{"id":115793,"date":"2021-07-04T17:54:52","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T00:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=115793"},"modified":"2021-07-04T17:54:52","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T00:54:52","slug":"can-india-be-marys-lamb-to-the-west-yet-aspire-to-be-a-super-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/07\/04\/can-india-be-marys-lamb-to-the-west-yet-aspire-to-be-a-super-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Can India be Mary\u2019s lamb to the West yet aspire to be a Super Power?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Like\nit or not, India has to accept some ground realities. We do not doubt that\nIndia can be a great nation capable of more greatness. We do not doubt India is\na nation rich in resources and human assets. But, India is lacking a key\ningredient that demotes itself and its aspirations for greatness. That is\nIndia\u2019s weakness to go behind the very nations that has brought India to its\nknees and is cunningly planning to as well. To aspire to be great, India must\nlearn to act great. Tagging along like Mary\u2019s lamb depicts India\u2019s inability to\nstand on its own and this is what differentiates India from China. China has\nbuilt its nation by its own, on its own and China dictates how China functions.\nCan India say the same of itself? Where will romancing with the West, land\nIndia?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former\ndiplomats & MPs like Shashi Tharoor delivers eloquent anti-colonialism\nspeeches across the globe, lists out all of the atrocities committed during\ncolonial rule but instead of slapping the very countries that indulged in\nmurder and mayhem in India & to Indians, India is elated to be signing\nstrategic & military partnerships with them. Bewildering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nIndia is seen romancing with the very countries that colonized and have yet to\napologize for over 500 years of sins \u2013 India has chosen not to seek justice\nwhere justice is deserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\u2019s\ngreatness should have been shown in leading the colonized nations to demand\naccountability, acknowledgement & reparations that would have served as a\ngreat bargaining tool against the international loan\/interest system, the third\nworld is today subject to & crippling their development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nIndia signs military\/strategic partnerships with countries that draft the\npartnerships to prevent the rise of other nations and secure supremacy via\npreventing the growth of others, it doesn\u2019t show any greatness in India. India\nis not seeking greatness; India is only going behind presumed to be great\nnations. These are no signs of a great nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nexpect India to create its greatness, not to presume to be great because it\nsits by the side of self-declared great countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since\n2015 India is a key partner of QUAD. In other words, India has offered to\nbecome West\u2019s poodle in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. The West freely showers India\nwith plenty of hugs, pats and no shortage of glossy praises. India is brimming\nand blushing like a bride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\nis acting as a headless chicken. India cannot forget its soul remains\nculturally dharmic and Eastern yet India\u2019s political leadership prefers to\nseparate that by connecting with western ideals. This is why India can find no\nsynergy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nwhite man speaks with a forked tongue and while India is given pats for\naligning with the West, the West spares no rod against India. In 2021, Freedom\nHouse declared India as \u2018partly free\u2019 democracy, while V-Dem Institute of\nSweden declared India an \u2018electoral autocracy\u2019 Indians that voted BJP along the\nHindutva\u201d theme are realizing that making India a Hindu state remains a\npolitical slogan only. Just like backtracking on 2014 \u2018Made in India\u2019 to\nincrease exports & reduce imports. The irony is that inspite of India\u2019s\ncloseness to the West, India is gagging its media, silencing critics and\nshifting government personnel \u2013 all of the opposites that the West openly\npreaches, or is this just a canard for the general public!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\nIndia remains a key strategic partner there is enough and more tomatoes getting\nthrown at the Indian government with each passing day. India has even withdrawn\nfrom the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. India has even joined the\nanti-China bandwagon curbing Chinese products in India ignoring how China has\nbeen leveraging start-up Indian companies in India. Anti-China policy appears\nto be a noteworthy element in all of the nations where their leaders end up\nsuddenly aligning with the West. Funnily enough. all of the nations that\npublicly degrade China, including India cannot do without China either!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India\nis not only going to be engaging with QUAD but also with G7 and the 5 Eyes\n(intelligence sharing alongside US-Canada, UK, Australia & New Zealand)\nObviously India has forgotten that newly created India under Jawarhalal Nehru joined\nthe British Commonwealth in 1947 ONLY AFTER the organization removed security\naspect in its role & India under Nehru refused to join military alliances\nthus India\u2019s policy of non-alignment. All that appears to have Gone with the\nWind!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless,\nto become a great nation, that nation must create and carve out its greatness.\nNo nation is going to achieve greatness by tagging to the petticoat of other\nnations and expecting to be carried to the top. In such a scenario, India will\nonly be playing second fiddle and functioning to the dictates of the matron\nthat dictates to it. This is not the greatness we want for India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a\nworld of over 7billion people, no one nation needs to be the greatest of close\nto 200 countries. The world needs nations that can lead the rest of the world.\nThe world doesn\u2019t need bullies and nations that plays role as cut throats.\nIndia can and should be a world leader but not by romancing with the West and\nholding on to West\u2019s apron strings. India must inculcate its historical roots\nand rise on India\u2019s terms and India\u2019s glories, just as China has done which is\nwhat makes China & the Chinese so proud of how they have come to where they\nare. No nation that copies other nations or thinks that its greatness comes in\nits association with self-declared \u2018great\u2019 nations can ever be crowned a great\nnation. A majority of Indians too will agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shenali D Waduge Like it or not, India has to accept some ground realities. We do not doubt that India can be a great nation capable of more greatness. We do not doubt India is a nation rich in resources and human assets. But, India is lacking a key ingredient that demotes itself and its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenali-waduge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}