India & Pakistan: Exploited by ‘Merchants of (Arms) Death’?
January 25th, 2008
By SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist
Print
Public in India and Pakistan wants peace. Yes, it does after having lived through a turbulent past. But the peace process is always thwarted because the leaders in the two countries, alongwith the leaders in the Western world, seem to have developed a vested interest in fanning insecurities among the large populace, and thus encouraging arms’ race in the Indian subcontinent. Never mind that in the past few years there has been a sea change in threat perspective.
Today Indian government entered into the biggest defence deal with the USA, while the French President has reached India promoting better ‘defence ties’. More here…
Every leader from the powerful countries that comes visiting India and Pakistan (or for that matter any developing country, including the Middle East) has a bagful of arms, nuclear deals, aircraft and naval vessels to sell…Did someone say ‘merchants of death and destruction’…Arms manufacturing and sales, it is said, is big business and the deals provide the biggest kickbacks to the high and mighty…so who would among them object if the going is good!!!
Billions of dollars/rupees that go down the drain building up the huge arsenals could well be utilised for feeding, educating and keeping the teeming masses healthy in these extremely poor countries (where two square meals is a luxury). My earlier post clearly gives instances of how leaders dupe the public for their own good. Thus ordinary simple folks, living in extreme poverty in Pakistan & India, become a plaything in the hands of their leaders or religious radicals…with little to choose between the devil and the deep sea.
Military spending, says an expert, devours about two-fifths of Pakistan’s budget. It claims a seventh of India’s budget — the highest head after interest payments. This is three times higher than what India invests in primary education in government and private schools, and 275 percent higher than her public expenditure on health. These were 2005 estimates.
For an important site that keeps track of militarization of India and Pakistan please click here… Cernig wrote an informative piece on arms bazaar in his blog…please click here.
In the early 1990s I wrote about this in The Tribune in India. The article was printed in full in Pakistan’s The Nation (mind you the President at that time was General Zia-ul-Haq). I wrote 17 years ago under the heading ‘A War India and Pakistan Must Win’ saying Indian and Pakistani leaders had been taking their people for a ride by creating insecurities in their minds about the imminent attacks across the border (Americans would now be in a better position to understand how they have been taken for a ride by their leaders and making them paranoid about the Osamas and Saddams).
Says a wellknown Indian expert, Praful Bidwai: “Peace activists have long warned that any process of India-Pakistan reconciliation, however buoyant, would remain incomplete, fragile and vulnerable, unless the two states address their military and nuclear rivalry upfront. India and Pakistan, they argue, must reduce their defence spending significantly, e.g. by 10 percent a year, and take their foot off the nuclear accelerator to sustain and deepen the present, welcome, and yet reversible, thaw.”
He wrote (two years ago) it simply won’t do to argue that “defence is important”, or “adequate military spending is imperative”. Equally important is adequate investment in the health and education of people. Submarines and fighter aircraft are necessary in moderate and balanced numbers. But is culture not important? Is investment in agriculture not necessary? Isn’t the Employment Guarantee Act (EGA) absolutely essential? More here…
(Cartoon above: Courtesy this site…)
This entry was posted on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 6:21 am and is filed under Terrorism, 9/11, Pakistan, USA, Arms, Radical Islam, India, Asia, War, Middle East, Afghanistan, War On Terror, Africa, Europe. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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