With Great Power comes Great Responsibility: India & the UNSC

It’s been 69 years since India became an Independent nation. The leaders that formed the government then thought that the time was right for India to govern itself. The government today believes that India is ready to be part of a committee that aims to keep the world secure, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). To this end, they have been looking for support from every quarter with the constant spate of foreign visits Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already made to several nations since his government came to power in 2014.

They feel the time is right for India to take its rightful place, seeing as it considers itself a leader in Asia. It is looked upon by various South Asian nations as a big brother, an insurance policy of some kind, against the threat that an aggressive China poses in the region.

For & Against India’s seat

But India has apparently failed in impressing contemporary world leaders who have opposed India’s most recent bid to restructure the UNSC like its reluctant friend US President Barrack Obama and its long-time ally Russian President Vladimir Putin. The third nation, China, in spite making tall claims of friendship during President Xi Jinping’s diplomatic visit, is still a regional rival along with another claimant to a permanent seat, Japan. However, the other two permanent members, France, under President Francois Hollande and the United Kingdom, under Prime Minister David Cameron, support India’s bid.

Other Contenders

Along with India, the other G-4 nations, comprising of Germany, Japan, and Brazil have all longed for a permanent seat in the UNSC. Germany, because of its GDP, which is the fourth largest in the world, Japan, because of its regional (albeit muted) power status in Asia, and Brazil, by virtue of being the only regional power in South America.

Shortcomings

Although India is slated to be the most populous country in the world by 2022, although its economy is great as an emerging market, although it has a stable democratic structure and although it is a responsible nuclear state, India hasn’t exactly been doing what one would expect members of a ‘security council’ to do.

• India hasn’t sent help to the coalition fighting terrorist groups outside its borders
• India is not involved in helping bring back a democratic government in Yemen
• India didn’t until very recently stand up for or attempt to mediate the conflict brewing in the South China Sea.
• India hasn’t spoken up on human rights issues in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
• India stood passively by in the Iran nuclear deal.
• India hasn’t done anything for the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.

When you take a look at all these conflicts that India has deliberately avoided, stayed out of, skirted or just verbally condemned, it is hard to imagine that this country is a regional power which will do anything at all, even if it does get a permanent seat at the UNSC.

Favourable Statistic

However, there is one thing that certainly goes in India’s favour and that is the number of personnel it has sent to the United Nations Peacekeeping Force. India has sent 8,112 people and is third in terms of this contribution, Bangladesh and Pakistan holding the first and second positions respectively. The permanent members come nowhere close to matching these numbers.

Unfortunate Reality

However, merely these numbers cannot hide the fact that India has in fact chosen neutrality and made the decision to stay aloof from world conflicts even in this age of co-operation. Although India now contests that it just needs a two-third majority in the UN General Assembly to get a seat, the problem is that India might fall short on its claim to be able to handle that much power without taking on responsibility.

Owning up to the Real Issues at Hand

We see and are a part of a number of things that are wrong in society in daily life. We want to make them better, we want to be better as a civilization and we strive towards that very common goal with the rest of humanity.

But we sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture either by quickly finding someone to blame or getting caught up in unnecessary nuances that hide the real issue, which is then left to stagnate and dealt with at a later date.

Image Courtesy: pinterest.com

These are the issues that really need to be dealt with, the crux of the matter, the questions we should really be asking. Divided by categories, here are the real issues and their tangents we have been obsessing over.

Crime

Radhe Maa in a skirt or Radhe Maa abetting suicide

The self-styled ‘Godwoman’ known as Radha Maacame into the news recently for her apparently racy photos in which she is wearing a short skirt or a dress. Although the real issue of her involvement in the death of a woman in a dowry case came to light, everyone was obsessed more about her short skirt than her abetment of suicide. That says more than one thing about the Indian mindset.

