The politics of the times we live in has changed for most of the countries in the world, especially powerful countries, as they have an aura and stature at the world stage and in the circles of influence. There is also one valid fact that macroeconomics drives geopolitics. The power plays of global forces and huge politico-economic interests have new and stealthy ways to act and impact the lives of millions of people.
India under Narender Modi as a global leader has emerged as a global power on the world stage and is commanding a place and honour, which is well deserved. The emergence of 1.35 billion people, which is 1/6 of humanity, means a permanent and lasting change in the circles of power, political interest, affiliations, economic control, and military dominance.
Adversaries and foes have realised and acknowledged this change in the stature of India and are trying their best to stop its growth and elevation. The techniques and tactics have changed in today’s world order, so have the doctrines of conflict.
One thing that is completely off the table for any power of the world is the use of kinetic means, which here translates to traditional warfare, which is costly and unproductive, and especially in our case, not yielding any results. Hence engineered conflicts, asymmetric warfare remain the only possible options for advisories and hostile powers. We as a country and countrymen are evolving and adapting to this new reality wherein engineered dissonance will be the most potent weapon.
The key is how and with what perspectives do we see the events and sequence of things. If we look in the traditional way, then in isolation everything may look like standalone coincidences but as a matter of fact, in geopolitics, there are no coincidences at all.
Let’s look around us and see a few and draw a design of power at work.
Doomsday economists projecting that a few million Indians will die of Covid some of that so-called international experts are running NGOs in the USA.
Vaccines will take 5 to 10 years to come, where is the money to vaccinate all? Our Serum Institute catches fire through a “short circuit” and it impacts our vacancies ramp-up capabilities substantially.
Here the objective is somehow to derail India’s fight against Covid by all means and methods possible.
LG plant in the middle of a lockdown has a gas leak and we have a few people dead when the plant was shut, despite them following all international safety norms prevalent in their plants.
Arson in Winston plant in Karnataka where 7000 people attack one of the biggest Taiwanese manufacturers in India, and Global Times wasted no time to write an industrial obituary of India as a manufacturing base and why people should have continued with China.
We have seen lobbies at work to stop the sale of S400 to India. Some international media outlets tried to put the US government in a tight corner vis-a-vis sanctions and use of Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) against India. Fact remains that this is the most reliable and best missile shield technology, and all possible efforts were being made to somehow stop India from getting this. This would have left holes in our defence and given an advantage to China. Adding to this, China develops 14 airstrips in Tibet.
India has had arms and arsenal dealings with Russian for quite some time. Our 60% of the arsenal comes from Russia and hence the support on spares, maintenance, AMCs, and ammunition is very critical to us. China here as well tried to block the sales of weapons from Russia to us, by giving them some lucrative deals in arms and energy, which were more oriented to block India rather than fulfillment of their own needs. There was a lot of pressure put on Putin not to come to India and sign 10 years’ support agreements for all equipment sold.
When this fails, China flies nuclear bombers near Ladakh and deploys more aircraft along the LAC and Skardu in Gilgit-Baltistan. Here again, the intentions are clear and explicit.
There was a targeted attack on Assam Rifles’ secured convoy in Northeast where the Commanding Officer was killed with 7 other people. We are supposed to believe that this was done by some amateur terrorist, but in fact this attack was done by professionals who possibly infiltrated India, through the Rakhine province of Myanmar. The Rakhine province bordering India has the Arakans Army, which has around 12,000 men and is completely funded and trained by PLA on the directions of CCP.
Following this incident in counter-insurgency operations by Assam Rifles, the unfortunate Nagaland accident took place, which was followed by an immediate demand to repeal Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Incidentally, the exact same demand came at the same time from J&K and North East. Army minus AFSPA is a car without an engine and with a known and established vulnerability of the chicken’s neck. This can have huge ramifications for us and will prove advantageous to the enemy.
We can see forces, powers, industries, influencers, some sections of international media, social media trolls, fake trends, lobbyists, propaganda tools to tool kits activists, porn stars to pop stars, cropping up now and then and trying to create a fake narrative and engineer a dissonance with one single objective in mind to stop India on its tracks.
This is the age of engineered conflicts wherein your own resources and systems are manipulated and used against you with all support, money, influence, and cover fire required from adversaries and foes.
Knowledge and understanding will be the key; we need to look at a much bigger picture and learn to join the dots. Political myopia and trivial interests can be a recipe for disaster. A firm, combined, uncompromised selfless resolve is the only way to defeat the enemies and emerge victorious as a nation and in the interest of the nation.
One thing that is completely off the table for any power of the world is the use of kinetic means, which here translates to traditional warfare, which is costly and unproductive, and especially in our case, not yielding any results. Hence engineered conflicts, asymmetric warfare remain the only possible options for advisories and hostile powers. We as a country and countrymen are evolving and adapting to this new reality wherein engineered dissonance will be the most potent weapon.