REGARDLESS of the unprecedented health challenge posed
by Covid-19 to the entire world warranting global response to meet it, India is still obsessed with high handed and hegemonic mentality. Especially under Modi Junta, the country’s hegemonic aspirations are touching dangerous proportions as one after another it is provoking tension and harming relations with its neighbours.
Soon after the border standoff with Nepal, the Modi Government triggered tension with China in several disputed areas along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh region. Whilst China has always pursued the policy of peaceful coexistence with its neighbours, Modi Government’s actions of constructing roads and airstrips to assert its control in the disputed territory was something that the Chinese side cannot remain oblivious to and its troops very promptly reacted to the Indian intrusion and bellicosity. While India has signed many big ticket defence deals with different countries including the United States, France, Japan and Israel over the last few years as part of its hegemonic designs but still it lags far behind China’s military which has the most advanced weaponry from missiles to warplanes to force the enemy to bite the dust. Thus, in case of any conflict, New Delhi will get nothing but sheer embarrassment, not different from the one it recently tasted at Ladakh at the hands of Chinese troops. However, India’s pursuit for coercive and expansionist policies poses a threat not only to the peace and security of already volatile region of South Asia but the world at large. Peace will remain elusive until and unless the conflicts are resolved in this part of the world and most important amongst them is the outstanding Jammu and Kashmir dispute where in recent years, India has broken all previous records of oppression and persecution. Though nothing good can be expected from RSS-inspired Hindutva mindset of Modi, yet solution of all the territorial disputes lie only in talks and this is the path that will take the region to prosperity and address chronic issues of poverty and backwardness.
