“Getting into any war is not wise for any country in the world,” said senior journalist and author Nishtha Gautam at the launch of In Hard Times: Security In A Time Of Insecurity – a collection of essays edited by Manoj Joshi, Praveen Swami and Nishtha Gautam highlighting the major challenges India is facing and how to address them.
Contributors to The Hard Times include former military officers, including Admiral Arun Prakash and Lt. Gen. DS Hooda, whose views have helped shape discussions of strategy, as well as commentators such as Dr. Sanjaya Baru. Experience teaches us that in war it is often the wiser side that wins, not the stronger – these essays point in that direction.
Gautam explained her attitude towards the war, citing the example of Russia. She told ABP Live after the book’s launch on Wednesday: “We’ve seen Russia – one of the superpowers – down to our knees. Who would have thought it would stretch and carry on? It’s not helping anyone, it’s disrupted supply chains around the world, and it’s not good for us or any country.”
Related to India and the perception that entering a war boasts a country’s military prowess, especially given the dispute with Pakistan and a call for war by a large segment of the population to provide an “appropriate response,” Gautam said : “If we get into a war-like situation, let alone a war, it’s not good for us. It is not supported by our economic or socio-political realities. Nothing supports a war.
Recently, the issue of defense has entered the political space, with parties trying to drag each other down on the issue, particularly when it comes to India’s response to the border dispute with China, among others. While the book analyzes defense in great detail, when asked about India’s readiness to face the challenges posed by China and Pakistan and the politicization of the issue, Gautam said: “We are prepared, but there is still a lot to do, and not all of it only the political parties, including us citizens, have our weight when it comes to a holistic approach to security for the country.”
When discussing the differences in defense and security, she gave an example from the book. She said: “There must be disagreements, and this book has disagreements. We have two authors from the Navy, one from the Air Force and two from the Army and they have taken conflicting approaches, but both are valid. They need to be tested. They must not be discarded solely because of the approach. So there needs to be a dialogue between everyone involved to then arrive at a strategy that works best.”
The authors state in the book that India needs a national security strategy for difficult times. It would be a strategy based on reality – India’s priority must be to lift large numbers of its people out of abject poverty, although the strategies of countries like China and the United States, which are more economically developed, can aim to do so to become world powers.
The book highlights that since the mid-1990s, Indian national security thinking has been based on the assumption that the country would proceed on a growth path sufficient to modernize its defense capabilities, thereby enabling a sort of parity with an emerging China .
The reality was different. China’s spectacular growth — and the military modernization that has accompanied it — has outpaced India’s tremendous pace, while Indian military modernization has made bumpy strides.
In recent years, households have allocated less than 2 percent of GDP to the military – the lowest level since the 1962 war. Even if spending increased to 3 percent, after accounting for rising pensions, salaries and other household items, there would be little funding for modernization, the book explains.
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