Spaced out?

Beijing8217;s bold test of an anti-satellite weapon earlier this month, the first such by any nation in more than two decades, does a lot more than set off an arms race in outer space between China and US. It threatens our own expanding civilian space assets, undermines the credibility of our nuclear deterrent, and exposes New Delhi8217;s lack of a military space strategy. Amidst the emergence of a brash new space power in its neighbourhood, India can either respond with a robust military space effort in collaboration with the US or consign itself to the status of a second-rate power in Asia.

The latest security threat from China can only be addressed if the political leadership takes the initiative. Different sections of our national security establishment appear clueless about the consequences of the military rise of China. Our ostrich-like science bureaucracy lives in the Cold War era, believing that technological threats continue to emanate from the US. At a time when China is the principal opponent of the Indo-US nuclear deal, our cocooned atomic energy establishment takes pot-shots at the nuclear legislation approved in the US Congress last month. The cloistered Defence Research and Development Organisation turned down offers from the Bush administration to assist India in the development of missile defence programme. Our foreign office multilateralists delude themselves that one more disarmament resolution in the UN will take care of India8217;s increasing military technological gap with China. The Indian Air Force has been a lone voice in the wilderness, drawing attention to the changing space environment and the need to create an Indian aerospace command. You can bet that the ministry of defence does not even understand what the IAF means.

In these columns we have consistently argued for a comprehensive and cooperative relationship with Beijing. But that does not mean we turn a blind eye to China8217;s expanding military might. If India believes in a multipolar Asia, it needs to urgently match Chinese space capabilities. If we are honest to ourselves, we will see that the DAE and the DRDO, for all their tall talk of self-reliance, have let us down badly. On high-powered lasers, for example, their efforts have been pathetic to say the least. India needs partners in space. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that the US leads the list of such partners, followed by Israel, Russia and Japan.