"Imparting a false sense of pride and confidence to the people is par for the course in the game of domestic politics. It serves little purpose in the game of national power projection. India’s adversaries know very well the extent of the import dependence of India’s armed forces. All credit to this government for recognising this and promoting “atmanirbharta” in defence.
However, in misleading the public, sometimes the political leadership runs the risk of believing its own propaganda," writes Sanjaya Baru in 'The Indian Express'.
He says, "To imagine the future is the present, that we are already in ‘Amrit Kaal’, that the world ‘looks up to India’ is nothing more than political propaganda at home. To be aware of the distinction between rhetoric and reality is in the national interest".
Baru is also the author of best seller 'The Accidental Prime Minister ...' on Manmohan Singh and UPA-I when Baru himself was close to the Prime Minister.
He was also a member of the National Security Advisory Board between 1999 and 2001 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was at the helm of affairs.
In reference to the involvement of Indians in eliminating Sikh terrorists overseas, he says, "Did India’s national security managers really imagine that they could get away with it? Was the political leadership in the know? Was it ill-advised?"
"It is not merely party political ideologues and propagandists, and sycophants and time-servers in government, who have created this false sense of India’s newly acquired power and global influence. Many geopolitical analysts in think tanks and media have also lived off and fed this delusion. The year-long run-up to the G-20 summit further heightened this sense of India having “arrived” as a “Vishwaguru”, a world power," says Baru.
"As long as all this was aimed at securing some advantage over political rivals at home, it would not have contributed to any external embarrassment. Part of the hubris was due to national security planners and commentators taking it for granted that the West was so scared of China’s rise that it would give India a free pass in international affairs.
The Western reaction to India’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine ought to have been a wake-up call. It was clear that the United States was displeased and would show its displeasure," he notes.
(Notably, US has also put pressure on India on such an allegedly 'foiled attempt' in the American soil. US Secy of State Antony Blinken said Washington will expect 'results' from Indian investigations.)
Baru also writes - "The more recent meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden was yet another reminder of the limited geopolitical space India has in reality. In claiming to be leaders of the Global South, Indian political leadership came to believe the rhetoric.
Over a decade ago, former foreign secretary Shyam Saran drew attention to the limits of Indian power, given her as yet limited economic and defence capabilities by writing a column titled, ‘India: A Premature Power’.
India has acquired many attributes of power but is not yet quite there. Ignoring this view has cost us dear. This week, a distinguished American geopolitical analyst, and a friend of India, Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment, responded to the news from Washington DC, accusing an Indian “government official” of hiring a gun to bump off a US citizen, stating:
“It would be a mistake for New Delhi to conclude that India’s importance to the US strategy for balancing against China gives India the latitude to unilaterally target US citizens.”
This is a mild public rebuke. Something more stern would probably have been communicated by the Biden administration within closed doors.
"In responding to this news, some supporters of the present regime in New Delhi have tweeted demanding that the US not sound so sanctimonious, that the Americans and Russians have bumped off adversaries, so why not India? That question is the product of precisely the kind of delusional thinking about Indian power and influence that has cost the country.
"This is not the first time that the country has paid a price for the political leadership’s delusions about India’s power and influence. In 1962, the country paid a price because Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru too had by then acquired an exaggerated view of India’s capabilities and influence.
"It can also be argued that the balance of payments and economic crisis of 1991 was in part a product of such an exaggerated view of India’s geopolitical and economic power and capability. The “India Shining” campaign too came out of such thinking," notes Baru.
From time to time, when the going gets good, New Delhi’s political leaders imagine that India has “arrived”. In the past, there were any number of individuals and institutions who put in place some balancers to such thinking. Over the past decade, every such institution has been intellectually corrupted into joining the political band wagon. India is not yet a “Vishwaguru”.
India is not yet an “indispensable” power. India’s influence in its own neighbourhood has gone down in this past decade, says Baru.
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| the heat is on !! |
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