Preparing the economy for war

India must accept a more conflict-oriented world and prepare its economy for war

- R JAGANNATHAN

One of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statements that didn’t age well is the one he made in Samarkand on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in September 2022. “I know that today’s era is not of war...” he said in his meeting with Vladimir Putin.

This was seven months after the Ukraine war had begun, and the world was criticising India for not taking a stand against Russian aggression. Today, not only has that war still not ended, but another major conflagration has reignited in West Asia, this time with America partnering Israel. Iran is retaliating not only against them but against neighbouring Islamic states as well. Last year, we too had a near war for four days with Pakistan after the Pahalgam terrorist attacks, and Pakistan, meanwhile, has launched its own war against Afghanistan. And we have not even listed the wars going on in Africa.

Ideally, this should not be an era of war, given the common challenges humanity faces from multiple threats — from climate change to technological disruption — but this is clearly not an era for peace. For India, the current lull should be used to prepare ourselves for war so that we can prevent it from happening. The world over, rearmament is the name of the game. Europe is rearming, so is Japan. China and the United States never stopped their military arms race, and the Pakistan-China-Turkiye-Azerbaijan collaboration during Operation Sindoor tells us that our neighbourhood is just one miscalculation away from a wider subcontinental war where India may be fighting multiple forces, some seen, some unseen. Our eastern borders with Bangladesh, too, may not be as safe as they were under Sheikh Hasina, especially now that Jamaat-e-Islami is the main opposition party and has won most of its parliamentary seats in areas bordering India.