Defence

Japan’s new defence bill or Chinese aggression in South Asia

Everyone, from pacifists, to students, to academicians, to the common people are opposing a bill cleared by the lower house of Japanese parliament that will allow their military to help their allies fight threats. This means, Japanese forces will once again be able to deploy beyond their shores. What is not being taken into consideration however, is the Chinese aggression in the South China Sea that is taking a turn for the worse and Japanese self-defence may be reliant on reciprocation of the same to its allies.

Social Issue

Politics or Human Rights in the Israel-Palestine conflict

Political deadlock between Israel and Palestine seems to have become a permanent feature for that part of the world. With uncompromising parties on both sides giving no room for a peaceful reconciliation, the conflict seems in no hurry to end. However, human rights abuses, both by militant groups as well as police forces seem to be sidelined in favour of sovereign territorial disputes, settlements and violence on the streets.

Culture & Heritage

Protecting Monuments or Stopping Conflict

Cultural heritage all over the world is in constant danger of being enveloped into the conflicts that result in their unnecessary destruction or the threat thereof. The destruction f the Bamiyan Buddhas (Afghanistan), the looting of Iraqi national museum (Iraq), the allegations of the Taj Mahal being a temple (India) and the threat to Palmyra’s ruins (Syria) is very real and disheartening. Religious intolerance and conflict will continue to exist till there is a shift in mindset or in vested interests, but heritage will not come back once it is destroyed.

Education

The Porn Ban or the need for Sex Education

Amidst the uproar on whether the Indian government has any right to tell its citizens what to watch on the internet due to them banning over 800 porn sites, the real point of sex education and its despondent state in Indian education has been lost. The government has cited immorality as its feeble excuse to try to get away with its regressive policy but all everyone can be bothered with is the right to watch porn. What about the real bad effects it has on children? The answer is lost in the echoes of morality, decency and the freedom of the internet.

Religion

Fanaticism or Blame Game

Religious fanaticism exists in almost every religion and even examples seem unnecessary in this case. How much ever one tries to deny it, everyone knows that fringe elements exist in every religion, the people who are either too naïve to figure out that they are pawns in a bigger game and those who do so for their own vested interests. But popular concentration seems to be on placing the blame not on these elements alone but on a broader spectrum of people, most of whom abhor these elements and wish to see them wiped out as much as any sensible human being.

Time for a reality Check, maybe?

Hence, to say then that we aren’t actually facing up to the real threat wouldn’t be much of an overstatement. Time to see things in a broader perspective, don’t you think?

Shashi’s Seven minute Succinct Speech on Saying Sorry

Quite the tongue twister that one, eh? Yeah, that’s what happens when you try to work a little too hard on your title. You end up making a tongue twister that hardly anyone can read, much else dare to click on the link and read the supposedly equally horrifying content contained under such a dubious head line. However, coming to the topic at hand...

The Statesman who almost did things

Dr Shashi Tharoor
Image Courtesy: thehindu.com

Dr Shashi Tharoor, the man who almost headed the United Nations, the man who knows almost everything about socio-economic India in the present age; this man almost brought the British Empire down to its knees at the ‘Reparations debate’ at the Oxford Union Society. The proposition was that Britain owed reparations to her former colonies for their colonization.

The Case for an Apology

The British Empire Anachronous
Image Courtesy: The Red Hat of Pat Ferrick

Dr Tharoor spoke eloquently for the proposition, made mockery of the opposition, cited statistics, and even managed to calculate to a certain extent, how much Britain needs to pay India if she decides to do so. But, in the midst of all the financial talk, he said something that made perhaps more sense than everything else put together: The need to accept a mistake and say sorry. To pay or not to pay is a matter of ambiguous uncertainty but to say that a debt is indeed owed is what is important.

Indirect genocides through the inaction of the British Empire through various famines and the active participation in human rights abuse is something that needs to be accepted. Although it is true that a deliberate mass killing was not initiated but the death toll and one psychological, need to be addressed.

The Unanswered Question

However, one question does remain unanswered.

