Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Thats right! A copied title from a famous Guy Ritchie movie and here’s what Wikiquote says about it -

“Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a 1998 film about four London working class stiffs who pool their money to enter a high stakes card game, but things go wrong and they end up owing half a million pounds, with one week to come up with the cash.”

Just change a few words and it makes a perfect story for the world around us today. That’s exactly how the erstwhile masters & policemen of the world (read EU and US) had played the  game. I sometimes picture the globe as their big casino and the EU-US garbed in black robes sitting at the high-stakes table. Much has been lost in these wild-games and to think about what could have prevented it is next to a futile exercise.

A more relevant question is - How are we going to play it?

Much of what is reflected from last year can be a close call. We saw China opening its windows for the westerlies to blow through and India leaving the door ajar. There is no denying the fact that we need the fuel to keep the engines of growth churning - feed the hungry dragon and a famished elephant, but it is also important to do the balancing act. Recent unabated spate of forex flowing through our borders, the increased proportions of FII investments in benchmark indices, the associated volatility dependence in the capital markets, encouragement of derivative instruments are a few  of the many issues that do deserve attention. It should be us who should be playing rather than being played.

Just like a good player we need to be looking at all the possible angles. Optimal engagement with the developed world is already up our sleeves (thanks to an unprecedented media coverage and a proactive government) but on the foreign policy front, although, there had been a lot of hullabaloo about our “Look East Policy” not much has been achieved. While we had just been ogling, China has already proposed the girl. For us the key to the East now lies in the West (not the usual West!). Last few months have seen uprisings, revolts and revolutions in the Arab world; the sole cause - Joblessness. Most destabilized countries such as those of Egypt are looking at regime changes and a possible movement towards democracy. India being the largest democracy in the world owes the responsibility to participate - contribute in the process of reconstruction of these nations. Since, this will a second life for these nations the role that India can play in their formative years will have significant impact. Not only it will promote peace in the region but also allow India to have access to the resource rich Arab world both in Africa and West-Asia. It will also be a stepping stone in balancing the power equation in our immediate neighborhood. 

What we need today is an aggressive foreign policy and the nimbleness to move fast, recognize opportunities and tap them before they are lost. We don’t want to be holding the smoking barrels while someone runs away with all the lock & stock in front of our eyes!