Mesmerising sight on 26th January 2012 at Rajpath that wore the colours of valour, sacrifice and demonstrated the cultural heritage and the Idea we call India. Every passing moment not only made country proud but also demonstrated the success of India’s look east policy and India’s ability to forge strong relations in China’s backyard and through her gestures Prime Minister Shinawatra made it sure that she presents Thailand as a country that shares strong cultural values with India and that relation between two countries are not just about containing China.
If one is to view this development in the light of what president Obama said during his State of the Union address, it becomes clear that America is back in pacific and is ready to play a more active role compared to recent past and it is for India and pacific nations to take as much advantage of this opportunity as possible and India has been making sure that it utilizes this opportunity.
India has been able to sort out the only niggling issue of nuclear trade with Australia and has been steadily moving forward to start nuclear trade with Japan. In order to restore normalcy in North-East India has been able to bring democracy in Burma, thereby opportunity to connect this underdeveloped part of the country with Thailand and rest of the East Asian economy power houses and with a favourable government in Dhaka pace of normalisation in North-East has certainly increased.
Another point that worth notice is the fact that president Obama did mentioned that he won’t take any option off his table but if delve deeper into his address it won’t be hard to realise that he is not willing to go to war “alone” as he wish to build America with the money he will save from Afghanistan and Iraq wars as a result of pull out and provide a much needed relief to American economy and will take world along on this particular issue while at the same time indirectly warning Pakistan of raids like Abottabad.
In recent times India didn’t shied away from displaying its affection for Afghanistan and invited 22 children to participate in Republic day parade and conveyed a terse message to Islamabad that irrespective of internal dynamics of Pakistan India won’t leave Afghanistan, thus providing giving a much needed relief to the Afghanistan government.
And as dusk sets in, India finds itself all set to shed its image of soft power and ready to fight for its right full place in world order and save and serve its best interests anywhere in the world. It marks the success of the diplomacy of a country which in past had struggled with and had failed to nurture relationships even with natural allies, but that is a past and for now India is all set to begin a new beginning and I see a country that is resurgent and is vibrant.
