India make such a boast is only to draw the Uncle Sam’s attention, India wish can be included in the contain China game, so India can be brought up by uncle Sam like Japan and Korea, but the cold war time is over, Uncle Sam now do not have much to offer, and India is too large to help, China is not the enemy but a competitor of Uncle Sam, also uncle Sam have no intention to bring up another one.
The Indian media make such statement also for the Indian people to listen, the advance that India over China is their domocrzy system India enjoys, you never need to worry about what you are talking about, because no body expect the government to be consistency, every few years you get a new one and some new ideas, so India government free to talk.
From the geopolitical perspective, India even with the very big population and land size, is only a secondary player in the world stage. On the Euro-Asia continent, Europe is at the west, China at east, Russia at the north, India at south. But India is blocked at the southern corner of the continent by the great Pakistan, India is a isolated country, have little meaning for the rest of the world.
The four parts are separated by the USA, the USA controls the middle east, and controls the oil supply, that’s why the USA make lot of troubles in the middle east and also make the Ukraine problem for the Europe. But this make China at a much better situation against India, the north of China is at peace. But India’s north is not at peace and India is always at the receiver’s end from the north since history. And from the Sino-Indi border, India’s activity center is few hundred kilometers from down hill Himalaya, how come India can boast to use military power to against China? If military confront really happens, cost is not at same category.
So you can see, India only can boast, and also you can see India is liked by all the major countries in the world, because India can not project power to any direction. And Pakistan will always receive support from China and USA.