‘India’s New Muscle’

Margolis’ analytical essay revealed how India, one of the poorest nations very much dependent on Western aid, has now become the world’s fourth-ranking military power. It is disturbing to note that while thousands live and die on the sidewalks of Calcutta without any hope in utmost poverty and human agony rarely witnessed elsewhere in the world, India every year increasingly spends millions for military ventures for the steady growth of its army, navy and air force.

This awful effort is carried out with the active support of the Soviet Union which supplies the south Asian military power with the most sophisticated military hardware like the agile MIG 29s and nuclear-powered submarines, which have not been necessitated by India’s legitimate defense needs.

We Sri Lankans, unfortunately, have become the latest victims of that subjugation which limits the island nation’s sovereignty and independence.

Now the world knows that the Indian hegemony over Sri Lanka was achieved through funding, training and supplying numerous Tamil guerrilla armies.

Military analysts believe that Pakistan could sustain a war with India for not more than 30 days. There is evidence that India is about to come to terms with China, ending its long border dispute. Although those traditional enemies pose no threat today, the south Asian superpower is developing an ominous ability to project its power beyond its shores and borders. India’s favorite diplomatic project, its efforts to declare the Indian Ocean a zone of peace, is nothing but rhetoric which tells the rest of the world that all other navies should get out of the ocean which bears the country’s name, leaving the Indian navy the supreme power to dictate to smaller nations in the region.

It is unfortunate that massive Western aid indirectly backs up the ambitious imperialistic projects of a scheming Asian bully making us the helpless victims crying over an independence lost forever.

WALTER JAYAWARDHANA

President

American Federation of Sri Lanka

Assns. and Sinhala Defense League

Los Angeles