India’s foreign forays while fires burn at home

India in recent times has been accorded many rankings in its international status. It has been called: global power, emergent power, middle power, nuclear power and regional power among other descriptions. It has the second fastest economic growth in the world (after China), the world’s third biggest armed forces and it is the biggest democracy in the world  with a population of 1.16 billion. India has made vast strides in development during the past two decades and is continuing its upward spiral but a perceptive observer is entitled to ask: Is India biting much faster than it can chew?

Afghan venture

Not much publicity has been received on India flexing its economic muscle in neighbouring Afghanistan. It is now estimated that there are at least 4000 Indian nationals (workers and security personnel) in Afghanistan working on many development projects. They are not welcomed by the radical Islamic Taliban who are targeting them with increasing frequency. In May last year a bomb attack in front of the Indian Embassy in Kabul damaged the embassy and killed 58 people including the Indian defence attaché while wounding 76. On October 8 this year another bomb that exploded before the Indian embassy killed 17 people and wounded 58. Such attacks have not deterred India. Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian Minister of External Affairs following the recent attack declared: ‘We cannot succumb to the Taliban or any other pressure group. Our approach is zero tolerance.’

Determined thrust

India is indeed determined to make its thrust into Afghanistan. It has pledged more than $ 1.2 billion as reconstruction aid to Afghanistan making it the country’s fifth largest donor. Earlier it opened two new consulates in Herath and Mazahar-e-Sharif. It has re-opened two consulates in Kandahar and Jalalabad which were shut down in 1979. A parliament building scheduled to be opened early next year is under construction.

Other Indian development projects include: A hydro power project, power transmission lines to the north; tube wells in six provinces and three Airbuses to the country’s rundown national airline. One of the most strategically important development projects are two highways, the Delram-Zarang highway and a proposed South East Afghan highway. The significance is that South Afghanistan has been linked more closely to Pakistan than to Kabul and the highways would break the linkage between Pakistan territories on both sides of Mc Mahon line which demarcates the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Cut Pakistan influence

Analysts point out that India’s strategy is to win over every section of Afghan society, build a high profile image with the Afghan people and make maximum political advantage with the objective of undercutting Pakistan’s long standing influence. Pakistan had also voiced its suspicions of the Indian consulates being used to funnel in money and arms to Pakistan’s troubled eastern province of Baluchistan. However, present Pakistani President Asif Zardari and Hamid Karzai have developed much greater understanding now.

India’s foray into Afghanistan was made immediately after the fall of the Taliban regime of Mullah Omar following the invasion of American forces but the Taliban has made a very strong come back and is now taking on NATO forces battling them quite successfully. Being of Islamic fundamentalist persuasion,  it is now opposing the Indian influx tooth and nail. Even though the Pakistani government is now attempting to fight the Taliban in Pakistan and with Americans in Afghanistan, it is pointed out that the Taliban’s rise to power initially was mainly the work of the Pakistani ISI (Intelligence Services) and that there are still close links between the Taliban and the Pakistani armed forces.

Second thoughts

While America welcomed participation of India in development of Afghanistan how the Great Game (as called by the British in the 19th Century when they attempted to control Afghanistan) plays itself out is uncertain. Gen. Stanley Mc Chrystal, Commander of US forces in Afghanistan in his latest report to President Obama states: ‘While Indian activities largely benefit the Afghan people, increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan is likely to exacerbate regional tensions and encourage Pakistan counter measures in Afghanistan or India.’

While India is now venturing beyond its borders in the style of a big power to establish its strategic interests, neither Afghanistan nor Pakistan is its greatest security threat. In the words of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh two weeks ago the Indian Maoists or Naxalites as they are known, pose the greatest security threat to the country. This insurgent group comprising mainly of members of tribal people, ‘untouchables’ and other social out castes who have no political representation together with unemployed poor rural labourers are being led by a group of radical Marxists and make no bones that they want to destroy the existing democratic system of governance in India by destroying the ‘class enemies.’

Only last week they held up a prestigious train travelling through the thick jungles of West Bengal demanding the release of some of their captured comrades. This was after the Indian government had announced a massive surge against the Naxalites in 14 theatres in the country where Naxalites are operating. Some reports say that they hold sway in 45 percent of the land area of the Indian republic.

The Naxalite problem underscores the paradox that India is. On the one hand it measures up to a standards of a global, regional and even a nuclear power but the fact is that it is still a poor country with 42 per cent of the people living below the poverty line of $ 1.25 a day. (According to a World Bank report) There are politicians and intellectuals contending that the Naxal movement cannot be eradicated by massive armed surges as long as these underprivileged peoples’ lot is not improved.

China

Besides the Naxalites there is China with which it went to war in 1962 over disputed borders. Recently there has been sniping even at the highest level in both countries about transgression of sovereign rights, particularly the Arunchal Pradesh extending over 32, 333 Sq miles (83,743 Sq Km).
Can ‘Emergent India’ afford to go on foreign adventures of economic conquests with problems of such great magnitude within its own borders, particularly those of the Naxalites?