Wednesday, November 19, 2008
INDIA SHOULD BEWARE OF ENTRAPMENT IN SOMALIA WATERS
The news of Indian Navy sinking a pirate vessel may shoot the adrenaline up in some of the more exuberant ‘patriotic’ groups that are eternally suffering from insecurities and inferiority complex of one kind or another; but for more sober analysts, the development should appear to be fraught with dire possibilities for which neither India nor its people in general are prepared.
India, after the Manmohan Singh signed Indo-US strategic agreement, is being dragged into all the trouble spots of the world, where the US/UK/Israel axis had either suffered a big mauling or is not prepared to shed the blood of their own citizens, if that can be helped.
Manmohan Singh and his team should have kept the people of India aware of the downside of all these misadventures, which are being touted as the coming of age of India’s super power ambitions, if at all we ever had them. India’s age-old ethos is inward looking. It has never had the seven seas in its calculations to be able to enjoy a peaceful and contented life. It was a Mecca for others. It never ventured out to find another Mecca for itself and its people. Times have changed, but it does not have to be addressed by such a drastic manner, that Indian people have to sacrifice their inbred need and feeling for security to copy the more adventurous ways of the West that thrived on colonizing and dreaming up new versions of the New World Order, every turn of the season.
The coast of Somalia and its neighbours have a long history of lawlessness and entanglement with the western colonizers. India, for which Uganda of Idi Amin is still a nightmarish recollection, is poised to extend its relationship with African and Muslim world countries, under prodding by the Axis. If it starts with sending out war ships to engage elements that had never had a one to one with India, it would certainly be faced with a kind of public animosity from the people of Africa, who are not given to reason out right or wrong, when dealing with an outsider.
India has a big future of economic cooperation with Africa and the Middle East. If it is forced to follow the line of the Axis, by putting out its ‘armed might’ to get a new introduction with the New Africa, it is doomed to put the future of its people at great risk, both inside and outside its boundaries.
It could have better followed the Chinese example and should not have to be dragged into the great game of playing a new bwana in the bush land. It should beware of the Zionist New World Order planners, who thrive entrapping new victims into wars and strife to fulfill their own agenda and profit from the misfortune of others. History is too fresh for Indians not to recall how the two wars were managed by the conspirators and how even advance countries like UK and US had fallen to their machinations with eyes wide open.
India should learn from the history before it is dragged into bloody conflicts in other theaters, where its stake and its defences, at least for now, do not match up to make it worthwhile following through with knee-jerk reactions.
India’s responses to liberate the Indian captives on its hijacked ship, was a perfect example of how India has repeated and will repeat the Kandahar hijack scenario, by paying ransom rather risking the lives of its people.
Let us admit it, without any sense of false pride, that India and its people do not have the stomach to face such choices, and its leaders should remain fully aware of the limitations that its people impose on their capacity to play in the ‘big league’.
The Somali area is fraught with lawless people. They have bloodied much bigger and much stubborn armed nations than India. It is sheer foolishness to expose a soft bellied India and its people to such dubious misadventures, without fully realising the consequences of its failure.
India, whose top priority is to fight terrorism, will be inviting a new wave of challenges from terrorists of other persuasions that had not yet diverted their attention to the Indian peninsula.
No doubt, India had the luxury of basking in the neutral space between the two super power rivalries during the cold war. But to pick up the role of the policeman of the Indian Ocean should wait the demand by acclamations from the neighbours around the big lake. It should not be rushed on the malicious machinations of the discredited western axis.
India should be free to choose the manner and tenor of its new role in the area and goodwill rather than flexing the muscle-power should be the byword that should form its guiding mantra.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com
www.ghulammuhammed.wordpress.com
