The surge in official references to PoK has disrupted the inertia of the past years. Pushing PoK high on India’s strategic priorities will make India’s Kashmir policy more effective.
Implementing the outlined 27 reform measures in four broad areas – Planning, Defence Budget, Acquisition and Make in India – would strengthen defence preparedness and build a credible defence industrial base.
This Brief offers an overview of India’s long established as well as more recent external defence and security priorities, and delineates the three options available to the Defence Planning Committee under the extant economic and geopolitical circumstances.
The current policy is premised on the understanding that unless India hurts the principal architect of Pakistan’s Kashmir policy, that is, the Army, terrorism would continue unabated.
The four conditions for acquiring Indian citizenship and new regulations to ease the travel abroad of Tibetan refugees could cause the dismantling of Tibetan settlements which are the nerve centres of the preservation and promotion of Tibetan civilization.
The Doklam episode should prompt India and Bhutan to rethink their hitherto overlooked issue of resituating Menser and Darchen-Labrang in their academic discourse and policy positions.
