Hari Sud’s International View

  Two Front War in India Hitler fought a two front war and lost it. There are many other examples of two front war losses. It is highly unusual to have a war on two fronts and emerge victorious. India has two front war scenarios or at least the threat of it. Over the last five years, knowing that this type of war is possible, India started building allies and alliances, but there were promises, but not a final alliance.  When the US and Briton moved their navies in 1971 against India to prevent the Indian quick victory in Bangladesh, it was the Soviet fleet both in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea which intervened and forced both US & British fleets away. The then Soviet Union provided a good account of an ally, after India and Soviets initialed the Indo-Soviet 20 years security pact in 1971. Things are different now than they were in 1971. Although the Chinese at the behest of President Nixon in 1971 played a bit of a dubious role, but overall they stayed on th...

 Posted on India Defense Forum Posted on January 25th Ukrainian Civil War, a New Cold War, which has Heated up.  Western propaganda, including print and electronic media is busy blaming Russia for this Ukraine border tension without telling that it is the US and NATO utmost desire to reach the Russian border in Europe. It is the West which offered rose garden to the Ukraine public and a few of their unknown leaders, post 1991 breakup, were paid to break out of Russia. This was an unwelcome strategic move for NATO and US. That was a cue for Russia to exert itself. The key question is …… Why does US/NATO have gotten close to the Russian border. That is how peace is disturbed. With Putin’s arrival and Yeltsin & Gorbachev both dead and buried, and NATO offering membership to all Russian satellite states in Eastern Europe, trouble was not far. In fact it was near. US was busy fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, it offered Putin/Russia a chance to grab Crimea back from the Ukraine...

 Inadequate Himalayan infrastructure on Indian side. Battles in the Himalayas will not be won by guns or missiles alone, but with better infrastructure and road network. Right now, the Chinese have the upper hand, but not for long. The Indian roads of Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh are under rapid construction to achieve the optimal level. The upcoming road network and some completed locations will bring reinforcement, food and ammunition to the forward areas quickly. These are the backbone of the fighting force.  For 40 years, Indian strategic planners gave a lower priority to building all weather roads to the border. But since 2014, this task has been taken up in earnest. Two directional access to Ladakh has been taken up. The existing Leh-Srinagar road is being made all weather roads by tunnelling under the Zojila Pass with a 13 km tunnel. The other, from Manali to Leh by tunnelling under the Rohtang Pass (complete) and building two/three more tunnels on the same road under h...

  The immortal fear of China and what for?   Since 1962, India, suffers the mortal fear of Chinese invasion. Deng Xiaping cooled this fear temporarily, but the current crop of Chinese leaders has revived this fear. They want to take back all the Indian lands they were unable to take in 1962. They'd already taken most of what they wanted in Ladakh in 1962. Only a little remained there, but their real intention was to divert India's intention to Ladakh and seize Tawang and Arunachal Pradesh. I dare say that Mao Tse Tung is reborn in Xi Jinping except Xi met an Indian iron fist. What was their purpose at Ladakh? ….. They wished to reach the 1959 farthest claim line in Ladakh. Unfortunately, they did not, rather retreated at two places under military pressure from India. Two other small areas will be cleared as quickly as possible. What the Chinese leaders sitting in Beijing did not realize is that the extreme heights and cold of winter (17,000 to 22,000 feet) make it difficult fo...

 Why Biden/US is unsuccessful in unravelling Corona origin mystery. China's unwillingness to share the mystery of the source of the deadly COVID-19 virus has remained unchanged. They deny, but like a communist state controlling all, including the silence of the people, are taken with skepticism. The virus had its worst impact on Wuhan city itself, where thousands died but denied by them. At the outset, appropriate measures could have prevented this worldwide tragedy. When measures were taken, it was too late. The virus did not spread itself into the world, but humans carried it from place to place. Wuhan was the epicenter. It was from this industrial city, people travelled and the virus spread. It was Iran, where construction labor brought it, first. Concurrently, it went to Italy in the spring of 2020 with the contract Chinese labor hired by the Italians. Now it was a matter of time before the rest of Europe gets it and they got it very quickly. It was soon in Germany, France, Eng...

  The Western Media and India. The Western media hated Nehru for his leftist policies although he was Eaton and Cambridge graduate. They hated Indira Gandhi for splitting Pakistan into two. They made fun of India for its slow economic growth in eighties and nineties and coined the phrase of Hindu growth of 3.5 to 4%. This was institutionalized by the British media with the help of a few anti-Indian personalities in India itself (Lutyens). It was them who fed their misleading analysis. The British enjoyed their feedback.  The Americans disliked India for being pro Russia/Soviet. Also, a few economic liberalization moves in nineties were not appreciated by them. Americans were China focussed, hence they could not care less. The Indian victory over Pakistanis in1965, 1971 and 1999 wars were termed as unnecessary. Some authors even criticized India for not handing over Kashmir to Pakistan.  The left oriented rule in India except for a short period 1998 till 2004, cont...

  The year 2021 for India It was a year of desperation for India when deaths from COVID-19 and its spread came knocking, but India controlled and treated it effectively. If we look at India's accomplishments in 2021, there are too many. Indian economy is jumping ahead at 9% growth, its foreign reserves are at all time high at $700 billion. Indian infrastructure is moving ahead with highways built at the rate 37 km per day. The railways are a shining example where most modern freight corridors are under construction. In a year, a bullet train will traverse in India too. Many economic barriers created over the past 60 years have been altered. An attractive tax structure is in place which has resulted in the highest tax collection since independence in 1947. Agricultural production peaked at 250 million tonnes of cereals in 2021, up from 47 million tonnes in 1947.  A great and new innovation in military affairs has made a great dent in the policy of importing military material. T...