Retired Indian official discusses diplomacy

Terrorism, border disputes and a nuclear-armed Pakistan are the highest national security challenges facing India today, retired Indian Army Gen. V. P. Malik said Friday in his lecture address at IU.\nMalik, who is also a former Indian army chief of staff, spoke to a crowd of more than 100 people in Wylie Hall Friday evening. \nMalik called India a "bridge between East and West" and said India's size, location and power obliges it to function as a stabilizing force in the region.\nHe said among the threats to India's stability are border disputes with its neighbors. \n"There is a problem," Malik said. "Nearly one-third of our borders are not demarcated."\nMalik said he believes the American media often concentrate only on India's dispute with Pakistan over the territory of Jammu and Kashmir rather than India's other security concerns.\n"Many people forget we have a much longer border with China," Malik said.\nIndia shares a more than 2,500-mile border with China and more than 2,000 miles with Pakistan.\nThe general said he believes negotiation can ease tensions. He referred to India's agreements with China as an example of how diplomacy can avoid conflict.\n"On the ground, even though at many places our troops are facing each other, we have had no fighting incidents," Malik said.\nAlong India's western border with Pakistan, though, the situation is different.\nMalik said he believes there has been no progress made on resolving India and Pakistan's disputes over Kashmir.\nHe said he believes part of the problem is "confrontation suits the Pakistan army." Malik said the Pakistani army enjoys high status and official perquisites "only because of a confrontation with India."\nPakistan is currently governed by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who overthrew Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in October 1999.\nMalik said Indian intelligence shows the Pakistani government is sponsoring terrorist groups' raids across the border into Indian territory. He said thousands of civilians have been killed in India-controlled Kashmir.\nMalik said he believes Pakistan is an "exporter of terrorism."\n"Militancy is a double-edged weapon," he said. He said terrorist groups are as much of a threat to Pakistan as they are to India. He labeled the terrorist groups "mad dogs" who could easily "bite the hands that feed them."\nMore importantly, a war between Indian forces and Pakistani-backed terrorists "can easily slip into a limited conventional war," Malik said.\nMalik said a conventional war can escalate into a nuclear conflict. Both Pakistan and India have nuclear weapons, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council Web site.\nThe government of Pakistan denies charges that it sponsors terrorism. In a Sept. 24 speech to the United Nations, President Musharraf said "India cites 'cross-border' terrorism to refuse a dialogue. It knows fully well that the Kashmiri struggle is indigenous."\nMusharraf said India was to blame for many of the problems in Kashmir. "India continues to suppress the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiri people to exercise their right to self-determination in accordance with the U.N. Security Council resolution," he said.\nHe said Pakistan believes India is violating international law by refusing to implement Security Council resolutions regarding the disputed territories.\nMalik said India's government has a difficult time understanding Pakistan's military regime as a consequence of its history.\n"Our political leadership has been not at all military," he said. "We got our independence without having to fight."\nIndia gained its independence from the British in 1947 following years of nonviolent protests led by Mohandas Gandhi.\nMalik also discussed India's nuclear weapons. \n"We are moving through an era of strategic uncertainty," he said. "And nuclear weapons help make India more secure."\n"One of the factors that made us go nuclear was the increasing military capability gap between China and India," Malik said. "Where there are two nuclear nations, obviously we cannot have all-out war."\nThe exception to this rule, Malik said in a personal interview, are terrorists. \n"Nuclear deterrence is a rational theory," he said. "I don't consider the terrorists to be rational people."\nMalik explained that India's nuclear policy stated that India would not be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict and that those weapons would remain under civilian control. In addition, Malik said New Delhi seeks only enough nuclear weapons to prevent aggression against India -- what he called a "credible minimum deterrent."\nThe general mentioned that India has missiles and aircraft capable of delivering nuclear weapons, but is also trying to develop submarine-launched nuclear missiles to complete its "strategic triad." \nFirst-year MBA student Sandeep Shyamsunder attended the lecture and said it was "greatly informative."\n"These were insights from a career soldier who's been on the front lines," Shyamsunder said.\nHe said Malik's talk convinced him India needs to have friends in the right places to guarantee its security.\nEarlier Friday, Malik visited with cadets in IU's ROTC program. Lt. Col. Michael Scudder, professor of military science, said this was an opportunity for "a soldier to get together with soldiers."\n"Soldiers have common bonds," Scudder said.\nMalik and the cadets spent an hour discussing ROTC and military affairs.\n"I was very impressed with (ROTC) training, particularly the leadership training," Malik said. He called the cadets a "well-informed, thoroughly motivated lot."\nThe India Studies program, political science department, Office of International Programs and military science department sponsored the general's visit.