In 1996, Colin Grey asked a crucial question, where is the theory of space power? In 2020, Bleddyn E. Bowen, in his book War in Space: Strategy, Space Power and Geopolitics, answered this question and gave the theory of space power.
His book argued that space warfare is a genuine prospect due to the dependence on military weapon systems, astuteness, logistics, and economics. Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in an interview with the magazine Missiles and Rockets in October 1960, verbalized that ‘if the Soviets control space they can control earth, as in past centuries the nation that controlled the seas has dominated the continents’.
Read more: First privately built Indian space rocket launches
Due to the significance of space, India is also enlarging its space reach
On 18 November, the first private rocket Vikram was launched from the Indian Space Agency launch site near Chennai on Friday. This rocket which Pararmbah designates ‘start,’ peregrinated in an arc and reached an altitude of 89.5 km. Albeit this rocket failed to at the altitude of 100 km, which dissevers earth from outer space, it was a prosperous endeavor of India to include its private sector in space. Due to the paramountcy of space power and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s close connection with billionaires, this private rocket launch could not be ignored.
India is endeavoring to take the private sector on board in space technology because India cannot compete with the leading powers without the private sector and endeavoring to emulate the US in regard where space x and other companies are additionally sending their commercial rockets into space. In 2019, India joined a few countries with the faculty to target satellites. India’s space militarization primarily consists of the GSAT-6 and GSAT-7 satellites; furthermore, India has RISAT-2BR1 (Radar imaging satellite).
In addition, in 2020, the US and India signed the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement on Geospatial Cooperation (BECA), which will sanction India for accessing US satellite data. It will avail India to make its missiles more precise. Consequently, incrementing space presence can avail countries of getting the upper hand in the land. Space is against becoming a battleground between different potencies, and countries are trying to increase their power in space and utilize them to augment their invigorate on earth. Countries in the world are a limpidly optically discerning investment of each other in the space strategically. India is now utilizing the private sector to increment space potency.
Through this recent launch, India is taking its private sector on board to increment its power in space because, in the future, India can utilize expertise gained from the private sector and its finances to increment its presence in space as well as augment bulwark on the ground. India has additionally close collaboration with the US in sharing satellite data. Gaining the upper hand in space can further embolden India to pursue its truculent design against Pakistan.
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It can avail India to pursue a counterforce operation against Pakistan, which will have negative implicative insinuations for the strategic stability of South Asia. The world has optically discerned examples of Ukraine Starlink providing high-speed internet in Ukraine; as a result, Russia could not eradicate Ukraine’s communication and logistic network. Furthermore, it became a paramount implement in the information warfare arsenal against Russia. Consequently, private rocket launching in India could not be ignored, where a party like BJP is ruling and closely connects with billionaires.
After the BJP regime came to puissance, it endeavored to harm Pakistan in every way and endeavored to destabilize Pakistan. Modi always had an ideology-driven hate against Pakistan, and it had a close relationship with billionaires in India. Billionaires and BJP have a close relationship with each other. For instance, India’s richest person’s affluence doubled in the first four years of the Modi regime, and even Modi appeared in an advertisement when it first launched a company.
Thus, it is conspicuous that Indian billionaires always have a cozy relationship with the Modi regime. Ergo, a privately launched rocket of India, will not be independent without the influence of the BJP or the Indian Regime. It is just another endeavor of India to increment its presence in space to pursue its agenda of aggression against Pakistan and regional hegemony.
Hence, it is the desideratum of the hour for Pakistani policymakers to consistently examine Indian activities in space, even if privately owned, because of the close relationship of Modi with billionaires. BJP and billionaires are different sides of the same coin. The world bellwethers should forbear appreciating India for incrementing its space power; instead, they should put a moratorium on India’s space program to obviate the region from going towards destabilization.
Zohaib Altaf is a researcher officer at CISS, AJK. He Works on Nuclear POlitics & Strategies, Nuclear Disarmament, and Emerging technologies and New Trends in Warfare. The views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.