Random Thoughts
Ahalya, Damayanti or Draupadi
– Role Models for India
From its independence and the
subsequent jilting by the Dulles brotherhood and Eisenhower administration
due to Nehru’s egotistic pseudo-moral stand, India found common cause with
the Soviet Union while turning a blind eye to the atrocities of
totalitarian dictatorship masquerading as the rule of the proletariat. An
understandable reluctance to align with western imperialism after a
millennium of Islamic and European colonization is another basis for
India’s past foreign policy. Pakistan’s prompt falling in line by joining
CENTO and other alliances with America and its more strategic location,
set in stone the India-Pakistan equating policies of America and the
resultant fifty year pro-Pakistan tilt.
Time has shown that Pakistan is nothing more than a one night stand for
America when its attention is on its neighborhood. Its services are to be
purchased by money, arms or threats when needed, and to be thrown away or
ignored when the American desires are sated. The recent bombings in London
and the constant stalling of efforts to root out jihadists from the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border, together with the disenchantment with China
by the current American administration, have seriously damaged the
pro-Pakistani factions amongst the administration and foreign policy
elite. It is therefore crucial for India not to fall into the trap of
Pakistan’s status. Words and agreements are cheap and worthless unless
followed by deeds. The recent defense and technology agreements have to
result in concrete transfers and not bogged down in bureaucratic inertia.
As C. Northcote Parkinson’s third law states and the motto of Indian
bureaucracy proves, delay is the deadliest form of denial.
India can take the Ahalya approach and pretend to be fooled by its newest
seducer’s disguised motives in return for transient novel ecstasy, and
risk being turned into a stone for much of its future history with the
hope of being restored to its pristine status by a future messianic Rama.
On the other hand, it can take the Damayanti approach by being true and
devoted to the Russian Nala, who deserted it in the Yeltsin era under the
influence of the all powerful and ever scheming Kaliyuga and hope to live
happily after much pain and stress in the interim period. A much wiser
approach would be to bind all the five Pandavas in a strictly structured
relationship that causes no jealousies or conflicts and allowed Draupadi
to manipulate all of them to suit her purposes.
The five factions that India has to appease and manipulate are the Middle
Eastern Muslim states, Israel, Russia, China and America. The EU, while an
important player is ridden by internal divisions. Its educated masses have
a morbid fear of losing their unsustainable welfare state due to the
threat of jobs moving to cheaper labor of newer members. Their other fear
is of terrorism by their faster growing disenchanted significant Muslim
minorities. They are thus unable to spend enough to project force and
unwilling to involve their military in even their near abroad, as their
inertia in the Serbia- Bosnia- Kosovo crisis proves. Thus India needs to
maintain good relations without provocation while increasing trade and
transfer of technology. Italy is the weakest link and lacks large
manufacturers in comparison to Britain, France and Germany. In the past it
has survived by running larger budget deficits and regular devaluations of
the Lira to maintain its competitiveness in trade. These options have been
closed due to the Euro and EU budget. The generally slow growths of the EU
countries may yet derail the union.
The Middle Eastern Muslim states are players because of their essential
energy resources, the large number of expatriate Indians working there,
who are a source of large foreign exchange remittances to India, and
India’s large Muslim minorities. Iran stands out differently and
prominently because it is Shia and thus not afflicted with Ladenism and
because it is the neighbor of our neighboring enemy. Thus setting up a gas
pipeline or even better a LNG facility at one of the Iranian Gulf ports
should be a prime priority. Gas pipelines from Iran via Pakistan and Burma
via Bangladesh may provide an economic incentive for these bellicose rogue
nations to modify their behavior for the better due to the rich windfall
of transit fees.
Israel is a source of sophisticated arms and shares our fear of Islamic
radicalism. Its treatment of Palestinians deserves condemnation and our
relationship with Iran is a thorn in its and America’s side. We should
bring our unhappiness regarding their policies to their attention quietly
and discreetly without indulging in Stentorian moralism of Nehru. The
Arthashastra, Panchatantra and Machiavelli in chronological order have
stated that the behavior of kings (governments) often follows the rules of
morality and virtues that are the distinct obverse of those in dealings
between individuals.
Russia in the past has been a reliable supporter by way of arms supplies
and the use of its UN Security Council veto and continues to be our prime
source of military technology. We should maintain the relationship without
making it exclusive. Our past experience with American sanctions and the
notoriously whimsical behavior of American presidents and congresses
should prevent us from being foolhardy to make America a prime supplier.
