India need to decide whether they are going to remain confined to South Asia or be a global power with ICBMs and blue water navy. If you want to remain confined to South Asia in the name of peace, you are sadly mistaken that you won't be bothered. You have to look back at 2000 years of history to learn that you won't be left alone. Do not plan on the current situation. Who knows what is going to happen 15 years down the road.
Again I would want to quote Sun Tzu here.
The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.
Beautifully put.
I believe India is moving towards a blue water navy.
I also believe that India's rise will not go uncontested as power and economic dynamics change.
As the perception of India changes from just a big market to be tapped, to the one doing the tapping.
India has limited land and resources, and a growing population.
To fuel our growth we will need to tap resources and power remotely and globally.
Those ventures will need to be backed by more than just soft power.
We have never been in the business of projecting power. That may well have to change, even if only to maintain status quo.
But above all else, we need to maintain the punitive long arm of deterrence.
Because when push comes to shove, there is only one language that man understands. And no amount of time, evolution, and civilization is going to change that enduring constant.