Daily Times

Strategic thinkers agree that there is a co-relationship of a country’s internal and external policies. The former Soviet Union which had subjugated the minorities and ethnic groups in various provinces and regions through its military, disintegrated in 1991. Even its nuclear weapons could not save its collapse. One of the important causes of the disintegration of the former Russian Empire was that its greater defence expenditure exceeded to the maximum, resulting into economic crises inside the country. About a prolonged war in Afghanistan, former President of the Soviet Union Gorbachev had declared it as the “bleeding wound.” However, militarisation of the Soviet Union failed in controlling the movements of liberation, launched by various ethnic groups and nationalities.

Learning no lesson from its previous close friend, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been acting upon the similar policies in some other way, which led to the breakup of the Soviet Union. In this respect, Indian Parliament abrogated articles 35A and 370 of the Constitution on August 5, 2019, which gave a special status to the disputed territory of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). The act split the IIOJK into two union territories-Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to be ruled directly by the Center.

Both Pakistan and China rejected Indian malevolent and illegal moves. Islamabad strongly condemned New Delhi’s sinister designs as violation of the UN-related resolutions regarding the IIOJK; including issuance of domicile certificates to 40000 non-Kashmiris to bring demographic changes in the Muslim-majority area. China objected to the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir as “unlawful and void”, saying that India’s decision to “include” some of China’s territory “challenged” Beijing’s sovereignty. Despite the recent agreement, border dispute between India and China remains unsettled.

Notably, on May 5, last year, tensions escalated when India occupied various areas, adjacent to the Line of Actual Control (LAC). In response, Chinese forces moved into the regions along the eastern Ladakh border and vacated the disputed territories. As regards Indian external policies, Modi is following aggressive policies, especially against Islamabad and Beijing. For the purpose, Indian forces accelerated shelling inside Pakistani side of Kashmir by violating the ceasefire agreement in relation to the Line of Control (LoC). Recently, New Delhi and Islamabad agreed to implement the ceasefire agreement. But, Premier Modi can, again, direct Indian forces to restart shelling inside Pakistan’s side of Kashmir as part of his anti-Pakistan approach.

In September, last year, India’s parliament passed three controversial agriculture bills, sparking farmers’ protests across the country, which left the peasants at the mercy of corporations. Besides, failure of Modi’s economic reforms-various scandals and corruption of the top officials have come to limelight.

In this connection, on March 6, 2020, India’s Congress President Rahul Gandhi said: “There is now enough evidence to prosecute Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the trail of corruption in the Rafale fighter jets deal…an FIR should be lodged against him…crucial Rafale files incriminating him are now reported stolen by the Government, is destruction of evidence.” Amnesty International said on September 29, 2020 that it is “stopping its work in India because the government has frozen its bank accounts on September 10 for highlighting rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir and riots in Delhi…the government had sought to punish it for that.”

India, dominated by politicians from the Hindi heartland-Hindutva have been using brutal force mercilessly against any move to free Assam, Kashmir, Khalistan, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Manipur where wars of liberation keep on going in one form or the other. These states are rocked by a large number of armed and violent rebellions, some seeking separate states, some fighting for autonomy. In the recent years, Maoists intensified their struggle by attacking official installments. In this connection, India’s counterinsurgency strategy to crush these movements has badly failed. Modi’s war-mongering strategy has increased country’s defence budget, as New Delhi also continued purchasing arms and weapons from the Western countries, particularly the US and Israel. In fact, Modi’s extremist policies have been backfiring on India-overt and covert intervention through Indian military and RAW in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.

It is notable that Indian Minister of External affairs Jaswant Singh who served the BJP for 30 years was expelled from the party for praising Mohammad Ali Jinnah and echoing the pain of the Indian Muslims in his book, “Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence.” Pointing out the BJP’s attitude towards the minorities, Singh wrote: “Every Muslim that lives in India is a loyal Indian…look into the eyes of Indian Muslims and see the pain.” He warned in his book, if such a policy continued, “India could have third partition.” Nevertheless, Modi’s extremist internal and external policies in the country in wake of financial crises, acute poverty and rapidly-spread of coronavirus pandemic have accelerated the disintegration of India’s federation like the former Soviet Union.