O J's Corner : Reflections

Let us not be arrogant about
Becoming a military superpower

Pre-1945 Japan under King Hirohito arrogated to itself militarily to attack the US fleet, which eventually led to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings. The rest is history. Japan had to kowtow to the US.

History teaches us that over-enthusiasm backfires and boomerangs on the swashbuckling power-monger.

Let us have enough fire-power to face any threat of our neighbours, particularly Pakistan and China.

I don’t think Pakistan, despite its fulminations on launching a nuclear attack, if it wishes, would go berserk as its leaders from time to time have been clinging on to the coat-tails of the US Presidents.

China is a responsible nuclear power and it has already committed to itself about no first use, like India.

There could be tensions for China when Taiwan might go in for an independent regime. In the normal course, India would not come into the picture of a China-Taiwan show-down.

Where is the need for India amassing stockpiles of nuclear weapons on a continuous basis?

The Indo-US nuclear agreement is a milestone beyond which we are allowed to traverse with the US on nuclear energy, space research and explorations, agricultural research and the like.

It seems the US went out of the way to recognise India’s potential and acknowledge its prowess in many fields and to change its stance of equating India and Pakistan at various levels.

India also has to reciprocate the gesture. There should be give- and-take without compromising with the security needs of the country.

We can keep the atomic arsenal we already have. The separation of civil and nuclear installations have been recognised. The civil nuclear structures would be subject to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Only because we have come to an agreement with the US, could Russia supply nuclear fuel for nuclear reactors which were running short of uranium.

The fear that India would lose if we ally with the US on any matter is superficial. I can understand the opposition whipped up by the Communists for whom any understanding with America is tantamount to our subservience and imposition of colonialism by the US.

What is intriguing is the stance of the BJP which had been spearheading moves to achieve this trajectory of Indo-US co-operation to achieve greater benefits in many realms at the international level where we would not be vetoed or held in check by camouflaged means by the US.

Actually, the US-India bonhomie offers a window of opportunities for an emerging economy like India.

Space-based research and development of space applications would be a stronger weapon for technologically advanced countries. Nuclear arms on earth would be peanuts compared to space-based control systems which, one day, could put to disuse any nuclear war-head that flies out into the atmosphere and beyond. Why not go in for better space research?

India is poised to take greater strides in space-based innovations. Our proposed moon mission lists us among the few countries which are capable of being there.

Instead of berating the Dr Manmohan Singh Government, the Communists, the BJP and other parties should offer critical support to enable the country to reap the fruits of new-found relations with the US.