• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Timeri N. Murari

IT was Chairman Mao who said: `Walk softly and carry a big stick.' Had he been an Indian, he would have said: `Talk softly and carry a big stick.' There is a big difference between the two sayings. Walking implies an action, talking implies inaction. The rhetoric coming out of New Delhi today is so strident and loud that I wish all our big honcho politicians would shut up for a day or a week or a year. We, as a people, have been bombarded with words, words, and words.

Since the attack on Parliament, hysteria seems to have gripped our PM, FM, DM and all the other Ms. Had they taken Mao's advice, they would have remained silent until they gathered all the irrefutable proof against which group was behind the attack. But being talkers, not doers, our leaders began screaming accusations even before the gunfire had died down. They named the wrong outfit and then had to back track. They ran around in circles.

Silence can be more threatening than shouting oneself hoarse. We do not need to be silent forever but certainly a few days of it, while we got our accurate proof, would have done our cause a lot more. And then out of the silence we could have let our proof do the talking.Of course, the militants came out of Pakistan and even if they did not manage to blow up Parliament, they have blown up our relations with Pakistan. That would have been their second objective. They want us to go to war again with Pakistan in the hope that out of the bloodshed, India would be wounded. A war would be worse for Pakistan but, with their new warmth with the US, they would have that support both in arms and money.

Our hawks suggested we send in our planes to attack the militant training camps. Their reasoning being that if the US can do it to Afghanistan we should be allowed to attack Pakistan. The difference is that the US is the superpower — the only one — and they are thousands of miles from Afghanistan. The US owns the only Big Stick in the world. It can afford to send in warships to the Indian Ocean and launch missile attacks from a great distance, knowing that Afghanistan is not about to launch missiles at it. (Human missiles are a different story.) If we do that to our close neighbour, missiles would be launched against us. We are not far enough to avoid instantaneous reaction.

In one way we are all fortunate that September 11 happened. It focussed the American mind to terrorism. Without their support, many countries, including the UK and Spain, suffered from terrorist attacks financed from both the US and other Western nations. Now the US has even clamped down on the IRA funding in the US. For decades, Irish Americans had financed the IRA.

We have acted against Pakistan and still we talk up a storm. We should retreat into a silence and let the actions take their course. Whether we like it or not, we will still have to live with Pakistan. Now, Gen Pervez Musharraf is acting more the statesman than any of our leaders.Our problem always has been that we talk too much. It saves us from acting, I guess. Today, we are so focussed on Pakistan that little is getting done in the country.

The Finance Minister never stops talking about economic reforms but nothing happens. It is as if words alone will bolster the economy. We just do not have the economic power to impress the world that we exist. If we only spent more time setting right our economy, acting on reforms, genuinely eradicating the glaring economic discrepancies in our people, we would be in a far better position at being heard in world forums.

All our politicians talk too much. They never stop with their promises and their rhetoric has led us to the verge of bankruptcy. Maharashtra cannot even get a loan from the World Bank today. We will end up being another Pakistan, an economic basket case, unless we stop our talking and do more acting. Chairman Mao's big stick did not mean only having bigger guns. It also meant the big stick of success. America's big stick comes from its economic strength, as does China's.

If only all our leaders would talk less and act to reform India, to implement all that rhetoric that flows ad nauseum out of their mouths, we would win the respect of other nations. We created Kashmir and all the other Kashmirs in India, through neglect, corruption and abysmal administration. Terrorists are born out of poverty and desperation and the only way to wipe them out is to make a people prosperous and secure.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
The heat is soothing

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line