24. The Threat of the ‘Dragon’
The news soon broke in public. It spread like fire in the whole world. Washington, Beijing, Moscow, Paris, London, Islamabad. They all were flabbergasted. The opposition welcomed me showing black flags. Media amplified the tension with their strange debates and opinion polls. Pressure was mounting and I could feel the extent of it.
The PM’s PA (or let’s say my PA) informed me that Army General was on the line and he wanted a word with me. Moreover, my flight to Delhi was ready to take off. I was panting. My face was wet with sweat. I requested him to give me a minute and rushed to the bathroom to pee out the warm liquid that was causing discomfort all the time in the meeting. I then washed my face and looked into the mirror. In fact slapped once or twice on the face to check if I was dreaming. But it was all true. I looked more into the eyes. Into the depths. I knew the whole world was waiting for me outside to show up. But I wanted to spend some time alone. Far from the politics. Far from the noises. Far from everything. No I was not celebrating there. In fact no feeling ran through my veins when I was promoted. I was neither happy nor sad. I was overwhelmed. The pulses were high. I just wanted to buy some time for myself. Some solitude. That’s it. Finally, when I felt some relaxed, I helped myself get up and washed my face. I wanted to talk to Aarti to ease up some pressure.
“Hello Aarti?”
“No sir. She is busy in an operation. May I know who is this?” asked a nurse who had received the call.
“I am Faizan. His husband…”
“Faizan Ahmed! Sir, I can see you on TV. My congratulations to you sir…”
“Hmmm… (responding in the same boring Faizan Khan way). Just tell Aarti to call me as soon as possible”
“Sir Sir Sir she’s out… Ma’am your call”
“Hello…”
“Yeah it’s me…”
“Faizan how are you? And why didn’t you answer my call yesterday?”
“Forget that. I need to tell you something…” And then a short pause. I did not know how to tell her these extra ordinary things.
“Say na…”
“…Yeah…Y… You know Mr. Shankar is ill right?” I said sluggishly.
“Hmmm…”
“So we had a meeting. Meeting to decide who’s gonna take his position next after him. You getting?” said boringly.
“OK…”
“No it’s not okay. You didn’t understand. Someone else had to be ranked a new Prime Minister in his absence…” I said changing the gears of my voice at once.
“Oho! I am getting it my sweet-sweet husband. I do watch news every day. Why are you behaving so unusual today Faizan?” she said but I muted once again. “…OK I’m sorry. Who’ll the PM then?....Faizan?...hello?”
“I will be…I mean I already am.” Before I said these words, she already had seen the information on the news and consequently the phone just slipped from her hands. Feeling a bit unconsciousness, she caught a little fever and was about to fell down when the nurses near her held her right in time and sprinkled some water on her.
“Hello…Aarti? ...Hello?”
“Faiz...” she said in a sobbing voice.
“I know…” I said and paused momentarily. “I am chosen to handle the situation at the borders. I have a lot of things to do. The whole world is eying on me huh. I’m just unable to think anything right now”
“Hah (titteringly (we both), on the happenings)… How are you feeling? And why are you talking in such a boring way? Are you not happy? Tell me how you are feeling right now.”
“How am I feeling? ...I am feeling nervous. I can’t feel my nerves. The economy of the country is already down. The war will simply crush India’s economically. Increase in poverty, price hike and unemployment will be the repercussions. And that’s what Pakistan wants. I don’t understand what to do”.
“Faizan listen to me. I love you and I am so proud of you. You really are the ‘right person’. I know it. They know it. You just need to believe yourself and act wisely…”
“Huh (tittering at myself)...Okay one question. What had you done in such situation if you were the Prime Minister?”
