As I said, we are taking a longer view. That does not mean that we are not thinking of the immediate future. We have to make plans for the immediate future and also take a long-term view, but I am saying this, that certainly our thinking about defence preparedness has entered a second phase, if I may say so, that we are now trying to plan for live years.
That is so far as China is concerned, and so far as the defence of India is concerned, from whatever corner the danger may come.
This defence plan is based on what ? I am trying to meet the point that certain reorientation of strategy is necessary. What is, after, all, the strategy of a country ? I am not talking about the tactics of a particular battle on a particular front. What they should do is a matter for the Commander in charge of that particular corps or theatre to decide and implement. The general strategy of the defence of a country certainly depends upon a very realistic assessment that has to be made of the threat - that may be threat from China or some other corner too -and it is on this assessment that we to have to take decisions as to what must be our preparations so far as the Army is concerned, so far as the Air Force is concerned, so far as the Navy is concerned, so far as defence production is concerned. It is these decisions, really speaking, that constitute the general strategy of the country as a whole.
So, it is much better that we try to understand what the nature of the threat is. As far as China is concerned, besides the military threat, - if at all we are to understand the nature of the military threat, it would be necessary to understand their political and economic motivations too - it seems that China is following the very classic method of having a chain of satellites around it for its own safety. India has a big land Power as its neighbour. When they thought it was not possible for them to make a satellite of India, they tried to militarily humiliate her. But at the same time, we see that there is also another objective in their mind, and they can disrupt our whole life, our whole progress, by disrupting our economic development too. So, along with this military threat, we must also take into account their objective of economically disrupting the progress of our country. So, when we have to decide about our defence preparedness, we have, at the same time, to see that these preparations of defence do not come in the way of our economic development as well. That also then becomes part of the strategy of defence of the country.
The strategy of the defence of a country is never exclusively a military affair. It is, really speaking, some sort of military-political-economic doctrine or theory, and our entire defence preparedness and our concept of defence preparedness are based on meeting the threat, the military threat; at the same time, our strategy must be to see that our economic development is not only not disrupted, but that it goes ahead with the same speed that we have in our mind today, because a developing economy would certainly add some new points of strain, even for the direct defence preparedness.
