How does that translate into India’s current geo-political status?
The era in which we bellowed our moral pronouncements to the world was an era in which the gap between our standing and our right to preach, the realities of our own existence and our own immediate needs was glaring, and that ultimately lost us some credit in the eyes of the world. Today, India is being taken seriously only because we’re no longer like that. No one says any more that you are preaching to us when you can’t feed your own people. Today they’re saying, ‘Gosh! We want to know what you’re doing, because you are transforming your economy, you are pulling 10 million people out of poverty every year.’ But at the same time India’s not doing itself a favour investing in countries such as Myanmar and Sudan, and has reports of human rights violations in its states. Firstly, there are lots of things to criticise, and as a democracy, there are Indians who are criticising these. When we speak of human rights violations, it should be a matter of pride that these violations are being un
