WHIPLASH: Find A Better Thing To Go Ga-ga Over
Find a better thing to go ga-ga over
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Published: 21:02 BST, 22 April 2012 | Updated: 21:02 BST, 22 April 2012
On April 19, all headlines screamed: 'India successfully test-fires a 5,000-kilometrerange nuclear-capable missile that can reach Beijing and Eastern Europe.
The test puts India in the small club of nations with intercontinental nuclear weapons capabilities.'
So now we can nuke China without blowing up half of India - great. Some would say it's an improvement from the Kargil War of 1999 when army generals couldn't think of resorting to nuclear warfare since it would have meant losses on both sides of the Line Of Control (LOC)!
It's also a huge relief to see that no politician has yet set off on a Rath Yatra with radiation filled soil from the Wheeler Island like the Bharatiya Janata Party veteran L.K. Advani did after nuclear tests were carried out in Pokhran in 1998-great way to spread a nuclear holocaust without even engaging in any warfare I say.
The surface-to-surface Agni V missile is launched from Wheeler Island off Odisha last week
Given that none of this has happened yet is reason enough to celebrate.
However, as Gandhi turns in his 'grave' and www.reddit.com the bubbly is brought out, a few of us are wondering why we are so self congratulatory over Agni-V - or the fact that we are part of a new war 'club', given that we are still debating in the Supreme Court whether the poverty line lies at `32 a day for urban India or not.
And let's not even enter the debate of whether nuclear weaponry ensures peace-like the debate of whether institutionalising a gun licence for citizens will make the city dweller feel safer. Let's ask the real question: Is this show of nuke muscle a smokescreen to cover up the problems brewing in the Army post the fracas stirred by General V.K.
Singh?
Because for the average common man it's all rather confusing and we as tax payers need to know the truth behind the big white streak in the sky. We are all ears
