Strategic Thinking : A key to make India a Decisive Power by 2030

 When we compare India with china, we find that china was very poor nation by 1970 but still they were quite successful in handling the affairs both at domestic and international level just because of decisive leadership and positive strategic military thinking. Both historic civilization faced slavery and bondage but at the time of independence, chose different path to become decisive power. The aim of mentioning the comparison is not to criticize but to analyze the things in correct perspective. If we don’t face hardship and try to see the things mostly through the prism of ideology only then the journey of becoming decisive power will remain in our basket of objectives only.

Fortunately, we got another opportunity in this journey. There is lot of upbeat about rise of India and China. Of course, world powers, whether rising or declining, has vested interest. For all those whose interests are at stake in India, the question is not that the rise of India is going to be peaceful or not like they had in case of china, they are more worried about our capabilities in a sense that can India grab this opportunity or like in the past, opportunities will go away.

The answer to the question lies in another question and that is do we have a will & vision in our mind & hearts as a citizen of India? With strategic mind set if we look at citizen’s mandate in last two consecutive general elections it seems that we started realizing our strength and we are eagerly waiting to feel the romance with power having sage landing. This mandate reflects not only the will to realize the potential but also shows the will to face hardships (example - Demonetization, GST, military strikes in Myanmar & Pakistan, response against Chinese aggression in 2017 and 2019). 

We also see it in our political conversation with major superpowers on every issue ranging from polity to media as part of comprehensive national power. We have shown it many times and consistently in decisive manner at govt. level especially at central level but what about state and citizen’s level?

If we look at our states it is clearly visible that either they fail to understand our national objective or they did it deliberately for short term political gain. Just because of short term political benefit the kind of politics done by our political executive in erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and North eastern states on terrorism, Tista water sharing, Tamil and ethnic issue respectively, impacted our national foreign policy very badly. Caste based politics and corruption are also prominent reasons because despite having fertile land most populated status, U.P. & Bihar these states are still known as poor states while having states of. Since We are located at such a Geo-strategic coordinates, we must not de-link our domestic policies at state level along with central level from our foreign policy objectives. Land Boundary Agreement is a step which shows the positive sign but it must continue in foreseeable future.

            2022 is going to be very memorable as we shall celebrate 75 year of our independence. The progress we have achieved by 2020 is remarkable in a sense that many developed countries failed to get in their post-independence history. If we compare India with U.S.A., U.S.A. reached at moon almost after 180 years of its independence while India reached after almost 63 years in 2008, U.S.A made nuclear bomb during 2^nd world war while India did its first nuclear test in 1974, just after 23 years of its independence. Despite So much misery and colonial loot was reached in such a position that we can bargain with major world powers on are terms (eg. S-400) while U.S.A. did not able to confront Britain in such a short span of time. Despite of all the achievements and glories when we shall look at our past after completion of 75 years of our independence we must count one thing in our analysis and that is how many Indians have strategic mindset?

  If we look at the pre-independence history especially during 2^nd world war, M.K. Gandhi opposed the S.C. Bose strategy just because of ideology or moral obligation. On the other hand U.S.A. who fought against the imperialism joined the hands with biggest imperialist nation. Britain was itself a democratic nation but it used imperialism and colonialism as its tool to get its national objective. Even in 21^st century U.S.A. who is still fighting against terrorism in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring peace) had used it as a asset to achieve its national objectives. But if we look at our history we committed more strategic blunders rather than getting more strategic success. As our NSA said that If we do 100 goal works and after that commit one negative thing then it buries all 100 goal works i.e. one negative decision cause 100 time more casualties. Unfortunately, In the era of Information & cyber warfare with cutting edge technology we lack that kind of mindset as a society.

It is true that there will be lot of obstacles and challenges but if we link our domestic policies with foreign policy objective having a will and vision with strategic thinking both at state’s & citizen’s level then 21^st century will belong to both great as well as decisive INDIA rather than emerging India. Let’s not forget one thing that ethics without power doesn’t make sense in Great game of world politics.