ARMED FORCES AND THE NATION

India needs its armed forces and wants them to be confident that there is a nation standing behind them praying for their success and not for their failure.

WRITTEN BY  - Samir Shukla  - Updated: Apr 8, 2019,

As Balakot surgical strike is going to be alive, at least till elections are around, I am unable to escape from reading social media posts about it from some of the smartest people of my nation.Though I am not in a position to accept or deny existence or success/failure of surgical strike with cent percent certainty, this episode has made me sure about something else. I am absolutely sure that no nation on the planet is as keen or desperate to fail as the country called India.

The amount of intellectual energy that Indian intelligentsia has invested in looking for evidences to prove failure of surgical strike is so incredible that their failure-hunger needs to be explored to look for an explanation for this undoubtedly unique Indian talent.

Let us differentiate this quest of desperation from our standard hatred for the state that stems from systemic inefficiencies and corruption that are in front of us.

Balakot is not here for us to see to be sure of its failure by any stretch.

Unfortunately, for some mysterious reason, Imran Khan has also not invited our 150 plus scientists, 600 plus theatre artists, 200 plus academicians and various other experts for a tea to Balakot to help them confirm and celebrate failure of the strike. And yet, the social media is filled to the brim with Indian Sherlock Holmes offering conclusions about its failure.

If we look honestly at Balakot, with the level of information available, it offers convenience of choosing either of the option of success and failure, and yet India has enough countrymen not only opting for failure but are so desperate that they are ready to go to any extreme in looking for evidence from anywhere, even from Pakistan to proclaim failure of their nation in an act of aggression.

From psychological perspective, this desire to look for failure really needs exploration as, when there is reasonable opportunity available, people should be choosing the option that makes them feel good and not the one that makes them feel bad. So, there is only one possibility that can explain the choice, i.e. failure feels good to a given set of Indians.

If it sounds weird, in reality it is not, as loving failure is a lot common than what it seems. If one needs to make one's life simple, accepting failure is a path of least resistance. It is a state of mind that offers a great comfort, especially if one can assign the cause of failure to someone or something else.

All the Indians trying really hard to prove that their nation has failed are comfortably satiating their failure-hunger because they have delinked themselves from the state. Working hard to prove failure of their own nation is not a source of discomfort for them because they see that failure as a success of their ideology.

As an intellectual musing, this is a great subject to explore, but there is something more real here, and that needs urgent cognisance by the entire nation if it wants to remain a nation.

Failed or successful, surgical strike meant that some really young Indians had to fly across a hostile border and face death. Such acts of valour are possible only when these young men know that there is a nation rooting for their success.

No soldier can lay down his life for a nation that is desperately looking to prove that he has failed. And lot worse is when he sees a nation looking at him as a potential liar.

So, to all my extremely intelligent friends out there looking at international media and even Pakistan with hope that Balakot has failed, I have a simple prayer.

A nation can survive only when guarded fiercely by its soldiers. India needs its armed forces and wants them to be confident that there is a nation standing behind them praying for their success and not for their failure.

Contributed by :-

For perusal of those who may not have seen. A piece that came to hand this morning. 

Satish Nambiar

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