Daily Times

Narendra Modi’s national security advisor (NSA), Ajit Doval has declared that India will fight not only on its own territory but also on foreign soil which becomes the source of a security threat. Most military observers, even in India, opined that Ajit Doval was speaking in the context of the military standoff with China on the Line of Actual Control. Addressing the Parmarth Niketan ashram in Rishikesh, Doval said while India has never attacked anyone first, the new strategic thinking holds that perhaps we could have acted proactively to nip security threats. “It is not necessary that we only fight where you want to. India will take the battle to where the threat originates,” the NSA said, summing up the doctrine of what he called “New India”.

On the other side, speaking on occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Korean War, in which a poorly equipped Chinese Army, along with its Korean counterparts had got the better of the superior US forces, Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a clear warning to any “invaders” that “force must be met with force.”

Ajit Doval’s office was quick to clarify that the National Security Advisor’s remarks last weekend at Rishikesh have been taken out of context by a section of the media and were presented as issuing a threat to China. The NSA’s office told a news agency that Doval made his “comments more in the civilizational context and not directed against anyone in the current context as some channels are doing.”

NSA Doval had addressed ascetics, sages and priests at Parmarth Niketan spiritual center in Hindi. His office was busy spin doctoring that instead of transliterating the comments, TV news channels directly translated the remarks into English and also played edited video clips without showing the context of the interaction.

Finding faults with India’s economy, its handling of the Coronavirus pandemic, socio-political landscape, foreign policy, handling of security and its democratic institutions and instincts – the informed analyst says that all are in a varying degree of crisis today

Doval had told the gathering that India had never gone to war with any country for selfish reasons. He called on spiritual gurus to spread the message on Indian civilizational values of peace and spirituality.

Reacting to some remarks made during the event, Doval said that the State does not choose to go to war with anyone just because a desire has been expressed by some sections of the society. “India has never gone to war with anyone for selfish reasons. The state will fight both within and outside only when the threat is imminent. We will not go to war for our selfish reasons,” he stressed.

The Indian NSA’s musings must be taken with a pinch of salt since in 1965, India was the aggressor, although it failed to achieve military victory despite the element of surprise and overwhelming numerical superiority of its armed forces. In 1971, India plotted the events in such a manner that it first instigated Bengalis to rise in revolt, trained Bengali guerrillas, the Mukti Bahini and carried out a frontal assault when its machinations appeared to be failing. The rest is history.

Perhaps Ajit Doval should jar his own memory regarding the events of February 2019. It first conducted a false flag operation to orchestrate a terror attack on its own forces at Pulwama, then pinning blame on Pakistan, it launched a surgical strike at an alleged terror training camp in Balakot. The surgical strike failed miserably but Pakistan Air Force struck back with impunity and shot down two Indian Air Force Fighter aircraft, an SU-30 and a MiG-21, capturing one pilot alive.

The battering Indian armed forces received at the hands of their Chinese counterparts in Ladakh earlier this year are too fresh to be narrated here. The fact is that Indian economy is failing. The IMF has declared that India’s Economy is doomed to suffer double digit contraction in Fiscal 2020. Contrarily, China has recovered from the impact of COVID-19 and its financial planners have ensured that its economy will grow by 8.2 per cent in 2021. Pakistan’s economy has shown visible signs of recovery but India has been pushed down several decades. It is now out of “Top Ten Economies.”

In a hard-hitting Op-Ed titled ‘India has now become the sick man of South Asia’, Sanjay Kumar comments that India has never looked so vulnerable and edgy in its own neighbourhood as it looks now. Finding faults with India’s economy, its handling of the Coronavirus pandemic, socio-political landscape, foreign policy, handling of security and its democratic institutions and instincts – the informed analyst says that all are in a varying degree of crisis today, endangering the nation’s rise as a credible and stable global player.

Resultantly, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was planning big-ticket events with his ‘shining India’ harangue, now stands isolated because of his own shortcomings. COVID-19, the global pandemic was a natural catastrophe but the way the current ruling dispensation in New Delhi dealt with it, caused thousands of deaths and the uncontrolled spread of the epidemic brought grief and suffering to India’s teeming millions. The political gamble by Modi to place Illegally Indian Occupied Kashmir (IIOK) under its direct control backfired. The abrogation of articles 370 and 35A of its Constitution alienated the Kashmiri Muslims, while the world too saw through the Indian ploys. Introduction of draconian citizenship laws to marginalize Indian Muslims caused International Human Rights Organizations to chastise New Delhi. Resultantly, Narendra Modi’s government stands isolated.

Ajit Doval’s incoherent rumblings have been rejected by his own countrymen.

The writer is a retired Group Captain of PAF. He is a columnist, analyst and TV talk show host, who has authored six books on current affairs, including three on China