‘RAKSHA’, India’s 10-year strategic blueprint, will certainly add tremendous value to its global view. Though the document is stated woven around the idea of what the Government has chosen to call ‘Defence Diplomacy’ as a core pillar of foreign policy, its comprehensiveness cannot be missed. Knowing fully well that India has to play an enhanced role in the global arena, thanks to its expanding footprint in most domains of internationalism, strategic planners and visualisers have included strategic partnerships, capacity building and indigenous exports as other key pillars of ‘Raksha’. In other words, India has declared to the world that it sees itself as a global power rather than just a regional player.

 

The world has already sensed this ambition, and will see its expanding reflection in the new strategic blueprint. It is clear that ‘Raksha’ does not talk only of national defence as the only driver of the thought. The idea that ‘Raksha’ puts forth as India’s vision includes a wide-spectrum security ideology in the rapidly changing world looking for a new world order. It is obvious that ‘Raksha’ is going to be a continuation of country’s previous strategic blueprints (with a reasonably long history in independent India). India started its serious engagement with strategic planning and advanced thinking after its debilitating defeat in 1962 when China invaded the country. Even at that time, military strategists had predicted certain Chinese action in the Himalayan sector. Unfortunately, the political leadership of the country ignored that early caution -- and led the country to a defeat whose scars are still painful to the nation. The subsequent strategic path of India, however, traversed in a jerky manner for some time before the process assumed an institutional format. Though the idea of strategy was initially related to defence, it subsequently expanded to the wider concept of comprehensive security.

 

The process of maturation of strategic thinking started showing tangible results after the then Chief of Indian Army General T. N. Raina introduced a massive rearrangement of strategic formations the mid-1970s. After that point in time, India’s strategic thought progressed in a very calibrated manner, giving the country a definitive edge in comprehensive national security that encompassed internal and external security, food security, energy security, environmental security -- all of which now form parts of the wider idea of geopolitical calculus. Thanks to all this sustained effort over decades, the world now looks at India with much respect because of its robust strategic strengths it has built into its systems. The strategic preparedness helped the country during the Kargil conflict, as well as during the Operation Sindoor. Today, as India expands its global diplomatic footprint, it has added a strong dimension of national security and defence to the entire thought of strategic maturity.

 

Thanks to the bold steps the national leadership took in the last 10-12 years, India has been able to communicate to the world that it is a no-nonsense power that nobody can toy with. India’s programmes such as ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, ‘Make In India’, ‘Made In India’ have made all the positive difference to the national image worldwide. ‘Raksha’, the latest version of India’s strategic thought-process, will add further value to India’s overall prowess as a strong self-respecting nation that has made possible a great combination of hard and soft power to imprint its signature on the global arena. The document released by Defence Minister Mr. Rajnath Singh is expected to provide to the country a strategic security framework for the next ten years and beyond. Though primarily ‘Raksha’ has been described as a document of Defence Diplomacy, its core idea is to prepare for the country a long-term vision on whose strength India will make its presence meaningful in the changing world of tomorrow. This document, which the world will not miss studying, will give the international community a good idea of what India wants to be in the times to come.