WILL THE Navy Chief's wisdom prevail over anti-China bravado? The Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and Naval Chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, recently gave an important message to hawkish pundits of India, who still dream of the country becoming a beacon for all developing countries of Afro-Asia. In a lecture organised by the National Maritime Foundation at the India Habitat Centre, Mehta said, “In military terms, both conventional and non-conventional, we neither have the capability nor the intention to match China force by force.” For most of the last six decades, the Indian military has been striving for battle-readiness on two fronts - on the West with Pakistan and the North with China. Machiavellian officers of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) have been instrumental in diverting huge budgets for numerous, lavishly planned missions across the world to project the country's greatness. At the same time, every one of our neighbours has been alienated by our strategies to foment dissent whether in Sri Lanka, Burma, or Afghanistan.
In recent times, resources were nonchalantly channelised into weapons of mass destruction and missiles. There has been a vociferous clamour for a "blue-water navy" with nuke subs that "can go and dominate anywhere in the world." Mehta emphasised that India's military weakness vis-a-vis China was only an extension of its backwardness in every other sphere. China was far worse-placed than India when both had started off on their post-colonial phase. While India had a decent-sized treasury, China' exchequer was virtually empty. Its Peoples' Liberation Army first concentrated on dismantling exploitative elitist structures and worked on the fair distribution of wealth. Only then did it start focusing on competing with developed countries.
On the other hand, right from Jawaharlal Nehru, India has been dominated by lawyer-politicians and the elite. India presented itself as full of brilliant visionaries and indulged in luxuries beyond its means. Now, while the elitists gloat over India's supposed status of superpower-in-the-making, millions languish in abject poverty. Mehta claimed, “These are indeed sobering thoughts and, therefore, our strategy to deal with China would need to be in consonance with these realities; whether in terms of GDP, defence spending or any other economic, social or development parameter, the gap between the two is just too wide to bridge and getting wider by the day."
He predicted that China would become more assertive with its claims in the neighbourhood once it consolidated its national power and military capabilities. While India's annual defence expenditure of approximately US$30 billion for 2008-09 is making a big dent on the people's purchasing power and more and more goods are going out of the reach of the common man, China's defence spending is estimated at between US$100 billion to US$200 billion. Moreover, it has cordial relations with all its 14 neighbours with the exception of India. More importantly, China has insured itself against the prospect of facing domestic shortages, whereas India is staring at the spectre of famine this year. Mehta's lecture echoed the stand of eminent agricultural expert, Dr MS Swaminathan who recently wondered why a country that advertises its capability (whether real or fictional is a moot point) to construct nuclear submarines has failed in ensuring food security to the masses.
While one should welcome Mehta's wisdom, it is unfortunate that he has made such statements on the eve of his retirement. What is needed is a complete purge of the MEA and a limitation of the powers of IFS babudom. High spirits, hollow patriotic noises and jingoism will only push the country to the dark ages. People must be aware of the real ground situation so that the government focuses on the progress of the whole country and not just of islands of pride and prosperity.
