Lessons India Should Learn From Pakistan
For the past one year many Western countries have applied pressure on Pakistan to move its army from its Eastern border to its Western border. They hope that this will enable Pakistan to strike the Pakistani Taliban and their friends in the Pakistan – Afghanistan border. The West is correct. India is very unlikely to attack Pakistan. India
has many internal issues. It also does not want to jeopardize its economic growth in any way. The Indian government also knows very well that our armed forces are in the middle of a modernization program and we are not ready for any major conflict.
The threat to India from Pakistani government agencies like the Army and the ISI is real. Pakistan trains and supports terrorists who are trying to destabilize India and also cause a lot of pain and suffering. But an interesting point is that since 1988 (the year the current Kashmiri conflict began) till now the Indian economy and the nation as a whole has seen fantastic growth. So Pakistan’s idea of using terrorism as a tool to destabilize India has failed.
Pakistan also now realizes that it faces a serious problem from within. In a recent poll conducted by Al Jazeera only 18% of Pakistani’s think that the biggest threat they face is from India. 59% feel it is from the United States and about 11% feel that it is from the Taliban. The threat from Pakistan has been neutralized. There will be some bleeding but death is not imminent.
Pakistan moving its troops from the Indian border also has lessons for India. Have we Indians really thought about who is our biggest threat? Our Armed forces are very Pakistan focused. About 80% of our Army is in our Western sector facing Pakistan. We have very few bases in the North or the North East to prevent any threats from our real rival in the region which is China. Most of our Navy is not seaworthy. But there is some light.
For the first time in our history the Indian Air Force has decided to move top of the line aircraft to forward bases in the North East to face threats from China. According to our Army the Chinese have crossed the line of control all throughout our border over 1000 times in 2008. Chinese aircraft and helicopters violate Indian air space routinely. Complaints from the Indian Army are played down by our politicians for fear of upsetting our relationship with China.
Our relationship with China is very similar to China’s relationship with the United States. It is a business relationship and it is about money. Although we are neighbors we do not have a people to people relationship with China. The actions by the Chinese in the past few years clearly indicate that the Chinese do not see India as a partner or friend but more as a potential enemy that has to be dealt with quickly. India should not put trade above its national interests. We cannot keep shaking hands when the other country is willing to violate our border. Countries like these cannot be our friends.
Although China presents a different threat the issues at the very high level are the same. China is without question trying to slow down India’s growth and influence. It is also trying to “bleed us” by putting enormous pressure on our borders and also by setting up ports in countries like Burma, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Now China is complaining about the Dalai Lama visiting the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. How come the Chinese are not quiet in order to protect their trade relationship with India?
I hope that India has a strategic response to China. We should obviously modernize our military and make sure that we can defend our borders and also patrol the seas. But we should also have an economic and political response. Our goal should not be to become China-like but to present an alternative ideology to nations in the region and the rest of the world. This ideology should be rooted in our belief in democracy, unity in diversity, respect for all humans and non-violence as a tool to achieve goals.
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Category: News & Government
A thoughtful post. We had one recently — scathing piece about India’s inaction toward Pak.
Madhu