The past few days, the
world was witness to three terrible events that made every person to stop their
work and take note on the happenings that were taking place in the world
through the eyes of the television news and other medias. The first two were
natural disasters that happened in our neighboring countries. The killer
cyclone, ‘Nargis’ which wiped out almost 1, 00,000 people in Myanmar. Then the
deadly earthquake in the Sichuan province of China where an estimated 25,000
people died. The third incident happened in our own backyard, in the pink city,
Jaipur orchestrated by the so called jihadi elements.

When the killer cyclone
stuck, Mayanmar, I was vacationing in the north eastern part of India; many
states there share a long international border with Myanmar. At that time
sudden drizzles had fallen in the place but the rains were of negligible
proportions. Myanmar which is ruled by a military junta is one of the poorest
countries in South East Asia. The cyclone is certain to set its mark on the
poor people especially children living there in the years to come. A photograph
circulating in the internet speaks a great deal on the living conditions of the
people there. As international aid starts to pour in on Myanmar, it remains to
be seen, how much of this aid would actually reach the affected people as Myanmar
also holds the dubious distinction of a corrupt state as well.

The last time I heard
of Sichuan was when I went to a Chinese restaurant in central India and had a
look at its menu. There were a lot of items with the word Sichuan in it for
example Sichuan chicken curry, Sichuan noodles. I taught of asking the Chinese
couple who run the restaurant the meaning of Sichuan but I did not go ahead as
the couple were very quite people and did not entertain any extra
conversations. Last week when I read the news on the deadly earthquake which
struck China in the Sichuan province, I realized that the items in the menu
probably had their origins in the Sichuan province of China. China is in a
better position to cater to the needs of the earthquake affected people because
of its growing financial and military prowess. But the earthquake would
certainly leave its impact on the Beijing Olympics games which are scheduled to
be held this year.

Jaipur, the pink city
of India; one of the fastest growing commercial city competing with the IT
giants of the likes of Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai; one of India’s most
popular holiday hotspots and home to the best cricket team in the Indian
Premier League, Rajasthan Royals was the next target of the terrorist elements.
This attack speaks of a shift in the terrorist strategy in targeting the non
metro cities in India. It started with the attack on Indian Institute of Science;
Bangalore then came the Hyderabad blasts and now Jaipur. It is high time to
take note of the fact as to are we sending the wrong signals to the Jihadi
elements. The Government has to sincerely answer these opposition’s questions. Are
the terrorist orchestrating these heinous crimes because they consider our
country as a weak state? Was the repealing of anti terrorist laws like POTA by
the UPA government a step in the right direction?

Finally, let me
highlight to you certain incidents that were reported in the press in all this
three countries or places before the above mentioned deadly events took place. Myanmar
was in the news for putting an iron hand on the monk’s protests in Myanmar for
the restoration of democracy. China was in news for the protests by the Tibetan
people against the oppressive policies of the Chinese government. Rajasthan was
very recently in news on the naked parading of two dalit boys with tonsured
heads by villagers on the crime that they had killed some birds. This happened
in Byawar village in Rajasthan’s Ajmer district.