Unfortunately, for India, the West alone is not alarmed by rising India. Xi Jinping’s China too seems to be deeply anxious about how India is making great strides. And this explains why the PLA troops have been stationed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh for the past two years, testing India’s perseverance and self-belief. For, the Dragon believes India is on the cusp of change. It can be made to submit now — or never. As the saying goes, when China talks of peace, one must prepare for war. So, when China is talking of war today, one won’t be surprised if it actually moves in with peace overtures in the near future. For, communist China with Confucian characteristics has always had an overdose of pragmatism, howsoever ideological it might appear on the exterior. But for that India has to keep the gunpowder dry.
Maybe America’s deep state, having dealt closely with communist China for 50 years, knows it too well. It, thus, can’t let things go easy for India. For, if India weathers this storm and moves towards attaining its $10 trillion dream, maybe India would become too big for China to swallow and the Dragon could stop behaving like a rival. India, in that case, might not need America for its survival. That would be the end of Pax Americana, and global power would shift decisively to the East and the South — to Asia.
This may well explain why India should stop expecting the West by its side anytime soon. . Today, when India is ready to embrace the West, the Americans seem to be wary by the sheer weight of India’s rise. Now that’s unfortunate. But then this makes the Indo-American saga interesting. No?
