How much is China more of a threat to India than US, will be a question India must continue to ask, as it rushes to sign agreements with US. Whether India will become ornamental allies like Montenegro & North Macedonia is yet to be seen. Who would have thought that India leaning Soviet Union and US aligned to Pakistan would end up allies in 2020? Let’s also not forget that both India’s Nehru and China’s Mao Zedong in 1954 shard anti-US sentiments. China has come far but can India match the strides China has taken? China has lifted 800million from poverty, has India matched this? Can India come near the economic reforms & entrepreneurship steps China has successfully taken? Can India measure up and equal itself with China? While China has been busy raising its nation to greater heights, India has been vocalizing only nationalist sentiment. In the case of China – action has begot results, for India inaction has left it no choice but to tag to US to show off its might.India has shown that its might cannot come on its own but requires prop ups. This is hardly a recipe for an aspiring super power demanding UN Security Council membership. India should certainly strive to be great just as China, but not by becoming a poodle – President Trump had no hesitation but to call India a filthy nation even while his Secretary of State landed for a crucial trip to seal pacts. President Trump didn’t even know India & China shared a border! But India has to now put up with all these side-ridicules. Can security cooperation with US alone bring India to the level of matching China? Eventually India will be signing military pacts allowing US to use its borders and shores against China, Indians & India will remain in stalemate situation while China will be rising and raising its portfolio.

So the question before India is – will all these pacts feed the poverty stricken Indians? Will military pacts solve all of India’s problems? How far has India progressed as against China’s progress? US will be more than willing to spur India to go to war – US can sell their arms and ammunition, but who will be sacrificing their lives – Indians. Is this what India wants? Has it occurred to India, the more US & India are waging war flags, China is game for every challenge and able to build its counter defenses quicker? Eventually, what would ensue for India would be a rising number of unhappy Indian states, more calamity within India and even quests to separate from the Centre. Shouldn’t India think that this could also be Plan B in America’s pivot to Asia? A weakened and fragmented India would allow US to have bigger stakes and call the shots & come closer to both its arch enemies – China & Russia. India by its rush to become an ally of the US would have weakened Asia, fragmented India & invited the enemies to Asia. As you can notice every Indian official seems to only be parroting the need to partner with US – in short exposing that India has no ability to stand on its own strength. If India thinks by tying with US it can goad over China and have China worried, India would be living in a dream world. In fact, the nations of South Asia are also worried about the manner India has made vulnerable all of South Asia. India is now a partner of US but not on India’s terms. India would be expected to simply carry out what US now orders. 

Is US striking these military pacts with India for the love of safeguarding India or its own interests.

According to Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University, more than 801,000 people have died as a direct result of fighting. Of those, more than 335,000 have been civilians. Another 21 million people have been displaced due to violence. Post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria have expanded to more than 80 countries.

Japan allocates only 1% of its GDP for the military, Australia allocates 1.8%, India allocates 2.4% & US allocates over 3.2% of its GDP for the military. 

U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan have cost American taxpayers $6.4 trillion since they began in 2001.

Does India want to be an ally to a new wave of destruction in Asia? 

Can the QUAD be Asia’s NATO?

Will Asian nations wish to militarily take on China and do they have the military means to do so? All of Asia’s economies are dependent on China. Will they take the risk and can US provide what China provides in same measure? 

Could it also not be possible that the Indo-Sino break-up was engineered to win India into become a main player in US-Quad operations? 

India is playing a bigger role than Japan or Australia. Yet, India depends on China to help revive a post-covid economy. US cannot provide what China can except the sets of military pacts US is ever ready to produce for signature. Will all these defense pacts with US mean India will depart from the non-aligned bloc and an independent foreign policy its predecessors have adopted?

Will future leaders of India and Japan follow the same sentiments & approach to US & against China that Modi & Shinzo Abe followed? Japan’s new leader has already displayed his attitude to China is not going to be as antagonistic as Abe’s. 

As for India, PM Modi is all out to be a US-ally & partner. But is this sentiment shared by the political parties of India. Who is Modi’s successor? 

After MODI – who? 

Anyone pausing to answer with name only reiterates what dire straits India has landed itself in which obviously has been well calculated by USA. A weak successor will only be a lottery for US goals in the Indo-Pacific war theatre and it will also result in a weak India, a weakened India & a fragmented India. All of India’s hopes for supremacy will be lost unless it asserts itself as a sovereign & independent nation – aligning with a war monger will only cost India its sovereignty & only time will show India its error. A country as big as India does not need to be tagging onto any country for supremacy. It should learn to stand on its own. Global respect would must be earned not demanded or by bullying. Two lessons both US & India have not learnt. 

Shenali D Waduge