India cannot take on China – not until its economic might – and therefore military strength – increases. It will take a generation or more of rapid and sustained economic growth. Till then, just as we are now learning to live with the virus, we will need to live with the bully. No one in the world is going to come to help us. The US can yell and scream at China for the virus but look at its actions. See this headline from a few days ago in the Wall Street Journal:
The June 14 story goes on: “China has retaken its mantle as America’s largest trading partner, emerging as a rare bright spot for U.S. farmers and other exporters as the coronavirus pandemic constrains global commerce. Trade between the two nations rose to $39.7 billion in April, up nearly 43% from the month before, and enough to once again surpass Mexico and Canada. The jump followed the signing of a trade pact in January in which China agreed to sharply step up purchases of U.S. farm products and other goods.”
This US will come to help us? The joke’s on us.
What India needs to do is to start fighting back with a different playbook. We need to start strengthening our economy with bold measures – actions no Indian political leader has ever taken even though everyone of them had the same authoritarian streak that China’s leaders have had.
- Create War Cabinets because the neta-babu jugalbandi cannot see us through the triple guns, germs and steel crises that we face – borders hurt by China, bodies hurt by Covid, and bank balances hurt by Cashlessness.
- Launch Mission 10-20-30 to replace 10 crore Chinese workers with 10 crore Indian workers in 20 months with each job having a monthly minimum income of Rs 30,000 or more, Let’s hit them where it really hurts.
- Show immediate intent of seriousness to transform by liquidating Lutyens Delhi
Every Indian political leader has failed the people of India. While we see what China is doing to our soldiers, we don’t see what the damage that the domestic policies of our own leaders are doing to us. Let’s open our eyes and demand the change. We have had enough of the failed policies of the past. What India needs is a disruptive political entrepreneur who can transform India. (Narendra Modi promised that during the 2013-14 election campaign. That’s what got him the support from many of us – me included.)
China is the villain outside our borders. What about the real villains within our borders? Will we demand the real political and economic changes that India needs to truly take on China? Because our children will one day ask us, “Mummy, Papa, you saw all that was happening. Why didn’t you do something about it?” What will we answer them?
