Almost 65 years ago BN Kaul, a retired Indian Intelligence Bureau Director, was told the same thing on the eve of Indian independence by no one else but the first Indian Prime Minister. Nehru told him that India has two enemies, Pakistan and China.
Before the 1962 India – China war, Nehru like a reincarnated Charagupt, drew a line on India-China map and declared that this is where the border between the two countries lie. Following his now infamous policy of forward movement, he also started invading the Chinese territory. The Chinese gave India the biggest drubbing yet and India lost an opportunity to become friendly to a rising world power that China is. The legacy that he left is being faced by the Indians now and also the whole region.
The irony however is that 1962's thinking has still not left India and it still wants to dictate to China and her other neighbours like a hegemonic power.
Though India owns powerful armed forces now, it unfortunately has weakened itself even more than it was in 1962. Now, it is in no position to repeat what it could in 1962.
India is now surrounded from three sides by the same two powerful nuclear capable countries which Nehru identified on the eve of independence. The only way out for India is towards the Indian Ocean. This also places India, despite her economic growth, in a particularly weak geopolitical situation.
.....Nice one Arp.....
