Indian Defence Review

In one crisp interview to Spiegel, Jayati Ghosh has disrobed the government in deflecting blame on “foreign factors” for the economic slush that they have landed this country into. Both the Prime Minister and his Finance Minister have been crucified by Jayati by elucidating:

• One, desperate  attempts to attract more foreign capital by easing rules for external commercial borrowing worsens structural causes of the rupee crisis;
• Two, the  much vaunted economic boom was essentially a debt-driven consumption spree, financed by short term capital inflows (she did not qualify how the Food Security Bill will compound this folly);
• Three, profits went mostly to construction companies and the real estate sector (isn’t that where all the black money of political bigwigs in India is);
• Four, this so called boom did not generate any new jobs and instead deepened the rich-poor gap;
• Five, multinationals don’t create jobs;
• Six, we need “real” democracy not hierarchical one which is immune to crass injustice, to name a few. So, assertions by the government that our fundamentals are strong are a blatant lie and a desperate attempt to fool the public. Not only are our economic fundamentals weak, they are being systematically weakened more. More alarming is Jayati’s prediction that we are sitting on a ticking time bomb; when the 15 million unemployed youth will hit urban centres. Isn’t that what the Maoist revolution is all about? Government’s policy makers may feel secure surrounded by ‘black cats’ but so did their counterparts in China before the ‘Great Leap’ in which millions were killed.

Mentioning the above in a publication like the Indian Defence Review may appear unwarranted to some but then this is intimately linked to national security. Insurgencies in India are already being exploited by China and Pakistan and why would they not? The slush that we are compounding internally is going to cost us very dearly. But the irony is that the slush that the government has created externally is even more putrid and the muck is already flowing across our borders. Why this double tragedy is being authored by our Faustian policy makers and where it will lead us is anybody’s guess.

Shishir Gupta writes in the Hindustan Times on 3rd September that a spot report, commissioned by the PMO on the India-China border issue, confirmed  government’s worst fears that PLA was not allowing our security forces to patrol up to our perception of the LAC in eastern Ladakh and a “grim scenario of Chinese transgressions in the Daulet Beg Oldi (DBO) sector, Depsang Bulge and Chumar. Shishir writes the spot commission was headed by NSAB Chairperson Shyam Saran who had been asked to visit Ladakh for reviewing border infrastructure development and LAC situation and that the last such visit by him was in 2007. He also writes that an inter-ministerial committee headed by Home Secretary Anil Goswami has reportedly been set up to monitor the LAC situation and the existing empowered committee on border infrastructure development, led by Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, has been asked to remove the bureaucratic bottlenecks in Ladakh. More damaging are the following findings of the report:

• Though the LAC runs through Pangong Tso lake, a beefed up PLA firmly entrenched in their position in the Srijap area was noticed in 2007.
• Today, limits of our patrolling have become the new LAC for India in certain areas of Ladakh sector, which is 2 to 20 kms short of India’s claim to LAC till now.
• Chinese have built a motorable kutcha road to a sensitive Track Junction area in the DBO sector, thus changing the position on ground and in violation of the 2005 protocol.
• The Depsang incursion at Raki Nullah in April 2013 was designed to prevent the Indian patrols from reaching Points 10, 11, 11A and 13 with Point 12 outside the patrol line.
• In Chumar the PLA is making frequent transgressions, claiming 85 sq km of Indian territory despite the international border defining the two countries.

The fact that such a spot commission was detailed after a gap of six years (after 2007) indicates the urgency the government accords to issues of national security especially in face of increased aggressiveness of the Chinese PLA. In the first case, where is need of such spot commissions when the Daily Situation Report, not known to Indian public, is on the desk of the Prime Minister every single morning. The Prime Minister is answerable to the Indian public on the following counts:

