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What India Should Do In 2010...

Hello Friends,

I know the title encompasses very large area including various explored & unexplored fields that might contribute to India's development.
However, I will keep this article limited to the fields of my interest & concern, i.e. Environment, Climate Change, Global Warming, etc etc.

As you might be aware, we had a global conference about environmental concerns at Copenhagen. There is already an agreement in action named Kyoto Protocol which attempts to set limits of carbon emissions by developed countries in check to reduce global warming. However, this treaty ends in 2012. Hence, Copenhagen Summit was arranged with objective to create a unison among global leaders & to agree upon a legally binding deal between all or at least most of the countries to protect the environment. Such deal was expected to start working without the break in the attempts made by Kyoto Protocol, so as to disable any possibility of resurrection of global warming.

These were all just expectations of green activists, the people who want to save mankind from any "End of the World" type scenarios which are likely to arise by the year 2100. But what actually happened in the summit was exactly opposite.

Nations which will be completely submerged under sea waters by 2100 include Maldives & Tuvalu. Maldives, in the opening of summit clearly warned global leaders, "We know we are going to die. That too just because some developed nations do not want to decrease their devastating nature of so called development & just because some industrialists want to keep earning profits right when waters destructing lives of millions of people. But NO. We Will Not Die Quietly." Tuvalu urged global leaders in a sentimental speech saying "Our future lies in your hand. Please consider about those people whose lives depend on your actions. You have the responsibility to save them by bringing in a deal which will be legally binding to all the countries of the world."

Despite these warnings & requests, developed countries like US, Australia, China etc kept others busy guessing about their stand & not even inching ahead towards any such deal. Surprisingly, India was not representing other developing nations this time as we expected it to be doing. This was what Nehru did & earned respect for our country. But it kept taking doubts about impact of the deal on so called progress of our country. When news of Manmohan Singh coming to Copenhagen hit the world, the green activists, through their blogs, twitter & news sites welcomed him, hoping he would bring some positive initiative with him.

But what a shame! Indian politicians took a very selfish stand at summit & came home with a deal (which is called Copenhagen Accord) with US, Brazil, China & South Africa. What is the Accord? It doesn't contain any legally binding contract. But just a non-binding agreement to keep global warming in check but which will not alter speed of development of any of these counties. What does that mean? All of us will keep destructing nature in the name of development! What a selfishness! & Mr Jairam Ramesh, our environmental minister quoted to press, "India won at the Copenhagen"!

No sir! We just lost our credibility, our respectful status, our image of a nation which powerfully represents developing countries. We lost it all to developed nations, to whom we agreed to support even when they will keep destructing the nature to keep their pockets full of money.

We have a Hindi saying: "Sir Salaamat to Pagdi Pachaas" meaning "There will be hundreds of hats to wear upon only if we can keep our head safe". Dear Indian Leaders, we can enjoy all the progress we will be able to gain in next 50 or 100 years, only if we can survive in the country or in this world. What will we do of that progress if we lose Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai & many other parts of our country to ocean waters due to global warming? Can you people imagine India without these cities? Can you imagine USA without New York? Can you imagine half of Bangladesh submerged under waters & millions of Bangladeshi refugees of this tragedy running through Indian Borders to keep themselves safe from going down under water? Are we ready for this Mr Jairam Ramesh? Are we calling this our victory at Copenhagen?

We expected rather a powerful India representing not only developing nations but also all those nations which are expected to fall victim to the tragedy. We expected India would take initiative when there was no one to lead the summit while developed nations were keeping media busy with loads of confusion. Most of our newspapers congratulated our leaders after they came back home that they did not lost progress of our nation because of pressure from developed countries. But this is not the fact. Reality is that, we fell victim to sweet talk of USA & China & signed on a selfish treaty that promises us our so called progress.

This is not our tradition. We are always taught "Sarve Santu Sukhinaam" meaning we pray "May All the World Become Happy". But this selfish stand have brought us in a shameful position in the world. We were never so selfish to look at only our profit. And we don't even understand this is really not a profit, but a loss in the long run.

Because of the stand of India & 4 countries participating in Copenhagen Accord, other countries have blamed us of drowning the world due to our selfishness. Almost all the green activists have warned, "These leaders might think they have done a good job at Copenhagen. But We are Not Done Yet! We will keep fighting till the the real deal comes to reality."

Nehru created a superb example by standing by developing nations which was really right, necessary & morally correct, when we did not even possess much economic or muscle power. He just understood the power of unity. Today, the circumstances have changed. Now, we are one of the leading economy with market of second highest population in the world. Yet, we fell to lead the world. If we would have represented all the global warming suffering nations, we would have become representative of half of the world's population. Developed countries would have to listen to us, because, they are simply the countries who always eye markets to continue prospering. They would have never dared to think about losing a half of their market by posing themselves against us!

I think, India in 2010 should take such a stand in the global politics & do what is really right, extremely necessary & morally correct instead of what USA or China think is right. After all, we are the ones to teach the world the teaching of our great Vedas & Upanishads: "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam"(The Whole World Is My Home).
What do you think?