CPEC Is a Sea Change and Work to Achieve Peace As If There’S No Terror YITZHAK RABIN It Transforms the Matrix of Opportunities and Threats in India’S Neighbourhood
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https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS THE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABAD 14 AN EPIPHANY OF IDEAS THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2017 A thought for today We must fight terrorism as if there’s no peace process CPEC Is A Sea Change and work to achieve peace as if there’s no terror YITZHAK RABIN It transforms the matrix of opportunities and threats in India’s neighbourhood [email protected] Thus, while there will be a panoply of tax and duty concessions for Chinese Raising Costs President Donald enterprises – not available to Pakistani Trump’s “America first” businessmen, let alone investors from policies have led to other countries – the bulk of the aid will Assaults on Pakistan army posts must be America contemplating consist either of expensive loans or equity complemented by other anti-terror strategies (mostly) its own navel, transfers. Pakistan was made to refuse a while the domestic loan offer from the multilateral Asian fter the beheading of two Indian soldiers on May 1, India has politics of Great Britain – that former Development Bank for its $8 billion sought to “proactively dominate” the LoC with “punitive fire empire builder – seems to be about how to Peshawar-Karachi railway line, whose assaults” against Pakistan army posts. Such assaults them- make itself irrelevant in the world. Into funds must be drawn from a Chinese A that breach has stepped President Xi bank instead. Thousands of acres of land selves have precedence, but what is novel is the Indian army publicising Jinping with visions of making China are to be leased to Chinese entities. Visa- them and releasing a video. As summer is melting snows in Jammu great, and to that end he has been promot- free access to Pakistan is planned for & Kashmir and Pakistani efforts at armed infiltration are expected ing his signature ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ Chinese nationals, with no reciprocity. to rise these assaults, and the publicity given to them, are meant to (BRI) with missionary zeal. There is no clarity whatsoever on the demonstrate India’s will to check such infiltration. Xi declared the China Pakistan funding and repayment terms of CPEC They signal both that there will be retaliation for barbaric acts Economic Corridor (CPEC) to be BRI’s projects. One report cites a planning flagship, thereby hotting up Kiplingian ministry official to the effect that Pak- like the May 1 beheadings and that India too can use surprise as a ‘great games’ in India’s neighbourhood. istan has bound itself to awarding all tactical weapon these days, as seen with the surgical strikes carried Some enthusiastic commentators have CPEC projects to Chinese contractors at out by Indian special forces last year. There is a strategic logic to compared BRI to America’s Marshall whatever price the latter quote. Instead of raising the cost to Pakistan for fuelling anti-India terror. However, Plan to resuscitate postwar Europe. This being excited about CPEC, Pakistani busi- eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation alone is wildly optimistic. nessmen are apprehensive of its fallout. cannot work, in isolation from other When the Marshall Plan was launch- In short, if CPEC is BRI’s flagship, ed the US bestrode the world economy rowe then BRI could be a way of exporting the strategies to bring down levels of violence like a colossus – accounting for close to debt problem that burdens the Chinese and restore peace. 30% of global economic output – while Chad C economy and rapidly acquire assets In that context, the army’s decision to Europe and Japan lay in ruins. Moreover abroad. The Hambantota story is well honour a major who tied a civilian America was facing off with the Soviet under unprecedented pressure. According known: when the current Sri Lankan Union; the Cold War was just beginning. to Ruchir Sharma, Morgan Stanley’s chief government came to power it found itself to his jeep’s bonnet, as a human shield to If CPEC is BRI’s flagship, prevent mobs from attacking Election These factors made the Americans global strategist, China has kept its saddled with $8 billion in Chinese debt, remarkably generous. Most Marshall growth going after the 2008 financial crash then BRI could be a way of thanks to deals negotiated by the previous Commission staff, is a mistake. Even if Plan aid was in the form of grants instead mainly through stimulus measures, by Rajapaksa government. To help pay this it’s the case that the move was necessary of loans; Europeans themselves were pumping debt into wasteful projects. exporting the debt problem debt Sri Lanka now wants to sell off the to save lives, as the army contends, the asked to create their own plans to rebu- China’s public and private debts