A ‘Galle-ing’ experience

By Admiral Arun Prakash, former Chief of Indian Navy

"Instead of merely moaning about China’s ‘string of pearls’ and ‘maritime silk route’ strategies, India needs to craft creative, dynamic and long-term maritime alternatives.”

December 26, 2004, Sunday morning, saw the calm in Naval Headquarters (NHQ) being shattered by ominous reports of powerful seismic shocks and giant tidal surges in our Bay of Bengal islands and coastal areas. As the first Indian Navy (IN) warships and aircraft were being despatched on relief missions, appeals for assistance started coming from Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Having assigned resources to cope with the domestic emergency, NHQ considered it equally imperative to rush aid to stricken neighbours.

Galle in the year 2014

Given the languid functioning of our bureaucracy, a proposal of this nature could have taken weeks or months to be processed by the ministries of defence, external affairs and finance. To one’s utter amazement, the national security adviser (NSA) accorded instant approval on the phone, with the words, “We will sort out the paperwork on Monday”. Eighteen hours later, citizens of Galle on the southern tip of Sri Lanka awoke to see Indian warships, laden with relief material, anchored off the devastated harbour.

Fast-forward to December 1, 2014 — a decade. I arrive in this picturesque port town for the Galle Dialogue, to be told by a Sri Lankan admiral, “People in Galle remember the tsunami. If you tell shopkeepers that you are from the IN (Indian Navy), they will not let you pay.”

Initiated by the Sri Lankan ministry of defence in 2010, the annual Galle Dialogue has gained in significance and momentum with 38 nations, spanning the full alphabet from Australia to Zambia, represented at its fifth edition. India was given due prominence and the printed programme showed Dr Ajit Doval, India’s NSA, as guest of honour and keynote speaker, with the first two sessions being chaired by Indians; one of them being the vice chief of naval staff (VCNS).

The NSA’s oration on regional maritime security issues was heard with rapt attention and drew applause as he, tactfully, mentioned the early contributions of Sri Lankan statesmen towards creating an Indian Ocean zone of peace. The anti-climax came when it was discovered that the Indian VCNS (Vice Chief of Naval Staff) had not arrived on the expected flight. The hosts, too polite to pose awkward questions, quietly found a substitute to chair the session. The Galle Dialogue 2014, thus, saw participation by the commander of the Pakistan Fleet, the deputy Chief of Staff of the PLA Navy (PLAN) and a dozen other flag officers, but the IN invitee was absent; leaving many questions hanging in the air.

The whispered explanation, when it came, was on entirely predictable lines; apparently, an MoD (Ministry of Defence) functionary had turned down, at the last minute and for reasons unknown, the participation of the VCNS. One felt a sense of déjà vu because the all-powerful and non-accountable MoD bureaucracy has a known penchant for sitting on files till the 11th hour, and then whimsically approving or, more often, rejecting the proposal. It is in the latter context that a recent Indo-Sri Lankan diplomatic spat assumes significance.

During September-October 2014, Chinese submarines, accompanied by support vessels, docked in Colombo Port on two occasions. This peacetime transit and replenishment of a submarine was described, both by the Chinese and the Sri Lankan governments, as “common practice”. According to media reports, India took umbrage and told Colombo that its actions were of “serious concern to India’s national security.”

However, a look at the past would show that the episode called for quiet diplomacy rather than public display of indignation. While Sri Lanka’s victory over the LTTE owes much to many nations, including India, it was China’s military support that stood out for scale and constancy. China maintained bonded warehouses in Galle which supplied arms and ammunition to Sri Lankan forces on demand. Beijing also provided heavy weaponry and fighters; either directly or through a willing Pakistan. 

In comparison, India’s military aid to Sri Lanka was slow and sporadic. South Block remained hostage, not only to blackmail by Chennai but also to its own timidity, myopic vision and inertia. A saving grace was the camaraderie, at senior levels, of the Indian and Sri Lankan navies, which enabled them to reach out across Palk Strait in times of need. The IN tsunami-relief operation helped strengthen bonds.

Today, China’s role in transforming this island nation, through massive loans and creation of impressive infrastructure is undeniable. India, on the other hand, has been laggard in assisting Sri Lanka’s development on a significant scale.

In the face of China’s advance into the Indian Ocean, all that India has had to offer, so far, is the vapid nostrum of ‘strategic restraint’. Moreover, the dissonance between MEA, MoD and NHQ has often thwarted the navy’s endeavours to create strong bonds with maritime neighbours. A peripatetic PM Modi is, now, giving strong indications that India’s foreign policy may be acquiring a badly needed grand-strategic underpinning. 

