India's armed forces set up 'think tank cells' to study China

[bhramos]

India's armed forces set up 'think tank cells' to study China | South China Morning Post

India's armed forces, the world's third largest active military, have set up "China cells" tasked to develop a better understanding of the country's northeastern neighbour as a new round of border talks have failed to find a lasting solution to the two countries' territorial dispute in the Himalayas.

A team of army officers has been tasked "to keep tabs on China's growing capabilities, dig into the heart of its strategic mindset and predict its impact on national security," the Hindustan Times, a New Delhi-based daily newspaper, said on Monday, citing a military source.

The team has been put together by Chief of Army Staff General Bikram Singh, the armed forces' highest ranking officer, the report said. The unnamed source emphasised that the move wasn't aimed at meddling into India's civilian foreign affairs policy and described the cells as the army's "in-house think tanks".

Cells are to be set up in three of the country's six regional command headquarters. The team at the Kolkata-based Eastern Command will be headed by a one-star general, the report said.

 

[bhramos]

Re: India's armed forces set up 'think tank cells' to study Chin

Indian Army's plan for think-tanks on China draws mixed response - The Economic Times

 

[Kshatriya87]

Re: India's armed forces set up 'think tank cells' to study Chin

Why the mixed response? We actually need them.

 

[Ray]

Re: India's armed forces set up 'think tank cells' to study Chin

Th Armed Forces are well aware of Chinese military and strategic issues and the manner they react.

It is for our inept political leadership to understand its own military, its requirements and what strategy and geostrategy is all about, instead of living on pink clouds and keep the army under equipped.

 

[cw2005]

Re: India's armed forces set up 'think tank cells' to study Chin

Th Armed Forces are well aware of Chinese military and strategic issues and the manner they react.

It is for our inept political leadership to understand its own military, its requirements and what strategy and geostrategy is all about, instead of living on pink clouds and keep the army under equipped.

Dear Ray:

I fully believe the Army must have done this all the time as in the eyes of Indians, China has been and is always the most significant threat.

What I feel uneasy is the contradition and confusion of certain members' thinking in this forum for I have seen enough complaining of India's politician as the root cause leading to all kinds of Indian problems. Yet, these politicians are the products of the Indian-styled democracy that Indians feel so proudly and is embraced so dearly.

As I spoke several times that democracy is just like a knife. Give it to an artist; he could turn our beautiful high value artifacts. Give it to a child and he would cut himself all over.

When we empower a group of people by vote, we do not enable them. We do not have an effective mechanism to guide them. A good example is shown in one country in South East Asia that the party who loots the rich minority people in the city spends part of the money to buy support vote from the poor farmers in the country side. The party could win all the elections because they get enough vote banks from the majority poor farmers.

This is the main problem of blindly copying the Western democracy without consider the unique situation and readiness of a country. Look at South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. All go through similar pattern before reaching democracy as today. Is there anything we need to learn from them?

 

[bhramos]

Re: India's armed forces set up 'think tank cells' to study Chin

Why the mixed response? We actually need them.

'Indian Army's China cells could sow seeds of mistrust' - Hindustan Times

 

[Ray]

Re: India's armed forces set up 'think tank cells' to study Chin

Dear Ray:

I fully believe the Army must have done this all the time as in the eyes of Indians, China has been and is always the most significant threat.

What I feel uneasy is the contradition and confusion of certain members' thinking in this forum for I have seen enough complaining of India's politician as the root cause leading to all kinds of Indian problems. Yet, these politicians are the products of the Indian-styled democracy that Indians feel so proudly and is embraced so dearly.

As I spoke several times that democracy is just like a knife. Give it to an artist; he could turn our beautiful high value artifacts. Give it to a child and he would cut himself all over.

When we empower a group of people by vote, we do not enable them. We do not have an effective mechanism to guide them. A good example is shown in one country in South East Asia that the party who loots the rich minority people in the city spends part of the money to buy support vote from the poor farmers in the country side. The party could win all the elections because they get enough vote banks from the majority poor farmers.

This is the main problem of blindly copying the Western democracy without consider the unique situation and readiness of a country. Look at South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. All go through similar pattern before reaching democracy as today. Is there anything we need to learn from them?

China is not THE significant threat to India. It is ONE of the threats.

However, it is a threat that is worth considering seriously.

One would be surprised if the Armed Forces of a country does not undertake understanding of an adversary's aim, capabilities and limitations. Therefore, to surmise that this concept of 'think tanks' is something new and novel would not be correct.

There is nothing wrong in any Democracies. In other countries, most of the leaders and politicians have some military service and so they are not at sea in understanding the military requirements and the nuances of geopolitics and geostrategy in the military sense of the issues.

In India, there being no compulsory military training, the politicians and bureaucrats look at issues of geostrategy and geopolitics from the political from the political and economic angles only. Therefore, there is the disconnect. In India, the military is not incorporated in the planning of national issues, to include geopolitics and geostrategy. The military is totally kept out of the loop.

No political party in today's context in India can 'buy' the voters, be the rural or urban. AAP, the novice and without any recognised politicians or funds in abundance, has proved the point.

The reasons for this is not hard to find. Increased education, higher aspirations, diluting of the fatalism that was earlier a part of the psyche and the TV coverage by private channels, widely accessible all over India including remote villages in remote areas, has made the citizens more aware of the happenings of the Nation. That is the boon of Democracy and liberalisation. No longer is the populace entombed in the grip of the Govt TV channel that only gave the Govt's point of view. Thus, Democracy triumphs over Totalitarianism or even Socialism that only empowered the Govt units.

Indian Democracy is its own unique experiment. It is not a copy of Western democracies, and instead has incorporated the positives of other democracies that would benefit India. That way all democracies are 'borrowed' from the Greek Democracy but tweaked to suit their individual countries. Democracy is a very fluid format and not restrictive or monolithic as you imagine.

 

[sayareakd]

Re: India's armed forces set up 'think tank cells' to study Chin

they should also take inputs from us...................