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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

‘Without growth... we will be constrained in our ability to defend national security’ -P Chidambaram
-The Indian Express

Until recently, we took a compartmentalised view of national security. Each threat to national security was neatly fitted into one compartment. The first, of course, was a war with Pakistan. That was fitted into a compartment and was meant to be deterred, or defended, through the might of our armed forces. A war with China was, and remains, unthinkable, and therefore that threat was fitted into another compartment and reserved to be dealt with through a mixture of engagement, diplomacy, trade and positioning of adequate forces along the borders. Beyond Pakistan and China, we did not perceive any external threat to our security. Other threats, such as communal conflicts, terrorism, Naxalism or Maoist violence, drug peddling and fake Indian currency notes were bundled together under the label, “threats to internal security” and were left to the ministry of home affairs. Some threats were not acknowledged as threats to national security and these included energy security, food security and pandemics...

A close examination of the threats to national security will reveal that each one of them is connected to one or more other threats. For example, the threat of terrorism is connected to the threat of proliferation of arms, including weapons of mass destruction. The threat to the security of our sea-lanes is connected to the threat to energy security. Low intensity conflicts have a direct bearing on social cohesion. Technology security will be the key to building new institutions. Natural disasters, especially those caused by climate change, can wreck food security. Pandemics and diseases, if uncontrolled, can diminish our capacity to defend the borders against our adversaries, or to defeat militants within the country. National security is, therefore, caught in a complex spider’s web and unless we recognise that each strand of this web is connected to other strands, we would not be able to do justice to our fundamental obligation to protect and defend the security of the nation.

Defending and promoting national security stands on three important pillars: first, human resources; second, science and technology; and third, money. I have placed money last, not because it is the least important, but because it is the most important pillar of national security. Without money, we cannot nurture and build our human resources. We need schools, colleges, universities, libraries, laboratories, skills development institutions and, above all, highly qualified teachers...

Let me turn to science and technology. Every country that has moved up to the level of middle income country or a developed country has intensively promoted and heavily relied upon science and technology... None of the threats to national security can be effectively countered unless we embrace science and technology and impart instruction in science and technology, beginning at the school level...

The last of the three pillars is money. It is also the pillar that will support the first two pillars. Money comes out of growth... In our own times, we have seen the difference between the period when the Indian economy was on a high growth path and the period when there has been a noticeable slowdown. In the former phase (2004-08), we were able to provide for virtually everything that we desired, but also for exceptional items of expenditure such as the agricultural loan waiver scheme... When there is a slowdown, the consequence is the exact opposite... The medium-term response will be to contain expenditure, but that has its own consequences. A cut-back on public expenditure will further slow down the economy. It will also curtail the number of jobs that are created. A cut-back on social welfare will hurt the poor: less money for education or health care will deny, to many more people, access to basic education or basic health facilities. And, finally, a cut-back on expenditure on defence or on the police forces will severely compromise our defence and security preparedness and diminish our capacity to meet the challenges to national security.

It is a self-evident truth that growth is the key for greater public welfare and greater security. Yet, we adopt a disdainful attitude to growth... it is only sustained growth that gives as a chance to tune the growth model in favour of inclusive development. Without growth, there will be neither development nor inclusiveness... If we do not have sustained high growth over a long period of time, we will be, forever, an undernourished, undereducated, underprovided and underperforming nation... We will also be constrained in our ability to defend national security against both external and internal threats.

Today, we have a choice. We have a choice between becoming the third-largest economy of the world and a middle income country, or becoming one of the largest economies of the world that muddles along with the bulk of its people trapped in a life of low income, poor quality, high morbidity and great inequality. Needless to say, the two models of India will have very different consequences for national security. The first model will make India a secure nation, capable of defending itself, and a force of peace in the neighbourhood and elsewhere. The second model will leave the country exposed to every kind of threat to which will be added internal conflicts, and India will be viewed as a strife-torn country that is a threat to the peace and progress of the world and, in particular, Asia... Will India embrace the twin goals of prosperity and security?

P Chidambaram is Union finance minister