Weapons, Wars Versus Poverty

Namaste!

It is high time that Bharat and its people decide to foot down and ask leaders to find out permanent solution for Kashmir and Naxalites. These two issues have been going on for almost seven decades and it is very unfortunate that both government and opposition have paid very little attention to it. Bharat has ranked 5th in the world by spending $55.9 bn in terms of expenditure on military [1]. Not that leaders are not trying but probably it is not enough given the serious problems such as poverty, population dying of hunger, poor infrastructure and public facilities - those could be addressed with the use of that kind of money and our coming generations need them. Bharat's 40.74 Crore (4074000)population is living below poverty line (BPL) as per 2017 which is more than 20% of the population of the country [2]. Not that countries sharing borders with Bharat are rich, they too are poor as well and people there do not have any great standard of living. Our leaders in Asia need to take a lesson from the history and get together to address common problems. Expanding geographical area is not a solution and will not be the solution for existing problems in the country. 

Over the centuries, definition of wars has changed and it might wipe off the humanity from the earth with the possible use of nuclear weapons in the war. Bharat and many other nations who need to pay attention to poverty are pouring billions and billions of rupees to purchase or manufacture weapons. We do require weapons to fight evil forces but we want to see leaders coming together keeping the differences aside and work towards the improvement of standard of living rather we see mostly fights going on for a piece of land which does not see any end. Questions need to be asked by all the people in respective Asian countries - Why can't we create common grounds? Are our leaders not intelligent enough to come up with a solution that take such matters to the conclusion? rather than getting excited about the war. I read lot of comments on the online news articles and a section of people do get excited when they hear that there is going to be a war, people need to realize by now that no one will be the winner if the war breaks out - everyone will lose.

There are platforms where world leaders discuss, give speeches and decide to do things that help humanity but surprisingly, sales of weapons is increasing without any drop over the decades [3] and Bharat is among the top importers of weapons.

I just hope there will be some day that leaders of Bharat and leaders of countries sharing borders with Bharat will have enough sense to stop the geographical expansion and start focusing on people in their existing geography. 

Sources:

1) http://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/military-expenditure-india-ranked-fifth-in-the-world-behind-saudi-arabia/641677/

2) http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/planning-commission-bpl-earn-rs-25-a-day-india/1/152084.html 

3) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/20/global-arms-weapons-trade-highest-point-since-cold-war-era