WASHINGTON, June 15: Despite boasting oversized armed forces, India’s vast military infrastructure is crumbling while the military officials are “highly protocol conscious.”
This was stated in the US media on Sunday, which revealed more details of the 141-page report on the Indian military prepared for Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Titled ‘Indo-US Relationship: Expectations and Perceptions,’ the report draws heavily from inputs provided by senior Pentagon officials, who had been in touch with the Indian military in a decade-long army-to-army cooperation that intensified since India went nuclear. The American ‘critique’ raised an uproar in New Delhi with Indian military officials saying that the report was laced with “typical American bias”.
The report is not meant for official presentation and was made available to Indian sources in Washington for comments.
Some US observers saw a sharp contrast between the intellectual Indian approach and American pragmatism. Many of them referred to intellectual arrogance on the part of Indian officers.
By comparison, the report says, Pakistani officers are easier to interact with, more accommodating, and flexible.
Assessing the capabilities of the Indian army, the report says: “Many American officers observed that while the Indians have a large military and is relatively more sophisticated than others in the region, the vast infrastructure is crumbling.”
“Americans, who recently travelled to Delhi, commented on the dilapidated state of the ministry of defence and other government buildings and argued that the neglect of the buildings offer a glimpse of the challenges facing the Indian military as it modernizes.”
One four-star US general described his walk through the Indian army headquarters as “walking back in time.”
A civilian from the US’ Pacific Command, who apparently took the walk along with the general, wanted to know: “How any self- respecting military could allow bared light bulbs to hang dangerously from the ceiling?”
The report warns: “The United States should not be deceived by the Indian military size. The poor quality and lack of maintenance of India’s weapons system limits its abilities to be a capable partner.” Nearly every American army official interviewed in Washington and the US Pacific Command, who regularly interact with Indians perceive that they are “highly-protocol conscious.”
“Indians are easily slighted or insulted by US actions and satisfying the Indian obsession with protocol with symbolic gestures can pay big dividends in our relationship.”
The report, however, says that despite these differences India and the United States can cooperate over China because both see its growth as a threat to their interests.
“The US and India, both view China as a strategic threat and share an interest in understanding China’s strategic intent, though we do not discuss this publicly. India’s suspicion of China drives most of its nuclear strategy and weapons acquisition.”
The report argues that a positive relationship with India was a hedge against China’s future ambitions — but it does a neat tightrope walk as well. “The US would be mistaken to portray the Indo-US military relationship as a counterweight to China. It will anger the Chinese and could lead to false expectations from the Indian side...”
