Articles by Srinath Raghavan

While Modi's recent visit to the United States locks India in a tight strategic embrace with the US, the Chinese will not take kindly to India embracing US policy in the South and East China seas. India's inability to make headway with China will exacerbate the costs of furthering this misshapen relationship. A clear and open debate is imperative to weigh the costs and benefits of Indo-US relations.

The continuing stand off between the government and retired soldiers over One-Rank-One-Pension has engendered distrust between the civilian bureaucracy and the military. While the ex-servicemen have been rigid on all their demands, including ones that defy sound reasoning, the manner in which the bureaucracy continues to quibble on minor issues grates on the military's sense of honour and dignity.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the political capital needed to push for a settlement of the boundary dispute with China. This could open up avenues to strengthen economic ties with China and also give India political space on multilateral stages like the World Trade Organization and the climate change negotiations.

In the recent controversies over the state of the civil-military relationship in India, the popular narrative sees the military as a victim of control by the bureaucracy and as excluded from decision-making on security affairs. This is a far from accurate representation of the real state of affairs. It is in fact a selective interpretation because it glosses over the fact that the military actually has a considerable amount of say on matters pertaining to national security. And it is an incomplete interpretation because the problematic nature of civilmilitary relations in India cannot be reduced to institutional dynamics within the government. A discussion of the relationship from the early 1950s.

Understanding why Beijing is displaying, in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's words, "a certain amount of assertiveness" towards New Delhi is the first step towards crafting a sensible public discourse on India's relations with its largest and most important neighbour. It is also imperative that the government of India informs and shapes domestic opinion on China. The bogey of an aggressive China may well become a self-fulfilling prophecy, for strident views on both sides feed on and accentuate the other.