Islamabad
A former officer of the Indian Police Service (IPS) N.C. Asthana, in his book has admitted that India has no clarity about its military and strategic objectives against its stated adversaries, Pakistan and China. Asthana wrote that the reality is that India cannot defeat either country militarily. N.C. Asthana, in his latest book, National Security and Conventional Arms Race: Spectre of a Nuclear War, argues that instead of pouring vast sums of money into expensive weapons imports, India would be better served by finding solutions by strengthening itself internally and pursuing non-military solutions, including diplomacy.
Asthana also focusses on what he calls the “politics of warmongering” which has consumed public discourse in India over the past six years. Under the delusion that India has somehow, magically become invincible, he notes how a large number of Indians seem to be itching for a war.
This belief is both fueled and strengthened by relentless arms imports. Asthana puts the figure India has spent on arms import in the five years since 2014 at $14 billion, and the undisclosed cost of the 36 Rafale jets purchased from Dassault Aviation is not included in this.
But even this sum pales before the $130 billion India is projected to spend on arms imports in the next decade, including on 100+ even-more-expensive fighter jets to make up for the shortfall caused by the Modi government’s decision to scrap the earlier deal for 126 Rafales.
Asthana argues in his book that the frenzied import of conventional weapons will never guarantee a victory because both Pakistan and China are nuclear-weapon states and cannot be decisively defeated on the battlefield.
Asthana believes that exploiting enmity with Pakistan for electoral benefits has made Indian leaders victims of their own rhetoric, where they are left with a one-dimensional policy – one which is unrealistic in view of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.
