Redefining The “Offensive” in our Offensive-Defence Policy

Over the past few years, the Indian government’s overt expression of an Offensive-Defence policy came as a breath of fresh air to all patriotic Indians who felt extremely repressed and frustrated by the highly tolerant and pacifist policies of all previous regimes. It gave India the opportunity to stand-up to the world and sent a clear message that we are no pushovers regardless of the might of our opponents. After a long era, the world was finally giving India and Indians the credit and respect that they deserved. The, non-negotiable, India First approach has certainly made all patriotic Indians proud.

Nevertheless, on closer introspection, I noticed that most of the “Offensive” in the Offensive-Defence policy seems to be directed towards Pakistan whereas we tend to lean pacifically towards all other inimical forces. In the current scenario, using offensive strategies against Pakistan is like flogging a dead horse although, of course, one must beware of various viruses emanating from the body of such a dead horse as it could be harmful for us. Nevertheless, when it comes to countries like China or, more recently, Sri Lanka, we seem to go back to the Nehruvian era of appeasement.

Talking of China, we seem to be playing on the back-foot by doing nothing apart from holding, never-ending, ‘peace negotiations’ with them while they flagrantly hurl bouncers at us. When are we going to start playing on the front-foot against the treacherous Chinese? After all, they are just going to keep toying with us unless we learn to reply to them in a language that they understand. I mean, for starters, we could commence proceedings for officially establishing diplomatic relations with Taiwan to be followed by strong condemnation of China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. China hasn’t accepted a one India policy by declaring POK as an integral part of India so why should India accept China’s view on Taiwan?

Similarly, China’s flagrant support for anti-India terrorists at the UN and other international forums or the presence of a Chinese spy ship in Sri Lankan waters deserve a strong retaliatory response from India. If we play the Taiwan and Xinjiang cards carefully, it’ll cause China to wake up and smell the coffee and there’s a good chance of it supporting us in our endeavour to get back POK and would also reduce the chances of any hostile Chinese presence in Sri Lanka. There is, of course, the slight possibility of China playing the moronic card of trying to retaliate militarily but, given its hostile relations with most of its neighbours, it’ll only end up fulfilling the western goal of emasculating China as a global economic and military power and will also be the end of the road for Xi Jinping and perhaps even the CCP as the governing body of China.

In the case of Sri Lanka, India made a huge mistake by rushing to its aid when the financial crisis hit that country. I had commented on various forums that India should have let the crisis lead to a civil war before offering aid and that too as per India’s terms and conditions. A civil war in Sri Lanka would have been the death knell for Chinese assets in that country and India would have had the chance to setup a government of its choice over there and, we could have worked on a long-term plan of making Sri Lanka a semi-autonomous province of India. However, we chose to immediately rush to its aid and, as expected, we suffered.

A few years ago, when Hillary Clinton chastised Pakistan for paying the cost of rearing snakes (terrorists) in its country, she conveniently forgot to mention that the US was paying a similar price for rearing the Chinese snake in its backyard. Unfortunately, India did the same thing and suffered when Sri Lanka callously chose to ignore India’s plea regarding threats to its national security by allowing a Chinese spy ship to dock at its port. It didn’t matter to Sri Lanka that China had a huge hand in Sri Lanka’s financial crisis or that China conveniently chose to stay away when Sri Lanka was burning.

On this outrage by Sri Lanka, as part of its Offensive-Defence policy, apart from playing the Taiwan card, India should have stopped all trade with Sri Lanka and demanded a complete reimbursement for all the funds expended by India to smother the smouldering crisis. The least we could have done is to fund the strong opposition in Sri Lanka so that they could re-aggravate the crisis in that country. Instead, apart from some verbal condemnations, we chose to maintain an ‘I Understand’ approach to the whole issue.

I admit that standing up to China and/or Sri Lanka would immediately cause the paid ‘liberals’ in India to start working overtime in criticizing the government for its policies. The paid ‘liberals’ along with the paid ‘national policy analysts’, who form an integral part of Bollywood and sections of our national media, would use every platform to denigrate the government and India as a whole. As long as these people are well funded, the welfare of our adversaries is more important to them than India’s national interests and welfare. In order for India to become a significant global power, it’s imperative that, as part of the Offensive-Defence policy, our nation is cleansed of such internal filth regardless of cost or social repercussions.

In the Offensive-Defence policy, regardless of who our opponent is, there should be no place for timid Nehruvian pacifism. Instead, there should be a clear-cut message to the world that we are ready to walk all the way with anyone who seeks genuine friendship with us but there will be a very heavy price to pay for anyone perpetrating any inimical act against our country.