Sixty-eight years on, do Indians even care about reparations, and for that matter, do any of the former colonies who have since then stabilized, settled into their democratic framework and progressed with the world into the 21^st century?

This question is not meant as an insult to all those who fought for our freedom or who lost their near and dear ones either fighting for or against British rule in India. Only time and the unearthing of bones long put to rest will tell whether we are indeed capable of holding on to an almost seven decade long grudge against people long dead and dusted.

Keeping the Peace: The UN Peacekeeping Force

The world celebrates the UN Peacekeeping Day today, the 29^th of May, but it hardly garners attention anywhere except in the camps of 16 operation bases around the world where the Peacekeeping force is striving to bring stability, establish the rule of law and end conflicts without resorting to war.

Strife is a global phenomenon and even now multiple armed conflicts are in progress either in the form of ethnic clashes, civil war, terrorism, dictatorships, coups or full scale war. More often than not, it is superpowers that intervene by either coercing or forcing both parties to co-operate and act as mediator but it may also happen that these nations may take sides in these conflicts.

This is the time where the need for a global non-partisan peacekeeping force betrays its importance. The UN Peacekeeping Force, comprising of personnel from all over the world, is the perfect third party to bring about a resolution to conflict.

The biggest contributors to the force are not the nations you expect. Expect surprises in the figures below which have been sourced from the UN website. These are the total number of personnel contributed by the nation:

1. Bangladesh – 9307
2. Pakistan – 8163
3. India – 8112
4. Ethiopia – 7864
5. Rwanda – 5575
6. Nepal – 5316
7. Senegal – 3570
8. Ghana - 3053
9. Nigeria - 2975
10. Egypt – 2937

Well, wasn’t that a surprise? Apart from the fact that none of the five nations that comprise of the United Nations Security Council feature in this list, the fact that the nations of the Indian sub-continent rank in the top 6 certainly show how much these nations and African countries who complete this list actually strive for world peace in spite of claims that they don’t contribute to the war on terror.

Image Courtesy: defencetalks.net

Although China makes it to the 11^th rank in the list of contributors to the Peacekeeping Force, the rest of the Big 5 are nowhere near. Here are the contributions of the Permanent seat holders in the UNSC:

1. China – 2899
2. France – 924
3. UK – 288
4. Germany – 194
5. USA – 95

This however, is not a condemnation of nations but a realization that those on whom the least expectation is placed often turn out to be front-runners in hindsight. It must also be noted that although these ‘developed’ nations my not directly be involved in the peacekeeping Force, they are the ones leading the alliance against major terrorist forces in the world today.

Although the force of arms is hardly the correct way to bring about peace, it is sometimes required to bring to sense to those who would prefer violence over cordial means and chaos over stability to establish control. This makes the UN Peacekeeping Force not just an interlocutor but a necessity in these times of grave turmoil.

On this day, the world should remember the lives given for the greater good of the world. People in conflict zones are actually thankful for the role these brave men and women have played in bringing some amount of calm to their days of unending warfare and nights filled with sobs stemming from constant nightmares. These angels of peace in Blue are worthy of the respect and reverence reserved for the highest form of sacrifice above and beyond the call of duty.

Sweden plays a 'Gay' prank on Russia

Russia’s constant transgression into the Scandinavian nations’ sovereign territory has forced the Swedes to come up with a unique plan to shock and terrify the intrusive submariners into reversing their turbines and heading straight for the nearest Red naval base.

Bringing together a matter of national security and an important social issue to the same platform to address the Russian threat, Sweden has decided to lower a neon sign into the area where a Russian submarine was recently spotted.

This large underwater billboard advertises this: “Welcome to Sweden. Gay since 1944.”

The sign also sends out a message in Morse code to the effect, “This way if you are gay.”

Image Courtesy: dailymail.co.uk

This innovative method of intimidation of Russian forces by the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (SPAS), while hilarious and probably terrifying at the same time, is also a commentary on homophobia and on growing concerns of a massive security threat by nations that are not aligned with NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).

