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New
Delhi, 07 September 2006
This years Independence Day speeches by Musharraf were full of
warnings –– as many Indian leaders had been demanding action against
terror camps –– as a pre emptive defence and under the umbrella of
Art 51 of the UN Charter (self defence). President Musharraf
repeated his warnings as he had done during Op Parakaram, “No
country (India)
can dare to think of attacking
Pakistan.
No one will dare to cross the Line of Control LOC. We are a
peaceful, proud and sovereign nation and no one can threaten us. We
do not threaten anyone nor do we accept threats from anybody". He
added that Pakistan’s defence had been made impregnable and a
comprehensive strategy had been put in place to ensure that the
country goes from strength to strength. “Pakistan is a stronger
country”, he said “The nation stands united for Pakistan's defence,
which is much stronger now than ever. Pakistani forces can protect
the country's boundaries. We now have the Al-Khalid tank, Augusta
90, while soon JF-17 Thunder will be handed over to the Pakistan Air
Force.”
The visiting Canadian Defence Minister had this to say in September
in Islamabad as over 2000 Canadian troops were operating in
Waziristan
and having a tough time. He lauded
Pakistan
for doing a “fantastic job” in the fight against terrorism and
stressed more cooperation between Kabul and Islamabad to effectively
counter the menace. “I really appreciate what Pakistan is doing and
they are doing a fantastic job,” the Minister said in an interview
here after a visit to neighbouring
Afghanistan
India
is definitely a super nuclear power in the making but Pakistan is a
rough and ready nuclear power too and that negates a war between the
two, as the stakes will be catastrophic.
India
always had potential, but in history only Akbar achieved India’s
potential after Ashoka. Akbar was a foreigner turned Indian and may
be this time it will be Sonia, the Italian born Congress President
turned India’s Leader who will achieve it for us. She was voted the
13th most powerful woman on earth and our fingers are
crossed as she cris-crosses flood affected areas in IAF planes and
tours
India
and promises give always as PM Manmohan minds the store and foreign
affairs, though they disagree on liberalisation. Akbar was
successful because he took responsibility and his foreign and
domestic policies were pragmatic and he for political reasons
married the beautiful Begum Turki from Turkey to achieve his foreign
policy goals. The Turkish Ottoman empire was the then power in the
West. He also married Jodha Bai to ensure the Rajputs joined him and
became his Commanders. He was ruthless to quell wrongs and kind to
the poor and artists and thinkers. Those were his foreign and
domestic policy initiatives as he had a vision for
India
and he succeeded in amassing 10% of the world's wealth. There were
no elections in those days as Sonia now has to contend with to gain
full power. The British came and grabbed India which had 6% of the
world’s export share till Independence and fell to 0.6% same as
China thanks to restrictive policies. China has zoomed ahead to 5%
and we are at 0.8%.
Today we need to emulate Akbar’s deeds and maybe the Indo–US deals
in defence and nuclear fields are just that. The PM's staff and
ministers echo words that
India
is a regional power. They live in VIP areas of
Delhi
where electricity never fails, floods never occur and Government
spending is at an all time high with wastages. VIPS including the
Army Chief have cavalcades of cars so we claim we are almost a super
power.
Our Armed Force are impressive and capable if somewhat undirected
because they have little direction or cohesion that is needed in
today’s new world order, and yes our economy is on the move. But
voices are not coherent in the Armed Forces. Recently all services
echoed that they did not need a CDS in the form offered, so it is
wait and watch all over again for military leadership. Probably the
Defence Minister had asked them to say so, and the Defence Secretary
will continue to play the role of the CDS. The outgoing CIDS who
headed the huge Integrated Defence Staff admitted he was powerless
except for planning and that too only to the extent that the Chiefs
agreed to. Understandable.
On
the strategic plane the steps taken by the PMO and MEA look
like we are a super power in the making, even taming Iran on its
nuclear ambitions, but India's policies both domestic and foreign
need to follow suit. Do we know the road map or will any road make
us a power on the software/call centre boom we are riding. In
statecraft India comes off as a soft state and we worry about the
neighbourhood.
Yes our economy is doing well but the hype is just too much and we
still do not admit
China
is leaping ahead and we fool ourselves on
India's
strategy for the future, which appears to be wait and watch. India’s
diplomats freely admit at conferences that India has a bigger role
to play but the old speeches of morality and non-alignment alone are
out, and they need direction. Today there are no more North and
South countries, but there is the rich G5 and
Europe, then BRIC which includes Brazil,
Russia, India and China and the lesser others. Unless
India's
national goals and strategy objectives are defined how can any one
of our diplomats pursue policy. Defence and Foreign policy have to
merge. We have no Foreign Minister and capable young Anand Sharma
feels he is the man for the job because he is a good Congress
henchman loyal to the party. So much for foreign policy and we note
that Shyam Saran, who will be senior to the Foreign Secretary, will
continue to guide India's US policy via the nuclear deal. Another
post of Authority without Responsibility for the sake of Continuity.
On
Home affairs we have to get our huge Homeland security machinery
i.e. the Home Ministry’s million strong paramilitary forces linked
to the Army as soon as possible, in what is called ‘Command and
Control’ or we will soon have a Frankenstein monster on hand –– a
bigger and well equipped paramilitary force doing precious little
operationally. Just two weeks ago the NSA and Home Secretary who are
new to the Assam’s ULFA antics for Independence ordered a ceasefire
without any pre conditions and now the ULFA is showing its teeth.
Bangladesh which supports ULFA has slammed the BSF with action and
rhetoric from their BDR spokesmen denying any links with terror,
denying the proof given. Pakistan we know is on fire because of the
Baluch leader Bugti’s death and India made strong premature
statements at MEA spokesman level. The East and West of India are
hostile.
In
the South surely India has to do something about the LTTE, which is
not offering a proposal of federalism but targeting the Sri Lanka
Navy, who hit back like the Indian Navy did in OP Pawan and the LTTE
never touched an IN ship at KKS or Trincomalle, or a sailor. Can
India allow a renegade Navy which it controlled from 1987 to 1991 to
operate against a friendly Navy?
A Ministry of
Home Affairs Gazette notification announcing the extension of the
ban on the LTTE on May 14, 2006, stated, “The LTTE continues to be
an extremely potent, most lethal and well-organised terrorist force
in Sri Lanka and has strong connections in Tamil Nadu and certain
pockets of southern India. The LTTE continues to use Tamil Nadu as
the base for carrying out smuggling of essential items like petrol
and diesel besides drugs to Sri Lanka.” There is also the risk of
Tamil refugees vitiating the socioeconomic and political matrix
within Tamil Nadu, since the LTTE demand for a Tamil Eelam has
always been an emotive issue in local politics. Karunanidhi is
playing politics and Vaiko is active again.
No wonder the PM had
called for a Security Meeting of NSA, Heads of Intelligence and Para
and Military heads on 4th September. These will be the
issues that will need thrashing out but we say the time has come for
the paramilitary forces to be under Army Command and Control for
coordination. Drastic but that's how it is in USA, Russia and several
other countries.
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