Blasting Holes In Our Confidence

Has it come to this? Is Indias only friend in the world the lunatic Russian nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky? What about the Russians, the Czechs and our other non-aligned friends? How about the Israelis and the South Africans who also have nuclear pretensions?

Of course, this worrisome state of affairs wont last. Prime Minister Vajpayee is writing letters to world leaders explaining why we had to have The Bomb. And Indias diplomats have been ordered to get out and win friends and influence people.

Lett check out the world for allies and foes. The US is a bully. The South Americans are too far away (though maybe the Brazilians want the bomb too). The Japanese are notorious peaceniks and spoilsports and the Asean countries have maintained a thunderous silence in the last one week. Australia and New Zealand, are too far away from the world to have any clue about geopolitics

 

Of course, theres also China but, as George Fernandes has been telling us, they are Bad Guys who build missile tracking stations near the Andamans (Also, they werent nice to the Dalai Lama). The less said about the Pakistanis and the Chagai Hills the better.

Could it be true that we dont really have any friends in the world five days after exploding our own bomb. Surely, we deserve better than that?

But anyway what does it matter? Were a Great Civilization and have been ever since Indus Valley. A snap poll conducted by IMRB says that 91 per cent of urban Indians are happy that weve detonated The Bomb. Only a minority think we should sign the CTBT. Which just shows that we are peace-loving Gandhians and obviously want to end all wars.

What has caused this public outpouring in favour of going nuclear? And what does it tell us about ourselves? The last few days have seen an extraordinary, and response to the Pokhran blasts. An unprecedented upsurge of jingoism at a time when we arent at war.

The result has been truly amazing. There has been almost unanimous and uncritical support for the Vajpayee government and its bomb. The second round of tests required even greater spunk than the first and a determination to put Indias interests first, said a shrill editorial in the Indian Express. That was one of the milder responses.

Around the country too the bomb had raised temperatures. One normally unpolitical executive started a signature campaign last week in favour of the blasts. The talk was of strategic changes and our new place in the world.

When the nuclear clouds settle some things will become much clearer. For a start, if we are searching for a new place in the world it is our bank balance that counts. The South East Asians until their recent embarrassments had won the worlds respect for pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.

Another thing that has become painfully clear is that after 50 years of Independence, we have developed a great big chip on our shoulders. We have watched our crooked politicians make a mess of the country. We see our cities fall into decay. Nothing, it seems, is getting better. And we feel we arent getting the respect from the world that we deserve. This lack of self-confidence is leading us down a dangerous road.

What will the world think of us (Many Indians may say this is irrelevant). The world will decide that India is an unpredictable place to do business. They wont go away but they may downgrade the country a notch or two. Credit will become costlier for the megaprojects that are needed to improve Indias infrastructure.

Is the Bomb the best way out of this mess. All that is certain is that with the Bomb we have landed ourselves a host of new problems that didnt exist one week ago.