THE UNDERHAND BUSINESS

 OF 

DEFENCE PROCUREMENT

The article on def procurement in india at : 

(http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/2012/05/5137),

is interesting, but I have reservations about the following part of the piece :

"Not that India is incapable of indigenizing, but for that to happen it must be willing to make do with what is possible. And this means its armed forces must not insist on state-of-the-art weapons systems right away. That is the crux of this problem. Not infrequently, our top brass will simply say that without a particular weapons system the defence forces cannot guarantee the outcome of a conflict. Often, this argument is just a fig leaf to obscure other intentions."

Our armament has to keep up with that of the enemies around, and we have two of them. We don't want a repetition of 1962. for that matter even 1965, when spirit and skill won over superior equipment of the enemy.

The solution to the problem, as brought out by the author is not in the scaling down of rewuirment by the Armed Forces but in upgrading the capabilities of DRDO. 'Arjun' to decades to develop, not due to the Army. 'Tejas' has been on the envil for three decades not because of the Air Force. When the world around is upgrading their fighter aircrafts to the fifth generation, the Indian Air Force cznnot be expected to make do with second generation ones, just because the DRDO are unable to go beyond it. Import, thus becomes imperative.

The rampant bribery in defence procurement can easily be eliminated by the present govt by making it a punishable offence and resorting to govt to govt transactions.

Those who are hell bent on destroying the Nehru-Gandhi legacy and as a part of that excercise, malign Indira Gandhi, forget that, but for her, we would not have 1971 as the crown jewel of Indian Military and Political History, since both were created in one master stroke by Indira. Not for nothing did Vajpayee compare her to Ma Durga!

Even as I write this, can the Nation forget on the Republic Day, that the 'Amar Jawan Jyoti', where the PMs of the Country have gone to pay lip service to the Martyres of the Nation and lay wreath, year after year, was the idea of and creation due to Indira Gandhi and remains the only National War Memorial, more than three decades after her death, .