Gist
India's statecraft has been in a morality straitjacket. He calls it bovine pacifism.
The tag of responsible state is burdening us. Other countries are very happy.
1st instance of psyops - by Persians against Egyptians in 1523 BC. Used white cats which are considered holy by Egyptians.
In modern age, Chengiz Khan disarmed his opponents psychologically by allowing a small number of survivors to carry forward the tales of destruction.
some more examples of psyops.
India's record: Based on what vedas talk about covert wars, India should have been a master at it. But it is not. Chinese use it all the time. Porkis obtained nukes beautifully which contained India. Chinese have got us to reduce ourselves to Pakistan's size and made us see it as a difficult enemy. Says it is painful for him to see India in this dimunitive state.
country is known by the enemy it keeps.
Due to similar culture, it is easy for India and Porkistan to infiltrate each other.
An Indian cabinet decision is known to Rawalpindi GHQ within 1 hour. The advantage we have is A Rawalpindi GHQ decision is known to India within 30 minutes.(Joke)
Karnad met ISI's Hamid Gul in Islamabad. Gul said they cannot compete with India in total war. But believed it has the edge in covert warfare, able to keep its nerve in a crisis(implying India cannot). Karnad here talks about 1999 hijack where the flight was allowed to leave Amritsar which could have been easily prevented. They have 600 sleeper cells in India.(karnad said this was an exaggeration on Gul's part).
While Pakistan has every reason to be paranoid about India, India does not have a reason to be paranoid about Pakistan.
Chinese language is very complex. 3600 pictograms. One of our former ambassadors CV Ranganathan spoke excellent chinese, even better than the chinese themselves. In 1.5 track meet, he unnerved the Chinese with his command over the language. Karnad says this is the essence of covert warfare - unnerving the opponent using any means. India's pool of Chinese language experts very small and hence cannot read nor understand chinese policy documents very well. Western sinologists employed for this task who interpret the doc to their own ends. Chinese know of Indian shortfalls in mandarin and use it to their advantage in negotiations. Indian elite are anglicized.
Chinese always work on a very long plan. Indian policymakers seem to not see beyond their noses. He says he is not berating India and this happens due to the constraints of democracy, even US has these constraints.
Indian psyops in 1965 war - After discovering that Paki soldiers did not want to burn to death for religious reasons Indian comms were talking about burning them to death in their tanks. Some Paki soldiers ran away deserting their tanks at the first Indian shot. A total of 75 Patton tanks captured, some of them without any damage. Gen Harbaksh Singh was disappointed for figuring out this late.
Feels India has given up against China. China builds for day after tomorrow, India builds for yesterday.
What India should have done from the beginning:
1. Cultivate Taiwan. They have been imploring us to recognise them. China makes visiting leaders from India to recognise One China. Why did not India ask the same from the Chinese?
2. When Karnad was in National Security Advisory Board(NSAB), he asked Indian foreign secy about INdian response to China giving nukes to Pakistan? He had no answer. He also asked if giving nukes to Chinese neighbors was considered. Again, the answer was no.
3. Why did we not do tit for tat which is a language understood by the Chinese?
4. Foreign Secy response: It is not practicable. Karnad again stresses that nothing should be proper or improper when it comes to the affairs of the state.
5. Taiwan invests 80 Billion USD every year into China. They are ready to relocate all their investments only if we can upgrade their establishment here to an embassy and allow them to fly their flag which we are not willing to do.
6. Taiwanese are also prime mappers of the Chinese cyber grid and are willing to give it to us. Karnad here takes a dim view of National Technical Research Organisation(NTRO). Says India's cyber warfare capabilities are less than 0.
7. Draws analogy between Israel and Taiwan. Giving diplomatic recognition will strengthen ties.
8. India has no idea of how to deal with China but Taiwan does. They are like India and Pakistan.
9. American influence on India, the attraction of green card
10. Praises Vietnam. Mentions sadly that India is a beaten down country. Mentions how Vietnamese talk about their 1000 year war with China.
