How come the world’s largest arms importer is 97% underprepared, PM Sir?

Rajesh Kalra28 March 2012, 02:05 PM IST

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/randomaccess/entry/how-come-the-world-s-largest-arms-importer-is-97-underprepared-pm-sir

The letter written by the Army chief, General V K Singh, to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on March 12 this year on the state of our defence preparedness is explosive, and shocking. The leaked letter makes a lot of points, critical among which are the following:

1. The Army’s tank fleet is “devoid of critical ammunition to defeat enemy tanks”.

2. Our air defence is “97 per cent obsolete and it doesn’t give the deemed confidence to protect”.

3. The infantry is crippled with “deficiencies and lacks night fighting” capabilities.

4. Elite special forces are “woefully short of essential weapons”.

5. There are “large-scale voids in critical surveillance” capabilities.

Anyone reading through the points raised by the general, who has been forced into an avoidable spat with the government, would know what he is hinting at. He is raising doubts over the defence procurement procedures that have crippled our defence preparedness and the larger issue of how corrupt the entire system is.

A lot has been debated since the bribery scandal erupted a few days ago, but there is one issue that is crystal clear. As was reported a few days ago, India is now the world’s largest importer of arms, displacing China and now accounts for 10 per cent of global arms sales in terms of volumes. The report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says that between 2007 and 2011, India’s imports of major weapons increased by a stunning 38 per cent. The report goes on to say that India is expected to spend more than $100 billion on weapon systems over the next 15 years.

Now, does this news not rankle somewhere? Does it not conflict with what the general is saying? If we are the world’s largest importer of arms in the world, why are we so deficient in defence preparedness? There can only be two reasons.

One, we need to spend a lot more than we currently do. In fact, given the gloomy picture painted by Gen Singh with 97 per cent obsolescence in air defence preparedness, for example, perhaps we need to make it to 20 per cent of global volumes to bridge the gap.

The second reason could be that the huge amount of money (10 per cent of what the world spends on arm purchases) supposedly going in for purchasing equipment is actually finding its way elsewhere.

I leave it to your judgment and intelligence to decide which of the two is correct.

But having said that, my advice to those who are piling on to the Army chief -- some MPs have even demanded that he be sacked -- would be: Please don’t shoot the messenger. It is thanks to him that for the first time the issue of corruption in the defence forces is at least being discussed in the open. So far, it was brushed under the carpet in the garb of national security.

The common man has been getting increasingly intolerant of corruption in the government. Please understand, as soon as its impact on our security apparatus gets out in the open, we will get into an extremely perilous situation. Our MPs, whose own credibility is at its nadir currently, would do well to grab the opportunity to cleanse the system and not be seen as those who will target a general who is speaking out, simply because their own vested interests could be under threat.