Hello New Year 2021 : Laments and Longings of a Layman
By
Colonel Kritya Nand Das, Veteran
Dated : 12 Jan 2021 (IST)
Thanks heavens that 2020 is over! The year was full of different types of lock downs – international, national, state, street, society, block, floor and at last self quarantine!
With initial fears, confusion and chaos people went back to days of forgotten past, when doctors were few and medicines were fewer and Dadima’s nuskhas gave relief to most seasonal ailments and those difficult ones were looked after by quacks and village witch doctors.
Gods of all religions, god men of all faiths, priest of all places of worships went in to hiding for a change. What a bad investment for the humanity. Not available when you need them the most. These are the tools of power to keep the weak and meek under control.
Doctors and health workers replaced all these heavenly and holy beings.
For a change, the most despised of, the policemen, behaved well and helped people in need and distress. Well done!
All had to go back to few pieces of ginger, few drops of lemon juice, black pepper, cinnamon, tulsi leaves and honey, making kadha go down your throat and steam go up your nose.
Then came medical masks, hankies and gamchhas to cover your breathing apertures. Gloves and sanitisers followed. Everyone with masks and gloves moved around like surgeons and those with hankies and gamchha around looked like thugs on a prowl.
Grocery shops and the Sabbzi walas kept the people alive in the cities. Husbands helped wives like never before, helping in all odd household chores. Big and small all held broom and pochha and swept and mopped the floor at any time of the day or night. Teachers worked hard and ran online classes on half pay and at times without any pay. Grand parents, parents, grand children attended classes to gather and most of the people of all ages became tech savvy. Delivery boys ran across lanes and street bringing essentials to the needy at the risk of exposures to the virus.
Many lost their jobs and migrant labourers criss-crossed the continental size country in such mass migrations that eclipsed the tragedy of partition. Like gods, the governments at all levels vanished for quite a while. Poor suffered alone as always.
What ever may have been the initial lapses, things were brought under control, death occurred due to covid but death did not occur due to shortage of food and very few due to lack of social cares. Both system and society displayed resilience and recovery from the unprecedented upheaval that came so suddenly and with such severance.
In less than nine months, the country has bounced back and geared up with the vaccine and has created infrastructure to carry out immunization. This is quite credible. Even some of the most developed of the countries are not as much in control.
The virus let loose by the Chinese from their laboratories at Wuhan has caused such loss of lives, livelihood and wealth that it will take the world some time to compute the entire loss. After initial hesitations the world became bold and openly called China names and put the blame squarely on its doors. But China remains defiant and in total denial. It had purchased the WHO well ahead of its spray and spread of virus across the world and this world body covered up the Chinese mischiefs. Trump was the only one who could haul the Chinese over the coal and he did it.
Taking advantage of the pandemic created in its phase one, the Chinese moved ahead as per the plan into phase two that is massive military build up and moves and incursions in the neighborhood, specially in Eastern Ladakh against India. However Indian resolve to hold the bull by the horn put breaks on the Chinese misadventures. Retaliatory action at Galwan against the barbaric medieval Chinese tactics halted the PLA mischiefs and poured icy cold waters on the Chinese’s expansion.
Finally pre-emptive occupation of the Kailash range heights made Chinese positions quite ineffective. The Indian actions were not generally anticipated in the Chinese plan and narratives. And this bold initiative has been a grand show by both Indian military and political leadership after quite awhile. Well done and keep it up.
China may try to keep its aggressive postures in the Himalayas so that the Indian presence in the Indian Ocean
is reduced due to lack of funds and the Chinese naval activities get relatively some free run. The waters of Indian Ocean are the Achilles heels for China as their Jugular vein …..the sea trade lanes passes through it. India sits astride these routes and therefore must be ready to drown them there for good when ever they create mischiefs in Himalayas.
Then there was an election in between in Bihar, which Modi won and Nitish lost. As it is, Nitish has not been effective. He wasn’t as bad as Laloo but wasn’t any good as well. He has purposely not created jobs in Bihar so that migration to other states continues. So that both politicians and bureaucracy can pass their time fruitlessly. Both Bihari politicians and bureaucrats of the state have turned into sloths. A culture of incompetence and corruption has set in, which needs to be eradicated.
