Pakistanis cannot seem to digest the fact that (a) India did not accept aid (b) India is helping all its neighbors. Iftikar Gilani is sad that India did not accept aid from even China. So he writes an article quoting some Diplomats who have no names. It is pretty easy to write such stuff masking your jealousy and putting words into the mouth of invisible people.
The Indian government had even refused an aid offer from China which offered a $3 million aid package for tsunami victims in India. It has now joined in relief operations being carried out by the United States, Australia and Japan. Diplomats said the motive behind this move is India$(Bs (Burge to be recognised as a major power in the Indian Ocean along with these countries. The Indian navy has launched four rescue and relief operations $(O T(Bhe Operation Seawave (along the Andamans cost), Operation Rainbow in Sri Lanka, Operation Castor in the Maldives and the Operation Gambhir in Indonesia..[India wants all credit for tsunami relief operations]
The title of the article conveys all his frustration. India has never claimed credit for all the tsunami operations. There are many other countries which are involved in relief operations and this disaster has bought many countries alongwith India to put a humanitarian coalition of the willing and apparently no one contacted Pakistan to join them. In fact Pakistan is sending its Navy ships and flying sorties to Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Can well call them as jumping to earn brownie points ?
In fact Al-Jazeera of all places has an article giving India credit for not having to accept aid and for coming of age.
Gone were the days, when the first port of call for all heads of Indian government was either the US or the UN, whenever any big calamities hit its people. That newly acquired confidence will not go unnoticed by the rest of the world. India has come of age, and as befits a nation aspiring to be counted on the highest seats of world governance, India had taken the fi! rst step to project itself as a self-sufficient and responsible nation that could take care of its people without having to go around the world with a begging ball.
The next, step for India, will be, no doubt, to look beyond its borders and treat all such natural tragedies as common concern of all the people of the world. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has come out of that centuries old Brahmanical taboo that ghettoized India to its own shores. In today$(Bs (Bglobalized world, India under the new leadership, has confidently and promptly acquired the new accoutrements that perfectly suit the native ethos of a people humane enough to populate this vast continent of a nation, without any reference to ideologies of religion, caste, region, race and languages. Let all such ideologies compete to fit the criteria of being the best suited to India$(Bs (Bcoming of age and its humanitarian contribution to the peace and well-being of the world. [India’s Coming of Age, Post-Tsunami ]
Its great to hear suchthong form the world. & it make me proud to be an Indian.
Gilani writes “The Indian government had even refused an aid offer from China”
🙂