The Hindu : Peace constituency larger than that of hostility: PM

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 03, 2003

National

National

Peace constituency larger than that of hostility: PM

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 2. The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has said that the Diwali peace initiative managed to "silence the whispering campaign'' that the requirements of coming elections dictated a harsh Pakistan policy.

"The political leadership of the country is well aware that the constituency for peace is much larger than that which favours hostility,'' the Prime Minister told the country's top military commanders on Saturday. The extracts of the Prime Minister's speech were made available this evening after a detailed note earlier by the Press Information Bureau omitted this formulation.

He also dwelt on the difficulties created by the collapse of the old world order because "I often wonder whether we have really comprehended their implications''. The changed circumstances of the Indo-Soviet alliance greatly affected India's room for diplomatic manoeuvre in the world and the collapse of the Soviet Union disrupted bilateral defence cooperation. The quality of many of India's relationships and alliances also suffered from the realignment of world forces.

"The recent national discussions on events in Iraq showed that many in our country are still caught up in the time warp of a Cold War mindset and strategic assumptions of an earlier era,'' he noted. The Prime Minister said the country's emergence from these turbulences and its exploitation of fluidities in the emerging world order to forge new ties were largely not appreciated. "Again, the magnitude of these developments is not fully grasped as our foreign policy debates show. Too many of us are caught up in limited ideologies and a limited vision of what the country is doing and where it should be going.''

He also called upon the defence planners to get out of the sub-regional mindset and reflect India's political, economic and security concerns by shaping defence strategies that extend beyond the geographical confines of South Asia. The country's security environment extended from the Persian Gulf in the west to the Malacca Straits in the east (where the Indian Navy recently undertook security patrols on a U.S. request). It also includes Central Asia and Afghanistan in the Northwest, China in the Northeast and South Asia. "Our strategic thinking has also to extend to these horizons,'' the Prime Minister told the military commanders.

The Prime Minister called upon various Government departments to shed their cocooned existence because in the globalised era, every strategy was interdisciplinary and in the 21st century, "war in whatever form can be won only through multiple levers of power''. So it was necessary to develop a synergy among security agencies, armed forces, diplomats and Finance, Commerce, Energy and other Ministries.

Mr. Vajpayee said strategists must work closely with the defence research and development establishments to ensure a smooth two-way interflow between technology and strategy. The defence research organisations, in turn, should closely involve the military in their work. "Since technologies and strategies complement each other, it is essential that the users of the technology - the field units - should also be in the loop.'' Besides working in close coordination with strategists and the military, the defence research organisations should reach out to the private sector to use its talents and skills. "This again is an area on which our defence establishments should focus more intensively,'' he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National