India, that is, Bharat, is an ancient civilization and a young Nation. India is an outlier as far as the western idea of Nation State is concerned. We have multiple languages, no racial uniformity, varied cultures held by a common thread of sanatana dharma and extraordinary culinary diversity. With all this complexity, the fact that the Nation stands as one under the Tricolur Flag is a tribute to the great sons and daughters of this land. With global plagues, viral and economic , imposing unequal costs and untold burdens, India does not have the luxury of time to gets its act togther. It needs to hit the bulls eye, each and every time to survive, thrive and prosper. In the service of that stated goal the following is a proposed new compact for Bharat in the spheres of Security and Administration.
Security
The best way to knee cap an enemy is to dismantle the status quo it has taken for granted. India did precisely that when it adopted the Doval Doctrine (Hard Power needs to be met with Hard Power) and forced pakistan to factor in the prohibitive costs of surgical ground and air strikes in its ‘bleed India by thousand cuts’ islamic terrorist project. Time has come to do the same with Maoist China which is a mortal enemy of India and guilty of ethnic genocide in Tibet. India’s entire border with China is predominantly made up of Trivishatapa (Tibet) – an ancient and spiritual land and home of the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra. The sacred land of Tibet was abandoned by India and left to the mercies of homicidal maoist hordes in 1949.
India should reclaim its civilizational duty towards Tibet and take the lead in demanding its freedom in international fora. The Dalai Lama should be invited as a State Guest representing Central Tibetan Authority – the Government in Exile of Tibet – to the forthcoming Independence day celebrations of India. An Independent Tibet is in the interests of the much suffering Tibetans and be made a cardinal principle of India’s security doctrine. India should recognise Taiwan as an independent country and push for its acceptance in International Organizations. With Maoist China securing a colony for itself via Colombo Port City in Sri lanka – the south of Vindhayas have lost their traditional safety net. They are now within striking distance of Maoist Chinese air and naval assets. In view of this new threat India should build a dedicated offensive and defensive integrated air and naval command with the singular charter to thwart the Maoist Chinese threats from its colony in Sri Lanka.
Steel Frame
Sardar Patel’s vision of the Civil Services serving as the steel frame of a young nation has largely turned out well. The Civil Services have played a unifying and integrating role, constantly upholding and nurturing the wonder that is India. But it would be remiss to not acknowledge the structural and behavioural weaknesses that have crept into the steel frame and corroding it from with in. Any bureaucracy is only as good as the person leading it. The DGP and Chief Secretary are the guardians of state bureaucracy. The current process of selecting these top guns at the State level needs to be discarded in favour of a new system where the Chief Minister, Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of the State will confer, confabulate, and vote on who gets to lead the state administrative and police machinery.
More importantly the DGP and CS should have mandatory experience working at the Central Government. The CS should have a stint at multilateral trade and development bodies. The DGP should be exposed to the workings of national level security agencies – and states with history of cross border islamic and maoist terror should only have Officers with successful command experience of counter insurgency operations.
The Annual Performance Appraisals of Civil servants and equivalent cadre officers of central and state PSUs and Government organizations should include a mandatory CSR (Civil Service Social Responsibility) component. They should adopt the most backward regions of their cadre states, zones and use their cutting edge networking, persuasion and call-to-action skills to significantly improve the human development index of the targetted areas – like – primary schools for girls, expansion of basic toilet facilities in govt schools, nutrition, inspiring corporates to bring educational and training innovations to govt schools.
The skills that serve Civil Servants well to secure their postings, transfers and promotions can bring a social revolution if additonally deployed in the service of above CSR goals. Operation Vijay resulted in India’s victory in Kargil War. India is in dire need of another operation Vijay to renew, reinforce and revitalize the Steel Frame.
There is something unique in this soil, which despite many obstacles has always remained the abode of great souls – Sardar Patel.
Now is the time to work towards ringing in a new compact – that would ensure the Security of India and strengthen the Steel Frame in the service of achieving the civilizational goal of India.
ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः
सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः।
सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु
मा कश्चिद्दुःखभाग्भवेत्।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः॥