ISLAMABAD – A former officer of Indian police service (IPS) N.C. Asthana,in his book has admitted that India has no clarity about its military andstrategic objectives against its stated adversaries, Pakistan and China andthe reality is that India cannot defeat either country militarily.
N.C. Asthana, in his latest book, National Security and Conventional ArmsRace: Spectre of a Nuclear War, argues that instead of pouring vast sums ofmoney into expensive weapons imports, India would be better served byfinding solutions by strengthening itself internally and pursuingnon-military solutions, including diplomacy.
Asthana also focusses on what he calls the “politics of warmongering” whichhas consumed public discourse in India over the past six years. Under thedelusion that India has somehow, magically become invincible, he notes howa large number of Indians seem to be itching for a war.
This belief is both fueled and strengthened by relentless arms imports.Asthana puts the figure India has spent on arms import in the five yearssince 2014 at $14 billion, and the undisclosed cost of the 36 Rafale jetspurchased from Dassault Aviation is not included in this.
But even this sum pales before the $130 billion India is projected to spendon arms imports in the next decade, including on 100+ even-more-expensivefighter jets to make up for the shortfall caused by the Modi government’sdecision to scrap the earlier deal for 126 Rafales.
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Asthana argues in his book that the frenzied import of conventional weaponswill never guarantee a victory because both Pakistan and China arenuclear-weapon states and cannot be decisively defeated on the battlefield.
Asthana believes that exploiting enmity with Pakistan for electoralbenefits has made Indian leaders victims of their own rhetoric, where theyare left with a one-dimensional policy – one which is unrealistic in viewof Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.
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