A Jammu and Kashmir Rifles battalion lost eight soldiers in an ambush to the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac-Muivah) group at Chiesema, near Kohima on July 22. This was 10 days before the much-hyped ceasefire between the security forces and the militant group was to come into effect. Ceasefires are agreed upon on the basis of covert negotiations and there is every reason to believe hush-hush talks were going on when the ambush was placed. So what did the Government of India do after losing eight of its soldiers? It went ahead with the ceasefire and allowed the militants to don the caps of heroes. Any self-respecting State would have gone after the militants to punish them, and then declared a ceasefire on its own terms. The message that has gone to thugs, terrorists and others with an eye on India is that the State is not merely weak, it is also meek.This is an impression long held by many nations and is unlikely to have been missed by those doling out memberships to the United Nations Security Council. They are in the business of running the security policies of the world body for the last 50 years. How well or badly has that performance been is another matter altogether, but what is certain is that they have participated in international security decision-making with one paramount objective - the promotion and preservation of their national interests. There is no internationalist brotherly solidarity and such other nonsense, but simply furthering their national goals. At the end of the day it takes a realisation of the fundamentals of national security to be a player in the international arena. Participation at the world level is concomitant to the demonstrated achievements of national security objectives. To have that international responsibility bestowed on it a nation has to first exhibit its performance at the national level. And in that respect India is a loser from the word go.The absence of a national security doctrine born out of the internal, regional and international environment has created a situation wherein policies change at the drop of a ballot. A government in New Delhi created, financed and armed sundry Bodo groups in order to put pressure on a disliked Assam administration. The same recipe was once applied in Punjab, and produced a bloodbath. The picture is now pretty much similar in the Bodo areas to the extent that they are even ambushing security forces sent by New Delhi. And a tiny sneeze of a country is allowing the Bodos to operate with impunity. It wants to apply a squeeze on India, and in the process they are using terrorist groups once armed and financed by the Government of India and who are now killing Indian soldiers to do their dirty job. A schoolboy could not have scripted a worse thriller story.Another government attempted the identical formula in bullying a civilisationally similar neighbour. Training camps were run on Indian soil for terrorist groups trying to divide that country. And by the end of the decade India had lost upwards of 1200 soldiers to one of those groups in a war the nation would rather not be reminded about. For good reason too, since all the charges of state-sponsored terrorism and subversion come back to haunt India. Little wonder that despite the crude and blatant Pakistani indulgence of terrorists and thugs unfriendly toward India the world chose to ignore New Delhi's pleas to paste labels on Islamabad. Can't blame the world. But New Delhi can certainly be blamed when it, for instance, creates and finances a Naga group that is led by a foreign national. It then allows that group to operate in India, killing Indian citizens at will, and subsequently negotiates with that group in another country! Who is then left to blame if India subverts itself?When despite its immense size and potential India does not feature on the world radar but as a blip it is not because it possesses amazing stealth features. Rather, it is on account of the fact that India is a nation unable to comprehend what on earth it is doing. The carelessness with which decisions are made, executed, rescinded and lastly denied communicates to the world one simple message take India for granted. The most telling example of this tendency is the manner in which the country's nuclear research and development programme has been subverted. There is a deliberate use of the word subvert for that is the only manner to describe what has been done to the programme. The most advanced in Asia it was, until China blew the bomb in 1964. Sure, India blew one too, but the story how it was managed, and what has since then been done to the nuclear programme is a sorry tale. But, once again, the world does not feel sorry for India if they feel anything at all for the country.Most merely acknowledge its existence and those countries that pay attention to India consider it to be a wannabe without the vision thing. And it is the lack of that vision for and of India that always takes it into a cul de sac. For that vision does not exist amongst the decision-makers. If it did then those thugs from Mumbai who conspired to blow up the city could not have been allowed to frolick in one of the Gulf sheikhlings. A determined State would have hounded the Sheikh or organised a snatch operation. Lesser nations have been known to have done that. When such be the state of the Indian State what chance does it have of securing its place under the sun, currently regarded to be a permanent seat in the UN Security Council?Not much honestly, for the world just does not stomach a loser and a whiner. It respects a nation that has clearly spelt-out objectives, goals and perceptions of what it wants from the world; and what it aims to do in order to achieve those targets. When India declares its national security doctrine without waffling on the uncomfortable bits, when it sets into motion efforts to realise its precepts and when its demonstrations of national will begin to announce results, only then will India be regarded with respect and seats vacated for it. Until then all it can do is to stand in line and collect its dole. The only power, thus, that can help India in fulfilling its ambitions is the Indian State; and the only power that can prevent India from realising its aspirations is the Indian State itself.