• In 2007, when Mr Shyam Saran flying with the then Army Commander Northern Command discovered a beefed up PLA firmly entrenched in their position in the Srijap area, what action did GoI take?
• During the Raki Nala intrusion in April 2013, why did your Foreign Minister refer to it as “small acme on the face”? Why was he not sacked for abdicating responsibility under the oath to Constitution when appointed Minister.
• Similarly, what business has the Home Minister in saying, “We have no jurisdiction in the area”?
• Have your Ministers been specially chosen for gifting India Territory to the Chinese?
• Does not the territory you have surrendered to China make Kargil intrusions insignificant especially since you are presenting the former as permanent fait accompli to the nation?
• Is that the reason you and your Defence Minister shut down the Technical Support Division under the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) with the DG DIA directly under the Defence Minster (not Army HQ as released to the media) that was undertaking cross border surveillance under pretext that this was being misused by the then COAS, Gen VK Singh? Was this not to facilitate Chinese intrusions?
• Is your Defence Minister in league with China in having brought the military industrial complex to such a state that even assault rifles and carbines have to be imported?
• Why have you and your Defence Minister permitted the capability gap between the PLA and Indian Military to widen exponentially?
• Why has your Defence Minister (or is it you / your PMO) gagged the Army that they can speak anything to media about Pakistan but not one word about China and that denial by your Defence Minister means yet another lie

• What games are you and your Defence Minister playing by trumpeting aircraft landing at DBO, the C-17 Globe Master induction, underwater test firing of BrahMos when the submarine that can fire it will come only by 2030? Do you think that this scares the Chinese when your willingly rolling the LAC backward or are these antics to amuse China?
• Is ignoring ground realities and appointing fresh commissions and committees part of your pussyfooting policy (as in all domains) to fool the public? Is this routine for you, like your Defence Minister who himself directs news to be published OROP is fully sanctioned and then appoints a committee to look into anomalies?
• Why have you still not placed all security forces like the ITBP in sensitive areas under command the Army? Is it to facilitate Chinese intrusions?
• Why has the Home Secretary heading the inter-ministerial committee to monitor the LAC situation? Is the defence of LAC responsibility with the Home Minister or the Defence Minister.
• Why have you allowed the PLA to restrict Indian patrols and not allowed the Indian Army to restrict PLA patrols? Are you and your Defence Minister not ashamed of having a 1.1 million strong Indian Army?
• What border infrastructure development has taken place in the last 10 years by your government especially after Shyam Saran’s spot commission visit in 2007 and considering Border Roads who develop such infrastructure is directly under the MoD?
• Can you muster guts to speak to the nation and tell them that with your pussyfooting and abject surrender to this new LAC enforced by the PLA how much of Indian Territory you have surrendered, on what basis and should you not be held accountable to motherland India or do you feel content that Shyam Saran will be addressing club goers at the Delhi Gymkhana Club this evening as part of the Security Conclave?
• Prime Minister, do not feel any shame that you still want to visit China later this year or is it the compulsion that you must go to beg for FDI?
• What else are you prepared to barter away to keep your government in power?

Then of course is the spontaneous urge of the Prime Minister to meet Nawaz Sharif end of the week despite all the sane advice not do so. Media says hotel bookings for this meeting are being made by Indian Embassy. But the signs are ominous with the sudden spurt in terrorist catches – Tunda for post retirement medical tourism and Bhatkal having served his purpose to Pakis. The Foreign Minister’s exuberance and definitive that Dawood Ibrahim will be caught soon is perhaps giving the game away. If Pakistanis are giving up Dawood (which may just be a promise to be forgotten) what is the Prime Minister giving in lieu – Siachen, Sir Creek, what else? Considering the findings of the spot commission, this is very much on the cards. Was this the reason for the Pakistani Embassy and Atlantic Council of the US gone hyperactive over the last seven days?

Prime Minister, are you aware and even bothered about the intrusions by Myanmar? Are you not ashamed of the TV visuals shown this morning on our national news channel showing unabated Bangladeshi immigrants crossing over through the pathetic wall with wide gaps in the wire fence atop and the BSF authorities openly telling the media they are under orders not to do anything? Are these your orders? Have you ever played scabble and juggled with the words H, A, M, E, S? They add up to SHAME. Can the nation expect you to stop swimming in slush? If you cannot muster the guts to do so, can you at least shift permanently out and give the nation breathing space.