Recently a survey was conducted
by Pew Research Centre, in around 44 countries in order to know the perception
of people of one country towards the people of the other countries and the
results which came out lucidly expound all the ins and outs of the Indian relationship
with the other countries.
According to the results,
around 50% of the Indians watch in Unites States of America, their country’s
biggest ally which on the other hand 29% denizens of India deem Russia as a
dependable ally and around 26% Indians think that Japan is a reliable nation. And
in a pretty well manner about 70 per cent of Bangladeshis polled approve of India. Some other
countries with favourable approval rating for India are Japan (63%), Vietnam
(57%) and the US (55%). So far the results were
pretty good and optimistic. India according to the results mentioned by me so
far seems to carry a very robust and wonderful reputation around the world.
But let’s now move geographically
closer to our borders. Moving closer in proximity to our neighbours we come to
exhume a very grave truth. Almost 72
per cent Indians believe that border disputes with China could lead to a
military conflict, according to a new survey. While a majority of Indians (62
per cent) see Pakistan as a big threat. While nations like China and Pakistan
also carry with them a very bad perspective towards
our motherland India. 70% Chinese hold a not-so-favourable attitude towards India
while a humongous number of people (87%) of the Pakistanis view India as a
constant threat.
Today the most momentous problem that India faces is of its neighbour. What
continues to prove to be a fetter in the overall growth of the nation is just
the problem that India is having with its neighbours. Our greatest strategic
failure in the whole of the nation’s history from independence to hitherto, is
our inability to successfully manage our neighbours.
Pakistan, today continues to pose serious problems with issues like
border conflicts and terrorism, on the other hand China has never been at peace
with India. Due to neglect, reluctance and bad judgements made by the previous
leaders of the nation, China has never been a friendly neighbour for the
nation. On the extreme south if we move to Sri Lanka, contemporarily Sri Lanka
is also at odds with the whole nation due to various issues. India’s
procrastination to solve the Tamil matter with Sri Lanka has also contributed to
this serious problem. Moving to the east, India is also not having a good
relationship with Bangladesh. Despite of receiving a good answer from
Bangladeshis in the above mentioned survey, India still continues to have many
problems with the nation of Bangladesh which need to be mooted and discussed
but due to delaying of many matters from our own side, we continue to face such
problems.
According to Gilbert K. Chesterton, “We make our friends; we make our
enemies; but God makes our next door neighbour”. The quote seems to hold true
in almost all of the cases regarding India. The root cause of all the problems
and grudges that our neighbours continue to hold towards us is our own
reluctance in dealing with our partners and also bad decisions made in the
past. For example India has never had a good relationship with China because of
a stint of careless decisions being made our predecessors during the war of
1962, and the two nations still continue to bear the harsh consequences of what
happened so many years ago. With nations like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, we on
ourselves have never commenced a constructive initiative in order to advance
further. We continue to increment our problems with these nations rather than
trying to cut the problems off. We still have not reached a consensus with Sri
Lanka on the issue of Tamils and have never made substantial efforts in
checking the terrorism and water issues with the nation of Bangladesh. Our,
such kind of approach continues to mar the perception that others hold toward
us.
It’s now high time that we mend our business with our neighbours
because, we can choose our friend; we can choose our enemy but not our next
door neighbour.
JAI HIND, JAI
BHARAT
JAI MA BHARTI
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