The recent terrorist attacks on French soil are an eye opener. The French capital was hit by a wave of attacks, that left over 130 people dead. The French were astonished and now we learn that gun battles have taken place in a Paris  suburb, which lasted for over 7 hours. The French have reacted and begun a bombardment of the ISI strongholds in Syria. They have also reached out to the Russians and now both have started coordinated attacks against the ISI and Daesh.

This is not all but the French allies notable the USA, England  and Canada have suported France and the USA has supplied essential data to the French to make their attacks more effective. In one word one can see that there is a concerted  action by the western powers to help France. The French expect support from all countries of the world including India for their action. France is a strong country and maintains an independent nuclear deterrent and this has come in handy as the French Air Force has gone in action against the ISI and its allies.

Unfortunately the western powers are guilty of double standards. Firstly, they in a round about way supported the ISI as they just wanted to overthrow Assad in Syria. They winked at the source of funds for the ISI and reports suggest that nearly 40 countries including France helped sustain the ISI movement. Turkey is guilty of buying oil from the ISI from it's captured oil field in Iraq and it is supposed to be one of the partners in the war against ISI.

The reaction to a similar and far worse carnage during 26/11 is a case in point. This attack on India's financial capital Mumbai, which originated from Pakistan saw no similar action from the western powers. There was no talk of any military action against Pakistan except for lip service. The attacks were condemned, but at the same time the same western powers advised caution to India.  India does not have the French capability to mount an offensive( partly by it's own self-destructive policies), but it expected as a front line state fighting terror to be supported by the west. Unfortunately nothing of the sort happened and the western powers allowed Pakistan to get off the hook.

Let us be very clear, the western powers are no friends of India.Modi happy with his foreign jaunts may do well to understand this and concentrate on increasing Indian military capability. Why couldn't India launch a similar attack on the Pakistan training camps for terrorists like the French did. As per CIA estimates Pakistan runs over 100 such training camps all over Punjab and Occupied Kashmir. Now I learn that the nuclear powered French aircraft carrier is also heading towards the coast of Syria. This is what is known as " gun boat" diplomacy and has a place in the modern world as well.

Modi may well remember what happened to Nehru. Like Modi he was the leader of the Non-aligned movement in the world. He struttted about as a great statesman at the Bandung conference in 1955, where he introduced Chou en Lai the Chinese prime minister to the assembled leaders. Nehru however had legs of clay. He neglected the military and India and Nehru suffered a body blow from China, from which India never recovered. Nehru was shamed and he never made a visit abroad after the thrashing from China. He lost the halo around him. 

Modi is going on a similar path. He should understand that the West will never pull out India's chestnuts from the fire. No wonder, the West has done nothing to help India get the perpetuators of the Mumbai carnage to justice or make efforts  see that Pakistan hands over Dawood Ibrahim and Hafeez Sayeed.

One wonders that a country like India which is five times the size of Pakistan is powerless in dealing with it's neighbour.  What is the reason? Readers must think about it. I have an answer and that is the lopsided priorities of the political leadership, Nehru or Modi. They should read the Red Book of Mao, where he stated " political power comes out of the barrel of a gun".

The Indian military-industrial base must be strengthened  for great power projection. Who will do it?

 


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