China-Pakistan nexus is evil, dangerous and unholy

 Let’s wake up and not repeat the 1962 kind of folly

             Though no expert yet this makes me think, worry and fear

         And  lend voice to it in my post for you- my reader dear

                 Let's wake up to China threat

                          

About China, Napoleon presciently  said: “Don’t wake up the sleeping lion.” Well, the country once known for opium addicts is now more than awake. This ‘lion’ is gnashing its teeth, growling and roaring. The dragon is flicking and flashing its tongue with fire and rage at both the mighty as well as the weak in its bid to lord over the entire world. And with Xi Jinping all set to rule for life, things do not bode well. India has a lot to worry about. China’s unholy alliance with Pakistan is a serious threat. The latter, hell-bent on fomenting trouble in Kashmir and turning the LoC into a perpetual theatre of war and bloodshed, would never have been so difficult to handle, had China not been arming it to teeth and making it nuclear-capable by clandestine means. China is wily, cunning, unscrupulous: using Pakistan against us by proxy is a win-win strategy and serves China well in keeping India engaged on its western border. Nepal, our old and friendly neighbour, has been encroached upon and even won over by China by a shrewd combination of muscle and money power – a typical China style ‘carrot and dagger’ policy. Same holds true for our south eastern neighbour Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh in the east. Maldives, strategically so vital to us, is dancing to China’s tunes. Seychelles where India wanted to have a naval base has wriggled out of it. And experts opine that with our ‘muscular’ stance – instead of a shrewdly nuanced and a farsighted one – on Doklam, it is China which is a winner in the final analysis. The stand-off has only made China more aware of its strategic needs and has since been reinforcing its positions in the area with greater vigour.  Bhutan may in the near future distance itself from India and find China a better bedfellow to cosy up to and sleep with!

Dragon’s hegemony in the South China Sea (SCS) is now well established.The small countries such as Vietnam, Philippines and Japan are under threat. China has brushed aside their claims and concerns …as also the UN verdict against it. It is even ready to take on the USA should it dare threaten China militarily in that region.  In regard to Taiwan, it has made it amply clear that it wouldn’t mind a military operation in case Taiwan tries to assert its independence from mainland China.

Thus China poses a serious threat to world peace. In fact, given its hostile postures, economic and military might and pusillanimity of world’s top leaders in contrast, the blue planet’s very survival is in jeopardy. We are its neighbour with thousands of kilometers of border to defend. Our relations with it are far from cordial. Quite obviously, India needs to watch out, more than any other country.

Caught napping, we badly lost the 1962 war. Are we prepared to take on China now? I am afraid not. One Doklam stand-off is over. But many more ‘Doklams’ are waiting to erupt. Mired in red tape and babucracy, we continue to be complacent, inefficient and slow about putting in place a robust defence system – strategically as well as in terms of modern equipment, arms and infrastructure – to match that of China. The prestigious magazine ‘The Economist’ in an article in its March 16 issue has called  Indian army nothing but a ‘paper tiger’. ‘India spends a fortune on defence and gets poor value for money’- so goes the heading. Out of the 68 per cent of weaponry mostly supplied by Russia, only 8% can be considered as state-of-art. Rest is second rate…almost obsolete. Air force’s fleet of MIG-21 fighter jets to defend our skies is “antiquated”. Indian navy’s shipbuilding programme is a decade behind schedule. China’s intrusions have been on the rise: from 273 in 2016 to 426 last year. Further, while China has streamlined its operational forces, India’s defence, in the hands of career diplomats and political appointees who lack technical knowledge and expertise, is nowhere near integrating its forces to make them more war-worthy and efficient.

Considering this scenario, even our Himachal’s northern borders are not safe. We don’t have rail connectivity to the borderlines. Air connectivity is poor: the Gaggal airport awaits expansion. I don’t want to sound alarmist and am proud of the valour of our soldiers. But mere valour won’t do. It may sound far-fetched but at times – in moments of gloom - I ask myself a question: Will the Rohtang tunnel facilitate quick access for deployment of our army to defend India’s borders or will it instead provide an easy passageway to ruthless China – that crushed and squashed under its tanks thousands of its own youth at Tiananmen square (1989) - right up to McLeod Ganj where the Tibetans recently celebrated ‘Thank you India’ day???

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