RN Kao's World View
Pt. RN Kao engaged in a
lively correspondence with his junior, B. Raman in his retirement years. His
world-view as per this correspondence was:
America:
Kao believed Americans
were not
necessarily anti-India but
their priorities
were different, determined
by
their perception of
national interests.
According to him Americans
followed
their chosen line of
action with stubborn
determination, India could
get hurt
in this process. He
observed that Americans
were not to be trusted in
matters
concerning Pakistan as
they would not
touch Pakistan for
anything it does to
India. He was once advised
by a CIA
director to ensure that
Techint’s use by
India against Pakistan
should not come
to the knowledge of State
department.
Another dimension about
his observation
about US was that it had
longstanding
guilt complex about China,
borne out of long history
of American
Methodist missionary
activities in China.
China:
Kao held that problems
with Pakistan
were acute, requiring
urgent attention,
while those with China
were more intractable
and India would have to be
prepared
for a long haul. Kao felt
increase
in China’s armed might and
its modernization
were a cause of alarm for
India.
He believed economic
prosperity in
China would lead to
political liberalisation.
Pakistan :
Kao attributed anti-Indian
hostility of
Pakistan government to its
military oligarchy
and senior bureaucrats,
since it
was a question of survival
for them. He
listed China and North
Korea as countries
which have helped Pakistan
achieve
missile capability. He
wanted India to
have good intelligence
capacity about
what Pakistan was doing,
so that India
could thwart its
adventurist actions with
full might. B. Raman
quotes him as saying,
“Pakistan deserves to he
declared a
rogue state. How I wish
that geography could be changed and we should leave
Pakistan alone to stew in
her own juice”.
National Security:
Kao lamented absence of,
long-range
planning and ad-hocism in
India’s national
security management. He
did not
believe mere availability
of data was substitute
for adequate policy
formulation.
He decried the role of
human right groups
in India in selectively
highlighting the issue,
saying advanced countries
used this
as another stick to beat
India with on handling
insurgencies in Kashmir,
Punjab and
North-East. He wanted
India to follow
China’s example, which ‘snubs them and
cynically ignores what
they say’.
Kao was fully aware about
the dangers
posed by Muslim
fundamentalist
groups to South India,
saying most
people in Delhi were
abysmally ignorant
about it. Infact Israelis
since, 1992 had
been drawing India’s
attention to the
dangers of Islamic
extremism in Tamil
Nadu.
Society and Politics:
Kao felt happy that
despite the march of
globalization and
liberalization India had
not lost its bearings. He
welcomed BJPCongress
cooperation in national
security
and supported empowerment
of
OBCs and Dalits. Kao saw
sense in the
formulations that
anti-Hindu secularism
practised by so-called
secular elite could
lead to a counter-elite
backlash. He was
worried about
deinstitualisation, menace
of megascams, political
uncertainty. Kao
admired Hinduism, arguing,
‘If anything
distinguishes our religion
from others,
it is the spirit of
tolerance. And, to my
mind, magnanimity is only
an extension
of tolerance’.
--(Compiled by Sentinel
Desk)
Source: Kashmir
Sentinel
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