“…I would have done everything to not let this war happen”
“Hmmm…Fine I’ll talk to you shortly…Take care…”
Prevention is better than cure. That’s what my doctor wife actually meant. Being a PM my first duty was to prevent any condition of dispute with any nation. Later if I failed to do so Army had the rest solution. Fast winds were blowing outside the hospital. The Sun had been covered with black clouds. It was a sign of the titanic challenge waiting ahead at the doorstep. But enough of the thoughts and enough had we discussed. No more dilly dallying. I had to take the plunge against China as quickly as possible.
The personal flight of the Indian Prime Minister was all set to take me off to the national capital. I was busy in answering millions of calls from various ministries, defense primarily. The border activities at LOC had abruptly increased. It appeared the Pakistan eagerly wanted our soldiers to counter-attack them. Maybe it was their plan to engage us from the west so that Chinese could attack from north-east. Simultaneously, I was constantly in talks with Washington and Moscow but it appeared that there was no help coming from any ‘friendly’ nation. We had to fight our war alone. Meanwhile I had boarded in the plane and it was all set to take me off to the capital. I was impatient. I did not sit on my seat even for a minute. I moved here n there looping in the plane surfing various thoughts and all kind of information related to military capabilities of China and Pakistan. Although, Pakistan was not my tension. Army could have easily repeated the history. But it was China which was the real deal.
“Sir?...Sir?”
I woke up after my PA woke me up. I didn’t remember when I had fallen asleep. Perhaps it was the outcome of fatigue and extra mental activities. As I came out of the plane the media had surrounded me all around. Thousands of cameras focused on me but I ignored all of them and moved instantly. My security had been promoted, and so, they didn’t allow anyone to come closer to a radius of up to ten meters. And hence our caravan quickly forwarded towards the defense ministry where the defense minister was eagerly expecting me.
“Sir, how are you?” asked the Defense Minister to me when I finally reached the place.
“No time for all that. Give me the brief description of present scenario of the condition near border right now…” I asked them.
“Sir Pakistan is firing constantly in our base area since last 72 hours. Although there has not been any official declaration of war from their side but this time they have gone too far. Perhaps it seems that theses firings are intentional. Our spy satellites have captured few images which clearly reveal movement of Pakistan army across the border. Moreover, our intelligence system also confided us of possibility of a sudden attack from them” said the Army General.
“Hmmm… so how have we replied them yet General?” I asked.
“The situation around Indo-Pak border is certainly tensed sir, no doubt, but it is still under control. We have destroyed most of the bunkers of Pakistan army in reply” he replied.
“What about China?”
“China is the real threat. Our men are ever ready to combat the Chinese. But I can assure you something that after the war both countries will suffer huge loss in every respect…” replied the Defense Minister.
“That is why I don’t want this war to happen. We (Indians) have worked so hard to reach where we are today, proudly among the semi developed nations of the world. At the dawn of the next decade we would be on the ledge to be world no. 2. And after so much of wait, so much of struggle and sacrifices I don’t want to lose it from here and that too in one sheer madness. I do not doubt the capability of our defense but the war will hamper the economy and that is something I cannot let happen” I replied to them.
“Certainly sir…”
“Tell me one thing. Tell me one thing if we go deadly and apply all our nuclear weapons to attack China what would be the outcome?” I asked the Army General.
“What? But sir…”
“Just tell me General”
“Sir, with all due respect, China will become the least populous country from the most populous one…”
“Hah…that’s what I wanted to hear. Get me a cup of coffee and the Chinese President on the line. I want to have a word with him”
On the video talks with the Chinese President
“…Pretty tension along the borders Mr. Xing” I said to the Chinese President via video conference.
“Well I regret that but this situation has been created from your side perhaps…” he replied roughly.
“Mr. President I don’t talk in enigmas. Let me have it very clear to you. A.P is an integral part of India and you dare not to have any second thoughts about it…” I replied violently to the chief dragon.
