Al Ahram, P.10 (20-11-2008)
Egypt and India
By: Makram Mohamed Ahmed (Chairman of Journalists' Syndicate)
During 1960s, both Egypt and India used to very close friends, which led the NAM. They also had strong cooperation in view of the firm friendship between the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru. At that time, the two countries have started together their march towards modern renaissance that was based on state-of-the-art technologies and scientific achievements. They also decided to cooperate together in several projects related to the nuclear energy and airplane manufacturing. The two countries started with co-manufacturing of a training military aircraft (H-3). The Indian nuclear scientist Bhabha used to regularly visit Egypt and similarly, the Egyptian scientists used to pay regular visits to India.
Unfortunately,
Egypt did not continue that joint cooperation to yield its final goals as India
individually did. As the Arabic proverb goes, "He, who strives, finds; and he,
who pursues the path, arrives", India managed to turn itself into a strong
modern country that possesses military nuclear technology and missiles capable
of carrying nuclear warheads and hit their targets with accuracy. Moreover,
India, counting on its indigenous capabilities and resources, can build all
nuclear plants, which it needs, for generating electricity. In addition, India
has an advanced vehicle and truck industry. Few years ago, India has become one
of the international key ITC exporters. The Silicon Valley, the major hub of
software industry in the US, is almost Indian, given the fact that the majority
of the companies working there are from India. Most importantly is that India
surpassed China in terms of its economic growth rate, thus making India one of
the most important emerging economies and
the most influential in the world economy.
The question now is: Why has India achieved its objectives, while Egypt lagged behind, though we have started the march together? It is very important that the Egyptians should think of the correct answer to this question. Egypt's preoccupation with its war against Israel is not a logical justification for this, as I see it as a motive rather than an excuse. This is simply because India, at the same period, fought two major wars against Pakistan. So, the only difference, to which India's success can be attributed, is its democracy that enabled it to devote the efforts of the scientific and political elite to serve the issues of progress, modernization and scientific research. On the other hand, the efforts of the Egyptian elite were wasted in individual confrontations that served only the interests of a small group of people.
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