In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhishmahchaarya’s continuation of his accord on “Aapad-Dharma” to Yudishtra, wherein he is now talking about how a leader should be foresighted in his approach towards problems and dangers. In other words, a leader should be able to anticipate and foresee problems coming his way well in advance and start to think of solutions to mitigate those problems with least possible damage. To highlight this point, Bhishmachaarya has just narrated a very interesting story of three fishes in a pond. When there was a potential danger of losing their lives to some smart fishermen, the first fish found a way to escape even as the water level in the pond started to dwindle. The second fish, which was very smart to handle the present moment, managed to escape when the fishermen threw their fishing nets into the pond. Whereas, the third one, which was extremely lethargic in nature, did not anticipate any problem that came its way. Because of this, the third fish got caught in the fisherman’s net and eventually lost its life! Thus, it is important that we are able to foresee potential dangers much in advance and start building our capabilities accordingly, so that the danger can be mitigated!
We’ve seen this in our current Indian context as well – The current Indian dispensation at the Centre under our Prime Minister, Shri. Narendra Modi anticipated this kind of a war-like situation very much in advance. During the year 2014 when Mr. Modi came to power for the first time, India’s defence capability was in complete shambles because of extreme corruption – A 75-year legacy which was left over by the previous Congress government in India. Mr. Modi’s task wasn’t easy at that point in time – If any attacks from any neighbouring enemy country (India is surrounded by enemies in the forms of the rogue nation called Pakistan, China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, etc.) at that point in time, our army was in no position to defend our territorial borders effectively! Mr. Modi’s task was cut out – Identifying this potential danger that was looming large, he slowly and steadily started building up our defence systems. He was able to make key collaborations with friendly nations like Russia, from whom we were able to bring home the powerful S-400 Air-Defence Systems by 2019. Simultaneously, Mr. Modi worked with another friendly country with India – France to bring home the powerful and technically / technologically advanced Rafale fighter jets. These initiatives were long-term in nature, and took almost five to six years to accomplish.
In the meanwhile, Mr. Modi started strengthening our domestic production of defence equipment. Earlier, India had to depend on foreign countries for their defence requirement, but with Mr. Modi at the helm of affairs, India started indigenously producing powerful defence systems like the “Brahmos” missiles, Akash air-defence system, etc. under the “Atmanirbhar Bhaarat” program. These started to pay off rich dividends as the currently ongoing “Operation Sindoor” against Pakistani Islamic terrorists is a major proof of its success! All the Pakistani drones (Around 500 in number) have been successfully neutralised and destroyed by our air-defence systems, which, as a result, protected all our military and civilian air bases intact. Also, it has been covered in the media authentically that our Rafale jets, along with our indigenously made “Brahmos” missiles have successfully destroyed eleven air bases in Pakistan. Isn’t this a huge success? Isn’t this a testament of the Indian army’s technical and technological prowess? How did this happen? Did it happen overnight? It was a result of long-term planning, strategizing and execution of manufacturing the right defence equipment at the right time.
As we continue to see in the news, India has now started aggressively pushing for more and more defence manufacturing corridors apart from the current ones in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Recently, our Defence Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh has inaugurated a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility of “Brahmos” missiles – Capable of producing 100-150 such missiles per year! This is being done to aggressively stock up our defence equipment and be prepared to face any kinds of eventualities in the future.
So the point here is very simple – A leader should always be proactive enough to think of the long-term. This requires a clear vision and a structured action-plan, and this is exactly what Bhishmachaarya is explaining to Yudishtra here. If a leader doesn’t have that visionary thinking, he is bound to fail sooner or later. So for today, let us understand up to this point, and in the next episode, we shall take this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 