India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sat motionless as opposition leader Jaswant Singh of the BJP made extremely serious accusations against what he called the “tentative and apologetic” foreign policy of the current Prime Minister.Jaswant Singh’s accusations were so serious they are in effect a declaration of war against the Prime Minister and his leadership. The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) are extreme Hindu nationalists who are conditioned to hate anyone not Hindu and definitely believe Hindus should remain the predominant power on the sub-continent. [AKI]
It was beliefs and Hindu organizations like them that had the Indian Hindu spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi assassinated in 1948 as he attempted to end the communal rioting between Hindus and Moslems right after independence in 1947. The BJP represent the same mentality India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru warned India about shortly before his death in 1964. Since Muslims are the largest minority then Islam has been always seen as the main threat and therefore Pakistan as the main enemy, but also China, due to its territorial disputes with India, which is why Beijing established military relations with Pakistan in 1951.
That is why it was the BJP party that set off the nuclear explosions in May 1998, when they formed the government in Delhi earlier that year forcing Islamabad to respond with nuclear explosions of its own. But Islamabad’s response has not just been limited to nuclear-ballistic-cruise missile tests but in serious military planning with regional governments that support them, Tehran-Beijing-Kabul-Dhaka and perhaps Kathmandu, which has just deployed paramilitary forces along Nepal’s border with India.
Nepalese writers, whose articles appeared on crossfirewar.com two years ago have accused Delhi of having designs on Nepal’s territory. Islamic inflitrators captured by India last year admitted Nepal has also been used as another avenue of infiltration into India. [IRNA]
And it was General Pervez Musharraf, who in 1999 planned Pakistan’s offensive Kargil probe that caught India off guard and exposed serious weakenesses in India’s miltary and its maintenance. Musharraf is now of course President and opposition leader Jaswant Singh stated that under Musharraf Islamabad has seized the initiative from Delhi. Singh observed, “India determined the pace, direction and events…now Pakistan comes up with suggestions and the government of India is reacting to Musharraf… it is a telling loss.” Singh then went on to mention the threat from Beijing, what he called their “string of pearls” strategy of containing India. He referred to Beijing’s, “Extension of the Chinese railway, extension of road, communication into Myanmar (Burma)…its presence in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka… its alliance with Pakistan… it is necessary we recognize and address this.”
As mentioned earlier none of these threats are new. Beijing began to build roads into Myanmar in 1969 and China’s influence is so strong with its military dictatorship Myanmar is in effect one of China’s provinces and another front against India.
Singh also mentioned India is “surrounded by collasped countries or countries on the verge of collaspe, with existing or incipient civil wars.” But what Jaswant Singh may not realize is with this serious division within India’s government, India itself could be on the verge of collaspe if not already. Singh also admitted to severe weaknesses in India’s military especially the Air Force. “India is perhaps the only country with a great diversity of aircraft… no country can afford it. This is not sustainable.” He then called for a review of defence procurement and criticized the “paralyzed decision making” in the Defence Ministry. Previously Jaswant Singh held the position of Defence Minister and External Affairs (Foreign Minister), as well as Finance in the National Democratic Alliance, which the BJP has been a part of.
In his most critical statement Singh accused the current Prime Minister by saying, “You are resolved only to be irresolute… your approach is of surrender.” Manmohan Singh has never run for office, and his positions were always obtained by appointment mostly through the Congress Party of India, which won the election in 2004. His background was actually in economics instead of international affairs, but it may be more significant that he is a member of the Sikh religion, a combination of Hindu and Islam. Manmohan Singh has always believed India should be multicultural and secular, pluralistic, therefore he would never subscribe to any beliefs of religious extremism.
Manmohan Singh may have convinced himself the negotiations with Islamabad can produce a peaceful resolution to the Islamic uprising in Jammu-Kashmir, openly supported by Tehran - Islamabad. Perhaps Singh also believes the threat from Islamic militant groups in Bangladesh can also be negotiated away. He may then be ignoring the very real preparations Islamabad has been making to win the fourth war between India/Pakistan since 1947 and the impact the Khomeini revolution in Iran in 1979, that established Tehran’s current government and its massive support of Islamabad. It was to Tehran Musharraf presented his “Action Plan” a month ago during the Pakistan’s President nine nation tour. Beijing wants the plan to succeed just as much as Tehran-Islamabad and Delhi’s other enemies.
The beliefs and criticisms articulated by Jaswant Singh are by no means his alone and they are not confined to the BJP. In its sixty years of independence India has never been this divided. With these divisions, within Delhi’s governing institutions, it is impossible for India to respond effectively during the next war.