Early this year, as the INS Chakra, a nuclear-powered submarine that India got on lease from the Soviet Union, was cruising toward the Strait of Malacca en route to its new home port at Vishakhapatnam, it was shadowed by an Australian P-3C Orion reconnaissance aircraft. Although dignitaries in New Delhi had given assurances that the Chakra could fire only conventional torpedoes, photographs taken by the Orion and U.S. satellites indicated that it was fitted to carry Soviet nuclear missiles, thus potentially posing a major threat to shipping.
It is not unusual for a country of 800 million people to acquire a nuclear-propelled naval vessel. What is unusual by Western standards is that India, a democracy, has deemed it fit not to tell the truth.
In a communist country, defense spending is considered classified information. In contrast, citizens in democratic countries enjoy unhampered access to the budgetary process. That access, however, exists in the name only in India, where details of defense spending are very difficult to come by. The increase in military expenditures in 1987-88 is a case in point. Official press releases put the hike at 22.7 percent. A careful analysis of government documents, however, shows a whopping 43 percent increase. Defense spending has snowballed in the past six years, now accounting for at least 20 percent of the total Indian budget.
'Zone Of Peace'
These discrepancies cast serious doubts on Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's much-touted pledge to turn the Indian Ocean into a genuine "zone of peace." That immense ocean accommodates an important network of oil routes from the Persian Gulf, as well as shipping lanes from Europe to the Far East and South Pacific, either via the Suez Canal or via the Cape of Good Hope. Its littoral states include India, Khomeini's Iran, Marxist South Yemen, Marxist Mozambique, mineral-rich South Africa, and Australia.
A "zone of peace" with Soviet-made cruise missiles? But the Chakra is just an appetizer. Six more nuclear attack submarines are already in the Soviet assistance pipeline. India's growing navy, including two aircraft carriers, has already raised regional apprehensions, yet two more carriers are being built. Its 1.1 million-man army--the fourth largest standing army in the world--could bring the entire subcontinent to its knees in short order with its present 2,900 battle tanks and 700 aircraft, but more sophisticated tanks and more sophisticated aircraft are being added. More ominous is the purchase of Soviet long-range naval bombers that can easily reach Australia and South Africa.
A "zone of peace” would be comforting news, except that the terms of that peace are to be dictated by New Delhi. Let's examine the recent "peace-keeping" agreement between India and Sri Lanka, a small island republic of 16.5 million inhabitants crippled by a Tamil separatist guerrilla insurgency whose rear base is in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where another 50 million Tamils live, The agreement allowed India to send in troops to subdue the four-year-old bloody rebellion. But Big Brother protection does not come cheap. The agreement gives India the right to shape Sri Lanka's defense and foreign policy postures to its liking. The Indians believe it is fine for them to receive Soviet military advisers and open their ports to Soviet ships--Vishakhapatnam in the
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