India must put its house in order

30 Dec, 2008

India and Pakistan both need to realise that nations don't develop in isolation. Rather, they develop in clusters. There are in-fact clusters of development and clusters of poverty on the world map. You cannot have a destiny, much different than your neighbour's. For Pakistan, it is unfortunate that it is sandwiched between two problem countries ie, Afghanistan and India.
Both have no recorded periods of glory in their rather long histories. What Mughals or English did to India cannot be claimed as home-grown. As compared to both of these, Pakistan is a fresh state and doesn't carry any inherited historical baggage to weigh it down.
India maintains thirteen consulates in Afghanistan! Why would you need thirteen consulates in a country like Afghanistan? It is feared that India is pushing terrorists into Pakistan from the Pak-Afghan border. If terrorists are Jihadis as they are promoted to be, why would they be bombing Pakistan which is an Islamic country, and killing Muslims in Pakistan?
At the moment, factors pushing India down are stronger than factors that are pulling it up. The large number of Indians below poverty line, the rampant corruption, and shoddy infrastructure are no fertile grounds for progressive change. It is in the interest of India and the larger interest of the region if it focuses on putting its house in order. While on the international hunger index, India was ranked below Sudan and Somalia.

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