Raven Gale
India celebrates Holi by test-firing a Pakistan-specific nuclear capable missile, to disprove its “spirit of togetherness, harmony and tolerance”.
On March 23, 2008, on the day of India’s religious festival Holi, President Pratibha Patil said, \"The festival of Holi brings joy and happiness, which imbibes the spirit of friendship among people of all faiths\". In a separate message, Vice President Hamid Ansari said, \"This festival portrays our great tradition of \'Unity in Diversity\' by transcending all distinctions and bridges the social gap by uniting us all in a joyful celebration of sprinkling of colours.\"
Dr Manmohan Singh in his message said that “The festival symbolizes the country\'s spirit of togetherness, harmony and tolerance”.
On the same auspicious day, India test fired the Agni-I, a medium-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile capable of hitting most targets in Pakistan.
23rd March is the day Pakistan celebrates the commemoration of the adoption of the historic resolution which became the driving force for the creation of an independent Muslim homeland.
The timing of the Agni-I experiment therefore sends a very hostile message to Pakistan and presents the image of India never having reconciled to the reality of this independent and sovereign nation.
Rather than attempting to intimidate Pakistan, India needs to focus both its energy and capital on putting some truth into its claims of secularism, on “spirit of togetherness, harmony and tolerance”
India might remind itself that it accounts for 40 per cent of the world’s poor, which is more than in the whole of Africa. And that in the last two years, more than 218,000 people across the country committed suicide mainly due to poverty, family feud, strained relationship with loved ones, dowry harassment, and the health problems posed by the meagre allocation of less than one percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) for health.
It might also make note of the fact that the pervading caste system effectively leaves lower caste Hindus as an oppressed majority in India’s power structure. The upper castes (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas ) that constitute 10 per cent of the total Indian population claim close to 80 per cent of the jobs in sectors such as software, biotechnology, and hotel management.
Apart from this, crimes against Dalits occur every 20 minutes in India while the number of Muslims killed in the past few years across the country are on a steady rise. In addition, the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee report has admitted that 138 Million Muslims across India are severely under-represented in government employment, including Public Sector Units.
As if that were not enough most of its bordering countries blame India for meddling in their affairs. If then India is to make good on its claims of stability, secularism and progress and be an inspiration to its neighbours, it might look in some direction other than testing nuclear capable missiles.