have that burdens the Chinese strategically located Hambantota port to optics is terrible. While the government ild their countries; technical assistance grown from a manageable 150% of GDP economy and rapidly a Chinese company, but is being held back was provided to European manufacturers. during the boom years to an unsustain- by vociferous political protests. is justified in taking action against stone pelters and violent mobs acquire assets abroad better means of crowd control which minimise collateral damage, Moreover the Americans extended able 260% now, which according to How should India play BRI? Its general Marshall Plan-like aid to Asian countries Sharma’s calculations will most likely attitude of wariness is the right one, but as well as better ways of winning hearts and minds in the Valley, such as Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, whipsaw its economy into a deep The Nawaz Sharif government has not that should be married to an awareness of need to be devised. and opened their market to them without slowdown or even a recession. The next yet released details of the CPEC master the compulsions and weaknesses driving More broadly army actions have to be complemented with strong reciprocal benefits. Soon, they would global financial recession, in fact, could plan which it agreed to in December 2015, Chinese policy, which Beijing will mask international diplomacy. One development Indian diplomats must flower into ‘miracle’ economies with be triggered by China. going so far as to characterise a recent by projecting its sense of manifest destiny promote to the fullest is President Donald Trump’s desire to convert explosive growth rates. The details of most BRI deals, nego- report detailing the plan in Pakistan’s and grandiose rhetoric around BRI. American military grants to Pakistan into a loan, even as Daniel Coats, Dating from 1948 the Marshall Plan, tiated between secretive governments, Dawn newspaper as an appalling ‘leak’ Such an awareness may even enable in fact, launched America as an outward are murky. They often have the flavour of (on par with Dawn’s earlier leak about New Delhi to leverage those compulsions the director of National Intelligence, has testified to ‘persistent’ looking, global power (some might argue the Mughal emperor bestowing a firman Islamabad pleading with Rawalpindi to and get Beijing to pay more attention to threat to the US and the West from Pakistan-based terror groups. that era ended in 2016 when America on the East India Company. The sub- curb its proxy warriors, a leak which its concerns. But for that it must be While seeking to weaken Washington’s support for the Pakistan elected Trump and looked to return to continent has seen this movie before and incensed the military and caused senior prepared to negotiate hard and keep its army, New Delhi must also pursue back channel talks with the same. pre-World War II isolationatism). So, did is understandably leery, including in government heads to roll). The shroud of own strengths in mind – unlike the Especially as every time India seeks to talk to the Pakistani civilian China just do in 2013 – when Xi launched Pakistan which otherwise sees China as secrecy, together with the sweeping and Pakistanis who have walked into a trap leadership, the effort is torpedoed. For example, the May 1 be BRI – what the US did in 1948? its “iron brother”. There’s a debate in ambitious scale of the plans as revealed driven by a simplistic worldview that Far from it. China’s own ‘miracle Pakistan now, on whether CPEC should by Pakistani press reports, incline one may be summed up by the quasi-Orwellian headings followed close on the heels of Sajjan Jindal meeting Prime growth’ has tapered off and its economy is be seen as a gift horse or a Trojan horse. towards the ‘Trojan horse’ metaphor. dictum: “China good, India bad”. Minister Nawaz Sharif. Changing Pakistan’s India policy requires engaging its real director – the Pakistan army. How to combine GST with a sharp Make in India strategy Reform Prisons to convert India into a global manufacturing hub Ajay Srivastava lower transportation and dis- from other countries. In less Reduce incarceration periods for undertrials tribution costs. Currently, firms than 15 years China emerged as who have not been convicted For most in- spend a high 5-8% as product dis- the leading exporter of electrical dustrial pro- tribution and warehousing cost. machinery, electronic and tele- he Law Commission is reported to have finalised recommen- ducts, GST rates The main reason for the high cost com equipment. India already dations for reform in bail jurisprudence. Specifically, the have been slated is the expense incurred on spends large amounts of foreign commission is expected to recommend release of undertrials at 18%. Today a branches and warehouses that exchange importing such items. T manufacturer exist due to tax saving rather Fourth, create large-scale who have served one-third of their maximum possible sentence.