Counting our Chickens

Immediately after our independence, India & China had almost equal military strength. In 6 odd decades China has leaped forward and ahead of us by incomparable margins in all the three sections of armed forces. Compare this - China has had only one enemy ( on paper ) to tackle, that too a peace loving and meek enemy like us, where as we have had threats or threat perceptions from almost all sides, be it Pakistan, China or Bangladesh for that matter. Where is our planning? Are we really concerned about the threats? Where is SWOT analysis?

On one hand, it is learnt that China has developed it capabilities to manufacture and cater to all its’ military requirements In – House and be self sufficient, and on the other hand we are still relying on outsourcing our requirements. We have some defense establishments where we fulfill only part of our requirements. We have had purchases in past with clauses which talked about indigenization of defense equipment over a period. Sadly not much has been done in that direction. So, with the result, we still buy from outside. The pinch is still hurting big way after disintegration of Soviet Union. Earlier we got supplies from them cheap and regularly. Now we are made to pay hefty amounts through our nose.

We boast of having technology to develop Satellites, Missiles and Nuke Power but then why not latest jet fighter planes, air craft carriers, Long range guns, machine guns and defense kits for our armed forces? Are we lacking in capabilities or engineering skills or design brains? Sorry. I strongly feel that our political will and vision is totally missing. We are really ignorant of the fact that it is the muscle power which will keep our enemies at arms distance from us. It is then only that China will not dare to snatch and encroach on our territories and claim it as it is their own for ages, leaving our leaders to comment –

“ What is the problem, what is the big deal if anyone has taken our land? As it is it was barren and of no use ”

I feel the time has not gone out of our hands still. Let our Leaders wake up even now. We can still be self sufficient in next 2 – 3 decades if we start now to work on building our manufacturing capabilities with FDIs or Investment on PPP basis. Our Industrial giants will be certainly more than willing to walk that extra mile to support the government any which way on such a cause. I strongly feel that it should be on top of the agenda for any government’s priority list, and miles ahead of FDI in Retail certainly.

What say??