Benevolent India

A few khadi figures in New Delhi get way too benevolent when any natural calamity strikes South East Asia. They are the first ones to feel the quakes, the first ones to bleed and cry blood whenever something pinches our neighbours, esp. Pakistan.


Pakistan these days is hit by the worst floods in 80 years. Indians had announced an aid of USD 5 million to help rehabilitate (themselves and) those hit by the flood. Our honourable external affairs minister Mr. S M Krishna (after being recently humiliated in Pakistan) has shamelessly forgotten all bygone, and says- "As a more concrete assessment of the damage inflicted by this natural disaster and the urgent needs of the people of Pakistan emerges, government has decided to increase its assistance to Pakistan from USD 5 million, announced earlier, to USD 25 million". I wonder how in 60 years they haven’t been able to concretize their assessment of poverty within India.

Helping our neighbours will only hold good when we ourselves are self-sufficient. When we aren’t responsible for the natural calamity, and aren’t self sufficient ourselves, why on earth do we need to spend so much money in helping a neighbour like Pakistan?

I feel India is plagued with nurturing ostentatious mannerisms at the cost of tax-payers’ hard earned money. Rearing one the poorest populace on earth, we take pride in housing the largest Presidential residence in the world, spending (wasting?) crores in its monthly maintenance. We get to gather lot of (money and) pride by boasting the abilities to host the Commonwealth games. We spend crores in directing the drama of Ajmal Kasab, when the whole country knows that he will never be hanged, and will lead a secure life in India, while his petition will remain dust ridden with our honourable President for decades to come. All in all- a great show depicting the greatness of Indian democracy gets presented in front of the whole world, while Mahatma Gandhi’s (who open heartedly contributed Rs. 56 crores to “rebuild” Jinnah’s Pakistan) soul remains happy. The fact that half the population of India is half naked and sleeps hungry every night, stays comfortably ignored.

I believe the next line of action of our Pak-hearted politicians should be to make every attempt to get the Pakistani cricketers clean out of the match fixing allegations slapped on them. Every small help extended to our neighbours shall add on the credit side of their balance sheet meant for the “ultimate justice” (in hell).

Helping Pakistan is like feeding milk to a snake, Indian politicians don’t mind it, as long as it (as they assume) helps them gather the minority votes. Chanakya- one of the greatest philosophers and politicians of all times- suggests that- “It’s a snake’s trait to bite, so even if you feed it with milk, it will leave no chance to bite you”.

“Love thy neighbour” is what every religion teaches, but “Charity begins at home”, is what should matter more. It’s high time we follow Chanakya in Politics, rather than Gandhi.