India Today 7th August 2017 | Page 3

FROM THE www.indiatoday.in EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Aroon Purie GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER: Ashish Bagga GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Raj Chengappa EDITORS: Kaveree Bamzai (Special Projects), Ajit Kumar Jha (Research) GROUP CREATIVE EDITOR: Nilanjan Das; GROUP PHOTO EDITOR: Bandeep Singh MANAGING EDITORS: Kai Jabir Friese, Rajesh Jha EXECUTIVE EDITORS: Damayanti Datta, S. Sahaya Ranjit, Sandeep Unnithan DEPUTY EDITORS: Prachi Bhuchar, Uday Mahurkar, Manisha Saroop M umbai : M.G. Arun H yderabad : Amarnath K. Menon C handigarh : Asit Jolly SENIOR EDITORS: Shweta Punj, Sasi Nair, J aipur : Rohit Parihar SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Kaushik Deka, Ashish Mukherjee M umbai : Suhani Singh, Kiran Dinkar Tare; p atna : Amitabh Srivastava ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Shougat Dasgupta, Chinki Sinha K olkata : Romita Sengupta; B hopal : Rahul Noronha; T hiruvananthapuram : Jeemon Jacob; B eiJing : Ananth Krishnan ASSISTANT EDITOR: p une : Aditi S. Pai CHIEF COPY EDITOR: Aditya Mohan Wig PHOTO DEPARTMENT: Vikram Sharma (Deputy Photo Editor), Rajwant Singh Rawat (Principal Photographer), Kekhriezhazo Miachie-O (Senior Photographer), Chandra Deep Kumar (Photographer); M umbai : Mandar Suresh Deodhar (Chief Photographer), Danesh Adil Jassawala (Photographer); a hmedabad : Shailesh B Raval (Principal Photographer); K olkata : Subir Halder (Principal Photographer); C hennai : N.G. Jaison (Senior Photographer) PHOTO RESEARCHERS: Prabhakar Tiwari (Chief Photo Researcher), Saloni Vaid (Principal Photo Researcher), Shubhrojit Brahma (Assistant Photo Researcher) CHIEF OF GRAPHICS: Tanmoy Chakraborty ART DEPARTMENT: Sanjay Piplani (Senior Art Director); Jyoti K. Singh, Anirban Ghosh (Art Director), Vikas Verma, Rahul Sharma, Vipin Gupta (Associate Art Director); Bhoomesh Dutt Sharma (Senior Designer) PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT: Harish Agarwal (Chief of Production), Naveen Gupta (Chief Coordinator), Vijay Kumar Sharma (Senior Coordinator) PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Manoj Sharma ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Anil Fernandes (Impact) IMPACT TEAM Senior General Manager: Jitender Lad (West) General Manager: Mayur Rastogi (North), Upendra Singh (Bangalore), Kaushiky Chakraborty (East) GROUP CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER: Vivek Malhotra Assistant General Manager: Garima Prashar (Marketing) SALES AND OPERATIONS: D.V.S. Rama Rao, Chief General Manager Deepak Bhatt, General Manager (National Sales) Vipin Bagga, Deputy General Manager (Operations) Manish Kumar Srivastava, Regional Sales Manager (North) Rajeev Gandhi, Regional Sales Manager (West) Arokia Raj L., Regional Sales Manager (South) Volume XLII Number 32; For the week August 1-7, 2017, published on every Friday Editorial/Corporate Office Living Media India Ltd., India Today Group Mediaplex, FC-8, Sector-16A, Film City, Noida - 201301; Phone: [phone] For assistance contact Customer Care India Today Group, B-45, Sector-57, Noida (UP)-201301; Phones: Toll-free number: 1800 1800 100 (from BSNL/MTNL lines); (95120) 2479900 from Delhi and Faridabad; [phone] from Rest of India (Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.); Fax: [phone]; Mumbai: 022-66063411/3412, Kolkata: 033-40525327, Chennai: 044-24303200; e-mail: [email protected] l Sales: Direct all trade enquiries to General Manager (Sales), Living Media India Limited, B-45, Sector 57, Noida-201301 (UP) l Regd. Office: K-9 Con naught Circus, New Delhi -110001 l Impact Offices: 1201, 12th Floor, Tower 2 A, One Indiabulls Centre, (Jupiter Mills), S.B. Marg, Lower Parel (West), Mumbai-400013; Phone: [phone]; Fax: [phone] l E-1, Ground Floor, Videocon Towers, Jhandewalan Extn, New Delhi l Guna Complex, 5th Floor, Main Building, No.443, Anna Salai, Chennai-600018; Phone: [phone] l 201-204 Richmond Towers, 2nd Floor, 12, Richmond Road, Bangalore-560025; Phones: 22212448, 22213037, 22218343; Fax: [phone]; l 52, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, 4th Floor, Kolkata-700071; Phones: 22825398; Fax: [phone]; l 6-3-885/7/B, Somajiguda, Hyderabad-500082; Phone: [phone]; Fax: [phone] l 39/1045, Karakkatt Road, Kochi 682016; Phones: 2377057, 2377058 ; Fax: [phone] l 2/C, “Suryarath Bldg”, 2nd Floor, Behind White House, Panchwati, Office C.G. Road, Ahmedabad-380006; Phone: [phone]; Fax: [phone] l Copyright Living Media India Ltd. All rights reserved through out the world. