Every other day we keep reading about how party workers across political parties indulge in violence and end up hurting the same people who helped their leaders rise to power. The one thing that keeps bothering many people I talk to is why don’t the leaders act against the errant party workers and take strict measures to keep them in check. While they could indeed act against them, they don’t do so fearing a backlash within the party itself. The point is, political leaders need those party workers at the grassroots level and acting against them could turn them hostile. Which in turn, would help rival political parties gain ground—something no political party would ever want. Take for example the current situation in West Bengal, where party workers of the ruling Trinamool Congress have been accused of murder, rapes, physical assaults and other anti-social activities. The Chief Minister of Bengal Ms. Mamta Banerjee seems to turn a deaf ear to all the incidents, instead blaming opposition parties of carrying out events as such to mar the image of her government.

15th December 2014, a lonewolf takes people hostage in Sydney. 7th January 2015, Chalie Hebdo, a satirical French magazine’s office is attacked and the staff was killed by radical Islamists. 3rd January 2015, Terrorists of the Boko Haram group attack the town of Baga in Nigeria and kill upwards of 2000 innocents, including children, woman and the elderly. Three terror attacks in 3 completely different parts of the world, yet I am sure that not many of you would have heard about the third incident, which is one of the deadliest terror attacks the world has ever witnessed. Moreover, the mainstream media and world leaders went berserk when the Australian and the French incidents happened and strongly condemned the attacks, in fact, they went after the people responsible for the attacks and vowed to double their efforts to take down the ISIS and the Al-Qaeda. What about Boko Haram who killed 2000 innocents in broad daylight? Probably the dreaded terror group is already planning to carry out its next terror attack due to the complete disregard shown by both the world leaders and the mainstream media in condemning and highlighting the group’s spinelessness and brutality.

Ayman-Al-Zawahiri recently announced the formation of the Indian branch of the Al-Qaeda, a dreaded terrorist organization responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks with close ties to the Taliban. The organization has been active across various countries and has been engaged in a bloody conflict with the western nations since more than a decade. India, though prone to terror attacks by various terrorist groups operating out of Pakistan, has so far mostly remained untouched by the Al-Qaeda. However, that equation could soon change with Al-Qaeda’s intentions becoming clear to radicalize and recruit young Indian Muslims in the name of Jihad.

Pakistan has been known to play double games, and not just with India. Pakistan had double crossed US when it was fighting the Taliban in its initial days and was counting on them to aid them in its fight against the terrorist regime post the 9/11 catastrophe. At that time, according to a report by BBC, Pakistan not just airlifted top leaders of the Taliban from Afghanistan; they also provided them with ammunition they had received from the Americans to aid the Taliban in their war against the NATO forces. Of course, Pakistan never accepted the allegations; however, the point is, that if they are willing to go to such extreme lengths to betray the trust of their closest ally and top monetary aid provider, what lengths would they be willing to go to betray India, considering the fact that the relationship between the two countries have been strained since decades.

In its last days the UPA government did something, which could have likely put the national security of the country at stake. A very sensitive strategic missile which goes by the name of Pragati was left unattended at a port in Korea for over a month. However, the most shocking part of the entire incident is that the missile made it back to the country in a commercial vessel traveling through Chinese territory and even making a stop at a Chinese port (Which could have put the top-secret technology at risk of being stolen by the Chinese). ‘Pragiti’ is the export version of a tactical nuclear missile which is also known as ‘Prahaar’ in India.The missile was designed to tackle a controversial Pakistani missile ‘Nasr’ which has been designed by the Pakistanis to carry a tactical nuclear warhead and cause massive damage over a controlled area.

Ebola, the deadly virus which causes hemorrhagic fever and massive internal bleeding with a 90% fatality rate has killed close to 900 people in the African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria with thousands more being infected every day. Health workers and doctors working closely in the infected countries have already termed the outbreak as ‘Going out of control.’ The disease which begins with simple flu-like symptoms is hard to detect and quickly starts destroying the cells within the body triggering acute pain, fever, bursting of pustules emerging on the skin along with massive internal and external bleeding from every known orifice in the body. However, unlike most of the other deadly diseases like measles or Influenza, Ebola can only be spread via close contact with an infected person—bodily fluids, tears, sweat etc. can spread the virus from one person to another—putting the family members, relatives and friends of an infected person more at risk of contracting the disease.

The recent gang rape and hanging of two teenagers in the Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh has shocked the entire world, it makes me wonder “Am I really living in the so called new India?” The new India which is about growth, gender equality and security, or so people think; however, the ground reality is much different than what we might or might not believe. The two sisters aged 14 and 15 years respectively were abducted, tortured, raped and then murdered by 7 men; two of those men are in the police. The startling images of the dead bodies of both the teenagers hanging from a tree gave us a sense of despair and horror; moreover the fact that policemen themselves were involved in such a grotesque and perverted act instills a feeling of insecurity. The men who are tasked to protect us; if they themselves, indulge in dishonoring women– children to be precise in this case—then whom should we trust?

We might be living in one of the world’s fastest growing economies—the economy is currently going through a slump—but still are unable to address certain issues which are of utmost importance for us to be able to fully establish our country as a global leader. If only we paid more attention to these problems, we would be able to at least come up with a long term solution to eradicate these issues before they eventually grow out of proportion and become just too big to be curbed. In this article, we are going to look at some of these problems (In order of Importance) that need to be addressed immediately in order for us to establish a society which is free of vices, and where future generations can live in peace.

Leaving the cities behind and moving towards some of the most backward districts in India, a rather gloomy image emerges. With no electricity and even basic facilities out of bounds, people have to struggle everyday for what we take for granted in major cities and towns, globalization has had very little effect on these remote areas of the country, and Congress’ slogan “Garibi Hatao” also doesn’t seem to hold any meaning, once you visit these areas.