The Idea of India? We are a soft target

What is the Idea of India? Are we to be proud of the fact that we are a nation that rises like a Pheonix from the ashes everytime? The Ashes consist of the tag of 'The Third World Nation', the Western world's image of India as a land of snake-charmer, ashes of its ghost of India's poor record of Human Rights (killings of Christians in Orissa), the ashes of economic crisis (Hawala scam), the ashes of several scams (stamp paper, Bofors, petrol pump, National Highway), ashes of wars with our neighbours (Kargil, 1971, 1962, etc), ashes of terror attacks (Sikh terrorism and ongoing terror strikes from Kashmir trained militants); the list can go on.

The complete interpretation would be - we rise like a Pheonix alright, but we rise only to become more and more soft. What do we learn each time we rise? Do we learn anything at all as a country that has faced 4,100 terror attacks since 1970 till date.

Perhaps lessons learnt are forgotten very soon. We learnt nothing after the serial blasts in Mumbai on 1993, this year we have witnessed serial blasts in Gujarat, Bangalore, and Assam. Did we learn anything from Kargil? No, instead we have scaled down the troops across our borders which has led to an increase in terrorist movement across borders.

Our foreign policies, defence policies and internal policing defies the logic of a Resilient Nation. Our policies are not only soft but also ineffective. We cant stand up against an enemy like Pakistan or China, both countries that have engaged us in War.

the world's opinion is that India is rising, but the way the World leaders deal with us shows that they too are aware of our softness. We are not viewed to be strong like China or strong like Iran in terms of Military force. Neither are we seen to be as impactful in the economic field as other members in the BRIC category.

We will continue to be a target as long as we continue to be soft on our enemies within and outside. The idea of a nation is yet to be defined by us Indians when we are still divided over Hindu Terrorist or Muslim Terrorist, divided over Caste based reservations, divided over issues like hiking pay to our soldiers, divied over simple issues like do we implement Helmet rule in a city.... with such attitude of unwilling action we are bound to be burnt again and again and turn to ashes. Only hope is that we know we shall rise once again as the Pheonix coz thankfully we havent forgotten how to Rise up again and again.

I only wonder how long we can do that?