The good, the bad, & the Mighty!
Start.
Context: recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the useless social media hashtag frenzy that pop up every time there is an armed conflict.
As you can see, when it comes to defending your freedom or seizing someone else’s, it DOES NOT matter whether you are right or wrong, whether you have good intentions or bad. Someone’s villain will always be someone else’s hero! What matters is :
1. whether you have the resolve and courage
2. whether you have the strength and economic means to manifest that resolve and courage in reality
That’s it, this is the bottom line. There is no nobility in being weak and defenceless. There is no moral high ground in getting defeated and not being able to save other innocent lives. No amount of Tweets or Facebook posts or Instagram hashtags will come to save you in time of crisis. The safety and security of your nation (and by extension, your family) is first and foremost your responsibility. The media, the politicians, even the general public will pick up the injustice done to you only if it suits their agenda. Do not think outsourcing it to some organization having an office in the scenic location of Hague or New York will save you.
The world will ALWAYS align itself with the strong and courageous in the end. Just a few months ago everyone including the UN was running hashtags like #StandwithAfghanistan #WeSupportDemocracy, right? Do you know that now the UN has removed the name of the former “democratically elected” President of Afghanistan, Mr. Asraf Ghani’s name from the global Heads of State list? So much for #StandingWithDemocracy. Here is the bottom line: No one stands or remembers a person who runs away while having arms and ammunition to fight for weeks!
Always remember that the world doesn’t stop functioning when party A decides to seize party B over whatever their differences are. We all were doing our jobs and zoom calls just like any other day when America invaded and then pulled out of #Afghanistan 20 yrs later, when foreign forces made #Syria and #Lybia a testing and marketing ground of their military hardware, and exactly like how we are today when Russia unilaterally decided to make some regions of #Ukraine independent. There is NO world view on which everyone will agree saying this is the absolute right/wrong.
Do not get fooled by some lofty and hypocritic ideals of absolute Ahimsa preached by some Mahatma or saint. Do not let anyone influence you by telling you only the half story of King Ashoka’s renunciation of the material world after Kalinga war. Make yourself aware that even after the war of Kalinga was over, King Ashoka maintained one of the biggest and most fierce militaries in the sub-continent till the end of his reign. It is far easy to preach peace with the big stick kept by your side than to preach peace with folded hands. There is no shame in being mighty and powerful. Many people simply criticize the position of power as if it is a sin to be powerful, the fact is — those people actually don’t dislike the position of power, in fact, they will gladly accept any and everything being gifted to them by those in power, they just dislike the bag of responsibilities that come with being powerful. Once you are in charge, the buck stops at you. It is easy to criticize and whine about anything under the sun, but the world is not run by whiners, it is run by doers. Whether your intentions are good or bad, you need to be resourceful and strong to make it happen.
You can NEVER negotiate peace from a position of weakness.
The old saying is relevant today and it will remain relevant till the end of time: “Veer Bhogya Vasundhara”, it means — only the brave shall inherit and enjoy the resources of this world.
End.
Side note 1: We are extremely fortunate to have PMs like Indira Gandhi, Narsimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee who understood the importance of having a big stick kept by our side and made sure India has credible nuclear deterrence despite numerous threats of sanctions by “world powers”. By the way, it is worth mentioning that UNSC has only 5 permanent members with the power of nullifying any UN resolution using their Veto power. So much for calling this world a global village where everyone is “equal”!
