Threats to India's
Stability
by Dr. Kashinath
Pandit
Dr.
Pandit is a renowned columnist, analyst and author. He is a former
Director, Centre for Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir and an
eminent Persian scholar. This paper was presented by him in the one-day
National Seminar on Terrorism, Human Rights & Mass Media, organised
in Jammu by the Denmark-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), The
Jammu and Kashmir National Front International. We are reproducing this
scholarly paper here for the benefit of our readers
- Editor. |
Externally,
There are two sources of threat to India's stability, and both of them are gravely
impinging on her internal law and order situation. We are caught up between two
ideological trends arising to our east and to our west, both antagonistic to
each other. The nature of relationship between China and Pakistan vis-a-vis
India draws inspiration from the famous Maoist maxim that enemy's enemy is a
friend.
Fundamental
Difference
However, the
fundamental difference in these two sources of threat to India needs to be
understood. China, an authoritarian state, is in full control of her sovereign
power in formulating her policy towards India. But the theo-fascist state of
Pakistan, also a functional client-state of the US, has, for a long time in the
past, surrendered her sovereignty of formulating her Indian Policy to her
benefactor. Unlike China, State power in Pakistan is husbanded by three
components of her polity, namely, the electorate, the olive-green chapter and
the Punjabi feudalist-bureaucratic combine. At the same time, Pakistani
underworld comprising drug-traffickers, rabid fundamentalist organizations and
exporters of terrorism and theo- fascism bring up the tail-end of the feudalist
military combine.
A power structure in
which responsibilities can be shifted and accountability can be disowned, tends
to proceed on reckless adventurism. India had to face this adventurism in the
past. Despite fragmentation of Pakistan in 1974, this power structure could not
be dismantled. In fact, it has now been reinforced through a clean chit obtained
by Islamabad from Clinton administration calling her a 'moderate Islamic state'.
Threat to India's
stability emanates from these two sources because the democratic-secular
structure of Indian polity is perceived as a "menace, out to destroy
authoritarian rule and a theocratic system in her two neighboring Asian
states". After all, 900 million people in vast land mass occupying a
strategically important region between the Stepes of Central Asia and the warm
waters of Indian Ocean, bound together by millennia of common heritage,
struggling for socio-economic advancement along an ideology of democracy and
secularism, political pluralism and individual freedom, do envisage a strong
reverberation of their aspirations in the hearts of millions of people in the
adjoining countries.
Hegemonist State
Therefore, both China
and Pakistan must perforce project India as a 'hegemonist' State with intentions
of bossing over the smaller states in South East Asia and the region. This
stance has two implications. One is to create a fear psychosis among the
adjacent smaller states, and the other is to legitimise interference and even
presence of the unipolar power in the region. With 5000 square kilometres of the
illegally occupied Indian territory in J&K State gifted away by Pakistan to
China, Islamabad boasts of having resolved all border disputes with China. And
China has built the Karakoram Highway through illegally occupied Indian
territory in J&K State. Yet Beijing portrays India as a hegemonist state and
makes the Macmahon line a contentious issue to make incursions into Indian
territory.
US-China Nexus
Chinese communist
leadership and US State developed good understanding on arming Pakistan from
early 1970s as regional deterrent to the developing Indian democratic-secular
State in S.E. Asian region. An overall assessment of the US policy in the
continents of Asia, Africa and Latin America shows her willingness to accord
tacit support to dictatorships and authoritarian regimes out to curb democratic
aspirations of their masses. India did not fit in her scheme of things and when
Pokhran blast came about, the Americans embarked on double-pronged onslaught on
India. Internally, pressures were mounted like financial and economic sanctions,
NPT and Kashmir issue, and with that came the arming to the teeth of Pakistan.
