Some random thoughts on our 60th Republic Day...

Today is our Beloved Country's 60th Republic Day.
Today is also the first instance when our PM could not physically be present for the Republic Day ceremony.He could only watch on the Television,since he is recuperating from his heart surgery.

Defence Minister A.K.Antony led the Nation in paying tribute at the Amar Jawan Jyothi.It would have been a very proud moment for him,as also to all Malayalees and ofcourse all Indians.I said Malayalees,because if I am not wrong,he is the first person from Kerala who has got such an honour.Some people might have thought that Antony being a member from a Minority community would have given a message of how strong our secular credentials are.What's the big deal.For me,I don't care whether he is from a minority or from a majority community,for me he is an Indian,that's it.For me Antony is a simple,humble,non-corrupt and a good person and a man of integrity and I always respect him for that.

I don't know whether I can say such good words about his reign as the Defence Minister.May be he has done a reasonably good job,but we still do read articles about Army vehicles being old,not enough good equipment etc.May it's a collective failure,not a failure of him alone.All,everybody who has the power and who could make a difference should ponder and contribute.Contribute to make our country stronger and stronger,greater and greater.

I always wonder why the salary for security forces are not the highest.It's they who risk their lives every day and clean up the mess and protect us when incidents like the Mumbai terror attack happens.

The Army's motto itself is
"
The safety, honour and welfare of your country, come first, always and everytime. The honour,welfare and comfort of the men you command comes next. Your own ease, comfort and safety comes last, always and every time.
"
So when they are ever ready to sacrifice for the welfare of the Country,it's obvious that our Jawans should be taken care of very very well.They should be respected,their family members should be respected.If a Jawan dies we should always take care of his family,especially if his family is poor.

Today during the Republic Day ceremony at the Rajpath,when you watch widows of great martyrs receiving Ashoka Chakra,we do feel proud and sorry.Year after year,every moment our forces are risking their lives and fighting for our Country.We should really be proud of them.But then we should think how many more widows we will create.why can't we take some far reaching policy initiatives which could eradicate the threat perceptions for our Nation and there by reduce the casualities that we are suffering from terrorism.

We are a Nation,who always REACT.We don't ACT in the first place.We only react,some times not even that.We just make some noices,that's it.It's worth pondering,why we can't prevent attacks on us.It's said that 'prevention is better than cure'.We are not even at the 'cure' mode.We express shock,dismay,anger,solidarity and then finally forget and move on.Sure we need to move on,but we should never forgive our enemies.In our case,we know clearly who our enemy is,we know the evil intentions of our enemy,we know we will be attacked repeatedly through more terror attacks,we know we cannot rely on outside powers to help us,we know that we cannot keep on tolerating such attacks.Still,still it seems we have not understood the magnitude of the serious situation we are facing.We still do politics on terror attacks.We still continue to sleep,we still have that 'devil-may-care' attitude..

It's as if we have acquired a sort of immunity against terror attacks.May be since we think we don't have any option to prevent these terror attacks,we have made an unconscious decision of wearing down the terrorists..!!
If the terror masterminds find that we are not at all affected by the continuing terror attacks,may be they will one day wind up their operations.Is this our policy??

Atleast we should value the Life of fellow Indians who are getting killed in these terror attacks.Surely,we need to have a solid policy,we need all our experts and decision-makers to sit and brainstorm about all possible options to destroy and neutralize the threat.Surely we need to unite.Surely we need to understand that we are at war.when the enemy has declared an un-declared proxy-war and is continuing to attack us and is continuing to creat and support all sorts of terror organizations and is continuing to plan more attacks,we surely are in a war even if we are not aware of it.

Now coming back to the Republic day parade,well,as usual it showed our unity in diversity and our military might.

But then unless we show to the whole world that we are not weak,that we are not a Nation that is a sitting duck against terrorism from a country which is not even half our size,all these display of might at the Republic Day Parade will count for nothing...


We are a strong Nation,We are a Great Nation,We are a Proud Nation.High time we show our might and start behaving like a self-respecting Nation.We believe we have won lot of brownie points by showing almighty RESTRAINT in the face of grave provocations.We believe the world community is sympathetic to us.
To hell with their sympathy.We don't need sympathy or expression of shock each time our innocent citizens are killed by terrorists of our enemy.

We need to defend our country.Defence cannot be outsourced.We need to explore all options to ensure safety of our Country.This doesn't mean that we go for an out and out war.Well,there are many many options,well documented options,suggested by various experts,available for the government,to tame the enemy.

Let's make a start..