Fmr Indian Foreign Secretary @VGokhale59 doesn't mince words on China in this speech in Pune (hope there's video or a transcript) 1/
Fmr Indian FS Vijay Gokhale: "Democracy is our greatest asset which presents a challenge to the Beijing model. Our success in building our national strength through the democratic process makes it ideologically difficult for China to justify its idea of non-elected leadership" 2/
Fmr Indian FS Vijay Gokhale: "even though we are militarily backward compared to them, even though we are economically weaker, India represents the largest ideological challenge to China because of our democracy. They would like to see our democracy fail” 3/
Fmr Indian FS Vijay Gokhale: "There is no substitute for serious economic growth. We need to re-engineer our policies so as to ensure that we attract companies (willing to leave China) to India. We need to emulate China in building independent R&D and cutting edge technology" 4/
Gokhale re China's plan: "A soft approach by lessening tensions & making tactical concessions to prevent us from tilting twds the US & remaining neutral wld be their plan..2nd option wld be to build pressure thru mil & security means at the LAC, the border in the NE & thru Pak"
Fmr Indian FS Vijay Gokhale also said "Military modernisation is vital" & notrd importance of US rel on equal terms + maintaining Russia rel for this reason.
He also called for India reducing dependence on China for industrial inputs 6/6
He also called for India reducing dependence on China for industrial inputs 6/6
