India can take economic, military or diplomatic measures for which it requires a fundamental change in attitude

China needs to be taught a lesson in its own language. If fear is China’s weapon, then India needs to instil the same fear in China’s heart to reset the equilibrium, says Member of Parliament Abhishek Singhvi in an opinion piece for Hindustan Times. He proposes a blueprint to turn the tables on China.

According to Singhvi, India can take economic, military or diplomatic measures for which it requires a fundamental change in attitude. It requires teamwork, a broad consensus, bridging the trust deficit, transparency and participatory approaches.

Underlining the importance of the military in this respect, Singhvi says that India can start with increasing the defence budget from 1.5 per cent to at least 2 per cent of the GDP. Since, the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China falls on mountain ranges, the capabilities of the Mountain Strike Corps should be enhanced exponentially, the opinion post published in HT suggests.

He says that India can participate in military drills with the US and other strong nations across the world even as it works on the early completion of strategic roads like the Darbuk-Shyok-DBO in Ladakh.

Sanghvi writes that India can exploit the anti-China sentiment prevalent in big powers. He says that India can resort to naming and shaming China in diplomatic group meetings like ASEAN, G10, BRICS and other platforms for its expansionism. The opinion piece mentions that proximity with Tibet and Taiwan can also be exploited to its full capacity.

On the economic front, India can give import subsidies to nations like Taiwan and other growing economies which have the anti-China sentiment common among them. Sanghvi’s opinion piece for HT also suggests that initially it might seem a tall task to find substitutes of China, a domestic demand driven Indian economy can be an answer.