Role of India

Raj Chengapa from "India Today" was quoted in the Sunday, March 20 edition of your daily as saying, "We are surrounded by failing states and problems, you know, whether you look at Nepal or Sri Lanka or Bangladesh and, of course, Pakistan. What is the sort of role you think India should be playing in the region?"

I find Mr. Chengapa's question to Dr. Condi Rice almost comical and I don't know which planet he has been living in but the last time I checked, a recent riot in the Indian state of Gujarat cost thousands of Indian lives, mostly Muslims. There is ongoing conflict in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and a separatist movement in North Eastern India.

No nation is perfect and although India is economically and technologically superior to its neighbours, it has no right to refer to its neighbours as failing states when it clearly has a number of serious problems of its own. My suggestion to Mr. Chengapa is to recommend that his government clean up their own backyard before criticising those of others.