India and USA have formed a New Axis in South Asia. Unannounced. Camouflaged by innocent sounding “agreements”.
For some, India has been too docile and viewed as a soft state by practically every neighbouring country. True because India has been led by spineless politicians, overwhelmingly from the Nehru-Gandhi Family or their puppets. In this is included the popular but pacifist Atal Behari Vajpayee, belonging to a party that opposed the Congress.
The thin line between pacifist and spineless has for long been obliterated by the 67 years of “democracy” crafted by Nehru and his successors. Aided and abetted by an armed force that grew fat and flabby enjoying the largely peacetime period. The short, small wars did nothing to tighten the Army’s belt. Till more recent times, the Navy and the Airforce were mere poor assistants to the Army.
Come Narendra Modi and a rather belligerent BJP headed by hardliners. What did Modi turn his attention to first, even thought there were enough fires burning inside India? Foreign Affairs. He killed two birds with one stone by focussing on Foreign Affairs during the first two years. His arch rival Sushma Swaraj was made Foreign Minister, plating third fiddle after the NSA in directing Foreign affairs. He also crafted a new and more vibrant relationship with the West (aka white world).
This arrangement suited both sides. The West wanted growth markets. India wanted technology and arms, apart from nuclear energy to satisfy it hunger for growth. Without any doubt, the diminished Russia (from USSR) became another “strong” relationship instead of the pole in the Security Council it once was for India.
The fruits of the formation of this axis is now beginning to be seen in India. “Real” joint military exercises in the seas around their real target: China. Stopping of sale of fighter jets to Pakistan by economic squeeze via stoppage of crucial aid by USA.
Nuclear energy projects rolling out.
Sharing of intel, especially on terrorism.
The Nepal Blockage is strategic. For too long Nepal has taken for the benevolent open borders India has had, leading to large-scale employment for the nepalese. Nepal can’t do without India. Period. China can offer money, but not the large-scale employment that Nepalese need. The easiest and cheapest route to the sea is via India. The Modi GOI is betting that Nepal will eventually discard the Chinese connection, especially since China has known territorial ambitions. Pakistan is already a defacto Chinese colony. Nepal would become one too, like Tibet did.
The real target of the Nepalese blockade is China. Nepal is the sacrificial pawn. That will eventually return to the fold. That’s Modi’s bet, cooked up in Washington perhaps!
The Sri Lankans have started resisting the pressure from Pakistan & China to buy their faulty fighter jets. The turn around has started, back towards aligning with India once again. New projects awarded to Indian firms.
After years of docile protests, the Indian Government finally came out with a draconian law that requires any and all maps published in India to be pre-approved on pain of a huge Rs. 100 Crore fine. Google changed it’s map pronto. The “disputed” dotted line all over North India vanished to show maps as the GOI wants it. It’ll be naive to assume that “The New South Asian Axis” had nothing to do with this well-directed “Map Law”…!!!
Indians first mistook the Map Law to be a ground breaking return to the Licence Quota Raj that had been painfully dismantled over 24 years. It took Google’s move to change the map that let the cat out of the bag. It’s early days yet, but this could still be a backdoor entry into the Digital Licence Quota Raj.
In time, more such subtle, cunning moves will roll out, making this hypothesis of “The New Axis” a more commonly recognised geo-political strategy that Modi has quietly unleashed with the USA.