According to the Independent, there have been around 39 incidents of the Russian armed forces entering other nations, intercepting cargo and passenger transports, abducting foreign citizens, flying dangerously close to NATO reconnaissance aircraft, circling naval vessels and positioning ships at the edge of other nations’ boundaries.

And despite this serious escalation of military activity, this organization has managed to put a farcical spin on things to turn the situation into a hilarious riot that, if implemented, will probably end up embarrassing Russia and its leader Putin, to no end.

It is however very saddening to see how homosexuality can still be used as a ‘weapon of shame’ in this day and age. Living in a nation that is against homosexuality to the point of making it a cognizable offence in the eyes of the law, it is easy to see how uncomfortable the very mention of the ‘taboo’ topic makes people. India even supported Russia’s anti-gay rights bill at the United Nations so the only difference between the two is that India hasn’t invaded anyone as yet.

Count your Casings: India out of Ammo

With mounting pressure on the Indian AirForce to induct more fighter planes to bring the country’s air defence capabilities to its full complement and to replace aging fighters that are killing off pilots even in times of peace, a new report by the CAG now claims that India can fight a war for only twenty days before it goes bankrupt on ammunition, leaving artillery battalions silent and soldiers scrambling to stab the enemy in hand to hand combat.

The CAG has slammed the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft for being only 35% indigenous, which means that 65% of its parts are sourced from other countries. So much for the Indian aircraft industry! The state of air defence seems to be much worse considering that the induction of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (PAK-FA) is some time away and those are also being developed in Russia. The government has had to make rushed deals with foreign governments like France for quick induction of fighter aircraft at a higher price because Indian red tape can’t be avoided even in such dire circumstances.

The constant costly upgrades to the older Russian MiG and Sukhoi planes which should already have been decommissioned are eating into the defence budget. And still, the news of constant crashes due to malfunctions and burnouts resulting in the deaths of pilots and civilians are a stark reminder that India is playing a dangerous game with its sovereignty what with the threat of border incursions and artillery fire being regular events along its lines of control and disputed areas.

Image Courtesy: taxrates.com

On the ground, there isn’t enough ordnance to last for more than 20 days while the official requirement is that ammunition reserves should last for 40 days of intense warfare. Apart from that, all kinds of ammo required for the different types of weaponry also aren’t available. Apart from the snail pace at which production is in India, the procurement of the same is so slow that it cannot catch up with operational requirement till the year 2019.

Only the Indian Navy seems to made progress that is quite remarkable in light of the failures of the other two services. The INS Arihant submarine completed India’s nuclear triad. A stealth warship INS Shivalik, an indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant and the commissioning of a naval base in Gujarat have multiplied the force of the nation’s armada. The Indian navy also proved itself immensely capable of operating in a highly volatile conflict zone by evacuating civilians from Yemen.

However, the lack of ammunition for all the defence equipment the country possesses is a serious threat to national security. What is the point of a gun without bullets? Firing blanks won’t help chase out intruders, they’ll only serve to fool people who watch Hollywood movies.

Image Courtesy: weaponsman.com

Beyond Boundaries

Today I was watching a lesser known film titled ‘Einstein and Eddington’. For those who have not yet had the chance of watching it, the film is the tale of two scientists, one German and the other English, set in the backdrop of the First World War and meaning to show how science, which was at that time, the right hand of the military, transcended national identities to give a clearer picture of the universe as we know it today.

This blog post is not a review of the film but rather an amalgamation of thoughts that it evoked at its outset.

Image Courtesy: Google Images.

The correspondence of scientists from two countries at war on a planet that is so miniscule that it fades into insignificance at the magnitude of the theory that one of them developed and the other attempted to prove says something about human endeavour and its burning passion for knowledge even in the most brutal of times.

The 1900s were probably not the best of times for free scientific research because of the pressures of continuous conflicts and the race to be at the forefront of technological innovation that was spurred on by warring factions in Europe.

