There is a spate of writings from former diplomats, bureaucrats and think-tank analysts insisting that India must announce its National Security Policy and the strategy of implementing it.Security by definition entails evaluation of risks posed to the nation by external enemies, circumstances that threaten its economic well-being and factors that damage its internal cohesion.
National security demands protection against both an open attack from land, sea, or air and a ‘covert’ attempt of the adversary to subvert the country from within. The strategy of safeguarding national security has to be comprehensive in terms of the contribution it would receive from all wings of the government and fail-safe arrangements that would be made for ensuring an integral response of implementation cutting across a multiplicity of institutions, authorities, and Centre-State delineations.
It would also rest on an assurance that the democratic polity would keep national security above party gains. Three contemporary trends have posed a challenge to the task of framing the national security strategy. A strategy, concept-wise, is a plan of action that presumes long-term application – unfortunately, the life span of a strategy stands shortened today because of the frequency of change in the global or regional geo-politics.
A national security plan can at best be a mid-term thought. Secondly, a security strategy necessarily involves a reading of the arc of friends, enemies, and potential adversaries, but the challenge here is that the stability of this spectrum itself cannot be presumed. Consequently, ‘course correction’ would become an important contingency to be provided for and this would change the methodology that might have been adopted earlier for the exercise. Finally, it is rightly said that ‘security does not come cheap but even where the nation is willing to spend on it, the principle of security is that it should be cost-effective, free of bottlenecks in communication, and totally clear as far as the accountability for action is concerned.
India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has in a way revealed the framework of its national strategy. Development of bilateral relations that promoted mutual security and economic interests, total attention to measures – military, diplomatic and financial – designed to counter the moves of a defined adversary and firm commitment to world peace, stand out as the paradigms of the same and these are not kept hidden from the international community. That certainly has to be kept from becoming public knowledge is the specificity of the steps that the nation would take to deal with a particular hostile country. The academics who claim to be in a position to underwrite India’s security strategy seem to forget that security assessments and responses are to be kept confidential on the principle that ‘secret knowledge is secret power’ and the advantage is lost if any side comes to know of the opponent’s capacity and plan of action. Warnings to the adversary through diplomatic and other means are in order for conveying an intention and creating a possible deterrent, but the details of what the actual response would be and how it would be executed, have to be kept under the wraps. Foreign policy by definition is a product of the nation’s security and economic concerns and diplomacy is skilled in the art of sharing them with others – including friends and unfriendly rivals – in an appropriate manner. Of course, any credible analysis of think-tanks and scholars can provide useful information inputs for those charged with the responsibility of drawing up national strategy on security but the actual components of it are not a matter of public discourse except in broad terms.
Some studies on what is known to have happened in the past can provide useful learning for the future but security strategy is basically about what lies ahead in regard to specific threats or the rising dangers on the horizon and their possible counter and this is of necessity a ‘protected’ information. Within the announced part of the policy on national security, India’s reading of the current global geopolitics would certainly be made public as this helped to identify friends and potential opponents. India did not seek to hide its stand on Ukraine-Russia military conflict from world scrutiny – it rested on an untainted understanding of concerns on both sides and called for an immediate stoppage of military action in the larger interest of global stability. Prime Minister Modi spoke to both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin for a ceasefire and peace negotiation at the beginning of the conflict itself. That India is able to hold on to its policy in multiple international fora is a commendation for the political will of Prime Minister Modi, as much as it is the victory of morality in international politics. This is perhaps an upshot of India’s deep civilizational belief in a peaceful world and the everlasting Hindu doctrine of ‘Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam’. Modi’s call of ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ is in line with this wider thinking.
Notwithstanding the superficial theories of latter day social scientists that put a haze around the ‘idea of India’, it is good to see the Modi regime successfully articulating the Indian thought of universal relevance by fostering pride in our national identity, projecting our heritage and emphasizing the keenness of India to remain in total consonance with the larger destiny of the world. A prerequisite of the success of our national security strategy is that the leaders in public life in India must be totally free of corruption which meant they were not misusing authority for lining up their pockets. Initiatives of the Modi government to eradicate corruption in public life, therefore, are welcome- it does not matter who was brought up in the queue ahead of others. The global security scenario facing India covers the threats it is exposed to as a leading country belonging to the democratic world, on account of the current geo-politics at large and also those that arose specifically for it from the hostile neighbours around.
