Although as per western media’s narrative India is still nothing more than a land of slums with few call centers and a non-secular government but despite of that we as a nation has always been instrumental in providing support to our neighboring nations and it seems to be growing with each years passing by. Now being an emerging super power India has not limited her helping hand just to neighbors but now we are extending it to dozens of other countries across the worlds. We also have huge participation in programs and campaigns run by international organizations like United Nations across the world, for example India has contributed nearly 195,000 troops, the largest number from any country in the word for more than 49 peace missions carried out by UN. Around168 Indian peacekeepers has also made the supreme sacrifice while serving in such UN missions.
Now let’s talk about something recent, USA; Europe: Spain & Germany; Neighborhood : Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Maldives & Bangladesh; Indian Ocean Region (IOR): Seychelles & Mauritius; South America: Brazil & Dominican Republic; West Asia: Bahrain, these and around 50 more countries has received the anti-malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for fight against this ongoing pandemic Corona or precisely covid-19. India has sent humanitarian aid in the form of pharmaceutical and other items to every country that asked for it, including underdeveloped nations of Africa and Latin America to world superpower United States Of America. We all know about the recent crisis in Lebanon where a huge blast occurred in the middle of the city Beirut, India demonstrates solidarity with the people of Lebanon in the aftermath of the tragic explosions in Beirut and sent 58 MT of emergency humanitarian aid, including crucial medical and food supplies by IAF C17 aircraft.
What India has done for countries like Afghanistan is beyond the words like ‘help’ and ‘aid’, here is a small list of projects India did for Afghanistan 1) the building of Afghanistan’s Parliament in Kabul (the complex includes a library); (2) the restoration of the Stor palace in the same city; (3) rebuilding of the Habibia High School, also in the capital, and providing it with grants-in-aid; (4) reconstruction of the Salma dam, now known as the Afghan-India Friendship Dam; (5) The establishment of an electricity transmission line from Pul-e-Khumri to Kabul; (6) reconstructing the Indira Gandhi Institute for Child Health/Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul (which had also been built with India’s help decades ago) and supporting it in many ways; the list is so huge that it will take at least 200 more lines to even brief in just headings. So let’s continue our humanitarian works as a nation with the history of good will and friendship but at the sametime let nobody take us for granted like few of our neighbors do.
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