The Chinese ascent.

It's 2nd Oct. and India is celebrating Gandhi Jayanti.As I move through the headlines of major global newspapers(online editions) the only news that catches my eye is how the Chinese are celebrating their National Day. It's been almost a week since these newspapers have laid their focus on China's National Day and I wonder why it should be China and NOT India.

I have come to know that 60 years prior to this day India's per capita income was 1.5 times than that of China.Today the opposite is true.The Chinese are grabbing eyeballs everywhere be it in sports or economic power or military might and this makes me apprehensive and insecure and it's not because I have some kind of China phobia or something like that.It's just because the Chinese cannot be trusted as our past experiences reflect.Inspite of this I cannot but smile cynically at this juggernaut called China.

In India everything or anything we do invites comparisons with China.We build a dam and we are happy that it's bigger than any other in China.We build a nuclear submarine indigenously
but we are sad coz China already has seven or eight of them.Today more Indians are apprehensive about China than they are of Pakistan what with daily reportings of Chinese incursions and claims of entire Arunachal Pradesh being their territory.

Amidst all these, I fail to understand the reaction of the Indian Govt.Is it afraid of the Chinese dragon??Today there is news of the Chinese issuing separate sheets for those applying for Chinese visas from the J&K and all the govt. can do is to register a diplomatic protest.Unless the govt. talks tough the Chinese will take us for granted.

The Pakis and the Chinese are trying to push India into a corner by trying to establish friendly relations with our neighbours notably Bangladesh,Nepal and Sri Lanka.It's high time that India bolstered its defence capabilities to meet any future challenges.Enhanced military capabilities require increased expenditure which can only be achieved by rapid economic growth.
Economic growth in India as I am made to know can only be sustained through modernisation of
the country's infrastructure.

Signing off with the hope that China -India relations flourish in the future and two great,ancient civilizations again make a mark in the world.