The concept of defence for a big country like India graduated with the passage of time. During early years of independence, our leaders were somewhat reluctant to spend hard earned national wealth for purchase of defence equipment from abroad. A thinking once reflected by no less a person than Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister, was that India was not anybody’s enemy and did not believe in military alliances. Therefore she did not need huge military build-up. The money saved would be utilized in mega developmental projects. Noble thinking presupposes a noble world which, however, is not the case. Some countries keeping eye on our forward looking policies and plans, suddenly became jealous that we were steadily carving place for ourselves among leading countries in the region and the world. A country of our size and resources and geographical location, run along secular democratic dispensation, was bound to make her presence felt in economic, political and strategic arena of contemporary world. As this scenario developed, our detractors and rivals became more pronounced in their antagonism towards our country.
Chinese incursion in 1962 and three wars with Pakistan including the ongoing proxy war in J&K since 1989 changed India’s perception of her defence strategy. There were compelling reasons for reversing the old concepts and approaches. India needed strong defence mechanism not for any sword-rattling against others but to defend her independence, territorial integrity, national sovereignty, democratic arrangement, and above all, her ancient civilization and traditions. Besides all this, we were called upon to fulfil international obligations also. As violent, retrograde and exclusivist forces acquired ascendency in various parts of the world, it became unavoidable for India to build a strong defence structure and streamline defence preparedness.
Some of our detractors have characterized our pursuit of a policy of defence preparedness as militarization. That is far from truth. Self-defence preparedness is different from militarization. Much against her wishes, India had to look across for procuring more modernized military equipment for all the three wings of her defence structure as well as auxiliary forces, all of them charged with protecting the country against external threats and internal subversion. Naturally, a country of a big size has a big order list. It has to be pointed out that modern warfare is radically different from conventional warfare. Latest advancements in technology have drastically changed the pattern of conducting a war. US-NATO warfare in Afghanistan has shown how digitalization of assault equipment can produce deadly effect.
Taking her strategic concerns into account, besides the nexus of sorts formed by two inimical neighbours on our eastern and western borders, India has had to opt for modernization and upgrading of defence preparedness. This is an ongoing process. Although India has developed capacity for indigenously producing much of military equipment, yet advanced technologies at the command of western developed countries have thrown up vast scope of producing highly effective and accurate military hardware for all the three services. However, these countries have made specific legislation in regard to export of sophisticated military hardware and access to these is almost restricted. India is among top buyers of military hardware for all the three services. Currently, the Defence Acquisition Committee has cleared acquisition of defence equipment to the tune of 6,000 crore rupees and the Defence Minister has given his nod. This clearance has come after protracted consultations and discussions at various levels of the government. The purchases envisage acquisition of Light Support Vehicles (LSV), Special Operational Vehicles (SOV), Search and Rescue (SAR) equipment for IAF Choppers and many other sophisticated items to strengthen our defence muscle. Speaking at the Defence Acquisition Committee, the Defence Minister A.K. Antony laid special emphasis on the three Service Chiefs of ensuring fairness and transparency in making defence purchases from foreign suppliers. Unfortunately in the past, much mud-slinging has happened in connection with defence purchase deals. These began with Jeep purchase scandal in 1950s, followed by infamous Bofors gun scandals which rocked the then government at the Centre. Thereafter many more scandals surfaced bringing bad name to the system of acquisition by the Defence Ministry. There are middle-men in the business who receive kick-backs for helping suppliers clinch deals with the Indian Defence Ministry. The sordid affair of receiving kick-backs has brought defamation to the Defence Ministry which Mr. Antony wants to rectify by emphasizing upon all concerned, especially the Chiefs of three services, that the deal should be fair and transparent. We highly appreciate the concerns of the Defence Minster in this behalf and understand the importance and strength of his counsel to the stakeholders to be fair and transparent. He has a large programme of modernization of entire defence structure of the country as has been necessitated by circumstances. If the Defence Minister takes drastic action against defaulters associated with his ministry or among the active service cadres, and against whom cases of corruption and kick backs are proved, he will win the hearts of millions of his countrymen who are fed up with the culture of corruption eating into the vitals of our polity.
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