Today, the times are different and collaboration has reached a level where it’s difficult to pinpoint which country developed what because scientific approach today is one where the entire race is benefited from work towards a common goal by shared research and development.

It is almost magical (and that’s an ironical adjective to use) to see how correspondence between two great and open minds helped to establish the new laws of gravity and its behaviour in the universe. What’s more is that an English scientist helped a German scientist prove Sir Isaac Newton wrong.

This uncommon, possibly dangerous and mildly traitorous collaboration at that time brought about future discoveries that would have otherwise been delayed by decades of war. And all it took was one moment of courage and determination by one scientist to pose a question to another who was looking to answer that very question but didn’t know how to.

This goes a long way in showing how much good humanity is capable of; it speaks of a glimmer of hope amidst the devastation of war and the continuous search for the truth in the bleakest times of barbarity that can be conjured up. The same mind that can unravel whole civilizations can also unravel the threads of the universe.

Humanity has two faces and even though it might feel like the good side is faded beyond recognition, it shines more brilliantly at the worst of times to give hope and satisfaction to those with faith.

Legitimate Targets

Two days back, the wife of a terrorist leader was captured by the Lebanese armed forces. This came three days after the wife and child of another terrorist leader were captured by the same army. Whether this says something about their intelligence source or is pure dumb luck is another matter; what came after these arrests is what is really amusing.

The latest arrest was of the wife of a regional al-Qaeda commander who is apparently very upset about this particular development unlike al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS), another terrorist group, who didn’t even blink at the arrest of one of his wives and a child.

The al-Qaeda guy however, lost his cool and declared every woman, child and man in Lebanon legitimate targets for his terrorist operation. He demanded his spouse be released or the holding forces be ready to face his mighty wrath that would befall anyone within the blast radius of his ‘holy’ bombs.

Commander, with all due disgust, allow me to explain how you’re just stating something that is so passé that even the guy sending your message to the army is chuckling at your naivety.

Image Courtesy: Google Images.

Did you really not blow up innocent people before this? Have you never sent suicide bombers to blow up a busy marketplace or a place of religious worship before? Do you not already have the blood of innocents on your hands and on your soul? Have you not blackened your heart with the funeral fires of thousands of people who died because of your fight for ‘God’?

How can you say that these innocents are legitimate targets now? Was massacring them illegitimate before? Then why did you do it? Do you deny it? No? Why am I not surprised?

How do you expect God to be proud of you when you try to forward your vested interests in His name? You do not want people to fear God, you want them to fear you. You want to give reason to your madness and so you keep telling yourself, your mindless followers and the world that what you’re fighting for is a ‘holy war’ and not to make yourself king of the mountain.

You are no better than the ‘legitimate’ dictators, both, ruling and deposed. In fact, at some level they are better than you because they make no pretence of the fact that they want power. You cower behind your imaginary excuses and the lie atop the bodies of the slain with a ‘legitimate’ reason.

You talk of legitimacy? You have no right. Your wife is probably safer in the army’s hands than are the possibly hundreds or thousands of women that your brainwashed ‘holy warriors’ have raped and murdered to satisfy their ‘holy’ selves. You cannot speak of legitimacy. The very word is dishonoured by being present upon your tongue.

The only thing legitimate by human standards is for you and others like you to hang for your crimes against mankind.

The Battle for all Mankind

Months have passed since this blog saw a post on its virtual wall and still readers are hoping to see something worthwhile here. I am honoured. With this post, I’m hoping to be back on the Blogosphere with the same zeal that I entered into it with.

The world is going through a rough phase, a very rough one. Humanity as a whole today has the curse of battling two adversaries, both capable enough to wipe them out or corrupt them to a degree beyond which it would be virtually impossible to go back to life as it knows it. Both are also incapable of shaking the human spirit and will if world chooses to come together and fight the pincer attack that Mother Nature and human nature have encircled us with.