A practitioner of realpolitik, Sri Lanka is not above playing one neighbour against the other. But given its client status vis-à-vis China, it may not have had the option of denying entry to PLAN submarines. However, Sri Lanka must not allow itself to become China’s pawn, in total disregard of neighbouring India’s strategic interests. 

The nothern-most tip of Sri Lanka in Jaffna.India is saddled just across the narrow Palk Strait.

Countries in our immediate neighbourhood, many of them island nations, seek maritime security; sometimes through direct naval presence, but more often through urgent requests for material aid, training assistance and advice. In this context, rushing supplies of water to the Maldives was a fine gesture, but setting up a de-salination plant will win us far more goodwill. 

Instead of merely moaning about China’s “string of pearls” and “maritime silk route” strategies, India needs to craft creative, dynamic and long-term maritime alternatives, like employing its Navy as the potent “instrument of state policy” that it is meant to be.
(The writer is a former Chief of Naval Staff)

Glimpses of the Pearl in the Indian Ocean

It was not love at first sight, rather Sri Lanka grew on me slowly and then the love story began. 

As the Tata Nano budget taxi wheeled out of the airport, Sri Lanka dispelled all the preconceived opinion I have had about the 'Pearl Island' - a name that the country got owing to its shape. I was expecting a developing country left in shambles due to the nearly three decades-long protracted war. What I saw was sprawling highways and amazingly clean capital city, devoid of the garbage heaps that are generally associated with Delhi. I was expecting highly conservative society peculiar to the Indian subcontinent where wearing a skirt in public can be an invitation to “unfortunate” events. But I found that even though the society was conservative, it did not impose its values on tourists, so tourists were free to wear what they wanted.

The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is a world heritage site.

Since 2009, when the last of the Liberation of Tamil Tigers Ealem’s (LTTE) bastion fell to the Sri Lankan security forces, the country has made huge progress. The monetary aid from China and India are also an important contributor to this. While China has been investing in developing ports in Colombo in the West and Hambantota in the South, India’s contribution helped in relinking the northern Jaffna by train after 24 long years. I could not see the landmark event. But had the chance to travel through the region that has been one of the major war theatres in 2009 and has seen sustained conflict for two and a half decades. This effectively means that a complete generation has been raised in an atmosphere of hatred where for a Tamil the only face to the Sinhalese community has been that of the armed forces and a Sinhalese identified only LTTE rebels with being Tamil.

The sun rise at Arugam Bay on the South East Coast of the Island nation

 Ideally after spending one a half months on the island, one would want to write about the mesmerizing sunrises and sunsets that all the coastal regions of the country offer or about the white sand beaches overlooking the Indian Ocean. But I think that no Sri Lankan story can even begin before talking about where the country stands vis-à-vis the bloody conflict that once crippled the normal life here. During my stay, I had the chance of interacting with people from all hues – different religions, races and linguistic communities. On the surface things seems to be limping back to normalcy in the last five years, but scratch the surface a bit and one can see the root causes of the conflict still intact. This raises question about how sustainable is the peace especially in the light of the rising religious nationalism in the majority Sinhalese community.

Jaffna-Mullaitivu

Do not let the development and glitter of Colombo deceive you. The North and north-eastern parts of Sri Lanka are still miles away from getting the fruits of development and human security. Freedom – both civil and political – remains an alien word. The political power remains centralized. The long pending demand of the Central government handing over the control of the police to the local government has been hanging fire and is far from being met. And to add to all this, the armed forces still have a strong control over these regions including those who are travelling to these places. When I was visited Jaffna, foreigners visiting North were required to register at Oamanthai Checkpoint. However, in October an indefinite ban on visits of foreign passport holder to the North was imposed owing to the threat that some of them pose to the “national security”.

The Jaffna Railway Station days before Yarl Devi chugged into Jaffna after 24 years.

The Sri Lankan government talks about the reconciliation among the community, but there seems to be a dichotomy between its actions and words. While visiting these regions, I came across stories where, the army has allegedly done things like building its unit infrastructure over Tamil graveyards. While the government’s refusal to launch a probe into the alleged Human Rights violation can be understood as the predicament of a government trying to stand behind its armed forces, the refusal to acknowledge the grievances of Tamils is unfathomable. Sinhalese continues to be the preferred language for imparting education. 

