By Lalit Mansingh
It has been a proven failure of our diplomacy that we have not been able to prevent our two hostile neighbours from ganging up against us in bleeding our country internally and keeping us engaged in anti-terror or counter-insurgency operations. This not only causes a crisis of confidence among the people, and undermines our development process and economic growth, but also weakens our strength at the borders. A former chief of Pakistan’s ISI, General Hamid Gul is believed to have commented that keeping India busy with internal security problems is equivalent to having two extra divisions in the Pakistan Army for free.
It appears that our neighbours are better educated about Chanakya’s rajmandala strategy than we are. They have done precisely the things that we should have done to protect our national strategic interest. Both China and Pakistan have joined hands to encircle us over land and attempting the same at sea. Both of them have followed Chanakya in befriending their neighbour’s neighbour to sandwich us. Both countries have used Chanakyan techniques of confounding the enemy by speaking amicably, and acting hostilely, with the objective of always keeping us on tenterhooks, and extracting knee jerk reactions instead of considered wisdom in national interest.
The Chinese, now a powerful nuclear, military, and economic power have also systematically used these techniques to surround us with hostile neighbours. The Congress led UPA government, first on its nefarious “coalition adharma” mode, and now in its terminal “survival by numbers” mode has its eyes only on the pursuit of survival, vote bank politics, and how to create enough political dislocations that can enable it to overcome its anti-incumbency during the next general elections. National security or national interest has never been of priority on its agenda, or else why would it have tinkered around so recklessly with the Army, whether on Pay Commission recommendations or defence deals, or appeasing the Chinese by giving them greater hold over our economy even while they insult us diplomatically? They also play around with Andhra Pradesh, Naxalism, Batla House or the IB for electoral gain and vote bank politics, adding to our internal security vulnerability.
One can reasonably suspect that some of the UPA leadership are not protecting India’s national interest. How else would one explain the systematic loot of our country that has continued unabated even while it has gone through serious internal and external threats, particularly during the last decade? The list is long, even if one names a few – chit funds, Commonwealth Games, Satyam, 2G spectrum, black money and tax havens, Raja of Mahmoodabad enemy property, all totalling to unreadable and mind boggling figures of lakhs of crores of rupees. The Annual Urban Bribe Scam (Rs. 6.3 lakh crore) fully justifies India Today naming India as “The Bribe Republic”.
Coming back to China, let us recall the most humiliating military defeat that we suffered in 1962. Not one non-aligned country or even a European nation came to our assistance. The entire Muslim world kept away. The only two countries that helped were the United States and Israel. When the Americans were Pakistan’s allies because of their SEATO and CENTO obligations and interests, India’s defence pact with the Soviet Union saved us from American intervention and the Seventh Fleet during the Bangladesh War. Today the Chinese and our hostile neighbours present us with the same threat, but our foreign policy is bankrupt, and we have no defence pacts with any major powers. In today’s political scenario, China poses a threat to all democracies of the world. I firmly believe that India’s foreign policy must be directed to bring the world’s secular democracies together, and carve treaties of mutual defence and security. A powerful democratic axis must be brought into existence – starting in Washington and running through Europe, Israel in the Middle East, Tokyo in the Far East and all the nations of the Commonwealth. Under Dr. Manmohan Singh, India took a positive step when it partnered with the US to enlarge the frontiers of democracy, but that initiative has seen no progress in more than half a decade.
We must also realise that Buddha and Confucius were externed from Chinese culture and attitudes long ago. It is the ideas of Mao and the deviousness of Chou En Lai that shape the Chinese attitude when they condescendingly dialogue with an India that behaves so passive and disinterested in its own national interest. Mao Zedong’s statements “the world is ours, we should unite for achievements,” and “responsibility and seriousness can conquer the world and the Chinese Communist Party members represent these qualities” are statements of pride for the Chinese leadership. US President Barack Obama, who represents a world power, and whose corporates profit by trillions because of Chinese sweatshops, may dismiss this nonchalantly, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Indian leadership must know that India is China’s next plum waiting to be plucked.
It is imperative that we must reshape our relationship with China for the short and long terms. This requires a redefining of objectives in our best national interest, and then executing a road map for achieving them, something that requires broad-based consultation with experts, scholars and of course the defence services. But most importantly, we require a national leadership with vision, political will, determination and wisdom that alone can lead the country to achieve its aspirations during this century. Let all political parties ponder over this.
If the border issue with China cannot be promptly settled by mutual give-and-take at the negotiating table, the dispute must be taken to the International Court of Justice. Both parties run equal risk of an adverse verdict. India must project itself as a nation willing to do everything reasonably required to maintain genuine peace and friendship with all its neighbours, particularly China. We should extensively advocate the full text and mandate of Article 51 of our Constitution, which is the obligation of every government to promote international peace and security. Maintain just and honourable relations between nations, foster respect for international law and treaty obligations in the dealings of organised peoples with one another and encourage settlement of international disputes by arbitration.
It is time for us to behave like a self- respecting nation instead of encouraging spurious politeness and wasted hospitality. India must reclaim her lost national pride and get its China and Pakistan act together, with wisdom and determination. INAV
(The writer is former foreign secretary and India ambassador to USA)