Does India, a regional bully, qualify to become a non-permanent member of the Security Council?
RAWALPINDI CANTT: When Nepal legislated a constitutional amendment to sanctify new maps for the Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani territories, India became furious. India’s external-affairs ministry termed it “an artificial enlargement of claims” while India’s prestigious Statesman called it a “politically-driven exercise in map-pointing”.
Obviously, India’s foreign policy is based on the peasant proverb “jiski lathi, uski bhains” (who wields the stick gets to own the buffalo). Or, if you want a highfalutin way of saying the same thing, turn to the Greek sage, Thucydides: “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” One can also recall Aesop’s fable about the wolf that accused the lamb of muddying its waters. The lamb’s protest that it was only drinking downstream did not, of course, stop the wolf from eating it up.
Similarly, if India had its way they would gobble up their neighbours in the blink of an eye. The disputed Kashmir, Junagadh, and Hyderabad are all cases in point. Despite China’s objections, India continued to construct 32 strategic roads for faster linking of the feeder roads to the so-called Line of Actual Control. Besides, they never stopped work to convert the Galwan wooden bridge into a concrete one. Even after the conclusion of the recent major general-level talks, India brazenly announced that the work in progress on roads and bridges will not be stopped.
For the past several years, India has been strengthening its road-and-bridge network in the border areas in accordance with the Shyam Saran Report. Even though India lost at least 20 soldiers, including a Commanding Officer, in a single day in the Galwan Valley, they have given no ultimatum to China nor have they carried out a so-called surgical strike akin to that on Pakistan in the wake of the Uri episode in which 19 Indian soldiers lost their lives. Where is the chest-thumping Narendra Modi? Does India, a regional bully, qualify to become a non-permanent member of the Security Council?
Amjed Jaaved
Published in The Express Tribune, June 19th, 2020.
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