Amusingly, American press occasionally comes out with stories of how the US
authorities just overlooked the clandestine acquisition of crucial nuclear
components by Islamabad from some Western countries and agencies. Even today,
the Americans are providing her all possible logistical support to collect
crucial material like enriched Uranium and Red Mercury from the economically
truncated states of Central Asia after the collapse of the Soviet power.
Crisis in
Afghanistan
Following the crisis
in Afghanistan, a new situation has developed in the region which has
exacerbated threats to India's stability. This is the extensive proliferation of
American provided sophisticated arms in the region and the US- sponsored Islamic
radicalism initially meant to confront the communist ideology but now unleashed
against the democratic and secular forces in India and elsewhere in the region
like Tajikistan or the Philippines. Kashmir has been made the flash-point with
the US Foreign Office declaring that the whole of J&K state was a disputed
subject.
Today, the world's
strongest democracy is the world's strongest supporter of theo-fascism. This is
so because the unipolar power must maintain to hold on the vast oil resources of
the Arab world. And the key to that resource is Saudi Arabia. The most
retrograde autocratic regime that has opened its coffers on global theo-fascism.
Theo- fascism exported by these agencies through an international network of
armed activists parading religion as the endangered entity, is knocking at the
door of every Muslim wherever he be. Only a few can resist the unrelenting
harangue. Our countrymen need to understand it.
Post cold-war
strategies, economic globalisation and reoriented roles of formidable military
structures like the NATO should not mean abrupt or even gradual abandonment of
pervading interests of big powers, US in particular. Central Asian vacuum on the
one hand, and Pakistan's growing search for geo-political depth westward and
eastward on the other, have become strong incentives for the Americans in giving
another tight embrace to their decades old ally viz, America finds enormous
economic interests in the almost untouched vast mineral wealth of central Asia
to which Pakistan holds the key for overland entry since Iran has turned a
'rouge' nation. America's quest for a foothold in Kashmir, an ambition which
came to be nursed in early 1950s and was never suspended all these decades, aims
at keeping a close watch on China. But that can be no relief to us since China
has the capacity to hold back the intruding American influence and also keep
India within her limits. It should be clear to all that the presence of the US
in any form and in any manifestation in the region will be with a tacit
understanding between Beijing and Islamabad. Beijing has the diplomatic skill to
derive adequate mileage out of American posture. After all, both are fully aware
of the potential of India to become an industrial and economic giant given at
least two decades of internal peace and external security.
Two Sources
In this political
landscape, we find that the two sources of threat to India's stability have come
to the conclusion that an open military confrontation with her could become
counter productive in view of the repressive regimes unwilling to move towards
democratisation of their institutions. As such. they have resorted to both
manifest and subtle subversion through proxy war, disinformation, international
propaganda, trans- border arms infiltration, overt and covert support to
dissident factions, fanning of communal and ethnic conflicts and the like
activities. Such subversive measures succeed to a large extent in a soft and
open state. Thus external forces begin to work in tandem with internal
subversion which makes destabilisation process easy for them.
How can this challenge
be met and repulsed? Certainly, a far-reaching structural change is to be looked
for. Never before was free India forced to defensive strategies. We believe that
India needs re-defining her interpretation of a nation-state. We also believe
that subversion has to be eradicated with an iron hand. India will have to spell
out in clear and loud terms her understanding of a secular state.
New Thinking
Militarily, new
thinking is called for particularly in the structure of her land forces and
conventional armament. Perhaps, raising of Frontier Commands, one far the North
Western border, would precede re-investment of Himalayan buffer diplomacy. The
State authority must assert and this authority must reflect the will of the
people.
And lastly, it should
be said that the most formidable defence and offence on which our country can
depend is the unity among her people. This is the hour of sinking all
differences that might divide the people of India. The united people draw their
inspiration from the great civilisation of this country. No power on earth, nor
even the gods in the heaven, can down us if we remain united. And unity means
sacrifice, dedication and will to exist as a vibrant nation.
[Courtesy - The
Sahayogi Times]
Source: Koshur Samachar
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