09-27-2007, 02:42 AM
Sethu project: A strategic blunder by Col (retd) Anil Athale
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->India has a history of committing strategic blunders in last 60 years! The loss of Skardu in 1947, the famous âthrow out the Chineseâ remark by Nehru on 12 September 1962 and disastrous âforward policyâ that led to the 1962 humiliation at the hands of the Chinese or failure to push for severing the land link between Pakistan and China during the 1971 war. The list is long and seemingly unending. It was the hope and expectation of think tanks like Inpad that a formal structure like the NSC (National Security Council) that we lobbied for over 10 years, will cure us of this disease. But the episode of Ram Sethu project that seems to have ignored the military strategic factors puts a question mark on the efficacy of the government apparatus.
<b>The second possibility is that the political leadership overruled the strategic experts and decided to go ahead with its plans! In that case, is it the pressure of Secularist Taliban that forced the government to go ahead with the plan not so for the sake of easing the problems of navigation between Indiaâs East and West coast but with an aim to further consolidate its vote bank? The denial of historicity of Ram seems to show that this is an attempt to woo back the vote bank that seemed to be drifting away due to Indo-US nuclear deal. In the second part we will deal with this deep-seated mindset of Secularist Taliban of India. </b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The part highlighted is a very distinct possiblity. The claims of Strategic security is pretty shallow given the fact current clowns at center are contemplating donating Siachen to TSP. It's all about vote back and kickbacks on the mega crore project.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->India has a history of committing strategic blunders in last 60 years! The loss of Skardu in 1947, the famous âthrow out the Chineseâ remark by Nehru on 12 September 1962 and disastrous âforward policyâ that led to the 1962 humiliation at the hands of the Chinese or failure to push for severing the land link between Pakistan and China during the 1971 war. The list is long and seemingly unending. It was the hope and expectation of think tanks like Inpad that a formal structure like the NSC (National Security Council) that we lobbied for over 10 years, will cure us of this disease. But the episode of Ram Sethu project that seems to have ignored the military strategic factors puts a question mark on the efficacy of the government apparatus.
<b>The second possibility is that the political leadership overruled the strategic experts and decided to go ahead with its plans! In that case, is it the pressure of Secularist Taliban that forced the government to go ahead with the plan not so for the sake of easing the problems of navigation between Indiaâs East and West coast but with an aim to further consolidate its vote bank? The denial of historicity of Ram seems to show that this is an attempt to woo back the vote bank that seemed to be drifting away due to Indo-US nuclear deal. In the second part we will deal with this deep-seated mindset of Secularist Taliban of India. </b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The part highlighted is a very distinct possiblity. The claims of Strategic security is pretty shallow given the fact current clowns at center are contemplating donating Siachen to TSP. It's all about vote back and kickbacks on the mega crore project.