Prime Minister Narendra Modi should immediately send ‘thank you’ notes to two women—Mehbooba Mufti and Mamata Banerjee. They are openly talking about China’s subversion in Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal. These brave daughters of India must be complimented for sounding a timely alarm over China’s lethal plans. A million thanks to Banerjee for warning us that China will grab Sikkim and the Siliguri corridor cutting off the Northeast from the mainland. Foreign policy and defence are central subjects but the border states are important stakeholders. So kudos to both CMs for shining a torch on the big threat China poses to India’s territorial integrity and internal security.
But talking is one thing and doing is another. The onus of taking action to stop China in its tracks—and if necessary take the battle into Chinese territory—is on the prime minister. In the current scenario, Modi’s actions should speak louder than anyone’s words. Constitutionally, the president is the commander-in-chief of our armed forces. But that’s merely on paper; in reality, waging war is the prime minister’s business. Beijing is belligerently calling for Indian soldiers to retreat from the Doklam plateau at the China-India-Bhutan tri-junction.
The Chinese calculation is that India will blink and wave a white flag. Instead, Modi must tell Chinese President Xi Jinping publicly that our troops won’t back off. Period.
If this leads to a localised conflict which snowballs into a full-blown war, so be it. I’m not being facetious. Now is India’s opportunity to avenge the humiliation of 1962—and this golden opportunity has come after living for 55 long years in the shadow of a crushing defeat. Thankfully, Modi has all the requisites of a good wartime prime minister ranging from oratory skills to enjoying the nation’s confidence.
No individual or clique pose a challenge to his political or moral authority. Modi has a handpicked defence minister in Arun Jaitley. Similarly, the Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat has been selected personally and with great care by Modi himself. There are no doubts about Jaitley’s or Rawat’s loyalty and commitment to the PM. Modi can also count on the RSS and the media to rally the whole country behind him when body bags start arriving in Delhi and Deoband, Mumbai and Muzaffarpur, Kolkata and Kodaikanal, even as we inflict high casualties on the enemy on land and
at sea.
We have defeated and humiliated Pakistan thrice since 1947. Each time it took us on, it got a licking. We even dismembered it in 1971 and took thousands of prisoners of war! The whole world knows that Pakistan is no match for India despite having nuclear arms. But it’s high time we dealt decisively with China—the country which George Fernandes, defence minister in NDA 1, branded as India’s enemy No. 1. And Atal Bihari Vajpayee cited China as the main reason for India’s 1998 nuclear tests in a memo to Bill Clinton. There is no better time than now to punch China so hard in the Himalayas as well as in the Indian Ocean that it stops taunting us about 1962.
If we go to war, we can bank on the US and Japan to back us not only in their own interest but because of Modi’s personal equation with Donald Trump and Shinzo Abe—an unspoken camaraderie that even Modi’s worst critics admit in private.
In an earlier piece, India, stay away from Shanghai, published in TNIE on 29 May, 2017, I had questioned the wisdom of India joining the China-dominated Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
Today I stand vindicated because it’s common knowledge now that even as Xi was welcoming Modi into SCO at Astana, Kazakhstan, on June 8, the People’s Liberation Army was sneaking into the Doklam plateau where the borders of China, India and Bhutan intersect. China’s advance into what’s essentially Bhutan’s territory came to light on June 16 when the Royal Bhutan Army sought India’s help to push back the PLA. As New Delhi is bound by a treaty to back Bhutan militarily, the Indian Army came to Bhutan’s aid resulting in the month-long India-China stand-off on the soil of a third country.
And to let you into a well-known secret, the Doklam plateau—which China wants to snatch from Bhutan for overarching military advantage over India —is so critical for India’s security as it overlooks the Siliguri corridor that we are even ready to buy it from Bhutan! Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch bluntly wrote in the journal Centre for Land Warfare Studies in 2013 that “the King of Bhutan may consider selling the Doklam plateau to India so that this bone of contention is resolved permanently”. His logic for outright purchase was that India would get what it wants and Bhutan wouldn’t have to withstand China’s pressure after the sale. Thimpu exploded in anger at the offer. But Katoch obviously had India’s strategic and defence interests uppermost in his mind.
When India’s national security hinges on Doklam, can we afford to give in to China’s threats and meekly withdraw our forces? Modi should pay heed to Mulayam Singh’s advice not to buckle down but to stand up to China. I respect Singh because he ordered a series of surgical strikes against Pakistan while he was the defence minister but cleverly kept them under wraps.
Even before the first shot is fired at the India-China border, Modi must order Indians to make a bonfire of Chinese products. The leaping flames will make Beijing realise that India is no longer afraid of China. And lastly, if Trump dithers when we need the US by our side, Modi should immediately cancel orders India has placed for drones, planes and nuclear reactors worth billions of dollars amid hugs and handshakes. India must tell the world that there is no room for neutrality in the war against China.
S N M Abdi
An award-winning journalist and commentator based in Kolkata
Email: snmabdi@yahoo.com