Iran-Israel imbroglio in Indraprastha

With Iran being blamed for the simultaneous magnetic bomb attacks on Israel embassy personnel across different parts of the globe, India finds itself in a particularly difficult diplomatic fix where it has to make some hard choices.
India imports 12 per cent of its crude from Iran and has continued to do so despite immense pressure from the EU and US to stop it and choke Iran’s finances, which they say, is funding its covert nuclear weapon programme.
Iran has been a friend of India and has honoured its commitments on supply of oil and bilateral trade despite India voting against it in International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meetings, siding with the US and its allies.
However, with more evidence emerging about the similarity in the modus operandi of the attackers in using ditto style that was used to assassinate key Iranian nuclear scientists and the coincidence with the anniversary of killing of Hezbollah leaders, India would find it difficult to believe the Persian republic’s story.
Since the end of the cold war, India has been slowly but steadily strengthening its ties with Israel. Counter-terrorism and defence are areas of shared interest for both countries, bordered by hostile neighbours and constant targets of terrorist attacks.
Co-operation in these fields has grown multi-fold in the last two decades. Today India is the largest customer of Israeli military hardware and sources a substantial chunk of its high-end weapon platforms from the Jewish state.
Israel has also emerged as India’s second largest military supplier after the Russian federation. Israel has gone out of its way to persuade the US to allow it to sell sophisticated weapons systems it developed with American collaboration.
The attack on Israeli diplomatic personnel on Indian soil has been a first and comes close to the two countries celebrating establishment of diplomatic ties in January 1992. The ease with which the attack was carried out in broad daylight very close to the prime minister’s official residence has also exposed an embarrassing hole in the radar of the dozen-odd security agencies tasked with keeping the Capital secure.
Tensions are high in West Asia. Israel is preparing for a unilateral pre-emptive air/missile strike on Iran, with or without the US support. A cornered Iran, feeling the economic crunch of harsher EU-US sanctions, is threatening to cut off oil supplies to Europe and close the Straits of Hormuz — a vital route for international oil trade.
The US has responded by sending its carrier group to international waters close to Iran and has vowed to defeat any attempt to block oil routes. Iran responded by testing additional land-to-sea and sea-to-sea missiles and unveiling two indigenously built submarines.
The current dicey situation is also a wake-up call for Indian planners and the need to diversify from the country’s over dependence on import of oil and military hardware.
Another key area that needs addressing is intelligence gathering. Despite all the gung ho about overhaul of security apparatus after 26/11, several terrorist attacks have taken place in the country — the Delhi incident being the latest feather in the cap of intelligence failures. A conflict is looming and the ripples of the tensions have reached Indian shores.
It is time for India to man up and tell its squabbling West Asian friends to stop dirtying its backyard.

(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on February 15, 2012)

French connection to serve multiple goals

Finalisation of French fighter jet Rafale as the choice for Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) will give the Indian Air Force the much needed boost and plug the gap that will be left by the fast approaching retirement of Soviet-era MiG-21s.
The four-year tender process that began in August 2007 had six contenders — two from the US, one each from France, Russia, Sweden and a UK-Europe consortium. In April 2011, Dassault Rafale of France and Eurofighter Typhoon were shortlisted as the finalists and almost a year later the Frenchman walked away with the contract.
The $10-billion deal for 126 jets, which defence analysts point out may go up to $15 billion with ancillary contracts, will also take bilateral ties between India and France a few notches up. The deal came through at a time when the French industry is battling the fallout of the Eurozone crisis.
This is the second major Indo-French defence deal in the last six months after the $1.4-billion upgrade contract for IAF’s Mirage-2000 fleet. The contract will also boost India’s defence industry and science sectors with the mandatory clause that 50 per cent of the deal amount be invested in domestic partnerships.
The biggest beneficiary will be the PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which will manufacture 108 of the jets under a transfer-of-technology agreement; the rest will be supplied by Dassault in fly-away condition before 2015. The HAL team can also use the expertise thus gained from the process to enhance the quality of the indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft and to develop technologies for future projects.
The MMRCA deal was on the verge of being scrapped a year back when offset proposals of contenders went missing from the IAF headquarters and later resurfaced on a South Delhi roadside. The defence ministry decided to go ahead with the shortlisting process after an internal probe concluded that the documents were part of an appendix and their disclosure would not put any of the contenders at advantage or disadvantage.
More than a defence purchase agreement, the MMRCA deal marks strategic shift in the defence policy. By refusing to heed the US pitch that bilateral ties will be hyphenated with business, India has sent out a clear message to the rest of the world that it doesn’t need a superpower to prop it up and that it will take unpopular decisions to protect its national interests.
By choosing the French fighter, India has told Uncle Sam that the American policy of sanctions and supply disruptions based on its whims and fancies — like it did after the 1998 nuclear tests — will put it at a disadvantage with the French and the Russians, who honour agreements regardless of calm or storm.
India’s decision to diversify its shopping destinations will also ensure that it will no longer be dependent on a single vender or power block for crucial defence supplies. It is also a message to Russia that it can no longer take India’s evergreen friendship for granted, nor allow disruptions in supply chain or maintenance contracts with other international suppliers vying for the massive Indian market.
The transparent and focused MMRCA deal has shown that with the right approach multiple targets can be achieved. With more potent additions to its arsenal, India has asserted that it is not going to bury its head in the sand in a troubled neighbourhood.

(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on February 1, 2012)