“Well if you talk like that you leave us with no choice but war. Moreover I can promise you that none of your ‘friends’ would interfere in the war because they know and you very well know what we are capable of, don’t you? We have done it in past and we can do it again…”
“Mr. Xing I assume that you are concerned only about what you can ‘give’ to India and not about what you can ‘take’ back in return” I said to him coolly. “You surely are the most powerful one, no doubt about that, but the chair you are sitting on has only three legs. Your position is not stable. If you call war I can promise you that we will definitely break not just one but all the three fragile legs of your chair to make you crumble down to hundred civilization back. And with saying all that I can assure you of possibilities of nuclear attacks. If we win we win; but if we lose we would end the war with nuclear missiles. And I assume you very well know what does hundreds of nuclear missile targeting China means, don’t you?”
“Are you mad? Who the hell made you Prime Minister? Don’t you care about the nuclear treaties? If you attack us with nuclear weapons we would do it too? Aren’t you concerned about your people?” he shouted getting abruptly worried hearing the word ‘nuclear’.
“Mr. Xing I am just too young to care about the repercussions. I just know one thing. Our men have worked hard day and night to make it up to here and I will not let you or any nation steal our glory like this. I warn you again- if war happens it would be this way or the other. If you harm our integrity we would demolish China in return. We will make you crumble down from top to the ground. And I know few nations that eagerly want this to happen. Now I ask you aren’t you concerned about your people?”
He didn’t speak a word for a minute and then worriedly replied, “I am listening. Go on…”
“I am proud you are because it is important for us both to be cool” I said as the FM instantly informed me that UN has warned of strict economic bans on any nation that falls in war. I knew where to hit my bow now.
“There are few other things that I needed to tell you sir. You are the electronics giant I agree but the name of your biggest market is India. And war with India would mean destroying one’s own economy. Doesn’t sound me good for business. I need you to understand something. We both have matching ambitions for our nations respectively and we both know how long & persevering the journey has been up to here. I believe there’s enough space on earth for both of us to live peacefully and integrated. And if you agree my words and drop your lunatic thoughts of wars I am planning to visit Beijing next month to talk about joint ventures on development of solar fuels replacing the old traditional fuels. Apart from that we have lot to invest together in infrastructures and power. Why don’t we hold a meeting to discuss all these stuffs? What do you say?”
Meanwhile, in the talks with Japan and Russia we had successfully convinced them to side with us in UN. USA too condemned China for its autocracy. Moreover, the other member nations of BRICS too condemned the war situation and threatened of huge economic loss. These facts soon came into the knowledge of the Chinese President which built pressure to call off any military action against India.
“Ha Ha… You are a wise man. And a good business man too. Well Mr. PM it would be a pleasure of the Chinese President to welcome you to my land and behalf of whole China we respectfully invite you to visit the China. Republic of China eagerly awaits you…”
“Have a nice day sir…”
“You too Mr. PM”
That was the part of the conversation I had with the mighty Chinese President and luckily I was successful in changing his mind. I simply had played my trumps with the threats of nuclear weapons because only they were some stuff which could make them think twice. Moreover China never had good relationships with the US and especially Japan. The Chinese President very well knew what it would have meant if India would have hampered Chinese defense system. He had no choice but to call off the war. Nevertheless, things became normal with time and the black clouds had now disappeared. What about Pakistan? Well they simply backed off saying Pakistan army had nothing to do with the border attacks. A one single day made me a hero for the whole nation. Even the party members who were opposing me earlier were mesmerized with my work. They gave me a nickname- ‘magician’. Although I pretended like a winner but I knew that it was simply luck. A very good luck indeed and not at all magic. Nevertheless, it brought me a global recognition all around the world. The UN praised my wisdom while Forbes listed me among the top ten most influential persons on earth. The ‘big’ leaders of various nations, international media, press; magazines they all wanted an interview with me. They all wanted to see me. But I was unavailable to any of them. Where was i? I was where I should have been, in Bikaner, back to see the original PM Suryadev Shankar who was perhaps taking his last breaths in the hospitals.