Unconvincing
IF brave words could be a substitute for impregnable defence, Mr. Jagjivan Ram’s reply in the Lok Sabha to the debate on the Defence Ministry’s demand for grants would have been amply reassuring. He has said that the country’s defence forces are sufficiently equipped and prepared to face any eventuality. What this eventually can be, he has not spelt out, though his reference to symptoms of growing Pakistani belligerency in both eastern and western wings is a pointer. The annual report of the Defence Ministry was more explicit; it did not hesitate to declare that India’s defence preparedness was against the twin threats from Red China and Pakistan.
Both these countries are engaged in a frantic arms build-up. The big powers are competing with one another to arm Pakistan ostensibly for maintaining the so-called power-balance in the region but, in reality, for forcing India to divert to defence resources that would have otherwise gone to development. The less fortunate China has harnessed her enormous manpower and natural resources to forge a formidable army equipped with a not negligible nuclear arsenal.
The Defence Minister has declined to give details of how he proposes to meet the threats to India’s security from these two countries which are hand in glove in the international sphere. He has turned down the suggestion that India go nuclear and reiterated Indian adherence to the policy of atoms-for-peace. if capability in the use of conventional weapons could do job for possession of nuclear arms, why did the Defence Ministry report make so much of the Chinese stockpile of nuclear and thermonuclear bombs and Red China’s capacity to produce annually 40 nuclear bombs? Obviously, the Minister thinks that Communist China’s nuclear capability has become a meance; which means that the context in which the atoms-for-peace policy was framed is due for reappraisal. The Defence Minister has left it unsaid whether this essential exercise was undertaken. In the event, his assurance is shorn of all props. (Editorial]
Reference: Hindustan Standard 14.7.1971