Political correctness is not a sign of weakness, but of pragmatic cunning.
Take the Kargil War. Pakistan had renegade the Lahore Bus trip and launched Op Badr (Kargil War), ''Patriotic and self respecting'' Indians would bay for Pakistan's blood and very rightly so. India should have, as per their way of thinking as I see here, attacked and dismembered Pakistan. Good idea.
But what did the Indian Govt do and at that time it was the super nationalist BJP in power. They should have knocked the hell out of Pakistan. But why did they not do it?
The answer is simple. It could not be done, given what was available in the Indian kitty. Half the equipment was in need of urgent overhaul and ammunition was running low and the incursion had to be halted and the invaders thrown back. That was the situation. Hence, no matter what the 'patriotism and self respect' quotient that urged a 'befitting reply' (whatever that means to the 'patriotic and self respecting' Indians) was not feasible and more so, with Pakistan being an irresponsible nuclear Nation and historically all wars being halted by the international community even before a 'befitting reply' could be give, Even in 1971, a 'befitting reply' could not be given, given the US Fleet steaming close.
That they did not pursue a 'do or die' patriotism would possibly, on this forum from some of us, qualify them to be the '' "dying to please Europeans" brigade.
I daresay that ABV and Indira Gandhi were not as patriotic as the next man Jack or is there a dispute on that too?
In short, emotions do not dictate the way foreign and defence policies are formulated.
In Somalia, the Indian Navy has a presence. It is there to protect Indian shipping and Indian nationals. It maybe known that India supplies a large number of merchant navy hands for all merchant navy lines. When they are on foreign ships and they are caught by the Somali pirates then why is there so much of hue and cry to get them freed? How do you free such sailors, if not by the use of your Navy. Surely, one does not expect some other Navy to be equally keen to do so.
To conform to the 'patriotic and self respecting' Indian Brigade, the best thing we should do is seal ourselves like Burma from the outside world since every Nation that we can trade with or send our people to work in, are tainted. And we should not even buy arms from such nations. Let us fight Pakistan and China with our own indigenous arms, even if they are substandard. I am sure our 'patriotism and self respect' will compensate for our lack of standard arms and ammunition.
It reminds me of my State Bengal. Jyoti Basu abolished the teaching of English in a charged fervour of super sub nationalism – a real patriotic and self respecting Bengali, some would say.
What was the end result? Unemployment and poverty!! Imagine getting an all India service knowing only Bengali! Can anyone say he was not a Bengali all the way? But would pragmatism not suggest that it would be necessary to know English and Hindi, if Bengalis wanted to survive in a country called India?
Little things please little minds!
