India and China are two of the oldest civilisations in the world with rich culture, heritage and history. Ties between the two countries date back to ancient times. It was believed that since China is very similar to India in terms of its historical experiences and geopolitical interests, they would be natural allies. However, the post independence period of India saw the Chinese going back on their promise of brotherhood by attacking India in 1962. Over the years, Chinese border transgressions have increased manifold necessitating India to bolster its defences. However, time and again India and Indians have fallen prey to Chinese perfidy and deception.

But matters changed rapidly in the aftermath of the Galwan clash of 2020 when Indian troops outwitted the PLA in acquiring dominant positions on Rezang La, Pangong Tso, Rechang La, etc. However, to provide a more solid answer to the Chinese belligerence, we require a more forceful and assertive response. This should begin with a change in India’s nuclear policy. The nuclear policy of India was the brainchild of the late K. Subramanyam, one of India’s foremost strategic experts on geopolitics and the father of the current astute foreign minister and career diplomat Dr Subramanian Jaishankar.

India’s nuclear policy was made after intensive consultations with the defence and foreign policy elites of Indian strategic circles. India’s nuclear policy articulates a no-first use policy, unlike our neighbour Pakistan. However, if India is ever attacked with nuclear weapons then invoking domestic constitutional provisions and international legal provisions particularly Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, the nation possess the sovereign right to retaliate with full force and with the full strength of its nuclear arsenal to debilitate the second strike capability of its adversary.

Despite being a responsible nuclear power committed to the establishment and maintainence of a rules based international order, China has been engaging in wanton violation of border laws and agreements vis-a-vis India that both sides have signed over the years. The border transgressions in 2020 clearly demonstrate that China has disregarded the sanctity of the 1993 Land Border agreement and has made irrelevant irredentist claims regarding Indian territory.

Therefore, the time has come for New Delhi to eschew its no-first use policy of nuclear weapons. While this raises the threshold of a possible nuclear confrontation between the two Asian behemoths, there is no other way. The threat of use of nuclear weapons constitute one of the safest options in military tactics because the scale of annihilation the Hiroshima and Nagasaki incidents have been a lesson for the rest of the world that it is of utmost necessity to avoid nuclear war.

Notwithstanding the dangers involved in eschewing its no-first use policy, the world needs to understand the problem that India is facing, it is bound by hostile neighbours in the form of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan on its three sides and two of them have nuclear weapons in their possessions. Therefore, for the purpose of self-defence, India needs to take this hard step to deter its foes.

Nuclear weapons, despite their inherently deterrent nature, are and should always be used as weapons of the last resort. So, keeping that factor in mind India needs to boost its conventional military strength something which non-nuclear countries like Japan and Taiwan are doing keeping in mind the larger picture of the dragon’s threat.

India is progressing rapidly on the path of defence modernisation and has recently highlighted its intention to develop Agni-VI, its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of over 5,500 kilometres which when launched from India can easily target Chinese cities like Shanghai, Beijing etc.

However, the size of the Chinese economy is ten times the size of India, its armed forces are almost twice the size of India and the Chinese nuclear arsenal is much more stronger than India. Therefore, it is imperative for India that besides changing its nuclear doctrine it needs to shed its reticence towards military alliances. The obvious reference here is the need for the outright militarisation of the Quad grouping which must develop a new type of military doctrine and foreign policy agenda by placing nuclear arsenals of the Quad countries under a joint Quad command. The Quad grouping should have its own constitution just like NATO with a similar provision to Article 5.

Summing up

India, therefore, needs to keep in mind that China is not Pakistan and dealing with a country which is twice your size and the world’s second largest economy can be tough. But then as the saying goes, “when the going gets tough, the tough gets going”. Thus India needs to take hard steps to deal with the dragon’s consistently pesky territorial violations vis-a-vis our country.

– The writer is currently working as a Research Associate at Defence Research and Studies (dras.in) and is a columnist. The views expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda