The Year 2009 - A New Begining For India?

The Year 2008 ended on a dismal note for India with fear in all the citizens' minds. Most of the country did not celebrate the New Year's eve with as much gusto or happiness that has been seen in earlier times.

The year 2008 also had many highs and moments of pride for India : when our sensex was at its peak of more than 21,000 points in the month of January 2008, Indian sports saw many glories and records broken. M S Dhoni emerged as a winning captain for our team as we won one series after another defeating the all time Champions Australia and gaining the 2nd top position in the world rankings of Cricket. We won three medals in the Olympics this year, crowned by the Gold medal won by Anubhav Bhindra in the rifle shooting event. India launched its first satellite to the moon - Chandrayaan 1 successfully this year. Aravind Adiga won the booker prize for his book - The White Tiger. India signed the Civil Nuclear deal with USA. There were also many lows like the blasts that rocked the national cities of Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmadabad and New Delhi and Mumbai claiming many lives.

Read all about these Highs and Lows that India went through in the Year 2008 here:
http://in.reuters.com/article/specialEvents1/idINIndia-37185120081227?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1263/india--south-asia/2008/12/31/1034746/2008-the-year-that-was-in-indian-football

http://www.india-server.com/news/year-2008-highlights-5330.html

The Year 2009 is here. The Year began with a blast. Yes, another bomb blast in Guwahati in India's north-eastern state of Assam, killing at least five people. Read all the details here:
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=238599

This doesn't sound like a very promising start for India as yet once again the cause of these blasts were attributed to lapses in security. Indian Government's response to this situation is to appeal to Bangladesh to take care of the terrorist camps in their soil.

I am angry now. Is this the only response a big democratic country like India, (who has one of the biggest defense forces in this region) can give to the world at large? Why are we dilly-dallying? Even as we speak, there are news reports of some terrorists being holed up in J&K in some solid bunkers fighting and resisting our armed forces in combat. They say it may end up being a long battle??? Jammu and Kashmir is our own territory and yet we are not sending in our Air force planes to bombard the terrorist's bunkers? Why is it so difficult to smoke out all these unwanted elements from our soil? Why are we not acting tough?

The Indian Government has yet again disappointed the armed forces by declaring the 6th Pay Commission. The Prime Minister announced a higher pay packet to the Lt. Colonels, but with a "condition" attached to it that makes no sense whatsoever and defeats the whole purpose altogether. He has rejected the other two demands of pay parity and status issue of the Lt.Generals with the civil counterparts. He has also announced that there will be a separate pay panel for the defense forces in the furture, but that's another ten years away!

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090102/jsp/nation/story_10332637.jsp

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090078431

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=Cricket&id=f248f0b5-1815-43d4-8e8e-f938241b5d65&&Headline=PMO+approves+new+pay+panel+for+armed+forces

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Armed_forces_all_set_for_pay_hike_/articleshow/3877079.cms

The Year 2009 doesn't sound too promising for all the Citizens, Politics and the Defense Forces in India.