Thus military purchases must be judicially parsed between Russia, Israel,
EU and America to avoid being vulnerable to the displeasure of one or two
of them. In the meantime our indigenous capabilities need to be advanced.
China is our neighbor and potential adversary. It has miraculous rates of
growth and within 20 to 50 years is poised to match or even surpass the
American GDP. It is downright foolish to foster enmity with an immediate
neighbor destined to be a major world power. Thus we have to be
competitively powerful to avoid being subservient. A careful study of its
strategy reveals much to emulate. Even when it did not have nuclear
weapons, it did not back down against America during the Korean War. It
took Russia’s help to modernize while overlooking its previous usurpation
of territory and attacked India in 1962 to assert its claim to prior
territory captured by British India. It occupied Tibet and flooded it and
the Western Uighur regions with Han Chinese unhampered by self-destructive
policies like India’s Article 370. It continued to support Vietnam in the
war with America while establishing relations with America in the Nixon
era and allowing listening posts for America to spy on Russian space and
nuclear sites after its fallout with Russia. It attacked its ally Vietnam
to teach it a lesson for its interference in Cambodia and overthrow of Pol
Pot. It allowed Taiwan to set up many factories to exploit cheap Chinese
labor while still threatening to militarily re-unite the renegade
province.
It exploited the greed of American companies and the desire for cheap
goods of the American public to lure huge American investments, hollow out
American manufacturing and become the second largest creditor nation at
the cost of exploiting its own citizens by slave labor. Recently when its
large dollar holdings were denied the purchase of American companies like
Maytag and Unocal, and it was threatened with 27.5% tariffs, it severed
the parity of its currency to the dollar and has tied to a secret basket
of currencies. This is a shot across the bow to threaten to stop buying US
treasuries helping to keep interest rates low and funding America’s
current account deficit. This was probably also a response to America’s
criticism of its increased militarization and the signing of pacts with
India with a potential of China’s encirclement and containment. A Chinese
general had no hesitation in threatening to nuke Los Angeles if a war
occurs over Taiwan. The general was not demoted or transferred as happened
to General Vij for his actions in the defense of his country. China
continues to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds like Musharraf
(Taliban, Al Qaeda and America) in the matter of North Korea’s nuclear
arms. It overtly speaks against them while covertly subsidizing North
Korea and probably supplying technology as it did to Pakistan, which it
props up to stunt and stifle India’s progress. It is now the largest arms
client of Russia and recipient of its technology transfer. It continues to
drive a wedge between the EU and America by lobbying against the American
supported EU arms embargo while increasing trade with America.
India has a lot of lessons to learn from Chinese diplomacy and strategy.
It must not be forgotten that Draupadi was a boon obtained via Yagna by
Drupad, who sought the destruction of the Pandavas and Kauravas as a
revenge for their humiliation of him on behalf of their Guru Drona. China
has a chip on each shoulder. One for its humiliation by the western powers
in the nineteenth century when the British forcibly sold opium from India
to China and most western nations captured coastal enclaves where they
ruled and the Chinese were coolies just like the British, French and
Portuguese did in India. The second chip is for its humiliation by America
in the twentieth century in the matter of Taiwan, Even now the Chinese
military doctrine and strategy are devised on the basis of war games with
America. My recommendations for India are not so vindictive or
Machiavellian. They are just for India to prosper like America did in the
early nineteenth century under aegis of the British and to lesser extent
the French, while standing up to the Spanish in the Americas. Just as
Draupadi did against her enemies with the support of her five spouses
without arousing internal jealousy.
Finally America, though an insurmountable military power is waning
economically. It lives on borrowed money and time, marching relentlessly
and unfortunately nonchalantly but knowingly to its doom, like the words
of Longfellow’s poem. India has the advantage that it has enough need to
buy American technology to keep its trade with America balanced and not
lopsided like China. It may even be able to allow America to cut its
defense budget by taking over some of its responsibilities in the Indian
Ocean. It is a democracy and has no territorial designs. Geographically
and historically, from its isolated birth by separation from Gondwanaland
millions of years ago, it has drifted north to strike the underbelly of
Asia to create the Himalayas, Hindu Kush and Pamir mountains to maintain
its geographical and historical isolation. It went beyond these barriers
only to spread Buddhism while outsiders have breached the barriers for far
from benign motives. Their motives were not noble or strategic but
pecuniary. Geographically, India has no direct strategic value to any
major power, but a strong potential to thwart or facilitate the ambitions
of other great powers at present.
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