India, take the lead

Whether it wants to be so or not, whether it is ready for this role or not, India is becoming a global power. In the years to come, India will have to decide what kind of global power it wants to be. With its economic might, its military power, and its "soft power" all increasing steadily, India will find it increasingly difficult to continue its traditional foreign policy of non-alignment and non-intervention.

Americans are in an awkward position to appeal to another rising power to promote democracy, as our own engagement for demo-cracy abroad over time has contained more than a little neocolonialism, unilateralism and hypocrisy. However, in the last three decades, this has been partially supplanted by increasingly effective efforts (especially when multilateral, practical and soft-spoken) to assist demo-cratic development around the world.

One must also acknowledge the serious problems with India's own democracy: tenacious poverty and inequality, troubling levels of political violence and criminality in some states, and a fragmented political party system that makes it difficult to take decisions. In the face of acute challenges, it is understandable for India to want to be able to focus on its own problems.

Yet the established democracies of the world share a strong common interest in trying to bring about a more democratic world, and India's help is sorely needed in this cause. The global balance of power, of economic energy, and of moral authority is tilting from North to South. And the global environment for democracy is less favourable than at any time since the fall of the Berlin Wall, as an oil-rich Russia turns its back on Europe and democracy, a booming authoritarian China casts a lengthening shadow over Asia and now Africa as well, and democracy gasps for life in such crucially important countries as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, the Philippines, Nigeria and Venezuela. There are still a lot more democracies in the world than there were in 1989, but the momentum is reversing, and many democracies are in danger.

There are several reasons why India should care.

1) India's own democracy could be affected by what happens regionally and globally. Recall that emergency rule fell upon India at a low-point for democracy in Asia and the world. Democracies thrive in regions where they enjoy the reinforcing legitimacy and mutual security of other democracies.

2) By engaging other democracies around the world, India will also draw solidarity and some lessons that could be useful for its own democratic reform. All democracies in the world today are imperfect, and we all need to learn from one another.

3) A more democratic world will be a more secure world for us all. Democracies do not go to war against one another. And they do a much better job of advancing human well-being and protecting the environment. Moreover, terrorism emanates disproportionately from authoritarian soil.

We are threatened in common with a global crisis of climate change that dwarfs anything human civilisation has ever confronted. And the pathologies of badly governed states - terrorism, crime, corruption, environmental stress, infectious disease - spill across borders more quickly and vengefully than ever before.

India does not need a radical reorientation of its foreign policy in order to make a difference to democracy in the world. It has an exceptionally rich history of democratic practice and experience to share with other developing democracies. Some of the obvious realms of experience that India has to share include: the evolution and functioning of federalism, the management of ethnic and religious conflict, the constitutional court, state and local government, electoral administration, the independent mass media and civil society. A very useful first step would be to bring practitioners and scholars from emerging democracies to India for periods of time to study how democracy works and has developed here. New institutions could be established and existing Indian think tanks and organisations could be supported to host such visits.

Of course the United States does quite a bit of this. But how relevant is the highly expensive and decentralised American (or even European) model of democracy for Asia and Africa? We would all be better off sending more democrats to countries like India and South Africa. And conducting these exchanges would be an excellent and also ethical way for India to extend its soft power at a time when China is doing so for much more brazenly commercial and strategic ends.

If India were to establish an institution to coordinate and organise exchanges with democrats around the world, richer democracies in the world would want to join with it and help to fund it. And in the near term, we have a ready potential vehicle. The UN Democracy Fund has recently been established, with a substantial budget that includes sizable contributions from India and the United States. It is a natural candidate to provide early support for such a new initiative.

India should join the worldwide movement for democracy because doing so is in India's own national interest, not because the West asks it. But the democratic West has obligations to India that it must fulfil in the process. If we are asking India to play more of a leader-ship role on the world stage, than we must make room for that leadership. This should include India's permanent membership on the UN Security Council and its inclusion in global agenda-setting dialogues, such as the G8.

Crossroads or Cross Roads???

I sometimes wonder - How come some people have so much clarity in their life???

I mean, why can't some people be as confused as a normal person is or is having no confusion in your life normal?
Hell, don't tell me that the last one is right...coz that would makeme abnormal!!!
I was reading that book or rather say that I've read those bestsellers on self-improvement. Tried 'You Can Win' and 'Think and Grow Rich', each of them repeating that scrap about chose your aim wisely and then follow it to heaven or to hell and blah blah blah...
None tells you how to chose that aim...kya yaar!!! Is God gonna transcend in my head and give me some of his/her's those goofy slapsticks or what?? How do i get to know what exactly do I want from my life? Shit am I torn apart between those do's and don't's?
There are so much crossroads in my life, that I face a road at any angle I turn! I once convinced myself with this one-liner:
"When you are at crossroads, cross all the roads or cross all the roads"!!!
One is not obviously not possible 'coz after all I am an ordinary human (with extra-ordinary aspirations) with just one life to survive and obviously too less a time to spend.
The other, shall take me straight to Himalayas (I'm already in their lap) forget all the materialistic world and embrass the fuckin divine sprituality which is supposed to give a man the ultimate pleasures of life. But back in my mind I know that ultimate pleasure of life in the ultimate orgasm, so there's no point taking up spiritual 'pleasures' of life before I get a bite of materialistic ones.
So as you can see for yourself, I'm once again confused amongst my options and dare not single anyone out. The best way out of the quandries ats it seems to me is to give the main ones a try all...how lucky of them!!!
How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.

Or as I always believe during an untolerable lecture,
"If you're not confused, you're not paying attention."

Life is decieving

You take one quick look and you think you know me
but you dont
you take a quick look at my page
and you judge me
idiot
young
depress
and you get that right
Why?
because its my words thats written on there
but if you were to look at my pictures
you think
shy
innocent
and smart
Looks are deceiving
life is ending and your pain is just beginning
of the ending