Jaffna Public Library was burnt down in 1981 as part of the structured marginalisation of the ethnic Tamils. At the time of destruction the library was one of the biggest in the Asia with 97,000 books and manuscripts. It was the pride of the rich intellectual history of Tamils and Biblioclasm was used as weapon to destroy that pride. It was rebuilt in 2002 by the Sri Lankan government.

In other words, Sri Lanka is a police state, and any move to criticize the government or make it accountable is dealt with heavy hands. I met one such journalist/activist who has been trying to evade arrest because of his vocal criticism of Mahinda Rajapaksa government. Foreigners working on these issues also need to be very discreet or you face deportation or entry into the infamous blacklist that would debar one from entering the country.

Rising Religious Nationalism

In India I was used to having seats reserved for women, senior citizens or pregnant mothers in the public transport. In Sri Lanka I was a bit surprised to see seats reserved for “Clergy”. After the initial shock, it was the turn of shattering of many other notions.

There has been a clamour from the right wing Buddhists to change the national flag to reflect only the Sinhalese Buddhist community, as Sri Lanka is their homeland. Presently, the flag consists of a golden Lion wielding a sword depicting the Sinhalese nationality, the four Bo leaves depict the communities of Metta, Karuna, Mudita and Upekkha. The orange stripe is representative of the Tamils and the green of Sri Lankan Moors.

For me Buddhism has always been synonymous with “non-violence”. However, in Sri Lankan the aggressive movement to make Sinhalese Buddhist as the national identity is presently underway creating schism in the already fragmented society along religious lines. The Sinhalese Buddhists, who form three quarter of the Sri Lankan population, have been claiming itself to be ‘minority in the world’, thus requiring the government’s protection. 

This the Buddhist temple in Nagadeepa. President Mahinda Rajapaksa's huge hoardings are ubiquitous in the whole Island. In this photograph his hoarding is seen next to the Buddha statue.

 A small issue like introduction of certification for Halal food in the market last year brought a furore in the national politics. Bodu Bal Sena (Buddhist Power Army), a hardline organization, has used it to create a fear psychosis in the country. The religious atmosphere in the country has been so vitiated that it has resulted into anti-Muslim violence in June this year. Many educated Sinhalese Buddhists reiterate the BBS claim the minority Muslim community is growing both exponentially and has been eating into the jobs and services that rightfully belong to the majority community.  

China's Brothers in Arms

The stellar entry of Chinese Defence firms in the global arms market has been creating ripples among the Czars of the arms bazaar. But the slow reacting Indian defence establishment has not taken the note that China besides investing in Ports around India, has now moved to directly arming its neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the teeth.

According to the latest report of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China’s defence companies produced and sold 40 per cent of the world’s arms, ammunition and weaponry in 2012. The total global sales of arms and military services across the world valued 395 billion dollars sans the figure of 268 billion dollars for the Chinese firms. This makes Chinese share to be at a staggering 40.2 per cent of the total global arms production and sales.

File Photo

The increasing value addition and sophistication of the Chinese defence industry came to the world’s attention in 2013 as Turkey – a NATO member - opted for a Long Range Missile Defence System made by a little known China Precision Machinery Export-Import Corporation to supply the long-range missile defence system. While making the selection, Turkey rejected the product of established American firms even though it would have been compatible to existent defence systems. The military-industrial establishment was shocked as the country is facing US sanctions for ‘selling technologies to help Iran, Syria and North Korea to develop unconventional weapons’.

The China’s rise as an armament giant is threatening to tip the balance in the South Asian region fast. The countries in India’s neighbourhood have played a key role Beijing’s rise as a major arm supplier – a reality which the Indian defence establishment has been trying to resolve with its classic Ostrich approach. Exports make the niche indigenous defence market economically viable for a country, especially one seeking a transformation to a major power and seeking self-reliance in the area. This has been a major problem for the Indian private sector seeking to proliferate in the defence sector but refrains from doing so as the limited market does not commensurate with the high costs involved in the Research and Development of Defence Technology. Pakistan is Beijing’s leading customer with 55 per cent of its arms imports supplied by China. From 250 JF-17 fighter jets to four Jiangwei-class frigates Pakistan is boosting its conventional capability armed with Chinese conventional weaponry. Other key Chinese weapons exports to Pakistan include the K-8 lightweight trainer/attack jets since 2000. China has supplied over a 100 of the export version of the PLA Air Force’s F-7E, called the F-7MG fighter jet an upgraded adaptation of the MiG-21. China has been selling surface-to-surface DF-11 missiles to Pakistan.

