them in the Backfoot in SouthAsia and will be viewed with suspicion globally.The Indo-US relationship which is on the right track after the strategic Indo-US Nuclear deal will flourish as USA is fully backing India as a counterweight to China in the region and India's aspiration to attain the global superpower status with backing from USA.

So the death of Osama will cause a sea change in America's South Asia policy especially towards its chequered ride with Pak and its Af-Pak policy.