Alarm Bells on Indian Democracy

Whether India ever had a good diplomatic stand on national and international affairs is a question that should be addressed. It can be argued that India had had a good reputation among the other countries during the time of Nehru as he envisaged NAM. Even later, India continued to go on in the same path.

However, on close scrutiny of whether it served any purpose to the nation, the uselessness of the entire affair will be revealed. While analyzing some of the recent instances, with India on the one side and some prominent or lesser prominent nations on the other, would show how poorly the nation’s interests have been served. We can see “nation’s interest” in its broad sense, but the narrow sense has never been served in certain cases, ranging from Italian Mariners’ eventful act of killing Indian fishermen in the Indian Ocean, Sarabjith Singh’s case in the Pakistan prison, the border disputes with China, and the surveillance of USA over other nations and the subsequent request of Snowden for shelter in India. These issues raise certain serious questions on whose interest is being served.

Still, the burden is on the White Man’s shoulders.

Two fishermen were allegedly killed by the Italian mariners from the ship, which anchored in the Indian coast. The Kerala Police arrested the mariners alleging them with the direct involvement in the incident. This had resulted in a serious diplomatic conflict between India and Italy.



When Italy firmly argued that the incident happened in the international waters, and subsequently held the view that the issue should be treated in the International Court, India theoretically defended the argument while bending in front of the white men. From the archbishop of one church to most senior members in the cabinet show their allegiances to Italy. Even now, no fair conduct has been taken on the matter.

Sarabjith Singh: A Victim of the Cat and Mouse Game called India-Pak Relations

Who was Sarabjith Singh? How did he reach Pakistan? What did India do for saving him? These are the questions, for which we may get innumerable answers. Right from the beginning, India and Sarabjith’s family held the view that he was a poor farmer from India who mistakenly crossed the border, and Pak army arrested him mistaking him to be a spy. However, he was charged for some of the blast cases in Pakistan and convicted for capital punishment. Later, he requested for President’s mercy. By this time, a cry for his safety started in India, but nothing happened until he was subjected to capital punishment. Here, also the nation failed to protect its citizen in other countries and it has been reported that thousands of Indians live in Pak prisons and other countries in the world, and the only information our country has about the matter, is their number, not their names, or any other details. And the nation is not trying to procure the details, either.

Border ties: Xenophobia?

It has been observed by political philosophers that the national identity of Canada is shaped by their constant fear of their Big Brother, the US. As there are no real markers in the border between Canada and the US, the Canadians always fear a probable annexation by the US, which is termed as ‘garrison mentality’. Similar fear can be seen in the case of India and China also, but not without reasons. Though the present dispute deals with Arunachal Pradesh, India has problems with China over a long time. The Chinese still occupies some geographical areas of India under their control and nobody in India even bothers about this. The irony is that India is doing nothing to take back the occupied land, and is acting ignorance when similar cases are reported in the border area.

Edward Snowden, a Messiah of anarchy?

When India was labelled a third world nation, it had the guts to stand against the power blocks such as the USSR and the USA. During that time, India was the mediator among other third world nations. Together with Sukarno, Nasser, Tito, and Nkrumah, Panditji wrote a new chapter in the history of the world. However, when India became one of the potential members among power centres on the globe, it lost its influence among ‘small’ nations in the world.

Now, India is a mere puppet in the hands of the USA. This is evident when Snowden, a former employee of the USA hacked the security system of the country, and declared the country’s long term project to surveil the activities of other nations, including top diplomats to the common man. This project is known as “PRISM”. India is one among many nations, which was subjected to this constant surveillance.

When the leaders of the country heard about this, they expressed their “shock” and extreme “anguish”, but that’s all. Nothing was heard about India’s stand regarding this issue. Not just that, later, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told the international media that India did not respond to the request from Snowden to get asylum in India.

These instances, of course there are many more similar cases, raise the question against the diplomatic policies of the country. Since the purpose of having diplomatic relations with other countries is to safeguard nation’s interest, in other words the interest of the people of the country, these recent developments are alarming.



PS:

This article has been formerly published in the college magazine "Framilothungatha Chithrangal", EMS Memorial College of Applied Science, Iritty.