Ranjit B Rai

Prime Minister Modi has trained with the secretive Hindu  RSS over decades as a communicator, and graduated in distant studies.  Very little is known of his private life but he enjoys delivering sermons and knows he is a great orator. Difficult to know where he comes from,  as he sold tea and rose ! He works with no holidays and has no family living with him.

PM Modi  was in Singapore on a three day visit from 31st May after eking out a maritime base in Sabang in Indonesia from President Joko Widodo and meeting PM Mahatir in Malaysia, all for close maritime  co-operation as the net security provider(NSP) in the IOR, which  irks China, and Indonesia has reservations.

The are no NSP  rules  and Navy rejected Sri Lanka’s Code of Conduct (COC)  for IOR as China sponsored, though five IOR nations supported COC on the ASEAN  Model for co-operation. PM Modi lauded ASEAN in Singapore and asked all to emulate, so why not COC ? 

India is lucky to have an Ambassadorial  PM who  takes NSA along and has been  seen in  56 countries and enjoys  strutting  with confidence with a large yoga chest, trained in India’s  NCC. His medium height is his only drawback, as he has unbounded energy, eats veggies frugally, does not drink,  abhors  golf  and treats foreign trips like holidays,  traveling overnight in  the comfort of   VIP planes and very soon in swanky two fitted out Air India Boeing 777s  equipped for PM,  President and Vice President.  May be  NSA and RM,  will use them as it just needs an Under Office Note(UO Note) from PMO.

No wonder there are no takers for loss making and over employed Air India. IDF feels a favourite of the Government will take it over like ONGC took over loss making oil units in Gujarat. It put  ONGC  in the red. This is a new way of ‘no corruption’ but reeks of a Presidential Governance to short circuit deals like  hopes of military deals offered to Anil Ambani for Dassault and Adani for Gripen.

No wonder many Indians feel  institutions are being controlled  RSS  to also propagate Hindu  scriptures and Hindutva whatever it means! But IDF admits India is prospering with the Modi –Shah—RSS  Danda. So Modi’s way is working. Service chiefs are now globe trotters, and India’s stock is high,  but defence budget is down.

The  rich and middle class Indians and politicians have become richer and are on a roll ! India’s poor, farmers  and non digital folks need support  or will be left behind.    That has brought in  unrest as elections near every where.

PM Modi  is at his  histrionic best in Hindi and Gujarati and  can deride his opposition and charm crowds  with few words of  regional language, and delivers  English with superb modulation and brilliantly makes  speeches,  written by speech writers whose names are not public.

The Union Minister for Defence, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman and the US Secretary of Defence, Mr. James Mattis at the delegation-level talks, in New Delhi on September 26, 2017.

It is known India’s High Commissioner in Singapore Jawed Ashraf wrote some brilliant speeches while he was  in PMO for PMs,  including Modi in his inaugural days. Ashraf’s  colleagues from St Stephen’s rate him high and he  arranged PM’s  land mark visit to Singapore, coinciding  with India’s 25th SIMBEX and 15th Shangri La Dialogue. It will go down as a land mark event in the East for  Security Politics and maritime race as all nations in the East are buying arms. Pakistan is getting ships subs and planes from China and Turkey. Bangla Desh has ordered 5 MI-17sh and  8 SU-30SME and ships and submarines from China and Russia, and  Indonesia is getting SU-35s from Russia and submarines from Korea and Vietnam ships and submarines from Russia. 

  Singapore military too  is strong and PM Modi called it India’s strongest military partner and gave a sermon of how the world should behave at two   fora in Singapore, hinting at India’s achievements with praise for ASEAN but hinted at strategic autonomy.  

The world knows India has an agile  professional Navy and Modi in his time  has succeeded in forming a ring at sea  to challenge  China’s String of Pearls with open OTR ports  at Changi in Singapore that Modi recently visited,  Duqm in Oman,  Sabang in Indonesia and  Mauritius. Soon bases are expected to come up on  Assumption Island in Seychelles and Na Thrang in Vietnam. 

