The United Nations Security Council has five permanent members, with the power of veto over UN resolutions. Those countries are UK, US, France, China and Russia. By rotation, India is presently a member of the UN Security Council, albeit a non-permanent member.
India must project its influence globally, involve herself everywhere as the Permanent Members have chosen to do. Without a desire to project such power, influence, she will remain on the sidelines. India has to exert the global confidence which has given PM Modi a cult like status Indian PMs have never had; a cult like status sneered at by his foes, who have to deny and ignore that no other person in the history of the world has in free and fair elections won so many votes -ever, anywhere.
As Britain sends its naval strike force to dock in India, so too India must use its soft power. Just as Gandhiji became the conscience of mankind, and the US the ‘leader of the free world’ so too must India meet her destiny and take on the mantle as the world’s largest democracy as a promoter of plural, liberal values everywhere.
So consider that Britain has a sense of its history and heritage. This is not overreach, it is simply a case of, ‘if they do not do it, who will’?
India must stand against Burma – in its own back garden. India must stand against China over the Dalai Lama – where was the Indian message that Buddhism was the born in India and India has housed the world’s persecuted for two millennia since the Jews led by St Thomas. That is India’s heritage. If you wanna come around looking for trouble in attacking it, you will get some trouble.
Do not be like the Arab League. Once again the West has to clear up their mess. They have oil, but instead of being civilised and cleaning up their own house, they kill each other. Make no mistake, so did the West until 1945. I am not saying all things Western are good, but the Arab world, Saudi Arabia in particular, needs to take the lead for once and show some moral courage too in it’s back garden.
The worst kind of country or person is one who has someone else do their dirty work for them. It is tantamount to cowardice. So it was Samuel Johnson said, ‘Courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other.’ Add Ambrose Redmoon, ‘Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear’.
There was a time when Indian politicians could stand up to a Churchill – just ask Gandhiji, Sardar Patel, Nehru. Or ask the 5 million Commonwealth soldiers fighting in Western wars – cleaning up the West’s mess in the past.
So the next time someone shows you a chart of how India will be the third largest economy in the world in 30 years – say a prayer for the rest of the world.
