It would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that Indian rebirth since August 1947 has been hobbled by a strategic deficit in its broad perceptions of the world, hence of its immediate and wider environment. Following the latest jihadi atrocity on the Line of Control in Kashmir, and continuing jihadi violence in the State, General Bepin Rawat, the Army Chief of Staff, declared that Indian foreign policy fell short of comprehensive strategic content. Looking through the country’s print media one can detect a state of permanent stupor at the rancid pieties of the print media and their relentless recycled waste.
Former officials, now hibernating in retirement with comfortable pensions, topped up with media fees, have a constant refrain that salvation lies in further talks with Kashmiri jihadists and their Pakistani handlers; and ritual self-flaggelation involving handwringing and breast-beating. Their preferred theatre has been played out over six decades and more with no tangible results. The goal for such self-proclaimed advocates of peace in our time is clearly the main chance of a well lubricated peace fellowship at some US or UK think tank, where prescriptive mantras guarantee a rich haul in cash. These worthies are much given to raising the spectre of a nuclear Armageddon unless India talked some more with Pakistan, played continuous Test cricket with it, traded more closely through non-existent open markets and other such hallucinatory projects.
Think of Prime Minister Vajpayee’s walking the talk to the nirvana of Lahore in February 1999, and the surreptitious conflict sprung upon India in Kargil, a few months later in which some 700 and more Indians soldiers lost their lives; think of the invitation to the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to attend Prime Minister Modi’s swearing in ceremony in New Delhi; think of Mr Modi’s dash to Islamabad to attend a Sharif family birthday bash. In between times came jihadi attacks on Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and subsequent assaults on the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot.
Intellectual inertia has led to complacent intelligence. How else can one explain the repeated intelligence failures to detect and abort Pakistani-primed jihadi insurgency in Kashmir and jihadi attacks elsewhere in the country. Truth is that India has never had a coherent Pakistan policy; it is content with the solace incantations, of the knee-jerk to the desired well constructed mailed fist of proportionate power. Indian punishment to date has never fitted the Pakistani crime.
India’s priorities wax and wane. There is still no unified command of the military staff, recommended by the Naresh Chandra Commission way back in 2001; three Air Force chiefs have complained of an under-strength force of 12 squadrons; defence acquisitions move with the proverbial pace of the tortoise; and the Defence Ministry is under the concurrent charge of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Confusion is worse confounded.
To clear muddle heads, read Tavleen Singh’s column in the Sunday Express (April 23). It starts thus: ‘The Kashmir Valley has become a war zone today because of radical Islam. This is the exact genre of Islam that caused the terrorist attack in Paris last week. And the same genre that lies at the root of all jihadi terrorist attacks in Kashmir. Until we admit this, we cannot begin to talk of peace, just as it is impossible to defeat the worldwide jihad as long as moderate Muslims continue to support it, albeit inadvertently, for reasons of piety, faith and community, so will it be impossible to defeat the jihad in Kashmir… If anyone has doubts about Islam being the centre of the current spate of violence , please watch the video released recently by…Zakir Rashid Bhat…the commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, saying: “When we pick up the stones or guns…the sole motive should be the supremacy of Islam, so that Sharia is established there.” ‘
Hurriyat doubletalk, notwithstanding, it is time surely to wake up to the ground realities of Kashmir. Sleep walking to the abyss has ceased to be a comfortable pastime.
India’s exponential UK footprint
A recent report by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the British consultancy firm, Grant Thornton, reveals that Indian companies invested £4.25 billion in capital expenditure in 2016, and recorded revenues of £47.5 billion as contribution to the British exchequer.
‘This year’s tracker shows a continuing expansion of Indian footprint in the UK. Yet, the UK must not take the presence of Indian companies for granted,’ said Anuj Chande, head of the South Asia Group of Grant Thornton. ‘In the years ahead, as the Indian economy develops to becomes one of the largest and most powerful in the world, the opportunities to boost investment into the UK will grow. To realize those opportunities the UK must ensure that, as it tends to its relationship with the wider world post Brexit, it protects and promotes the factors that make it such an attractive destination for Indian investment,’ he added.
The report which monitors the fastest growing Indian companies in the UK said there were 55 companies with revenue growth rates of over 10 per cent, the most outstanding being Datamatica Infotech, a consulting IT and provider of other outsourcing services, with a revenue growth of 103 per cent. KSK Power Ventur, a power generation company was listed second to Datamatica Infotech.
Other fast-growing companies mentioned in the report include Bharti Airtel’s UK operations and the BIO Agency, a digital transformation entity acquired by Tech Mahindra last year. The impressive ascent of Indian companies in the UK provides a secure platform for burgeoning trade and investment between India and Britain and secures a post Brexit future of prosperity and closer understanding between two historic partners.
Satellite with regional message
India’s latest satellite – GSAT 9 – launched on a GSLV rocket last Friday (May 5) has been designed to bond the peoples and governments of South Asia through technology. In a teleconference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Afghan Prime Minister Ashraf Ghani said: ‘If cooperation through land is not possible, we can be connected through space.’ Afghanistan is the region’s only country with which India has no common border and transit facilities for trade continue to be denied by Pakistan, which, predictably, reacted with a surly comment on the purpose of the exercise.
Mr Modi also spoke through videoconference with the leaders of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. They congratulated India for its technological success, and to Mr Modi personally, for turning his ‘vision into reality.’ President Yameen of the Maldives said: ‘Neighbourhood first policy’ was a unique gesture. ‘The launch is historic as this is the first time that a country has launched a satellite for the free use of its neighbours.’
Envoys of all six countries were invited to witness the lift-off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on India’s east coast.
The 2,230-kg spacecraft, costing around Rs 430 crore, will aid communication, broadcasting and internet services and disaster management and telemedicine, tele-education and weather forecasting.
Other aspects of the launch include the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) capability to launch heavier communications satellites with indigenous Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles (GSLV). Second, the launch confirms the viability of India’s cryogenic technology which makes heavier satellite launches feasible. The next launch - a 5 tonne satellite - will require the more powerful GSLV Mark III rocket for lift-off into this higher 36,000 mile orbit. Third, the launch will surely expand India’s footprint in the commerce of space, with its proven cost-effective record. Fourth, the South Asian Satellite is a high point in India’s space diplomacy, a milestone in Indian outreach to its neighbourhood and the world beyond.
The story of India’s space adventure has been something of an epic. In 1963, its first rocket was launched from the backyard of a church in Thumba, Kerala. Each step of the journey into the unknown was carefully choreographed – steady as she goes. The success from one stage to the next was remarkable, with the odd setback punctuating major achievements in space science and engineering.
ISRO’s moon-shot – Chandrayaan 1 – heralded a coming of age; the satellite to the more distant Mars was truly spectacular, but the best surely is yet to come. The Indian space odyssey is well into its stride.
