All this relates to some obviously well educated correspondent of the esteemed Indian press.
So a hundred crappy opinions come out of the news every day- and everyones used to it. I am too. So I don't know why this disturbed me enough to waste time writing about it. Anyway I'm aware its not written with any ill intent - in fact quite the opposite - he was just thinking out loud and frankly thoughts that many Indians have and continue to have. Deal force with force. Terrorize the terrorists. Send our James Bond/Tom Cruise guy(if we have one) to exotic locales to kill the super villains using countless inventive gadgets.
Sure. I'd like that too....and more than that Bollywood spin offs --- Shah Rukh Khan as Kapoooor......Rahul Kapooor.....(ofcourse he has to be Rahul) from RAW with solar powered cookers in his pockets to burn his ID documents and ordering ...." Do Chai - shaken and malai maar ke" with a sexy blonde in a sari near him (of course we Indians approve of only white skin - sorry stunningly beautiful Halle Berry and Zoe Saldana).
Super agent kapoor - jeero jeero ....eh sorry...one billion....tht is one jeero jeero.. (yes hes's an Indian super spy with an accent and we are far too many in number that zeroes usually follow us)
Anyway ...............So it isn't a big deal right, even if you ignore the fact that he might in a couple of years be the face of Indian TV or a an influential editor who controls the headlines. Or even if we know what "opinions" or "questions" just "put out" there on a news channel can do. Fox news being the ultimate case study ( "Is Obama a socialist or does he just Hate America?". Send in your votes at.... )
So what irritated me ? This notion out there among most of us (or am I wrong about that ?) that
everything can be solved only if you use more force, a bigger gun or more ruthless methods. The kind of triumphalistic notion that somehow India is this developed industrialized nation which can spend billions on military stunts....of covert or open nature obliterating its opponents in a fortnight.
Forget the fact that we are a country founded by the greatest humanists of the last century or any century. Forget that they were voices of freedom against tyranny but also of moral conscience. Something which sets them apart from the only remotely comparable people like Washington, Jefferson and the likes. Even if you knock your head against a wall and forget all that, what you would still find pretty hard to ignore is that we would be destroying whtever remains of most of the world's notion that we are fundamentally a "moderate" country - unlike China or...... Israel whom he mentions. Now I'm not an Israel basher - they have their own way of dealing with issues. I do not doubt for a moment that they believe their actions are just and necessary.But the fact is that they have pretty much no great support in the world except for the US. Is that the future we want ?
Unfortunately we are too damn large, too damn important for the future of the world and unfortunately the first nation(if you object - read first free nation of the 20th century) to champion the view that foreign policy views should reflect our basic values and moral convictions. This view is obviously not for those who think that justice is served only if you pump the bastard villain with all the lead in the world .
But, I'm willing to wager that Mossad stuff will come back and bite us in the bum with some stupid botched assasination attempt in a foreign country which will inevitably happen at the hand of our bureaucrats. And I'm not doing the Indian thing of blaming the system - it would probably be because they are underpaid, overworked, careless and with little accountability like the rest of us. To take nothing away from the author, the answer is of course better counter intelligence and counter terrorism. But as always the strategy to win isn't novel it is boring and middle of the road - increase competency and capability of our existing mechanisms - slowly & steadily. Have the long view - one thing I must say we as a people lack.
But...... as for the Indian Super spy Bollywood movie - isn't that a good idea ? For Heavens sake why haven't they thought of it by now !
Wait... I know how it can be done. A malayalam movie has to be made on it with an original script written by mallu writers - then Bollywood might buy it(or steal it) and make it into a movie with a few dance sequences................the super spy does bhangra........at the cocktail party at the G-20
Allright. I hear your expletives. I'm stopping.