The two-pronged attack brought about by the pride of man and his greed is a test of human commitment and co-operation at the highest level. This test can either force us to withdraw into ourselves even more or come together to fight an enemy of the entire race.

The Ebola virus. Credit: Google Images.

On one hand is the dreaded virus that has affected more than 10,000 people and threatens to overrun the human race if not contained and decimated. On the other hand is the radical religious group that threaten to plunge the world into the third World War in order to establish its caliphate in the Middle-East. Between the both of them, they are capable enough to make sure that we are either decimated or at the very least, set back by decades in terms of advancement. And, if one were to use the other in propagating its means to achieve its ends, it’s going to be even more dangerous because if the virus has killed so many people in its natural form, it is unimaginable to think what havoc its weaponized form could cause.

And at this time, when international co-operation is in the best interests of the world, India, or rather its government has decided not to be part of any coalition battling these killers. Neither has it sent forces to battle the terrorist threat, nor has it sent medical personnel to battle the Ebola virus.

Proposed Islamic State Caliphate. Credit: Google Images.

The Islamic State’s influence has already reached India and it is just a matter of time before Ebola does and nobody who is Indian needs to be reminded of the fact that we are not in a position to contain an epidemic of such proportions, and we will not be in such a position for a very long time. Help begets help. If not out of compassion, the Indian government needs to send help to fight on both these fronts to make sure that they never reach our doorstep.

We are non-aligned in war, but need we be non-aligned in every international coalition? Can we not recognize the need to take active prevention measures before an action by the enemy forces a reaction that may be too late to prevent the loss of life that is inevitable in a nation such as ours?

For long we have remained the Switzerland of Asia but perhaps it is now time to recognize that if we want to be recognized as the South-Asian powerhouse we claim to be, we need to step up and do something to prove it. This is not a battle for the USA or Africa; this is the battle for mankind.

Unholy Deeds in the Holy Land and Beyond

Today, even as you are reading this, hundreds of people are dying, thousands are already dead millions are homeless refugees and the countless dead weep for those still alive in this rotten civilization. It almost seems like a prophecy, what Jesus said to the weeping women of Jerusalem on the way to the cross, “Weep not for me but for your children…”

Perhaps he was referring to these later generations who would fight each other millennia later, not against an invader but amongst themselves. As it has been, so it shall be again and again and again till the end of time. Man will continue to be ambitious, greedy, selfish and hungry for more power than he can possibly control, just because he can and not because he needs to.

Time and again has history seen that when a people are bound too tight, they will attempt to free themselves of their chains in order to claim the one thing that is theirs by divine right – Freedom. Speaking from the viewpoint of faith, even God it is said has given Man free will to do with life as He pleases. Then why do men bind men in the chains of slavery when some higher power thought not to do so? But mankind has always yearned to bind their brethren and the afflicted have always sought liberation.

It’s just not about Gaza, it’s about… everywhere! Ukraine, Central African Republic, Iraq, Thailand and everywhere else that there is strife among people of the same family. There may be different reasons and they may be right or wrong but the part that is beyond comprehension is the need to pick up arms at all.

Central African Republic

Gaza

   

 

Thailand

Iraq

Ukraine

Some invaders call themselves liberators and some righteous but what is ultimately right? It is not what contemporaries believe and it is not what can be seen from afar or within; history always belongs to the victors and though there may be parallel histories, the one believed always belongs to those who manage to survive what holocaust either one managed to conjure up to make life miserable for the common people upon whose shoulders they balance their ‘Gun of Liberation’, ‘Tank of Freedom’ or ‘Missile of justice’.

It is just incredibly sad to think of all those people homeless, wounded and seeking refuge from foreign governments who would deign to reach out to them, their own government incapable of providing for its own people.

I believe that humans want revolution but it is often without evolution which becomes the greatest hindrance for anything new to take root, but that is something for another time perhaps…

Images courtesy of: Google Images.