“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”- Theodore Roosevelt, American President 1901-1909
Rahul Gandhi has again asked a question as to why the soldiers martyred in the cowardly attack by China in the Galwan Valley did not carry weapons (ignoring that the treaty signed by India in 1993 and 1996 prevented that), alluding to either incompetence of soldiers or the intentions of their superiors.
Rahul Gandhi is a readily excitable and curious young man. It is probably because of this very reason that he remains a young man even after spending half a century on this planet. He is not concerned about responsibility and not bothered about the truth, his own or other people’s. When it comes to China, his enthusiasm knows no bound. His interest in China is not new and is not specific to this Government. He has always been very interested in China. While under his leadership Congress has slipped into the category of one of the most hated political party, even replacing the Communists who were so hated even by his great grandfather under whose leadership the party was banned and party workers were even shot at in cold blood in a Chennai prison; he seems to be building Congress which was hitherto called Indian National Congress into some kind of international mafia, with offices in Turkey and such places. We don’t know if Rahul Gandhi is targeting to become the next Caliph through his Turkey office.
Rahul Gandhi was very excited when the Chinese Army was in an eyeball-to-eyeball contact with the Indian Army at Doklam. Thankfully that episode passed off without any loss of life as the Chinese, once they realized that Indian Army under the new Government with much attention and support from the government lacked neither intent nor the courage.
Now, this crisis in Galwan Valley with China has given the old Rahul Gandhi with his new wavy hairstyle a new lease of life as he has presented himself before the people with his supremely cynical and infinitely stupid questions. “Why did the Chinese attack Indian Soldiers?” asks the prince. Valid question, but he must know the answer as well. The Chinese attacked because they are frustrated. They are frustrated that while building all the infrastructure on their side of the Line of Actual Control, they had seen that on Indian side there was scant development as the leadership under UPA was possibly busy working out the cuts and commissions for the first family.
Now suddenly in the last three years, they find bridges being built, railroads to the border posts, airfields being constructed, and roads being built in difficult border terrain. To make things worse even new generation Aircrafts are being procured in three decades even after many roadblocks from Rahul Gandhi and his party. Even the Supreme Court says there is no corruption in the deal and suddenly the Chinese are staring at an India they find a stranger.
I do not know as many things as Rahul Gandhi does. After all, Rahul Gandhi has been to China in 2007 and eventually the whole family was in China in 2008 to sign some kind of MoU with the Chinese Communist Party, terms negotiated with Xi Jinping, who is now the lifetime President of China and some say is under pressure after mishandling of COVID Crisis (assuming it is not a part of biological warfare by the Chinese). Why would an Indian Political party which intends to fight and hopefully, win elections in India want to increase influence in China or say Turkey (Congress opened its office in Turkey days after Turkey took an aggressively Anti-India stand in the UN)?
The news release said that the office will ensure improve bilateral relation between India and Turkey. Since Independence, even the Party in power has been kept out by the Governments of the day out of Foreign relations parlay, but Congress has in a bold step made lobbying for foreign power an open and accepted art. No wonder, Rahul Gandhi wants to know. Wayanad MP has reason to seek information from Narendra Modi Government on what it is planning to do with the Chinese. After all, that could be a part of the lobbying agreement his party had signed with Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping.
No wonder, Rahul is so excited and is asking questions every day. But should we not ask that when Rahul Gandhi is not in power and not head of even the notionally principal opposition party, he wants to know everything, but why he was so silent when he was not only a part of Government, rather was influential enough to be tearing off the ordinances approved by the then Prime Minister. His party has claimed that India has ceded 60 kms of Indian Territory. They must be taking inference from their rule. In 2013, a report submitted by National Security Advisory Board to the PMO claimed that China occupied around 640 Kms by frequent incursions, over the period of few months.
They must have presumed that old ways must be prevailing even now and decided to attack the present government. National security has never been an issue for this man whose nationality has also been under a cloud. He might have in 2013 felt that losing territory must be a part of MoU his party had signed with CCP, as an effort to improve bilateral relation. I do not know what the Constitution says about private political parties getting into formal engagements with foreign parties to better or worsen international relations of India.
Maybe, Rahul had good intentions and he simply was following his great grandfather’s track as far as handing over the territory to foreign adversaries is concerned, in order to win over the foreign press. Didn’t under Nehru India announced in 1954 that it will support China on Tibet even before the negotiations began and waived off payment China was supposed to make towards the handing over of India assets (Telephone, telegraph and such) in Tibet as a goodwill gesture?
Rahul Gandhi has so many questions, but as the citizen of India, I have only one- Do we have to live with such opposition in India? On a day when we have lost Twenty Bravehearts defending our boundaries, do we need this forever-adolescent middle-aged man with shady credentials and wavy-gelled hair to come question if they ceded the territory? I don’t even want to ever ask him about the 680 Kilometers his Government ceded to China and Siachen his Government wanted to cede to China.
I wanted to only ask him if he even understands the meaning of basic human decency. Not that Rahul Gandhi would ever pause to think about what is doing to the morale of India and the Indian army. He and his gang of sycophants will call this buffoonery another one of his arrivals in Indian politics. After all, as Napoleon said- “In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.” It is however for us as citizens to decide the kind of politics we want to see in our country.
