Daily Times

As published in the Telegraph, India dated 20 May 2019, according to the National Herald Tribune (NHT), India, with the militaristic mindset, the Indian generals and the political elites are still pursuing 2000 years old Roman oriented military policies, which were propounded by Vegetius. The Vegetius, a functionary in the Roman imperial bureaucracy, had composed a treatise in Latin on military adventures. He wrote, ”Those who want peace should prepare for war.” NHT says that today’s Indian statesmen, intellectuals, and the military top brass, have also adopted Vegetius strategy as a policy doctrine.

The use of chauvinistic statements by the Indian government functionaries and military officials against Pakistan with hostile military posturing and whipping war hysteria is meant to exploit the oppressed masses. In this context, the best example is the offensive statements of the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Modi and his military generals during recent tensions with Pakistan, where India’s air strikes inside Paistan badly failed and also resulted in the loss of two Indian aircraft.. This tension was created to show India as the regional bully and to arouse sentiments of India’s poor masses to get votes in the ongoing general elections.

Lenin aptly said, “Wars are terrible, but they are terribly profitable.” Under the above discussed environment, Arms manufacturers of the world, rejoice the Indian ruling classes which have been creating a war hysteria in India, time and again, to purchase new weapons, even when no battles are being actually fought on the frontiers. In this regard, India’s so called ‘robust economy’ has only helped in increasing the military spending rather than trickling down its earnings for the benefit of India’s poor masses.

About 35 per cent of India’s population, 350 million people are malnourished and do not know where their next meal will come from. Under these rampant poverty conditions, Indian rulers are busy in increasing the military spending and are on a weapons purchasing spree to make India a dominant military power in South Asia and beyond

As far as poverty in India is concerned, according to the World Food Programme, nearly 50 percent of the world’s hungry live in India. India is a low-income, food-deficit country with extremely low nutritional and health indicators. About 35 per cent of India’s population, 350 million people are malnourished and do not know where their next meal will come from. Under these rampant poverty conditions, Indian rulers are busy in increasing the military spending and are on a weapons purchasing spree to make India a dominant military power in South Asia and beyond.

For instance, as per NHT, in February 2017, the BJP’s Union Minister for Finance, Arun Jaitley, announced a more than 10 percent increase in the country’s defence budget for the next fiscal year. India’s defence budget was increased to Indian rupees 2.74 trillion, compared to the previous fiscal year’s budget of rupees 2.49 trillion. This 2.74 trillion rupees is about 12.8 percent of the total government expenditure.

Conversely, only 1% of India’s total budget is spent on the health sector, same as in education. India is spending a massive wealth on acquiring, high tech aircraft, modern missiles and further modernizing its nuclear technology, while teeming millions are wretched in misery and poverty. According to a study conducted by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, India topped the list of weapons importers and accounted for some 15 percent of worldwide arms imports from 2010 to 2014.

As reflected in the Telegraph dated 20 May 2019, according to a UN Report on Global poverty, India has been ranked as poorer than Pakistan. More surprisingly, India is ranked below Pakistan and Bangladesh on gender equality which reflects maternal death rates, teenage pregnancies, access to education, and the number of women parliamentarians and in the workplace. Ms. Priya Subramanian of Save the Children, India, said, “It is things like healthcare and education which have made India lagging behind Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka”. “Millions still live below the poverty line and go to sleep hungry. The economic growth has not flowed towards them,” she added.

In view of the above discussed poverty situation in India, it would be wiser on the part of the Indian leaders if they decide to give up enmity with Pakistan, start a sustainable dialogue with it to resolve all issues, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, to have a permanent peace between two states. If peace prevails, then both states can work together for the economic progress of the entire South Asia through region’s economic integration and mutual trade.

Moreover, India and other SAARC countries will be able to join the CPEC. Thus, economic development in South Asia based on regional economic integration and trade with Central Asia and the other world through CPEC will become a vehicle to bring prosperity to the region and this will also address poverty in South Asia on a long term basis. In view of such economic prospects, the economic advantages of resolving the Jammu and Kashmir dispute by India and Pakistan and becoming friends are much more than lingering on with the Kashmir dispute and breeding mutual hostility.

The writer is an ex-Army Colonel, a former Research Fellow of Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), Islamabad and Senior Research Fellow, Strategic Vision Institute, Islamabad