According to SIPRI, Bangladesh has got seven per cent of China’s arms sale, this translates that 80 per cent of Bangladesh’s military hardware is ‘Made in China’. Dhaka has purchased 44 Chinese Main Battle Tanks MBT 2000s in 2011 – a first time purchase for the country for brand new battle tanks. Bangladesh has also been lobbying for JF-17s and J-10 fighter jets that China has supplied to Pakistan.

Myanmar has purchased its weapons ‘evenly and exclusively’ from Russia and China. The Myanmar armed forces are now equipped with MiG-29s fighter jets, ground attack helicopters, battle tanks and artillery guns.

China’s inroads into the defence market in India’s backyard have been based on the strategy of beating its competitors by cutting down price. The established US companies like Lockheed Martin and others were edged out as the Chinese firm quoted a price of three billion dollar. It is a big achievement for the Chinese defence industry once notorious for its ‘reverse engineering’ of the Russian military hardware including fighter jets.

Till now Indian South Block corridors only reverberated with the concerns over the Chinese investment in various ports strategically located around India in the Indian Ocean Region – Gwadar in Pakistan, Hambantota and Colombo Port in Sri Lanka, one port in Bangladesh and another one in Myanmar - under the famously termed ‘Strings of Pearls’.

India and China jostling for the same space and resources in the international arena have been trying to edge each other out. The Indian strategic posture against China has been based on choking Chinese energy supplies by denying it the use of the Sea Lines of Communication passing through the Indian Ocean Region. To avoid this, China has been seeking alternative access to sea provided by Pakistan’s Gwadar port and then linking it to mainland China through the

all-weather Karakoram Highway.

The growth of Chinese defence industry is also fuelled by India’s stagnant arm production and the refusal of the South Block mandarins to take the fast-changing geo-strategic equations into consideration.

Even as India kick-started its biennial 8th Land, Naval and Internal, Homeland Security Systems Exhibition, the Indian defence production industry has not significant achievement to showcase. Its faltering attempts to stitch together a potent Defence Production Policy to give impetus to the indigenous defence industry have not bear fruits yet. But for a successful missile programme, the other Indian defence production have experience modest success. The long-awaited ambitious project of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) has been in limbo for over 25 years now and would take another couple of years – conservatively speaking – before entering service.

The Indian defence establishment seems to be satisfied with few HAL-manufactured Dornier units being exported or its shipyards supplying Offshore Patrolling Vessel (OPVs) to Indian Ocean Littoral countries.

The Indian footprint in the international market is not even close to China and the defence establishment is still to evolve a standard procedure to allow defence export. So far the Indian policy is to supply equipment to ‘friendly’ countries but there is no clarity on which are those countries. The government is also working on simplifying the NoC (No Objection Certificate) granting procedure.

With Indian Economy slowing down, the Indian Defence Ministry has been expressed inability to have funds for purchasing the long over-due 126 Medium Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF) facing shortage of fighting squadrons. In such a scenario it is highly unlikely that the Indian defence production will scale some feats in the coming years.

But for the shipbuilding – owing to the farsightedness of the Indian Navy, the home-grown defence industry has not made any significant headway in terms of indigenous technology development.

(The article was published in The Millenium Post)

Sri Lankan officers' training in India will continue: MoD

The Defence Ministry on Monday struck down the objection of the Tamil Nadu government against training of the Sri Lankan defence personnel at Defence Staff Services College in Wellington.

The decision of the Ministry has come close on the heels of the shifting of Sri Lankan air force personnel from Tambaram to Bangalore in Karnataka following objections by the J Jayalalitha government in Tamil Nadu.

Assuring that the objections of the Tamil Nadu government’s objection has been considered, Minister of State of Defence MM Pallam Raju said: "Sri Lanka is a friendly foreign country and the training will go on. Sometimes there are objections raised by local governments which we have to take into consideration," Raju told reporters in the capital.

Recently Jayalalitha wrote a letter to the Prime Minister against allowing two Sri Lankan officers Major Dissanayaka Mohottalalage Vengra and Captain Hewawasam Kadaudage to undertake 11 months training at Wellington. Calling it “reprehensible attitude” of the Centre, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had sought immediate halting of the Sri Lankan officers’ training.

In her letter, Jayalalitha also accused the centre of “excessive enthusiasm” in relocating nine Sri Lankan air force personnel to Bangalore from the air force station at Tambaram in Tamil Nadu, after earlier protests from the state government. She said that the centre should have sent back those personnel back to Sri Lanka.