Unwarranted India’s concerns by Muhammad Jamil

The US and the West should understand that India is raising the bogey of threat from Pakistan to neutralize the goodwill Pakistan has earned due to its role in war on terror in general, and by decimating the strongholds of the terrorists in Swat, Malakand, South Waziristan and Bajaur Agency in particular. Though Pakistan’s defence budget is around $4 billion and India’s $32 billion for the fiscal year 2010-2011, yet India is crying hoarse over Pakistan’s meager allocations for defence.
India’s Defence Minister AK Antony has said: “United States decision to provide sophisticated weapons to Pakistan is a matter of serious concern to India. The US should ensure that these weapons are not targeted against India…The American explanation that Pakistan army has to be strengthened to fight terrorist outfits like Pakistan in Afghanistan was not convincing”. US aid or no US aid, Pakistan has to have minimum credible nuclear deterrence and also improve its conventional weaponry. Nevertheless, Pakistan’s defence allocations pale before India’s defence spending. Since announcement of its new war doctrine, India has stepped up its war preparations. Indian Air force held its biggest-ever air power display at Pokharan, the site in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan where India had conducted a series of underground nuclear tests in May 1998. A statement from defence ministry said that over 100 varieties of combat aircraft, including Mirage 2000s, Jaguars, Sukhois, MiG21s and transport airplanes and helicopters were part of the exercise that showcased the Indian air force’s capabilities during day and night operations. According to The Washington Times report, top weapons makers, brought their helicopters, night-vision goggles, mine-proof vehicles and other equipment to New Delhi n hopes of winning a share of one of the world’s largest defense budgets. “With its growing economy and emergence as an Asian power, India has rapidly increased its arms expenditures over the past decade, replacing obsolete Soviet-era military hardware with the latest technology in a race to keep up with regional rivals Pakistan and China”. India imports more than 70 percent of its military equipment, mainly from Russia, Israel, France and Britain. American companies also are poised to have a reasonable share in the Indian defense market as a result of strategic partnership between the two countries has warmed over the past few years. In 2008, Lockheed Martin won a contract to supply six C-130J Hercules transport aircraft for India’s air force, the first of which are expected to arrive in early 2011. India is also buying 126 fighter aircraft for $10 billion, and 197 helicopters worth about $4 billion. Indo-US Nuclear deal has provided opportunity to India to increase its stockpiles of nukes. The US and the West have double standards - one for their strategic allies and the other for the rest of the world. They slap sanctions on Iran and North Korea but give India and Israel concessions; and in other words reward them for perpetrating atrocities on their minorities and also for showing utter disregard to the United Nations Security Council resolutions. By the end of November 2009, Canada and India reached nuclear agreement, and that means that hypocrisy and greed have won. It has to be mentioned that Canada had halted nuclear co-operation with India after the country diverted material from Canadian-designed reactors to make a nuclear bomb in 1974, but to have share in the business from India after it signed nuclear deal with the US, Canada has thrown all ‘inhibitions’ to the wind. If past is any guide, India is not a responsible state, as it had misused Canadian and US peaceful nuclear assistance to conduct its 1974 nuclear bomb test, refused to sign the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and conducted additional nuclear tests in 1998. Yet, Canada agreed to cooperate on nuclear issues, with a pact that ends a freeze in cooperation dating from 1974 and could offer new opportunities for Canadian uranium firms. A statement released after the meeting between Canadian Prime Minister and Indian Prime Minister on the sidelines of the 21st Commonwealth Conference held on 27-29 November 2009 at Trinidad and Tabago said: “Canada and India will now take the necessary steps to prepare the agreement for final signature and implementation.” As regards India-US civil nuclear deal, the Congress had termed it a “landmark development,” the BJP as a “defeat for the country” and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), had asked the Government not to surrender to Washington. The CPI (M) had said what was passed was “Hyde Act plus” that went against India on key strategic issues. The day the US House of Representatives had approved the agreement, the most rational, pertinent and pert comment was in the New York Times editorial captioned as “A bad India deal”, stating “it shrugged off concerns that the deal could make it even harder to rein in Iran’s (and others’) nuclear ambitions”. Concerns were also expressed by peace-loving people throughout the world, and especially India’s neighbouring countries felt threatened by India’s additional stocks of nuclear arsenal that will be built up as a result of the civil-nuclear agreement with the US. Anyhow, besides creating asymmetry in South Asia, the US-India nuclear trade legislation granted India the benefits of being a member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty without requiring it to meet all responsibilities expected of responsible state. The US and the West have been raising doubts about safety and security of Pakistan’s nuclear assets, and President Barrack Obama is on record having said that in case militants succeed, they will have control of the nukes. On the basis of these conjectures, the US president had hinted that the US may act to secure Pak nukes. The US and the West should review their policy, as Pakistan has made tremendous sacrifices in men and material in addition to indirect losses to its economy in war on terror. At least 7000 armed personnel - soldiers and officers - have laid down their lives, and this figure is much more than Pakistan’s losses during three wars with India. Pakistan indeed deserves much better treatment. The US knows full well that the war in Afghanistan cannot be won, and it needs a strategy for an honourable exit, which is impossible without cooperation of Pakistan. The US therefore should persuade Afghan government to change its attitude towards Pakistan and through practical steps dispel the impression that India is trying to encircle from western border. Afghanistan leadership should understand that India is trying to use them for having permanent foothold in Afghanistan to reach to Central Asian Republics. Having that said, Pakistan has full confidence in people of Afghanistan that if they can fight the super power, they can indeed throw Indian personnel out without difficulty.

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