Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Grow Up India, We are 62

This post is in fact an expansion of my comments on Ms Shobhaa De's blogpost " Grow Up ........ SRK"
It seems we as a country have not grown up even at 62.

Our Prime Minister goes abroad, talks to his Pakistani counterpart, de-links terror from talks with Pakistan in a joint statement, comes back and when cornered by the opposition parties, he tries to justify his goof up in Parliament and then ultimately back tracks.

When we talk of talks with Pakistan, whom are we referring to as Pakistan -- the civilian government, the military establishment, the ISI or the Taliban? In the past, every attempt at holding talks between the two countries has been followed by an attack by Pakistani forces on the Indian institutions in some form or the other.

Yesterday, our Prime Minister made an announcement on the electronic media about Pakistan planning terror attacks. Is there something new about Pakistan planning terror attacks ? And should a PM give out such warnings from roof tops to the common citizens. Should he not be calling the meeting of crack team responsible to take care of internal security of the country and call upon them to make fool proof arrangements to meet such attacks and then tell the countrymen about our preparedness. Though he was addressing the Chief Ministers of various states but then he should have kept that information to that forum only for them to take due preventive action in this regard. Or was he expressing his helplessness and was telling the countrymen to fend for themselves.

Or perhaps he was only sounding it to Pakistan to take that joint statement with a pinch of salt.

But then are Pakistani terrorists a real threat when a former union minister has threatened the union government that he will launch a militant movement to carve out a separate state of Telangana. And he is still roaming free.

On Saturday, the country was told about Shah Rukh Khan, one of our top film stars who got detained at an American airport for security screening. The electronic media erupted into telecasting different programmes on the subject including live shots from Newark and Chicago. Messages sent by TV viewers, sympathising with the film star and criticising America's security, started scrolling on the TV screens. A union minister hurriedly made a statement that we should treat Americans in the same way at our airports. I don't think any American will object to the security screening at our airports even if it is Brad Pit or Angelina Jolie, given the security discipline that they follow in their own country (the very reason that they did not have a second 9/11). It is we who will be falling head over heals to have a glimpse of those superstars.

Back in 2002, at one of the European airports, I was made to pass through a Door Frame Metal Detector (DFMD) several times, why because after having emptied my pockets of all the metallic objects like coins and keys, the DFMD still gave out a beep, every time i passed through it. It was only when i took out my small telephone diary (of the size of a match box) from my pocket which had tiny brass corners on its covers that the DFMD allowed me an entry. But then i am not a film star and more so, i understood their security concerns.

I don't blame SRK because as a film star he has to gain sympathy and publicity, but i was surprised at the statement of our union minister Ms. Ambika Soni who announced a tit for tat for the Americans. What is she trying to gain. Some browny points from voters for the next elections or some role in SRK's next film?

And then we have these BJP leaders who keep fighting over one man that is Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the father of Pakistan, who will be cursed one day by his own countrymen for having separated them from India.

Ms Shobhaa De has asked Shahrukh Khan to grow up. But why only Shahrukh, I will ask my countrymen to please grow up, more so our leaders, if at all we can call them leaders.

6 comments:

Monika said...

I agreee with u our leaders sure need to grow up

sigh

Balvinder Balli said...

Monika, thanks. Yes we all need to grow up. We need to show our maturity to the world if we are dreaming of superpowerhood in near future.

BK Chowla, said...

Balvinder,they will never grow up.They are bunch of silly self centred people.The PM messed-up when they signed a joint statement with Pak.Since then he is changing his stand often,but I think he is only doing so under the instructions of his political bosses.As for SRK is concerned,I don't think it is even worth discussing.

LazyKing said...

YAY for you. I always knew that India is a reaaly big force that we must pay attention on

Anonymous said...

I agree with everything you have expressed here.

I also heard the news announcement about chances of terror attacks... and the way the news readers analysed it... you are right, the first thing to do should have been to make required arrangements!

And I was also shocked by Ambika Soni's tit for tat idea.
Sometimes they are impossible to understand.

How could somebody make a statement like this with the media!?? For the entire nation to see.

Balvinder Balli said...

Mr. Chowla and

Indian Home Maker,

you are right. How come that a simple thing which a layman understands, these politicians don't. It seems that sometimes thay are just playing to the voters' gallery and don't really mean what they say and very easily back track from their statements blaming the listeners for having misinterpreted them.

Lazyking, thanks, yes India is emerging as a force to recon with but only if we have right men at right places.