It will be better to make two Union Territories out of present Bihar as North Bihar and South Bihar. Disband the Bihar Bureaucracy. Send some useless junks home on forced retirement and post the rest to other states and induct better lots from all over and raise it afresh. Place some proven bureaucrats/ military men/ corporate leaders as Lt Governors with time bound tasking to be achieved. This is as essential as the one that has been initiated in Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh. Only Modi can do it and he should. The people should refrain from cast(e)ing their votes and learn to cast their votes. That alone can bring changes.
This year that is, 2021 will go for recovery of both health and wealth of the nation. Both have taken unprecedented beating. Health care system needs to revamp itself. Both primary and specialized medical coverage should be available at panchayat level for the former and district level for the later. For this more medical colleges will have to be opened so that both doctors and para medic staff are trained and made available. It will be better if a medical college is created in each district. This will provide specialized medical coverage and train both doctors and paramedics.
India has been forced to purchase such large quantities of weapons and equipment for our defence forces. This astronomical amount could have been saved from going out of the country in case DRDO, HAL and Ordnance Factories worked hard enough and acquired the abilities and capabilities to produce these within the country. Besides creating more jobs it would have saved foreign exchange. And earned some instead by exporting to Afro-Asian countries. Arms purchase has been a very lucrative item for the bureaucracy and ruling political parties to make money. For this very reason armament industry and related research and development has been left to while away their time. Most of the arms purchase is done prior to general elections. It may be the main fund raiser for the ruling parties. Private business groups of repute like Tata should be encouraged to join this venture. They will do good to themselves and the country as well. Without our own armament industries we cannot become even a regional power, forget becoming a superpower.
With vaccines being available now, we may be able to complete the immunization of the whole country. And that will be quite an achievement. Having done that then we must be able to attract investments and technologies and become a manufacturing hub. China made use of western capital and technology from mid 70s, when anger was against the USSR. Now that world is angry against China then why shouldn’t we make use of it and turn tables against China. If we fail, then we will have difficult years ahead.
We must work with other powers to declare China as an irresponsible state and see that she is removed from most of the important positions that it holds in the world organisations. It is easier said then done. But no harm in trying the same. China has prevented our entry into important international groups.
We have not been able to name China for incursions and for spread of Covid-19,then calling it names will need real guts. And that we must have it now and display it too.
On LOC,the loss of lives of our soldiers and civilians continues unabated. This needs to end. We have not been able to ignite the Pakistan’s fault lines beyond it control, while Pakistan has been able to make it difficult for us in Kashmir. We have been able to isolate Pakistan and she is friendless in the Arab world for the present and that is good.
We should work towards destroying its nuclear arsenal and its ability to go nuclear again. This can only be done with the help of USA and Israel. After that it will be much easier to dismember Pakistan once again and free three caged nationalities. And work towards a Confederacy of South Asian states for good of all.
China has got foothold in all our neighbourhood and is using them against our interests in some and may do in all in times to come. We must work to throw China out from our neighbourhood as we have done in the Maldives.
We must ignite China’s fault lines, specially in Tibet and the East Turkistan. South Mongolia is a potential region for the same. There are other regions like Manchuria in North East and Yunnan in South East, where troubles for China can be created. The virus of democracy must be sprayed in China. It will work like Covid-19 against the Chinese state. China’s sudden rise has created an economic chasm and divide in Chinese society. Over 60 crores Chinese population lives at 150 US dollar a month, while there are more billionaires in China than both in USA and India put together. China has been forced to punish its wealth creators, one is in jail on trumpeted trivial charges and other is facing the anger of the state. This makes China look socialist like and prevent rise of new heroes, that totalitarian state and leadership fear the most.
We should note that China has its foot hold now spread from Gobi Desert in the North and the Gwadar Port in South, criss-crossing the subcontinent in the West in a fashion that was seen in 1750s along Eastern Ghats from Madras to Calcutta under the East India Company. And we know the out come of that.If we fail to throw China out in time from the subcontinent then you never know, history may repeat adversely.
There will now be a change in the leadership in the USA. Trump’s time is over despite his mad tantrums. His actions against China has been bold and it is unlikely that new administration will change it. Rivalry between China and USA is there to stay. We have no options but to be part of the Democrat Alliance against China. It is unfortunate that Rise of China will neither be smooth nor good for the world. It should fall like the USSR and we must play our part well.
Let hope this new year is peaceful and fruitful.
Amen!
