Mr Sree Iyer and I had a wide ranging discussion on the Yuan Wang which has docked at Hambantota. We expanded the discussion beyond the ship to have a macro look at wider issues. The Q&A session was good.
‘Sir, will China invade us?’ ‘We hear China has increased activities on the border’. Chinese consolidation activities on the LAC have prompted such reactions and fears. Lot of such inquiries from citizens within and outside India. Why? Bodies floating down Ganga, mass graves, lack of oxygen, medicines or hospital beds, botched vaccination program, uninterrupted work on Central Vista - all these have eroded our political capital immensely and seeded such doubts. Our national institutions are being compared to ‘rottweilers’ in the media. Economy? Unemployment figures and stock markets – both rattling up. Strangest combination. Rich getting richer and poor getting poorer. An ominous divergence which bodes ill. Leadership? Kis Chidiya ka naam hai bhai? National level paralysis in responding to the second wave. Erosion in comprehensive national power. Many have never experienced India being so weak. Nor did I for that matter. This frightening experience ...
ATAGS is not a good gun. It hasn't yet cleared trials as you said. The barrel burst during trials in September 2020 after gun suffered a barrel burst injuring four personnel. Dhanush is a worse copy of the FH77. Despite even being a copy of an old gun, it still struggled to clear trials. It failed on three occasions in a row in 2017.
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