Our friendly Neighbourhood!

I'm talking of India and the friendly neighbourhood it finds itself in right now. It's extremely worrying and the sudden interest the US has had trying to turn Indian into an ally says it all!

Between the Taliban neighbour and the LTTE clashes India seems to be between the devil and the deep sea on quite the literal basis. One can't miss out on the Bangladeshi and Tibetian protests over some piece of land which belonged to them in 500 BC! None of the internal situations in each neighbouring country stops their folk from immigrating lock stock and barrel legal or illegally into India!

I always felt that the Indian govt. and the total Indian attitude to such situations has been kind of laid back. I've never seen an aggressive stance on any issue. It's either the dead bat approach or the cat which closed its eyes approach. This is a sure shot method to promote insurgency.

The situation is outright scary in the current scene of elections where the govt has turned selfish to gather votes rather than maintain some stability and security. You cant blame the govt officials as they might easily say its upto the army to maintain the security. But even the armed forces require some assertive leadership and their leadership looks to the govt for directions so its a confirmed mess.

One might wonder how all this affects NRIs. But I feel it affects them more as India is the anchor for them- the greatest source of stability and security. Any and every news about India is keenly followed and greatly magnified and thoroughly analysed. Patriotism is at its peak in all desi groups abroad and at its best. Overall the situation India faces, with its terrifying neighbours is more frightening than all these stories about recession and job losses!

When will India come out of this - Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you - peaceful approach?

This is SP expressing her deep set fears...