I know exactly what ice and barren land you’re talking about. Open a map one day and see what is north and northwest of that barren land. If you still don’t understand the significance of Nehru’s folly and Manmohan Singh’s stupidity may be we shouldn’t be discussing this issue.

You are underestimating the resolve of the people who u dismiss with so much disdain. They are more than willing to fight this to the endgame.And who told u that the paki economy is growing? look closer and u see the real story it is just a money order economy like Kerala.

same scenario holds with china, neither can afford a full scale war, therefore i think ur jumping the gun.

China is an autocracy where the people have no influence over their kleptocratic government. SO to make such assumptions that growing prosperity of the Chinese people will somehow affect the cold strategic calculations of its leadership is akin to living in one’s own make believe world.

My 2 cents, Keep the Powder Dry.

There is always a price and value for every square inch of land though it might not be obvious at first glance to people from the metros who think all that milk comes from cartons and the chicken comes from the supermarket.

You confuse military balance and war. The purpose of ensuring that the conventional military balance is decisively in India’s favour is primarily to deter war (and deterrence is credible only when Pakistan knows that if it comes to war, India will win it despite the cost). There is no question that on an aggregate basis, India has a overwhelming edge. But what really matters is the balance on the India-Pakistan front—how strong is India vis-a-vis Pakistan in those theatres.

As Mihir puts it, it’s certainly not “a piece of useless ice”. But even if it were, a government that does not defend any part of its territory, however insignificant, is not doing its job. That’s because there are no hard definitions on “big piece” and “useless” and for that matter “ice”. I’m keen to know how big a piece of territory should be before it becomes important enough to defend. And how much of use should it be? Are all pieces of ice equally useless? What if they are at the head of sources of water supply?

Kargil and the entire conflict was more to drum up nationalism back home rather than actual military significance, and it is pretty much useless ice, except for mountain climbers.

same scenario holds with china, neither can afford a full scale war, therefore i think ur jumping the gun.

What part of India is useless square meters of ice to you, Vatsan?

Another theory of “hand-over-J&K to Pak for peace” goes that India already has a billion people so why worry about feeding the extra population in J&K – give them to pak and buy peace.

Shall we put the useless square meters of sand – just south of that ice – up for bidding also? Oh, wait that Hindu right wing party will use it as election ploy. Never mind.

8 hour power cuts can not be solved by throwing money at the problem. They have to solved by making people pay for the power they use, stopping pilferage of energy, cutting down distribution losses, and modifying the subsidies regime.

Investment in national security has not been done at the expense of other sectors. If you improve the service delivery mechanisms of the government, a lot more can be done in the social sectors without even throwing additional money at them.

Regards,
Anindo

Yes, that’s a good, if disheartening, explanation of the motivations of the UPA government. I remember reading somewhere that the UPA did not authorise a single major defence procurement from the time it came to power to Dec 2005. What kit is being added to the armed forces inventory (like the navy’s LSTs) was largely approved during the NDA government’s tenure.

Given the procurement cycle, we could see India’s operational military edge (at least vis-a-vis Pakistan) weaking in the next 2-3 years. If tensions go up as a result, the government of the day will be forced into a rushed purchase. Not only will this be more expensive, it will also create the defence procurement scam that all politicians love.

A politician is always a slave to his electoral constituency #.

and i think uve missed the most important line in ajai shuklas piece,

“the Finance Ministry has no big arms purchase proposals before it this financial year. That points to a large surrender of funds from the MoD budget this year.”

with elections coming up soon, the UPA has to show some evidence of their socialist credentials, which requires funds, and where else to look for funds rather than the MOD? allot huge sums and then when its returned divert towards populist policies. thts wht the UPA is doing. Its this need of the UPA which i presume has motivated ak anthony to say there is no eminent threat of war with PAK, rather than a long term policy outlook. every govt wants to win elections, and for the UPA its socialist policies, therefore it takes precedence over defence. and china oriented defence policy? joke when left believes china is the personification of peace

I believe, just as u do that india should look beyond Pak in its defence strategy.
the upa isnt as intelligent as the BJP to fight with PAK over useless sq mtrs of ice to drum up nationalism and win elections.

Yeah. It’s already happening. Comrade commander N. Ram is talking about ‘civilian control of the Army’. What! By all means, demand that the guilty must be punished but to talk about civilian control and what not as if a coup is in the pipeline is preposterous.

I wish Comrade Ram will give the message of democracy to the Chinese the next time he is visiting. At least, that will ensure that he never crosses the borders of China again.

I was not aware of Ajai Shukla’s credentials. Thanks for sharing that with us.

But we should not try to find conspiracy theories to explain away the army officers’ misconduct in Kolkata. Indeed, they forgot the drill rule 101, that a second mistake does not correct the first one. They’ll get condemned in the media which is well-deserved. But the left liberals will want to tar the entire army for the actions of some of its men, which is unfortunate. But it should help focus minds at Army HQ. The army is nothing if not a learning organisation, and this lesson will only make it stronger.