TogadiaSpeak

Dereliction of Diplomacy

By Dr Pravin Togadia

As I am writing this, there is news that past two days 3 Naxals are arrested in Bharat’s capital Delhi! A woman and two trainers with a hi-tech laptop and anti-national materials. One from Maharashtra and others from North East. The news says that they were in Delhi to collect funds for alleged training camp in Myanmar. Same time, there is also news that in past three months many a time Pakistan violated no fire zone at J&K border and in Rajasthan. Kutch port coastal line violation has become a daily affair and nobody has forgotten Pak’s biggest violation of all borders and norms in Mumbai 26/11 jehadi attack. On the North Eastern side, infiltration from Bangladesh and Nepal has become a headache of the locals in Assam, Bengal and other states.

What’s new in all this? Nothing. This is the point! Are we getting so very used to the damned happenings that have been putting nation’s domestic and border security at risk that we find such abrasions a routine matter? Seems so. Almost everyday our brave hearts from our army and police die fighting these jehadis who are systematically sent armed and funded by Pakistan. No Human Rights organisation makes noise about these deaths but the moment any local jehadi dies at the hands of army / police while doing their duty, from media to Human Rights people—all start screaming.

Aged Swami Laxmanananda was brutally murdered in his Ashram in Kandhmal. Many girls who were studying in the school there were also killed. Many who lived through the ordeal witnessed the entire incident and yet are in severe trauma. For appeasing the so-called vote bank, it was blamed on to the Maoists. Girls there knew the faces who did it, but nobody listened to them. And not even the so-called Maoists were punished!

It has become a convenient practice that whenever there is any attack allegedly done by the jehadis or by the left wing extremists, the rulling parties hurry up to name various organisations like IM, JeM, LeT, ULFA, etc. It is worth doing a survey as to how many people in Bharat really know the meanings or even full forms of these terms. And it really does not matter to the common people, which name the jehadis go by! Bharat sees death, maiming of the limbs and loss of near and dear ones in such attacks – be it Mumbai or Delhi or any other place. But our learned leaders sitting in the position of powers start rattling names like IM, LeT and what not. This is not only to confuse the investigation but also to shift the blame beyond the border so that they can later say –‘What to do! We do not have extradition treaty with Pakistan’, so we cannot get Dawood here to bring him to book!’ And whenever they can, they further shift the blame on to the Hindu organisations and Sadhu-Sants because it is easy and it also pleases their so-called vote banks who indulge in helping those cross boarder jehadis and Maoists but local helping hands are never caught terming them ‘sleeper cells’. Wonder, who really is sleeping, dozing or pretending to be unaware!

This is nothing but a shameful failure to do the duty which is supposed to be done by those who are sitting in power. They are supposed to protect the nation; but they are busy protecting their vote banks. If any government employee is found sleeping, smoking, or absenting himself from the duty then his CR (Confidential Report) gets that red mark, he has to give up his increment or promotion as a punishment for dereliction of his duty. What about those in power who are supposed to make and implement the effective policies that protect the lives and properties of the citizens of Bharat? How are they punished? Only winning or losing election is their Efficiency Bar? Are their salaries cut? Are their allowances withheld for not doing their duties? Are they demoted? No.

There are systems to have checks and balances on them for ensuring if they have misused the funds, positions etc. (Yet the corruption is rampant), but there are no systems that would set the objectives and job profiles of all those in power. There is no quarterly evaluation or annual CR for them. Their income is not affected, their facilities are not taken away, and they are not suspended pending enquiry or investigation! Government employee, if has a criminal case against him then seizes to be a Government employee if proven guilty and until then he/she is suspended. Why not those who are in power? Right to recall is much far away but why should we make and have not such systems in place as they are for Government employees and also in Corporates? Whenever such questions are asked, these power mongers either flash cheeky smiles on flashy media or give excuses which perhaps even they do not understand.

Not that these power mongers do not have wherewithal to get proper advice on issues related to domestic and cross-border security. They can avail of bright IFS officers, Army – Air Force – Navy intelligence and other intelligence agencies. In fact they always have the correct inputs; but they do not wish to act on them because their actions may hurt their vote banks! There is no dearth of smart diplomats in Bharat. But their help is purposely ignored to protect short term political interests and thereby hurting the nation. Internationally, Bharat is coming up as a strong economic power – not because of power mongers but because of hard working and brilliant Indians! But the rulling power holders cannot even protect the nation from getting attacked systematically again and again! There are forces around the world who are gearing up to ensure that Bharat does not stand up strong and therefore they keep on attacking Bharat – physically and diplomatically! Just calculate umpteen numbers of foreign trips by those sitting in power in centre and in states; calculate the costs on them and then calculate the losses caused by jehadi and naxal attacks in Bharat! Whose money is it? It is the tax payers’ money on which they live. What is the output? Every time there is an attack, either it is shrugged off as a routine matter or some fancy names are rattled. The newest fashion is that from all political parties, many start opining on such incidents to deliberately divert the attention from their failure to the political differences, which is a favourite topic of media gossip.

Until there are concrete systems for the accountability and deliverability of those in power, either in the centre or in states, such dereliction of diplomacy and duty will keep on happening. Let us work towards creating and implementing such systems.   

(The writer can be contacted at drtogadia@gmail.com)