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited. l l Sub scriptions: Printed and published by Manoj Sharma on behalf of Living Media India Limited. Printed at Thomson Press India Limited, 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana) and at A-9, In dustrial Complex, Maraimalai Nagar, District Kancheepuram-603209, (Tamil Nadu). Published at K-9, Connaught Circus, New Delhi-110001. Editor: Aroon Purie. l in dia today does not take the re sponsibility for returning unsolicited publication material. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only T o subdue the enemy without figh­ ting is the pinnacle of strategy, said Sun Tzu in The Art of War. Centuries later, China’s Xi Jinping hopes to do much the same with India—defeat it with its words. For a change, though, South Block has chosen the path of quiet dialogue over rhetoric, stressing a peaceful diplomatic resolution to the standoff. The Indian and Chinese armies last fired in anger 50 years ago, in 1967. Every aggres­ sive move the two sides have made along the 4,057­km­long Line of Actual Control since 1967 has essentially been postur­ ing, each side warning the other against altering the situation on the ground. In its July 17, 2017, cover story (Face Off ), india today explained the genesis of the current conflict—a dispute over Doklam that brings China even closer to the vulnerable 27­km­long Siliguri corridor that links the northeastern states to the rest of India. But what if there is a war? How do the two nations compare? Xi’s reforms have modernised China’s military and enabled greater integration through a newly set­up joint operations command system—something India itself has long debated but failed to implement. In the first year of Xi’s term, defence spending was hiked 10.7 per cent to $114.3 billion. By last year, it crossed $150 billion, though independent estimates peg it as high as $215 billion, more than five times what India spends. In contrast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not even had a full­time defence minister in his cabinet since March. In the cover story this week, Executive Editor Sandeep Unnithan reports that the In­ dian army’s modernisation drive—its plan to replace its ageing helicopters, missiles and infantry equipment after the 1999 Kargil War—is yet to deliver results. Its first howitzer buys in three decades will enter service only next year. Its Mountain Strike Corps—an offensive high alti­ tude warfighting force comprising over 90,000 soldiers—will be combat­ready only by 2020. The IAF’s dip in combat aircraft—32 instead of the sanctioned 39 fighter squadrons—is perilous. The navy is short on both submarines and anti­ submarine warfare helicopters. India’s defence budget for 2017 was just 1.5 per cent of the GDP, among the lowest in recent years. But of greater concern is the tardy pace of border infrastructure. Only 22 of the 73 all­weather roads along the LAC have been completed a decade after they were sanctioned and the 14 strategic railway lines to rush troops and supplies to the border remain paperbound. China, in comparison, has completed its road network in border areas, and is powering ahead with its railways. Beijing appears to be in no mood for compromise. One reason is the cur­ rent domestic political climate, with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) set to hold massive war games for its 90th anniver­ sary on August 1 and a once­in­five­years party congress—all important for Xi—in November. Any sign of weakness could boost his rivals. The Chinese consider this dispute more serious than past face­offs. “From the PLA to every diplomat, I’m hearing the same message every day: this time it’s different,” says Ananth Krishnan, india today’s Beijing correspondent. The Chinese are saying the dispute is not about Doklam but about India crossing a settled border into what they see as their terri­ tory, so the message is unless we withdraw, there’s no room for de­escalation. India is saying let both sides withdraw and then talk. The deadlock will not be easy to break with tension likely for quite some time. Yet a conflict with India would be disastrous for China. The key to Xi’s ambitions—including his pet One Belt, One Road project—is a peaceful environ­ ment and preserving the global image of a responsible, rising China. Also, despite all our failings in defence acquisition, in this instance the terrain favours India. The Chinese would suffer heavy casual­ ties in case of an assault. That said, both sides should again recall Sun Tzu: There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare. (Aroon Purie) AUGUST 7, 2 017 INDIA TODAY 1