With  Diego Garcia and Bahrain, USA  needs India to join the QUAD in a NATO  type military pact to  act jointly, co-operate  and tame and contain China, and  throttle its economy. It is too late for that IDF feels, and India may be a reluctant partner  as PM Modi talked more of the need for India and China to co-operate, whilst acknowledging USA’s role. USA has not ratified UNCLOS but wants Freedom of Navigation (FON), that PM Modi spoke about and  emphasized India’s “Act East” policy of stepped-up activity with the ASEAN region, and highlighted India’s work. 

USA has abruptly  kicked China’s PLA (Navy) out of the large prestigious RIMPAC exercise where Indian Navy has presence, instead of asking China to opt out. No Chinese likes loosing face….Mark these words from IDF.

So it was,  that Modi the nattily dressed Indian orator PM who delivered  the  Key Note Speech at the 15th Shangri La dialogue dinner reception on 1st June in Singapore. He was flanked by IISS’s head John Chipman a famed researcher,  PM Brigadier Lee Soon Long who one saw in the Army in Singapore and was a close friend of IDF’s predecessor India’s DA there  Koithara,  and US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, who knows how powerful US military is. Deputy PM Adm Teo Chee Hean who has steered Singapore India military co-operation was not seen.

IDF feels Mattis has still to understand India and it’s  ‘Strategic Autonomy’, and how India changes courses with changes in Governments but autonomy continues. Yet USA believes  it has ringed India in to the renamed Indo Pacific Command net where Indian military officers will be posted.  USA’s  Congress has made India its most favoured Strategic Defence Partner.

India for USA,  is like a fish in its Jaal (Net) in the East with $ 15 billion of latest  US military hardware and some $ 5 bill from Israel which was planned in Foggy Bottom and Pentagon years ago to wean India away from Russian weaponry under the guise of Inter-Operability.

Now  India may have to  seek   exemptions from CAASTA to deal with Iran for oil  and to buy S-400 AA Triumf missiles, 226 LUH helicopters, Su-30MKIs and 4 Gregorovich Krivacks   and nuclear submarines and spares and nuclear plants from Russia, both nations  being under sanctions. IDF analysis is PM Modi knows the challenge ahead and tried to mellow matters at Shagri La.

 PM Modi must have noted that Mattis had called China a predator and coercer, without naming it in India’s connection, so PM Modi tailored his speech to speak of India  China combine  for world peace  and talked of co-operation, openness, heritage of India’s links with the East and Samwad…….Dialogue and Shanti …peace. At times it looked like a sermon in the School of Divinity as PM Modi wants a balancing foreign policy, only few understand but all in Government do and follow.

USA is at logger heads with China. The South China Sea islands have been captured and armed by China and India Pakistan are hitting out at each other on  India’s borders, despite cease fires. . China is bent on CPEC, BRI, MSR and joining  the Security Architecture of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) with Pakistan. It was  USA’s Robert Gates  who trapped PM Manmohan Singh to announce India as Net Security Provider in the IOR and PM  Modi is demanding  so many in power have thrown in the towel with no discussion.

 Mattis  chided and challenged China at Shangri La in his  2 nd June address  to Defence Ministers and  IDF did not see RM Sithraman  there.  PM may have raised CAASTA with Mattis so India and Indian Navy’s work is cut out to contain China( ??).  Navy’s  force levels needs boosting.

With trade wars, CAASTA,  Kashmir Cease Fires and local unrest in hands of India’s DGMO and Home Ministry with separate commands IDF sees China will try to take advantage of the isolation of Iran and Russia and India will have to think through these troubling waters as elections may or may not take place in Pakistan but will keep PM Modi one man show busy…Shan No Varuna.

 

One thought on “USA HAS “JAALIED” INDIA IN TO THE INDO PACIFIC QUAD TO CONTAIN CHINA & SANCTIONED INDIA’S FRIENDS– IRAN & RUSSIA—SO PM MODI’S GAVE A SERMON AT SHANGRI LA ‘FOR DIVINITY PEACE COOPERATION & DIALOGUE—–SAMVAAD WITH CHINA ’”
  1. Reading your article has greatly helped me, and I agree with you. But I still have some questions. Can you help me? I will pay attention to your answer. thank you.

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