The Tight rope walk- Balancing India's Internal and External Issues

prtk.nayak

Par 100 posts (V.I.P)
It is never a cake walk for the top decision makers of a country like India when it comes to optimal allocation of funds to areas dealing with country’s security and areas dealing with country’s sustainability and well being like health, education, literacy and overall better living standards.
Be it an uncomfortable level of looming poverty in the country or be it below standard health care facilities available in areas where sound health of citizens is of primary concern, not to forget the inefficiencies in the country’s education system at the primary level, India has all the ticks in the wrong boxes. Especially in trying times like these when the western hemisphere is trying its best to get out of the financial whirlwind plaguing it, which is also having many direct and indirect effects on India, the decision on allocation of precious resources in procuring sophisticated arms from the international market is a tough one to make and at times does not seem sensible at all. But if we ponder a little more on these difficult decisions then we will eventually stumble upon a very dark reason which lurks beneath. Given the premise that India neighbours countries like China and Pakistan which have time and again proved to be continuous and potent threats to India’s sovereignty , it becomes very important on the part of India to maintain an edge or at least equal the military and strategic might of these countries especially China, to be better prepared in case of any contingencies. India can not afford to have its guards down in times of shifting regional balance thanks to China’s ambitious military plans.
The recent economic turmoil has forced many western powers like the US, the UK, Germany and France to cut back on their defence budgets by 14%, 11%, 21% and 2% respectively. These countries are now focussing on channelizing these resources in stabilizing their beleaguered economies. India on the other hand can not afford such luxury provided the fact that China’s defence budget has increased by a humongous 142%.
If we look at the other side of this coin , the Indian economy till now has been more or less successful in withstanding the recent economic meltdown. The sector that was visibly affected by this crisis was the Indian IT sector which is mainly powers the Indian economic engine. This was due to the over reliance of this sector on American and European markets. More than 75% of business in this domain comes from these markets. Since these markets were the most affected victims of the economic crisis, the Indian IT sector had to indirectly suffer the ill consequences. This in turn led to the slowing down of the Indian economy, for which the government had to take many steps in order to mitigate the aftermath which included injection of huge stimulus into the market.




While the contribution to the national GDP of the Indian services sector stands at 54.9%, the agricultural and the manufacturing sector only contribute 15.7% and 28% respectively. If we go by the present scenario, any development in any area of the manufacturing segment, attracts a lot of public attention and in most of the cases this attention has done more bad than good to the former. The Vedanta and Posco projects in Odisha, The TATA Nano singur crisis stand as classic examples .These projects are mired with problems relating to society which is a major influencing force in the India. Foreign investors find India more attractive than other destinations like Brazil and South Africa but it is only a matter of time when the difficulties in doing business in India will outweigh the returns promised. In that case India will be robbed of a great asset. These problems are a major cause of concern for foreign investments because of the fact that in India its the people who have their way things done in the end evident by the recent victory of Anna Hazare(even if its still unclear if the JAN LOKPAL bill will do more good than bad), unlike in China ,where its the government instead of the people. May be this is one of the important reasons why China’s robust growth is fuelled by its manufacturing and export sector.
As if the problems faced by the government in the manufacturing sector were not enough, the Indian agricultural sector continues to struggle in spite of its immense potential due to the deep rooted inefficiencies in the sector. The reforms made by the government to uplift the socio-economic status of the farmers till now has been less than successful as suicide of farmers continues unabated . The minimum procurement prices of the produce, presence of lot of intermediates between the government and the farmers, illiteracy of the farmers, obsolete machinery and techniques used are some of the problems still standing tall in the way of unleashing the real latent potential of the Indian agricultural sector.
As the government continues to put in a lot of money and effort to resolve these internal issues plaguing different domains, it is also faced with the challenge of maintaining its sovereignty without which all its efforts to better the Indian economy and the Society especially in terms of living standard will be in vain.
The term ‘External Threat’ has become synonymous with Pakistan. Starting from Indo-Pak wars in 1965 and 1971 to incidents like the attack on the Indian Parliament on 13th December 2001 and the heinous Mumbai attacks on 13th july 2011 only reinforce the fact that Pakistan is one neighbour India can never trust. Although Pakistan ‘s economy and military might do not match that of India’s in any terms but the former’s consistent commitment to increase its military might to surpass that of India’s has become a matter of serious concern, not to mention its growing alliance with China.



Here is a comparative study of the military strengths of India and Pakistan:
INDIA PAKISTAN
Defence Budget: $36,030,000,000 $6,410,000,000
Active Military: 1,325,000 617,000
Total Land Weapons: 75,191 16,461
Total Aircraft: 2,462 1,414
Total Navy Ships: 175 11
Total Nuclear Warheads 60-80 70-90

Although the above comparisons should bring a sense of relief, it would only be foolish to have a notion of superiority. The table itself projects the superior nuclear power of Pakistan. China is turning out be a great ally to Pakistan when it comes to upgrading nuclear power. China is providing Pakistan not only with the technical know-how but also with fissile material to further augment Pakistan’s nuclear might. Pakistan is even leveraging its alliance with the US by procuring advanced weapons and fighter planes from the former in return of serving as a base and helping the former in its operations in Afghanistan and a false promise to help in the endeavour to fight against terrorism. Pakistan has already received the first F-16 Block 52 aircraft from the US. The remaining aircraft were to be delivered in 2010. The total order, worth US$5.1 billion, is for 12 F-16Cs and six F-16Ds. When this transfer is completed, it will raise the total number of F-16s in service with the PAF to 54. The Pakistan Air Force received its first F-16, in the Block 15 F-16A/B configuration, in 1982.
India on the other hand has floated a huge tender in the international arms market to procure 126 multirole combat aircrafts. The Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) tender was floated with the idea of filling the gap between its future Light Combat Aircraft and its in-service Su-30MKIs air superiority fighter and will cost an overwhelming 42,000 crore rupees. Allocating such a huge amount in itself is a very uphill task. But there seems to be no other way out because of the glitch prone Indian fighter planes and lack of indigenous technology. The nuclear capable AGNI-III missile, considered as the best India has to offer in terms of fire power, has also suffered many technical setbacks and is still undergoing testing. India is also investing a lot of money in procuring, maintaining and indigenously developing air craft carriers to project naval superiority.
India still maintains an edge over Pakistan but when it comes to China, it becomes a completely different ball game. The aggressive military developments in the ‘chinese camp’ is causing a power imbalance in the Asia worrying not only India but world leaders as well.


China’s intention of projecting power to the world became clear when it unveiled its new J-20 stealth fighter plane . It has also replaced most of its diesel powered submarines with nuclear powered ones. Its increasingly aggressive stand in the south china sea has become a matter of concern for many countries. The concern for India arises when China’s superior military capabilities is seen as a direct threat to India’s Sovereignty. China’s claim of Arunachal Pradesh as a Part of it has been a long standing concern for India. Even after many dialogues between the two countries in this regard, little or no progress seems to have been made. By issuing stapled visas to people from Jammu and Kashmir and not recognising Kashmir as a part of the Republic of India, China is only trying to arm-twist India into accepting Arunanchal Pradesh as a part of China. The later has also been aggressively developing highway infrastructure and railway lines along the Sino-Indian border creating further tension in the area. India has also started developing the proper infrastructure like highways, military bases and runways to be prepared for any contingencies.
It seems that the Indian government has got its hands full with problems of all sorts. With limited resources to spare, the task of resolving internal issues for building a robust and sustainable economy & at the same time being prepared to respond to any external threats is definitely going to be a tight rope walk.
 
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