The threat of callousness

Today as I sat down to watch the blockbuster, Behind Enemy lines, with a couple other Indian friends of mine there came a moment when I felt like I got the reason to all the problems ailing our confusingly vibrant country.

The scene where the Admiral decides to risk his entire career in rescuing one fighter pilot, Owen Wilson is the one that I am referring to. That scene displayed the idea of how even one life that is American is so precious and needs to be saved! And this is not because it was just another movie and the protagonist had to be rescued but a lot of us must have seen this plenty of times, whether it be the murder of Daniel Pearl or the kidnapping of the American Diplomats in Iran at the time of the revolution. American life is probably the most precious commodity of life there is.

On the other hand compare that to the lives of our own Jawans and officers who give up their lives in the selfless defense of their motherland, the treatment meted out to their death and the insignificance attached to their lives is absolutely shocking. Just today I read in the news that two jawans died in an operation by Naxals in Central India. Yes two jawans, no name no identity. The cameras simply rolled into a 10 second commercial explaining the importance of clear skin. Now the simplest and easiest answer to this apathetic attitude can be the sheer size of our population. For every Jawan that dies, 3 other newborns are born that very second. On the face of it this statistic makes the callous citizen in me even more apathetic. "Good thing a couple people died, less competition for resources...", this is an argument many of us have used at some point in our lives or have at least heard one of our friends use it.

Now think about this scenario. All these newborns grow up to become BPO employees, Gym Trainers, Engineers, Doctors, Businessmen and maybe maybe a soldier. That skews the ratio a great deal. We are already receiving reports of a shortage of officers graduating from officer academies like the NDA and the IMA. The Indian Army is facing a shortage of foot soldiers, the Navy is recruiting non-swimmers while there have been cases of the IAF recruiting less than perfect vision individuals. This does not bode well for the future Defense structure. Every life of the officer needs to be given importance and we need to make sure that we don't take these matters lightly anymore.

It is incredible how that one scene and that one thought created so many more thoughts in my mind. But then as one of my friends said, "So what if one Indian soldier would die like this.. they would simply get two more from Bihar". What if these Biharis too decide to give Engineering a chance and stop joining the ranks of the Indian Military forces. Yes, it is a scary thought indeed.

Jai Hind!
Vande Materam.