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| UPA is under pressure to act on country's defence preparedness | | | Sushil Vakil | 4/17/2012 11:25:29 PM |
| Few days back people were shocked to read headlines like "Country is in danger, arms and bombs are finished." The stories based on Army Chief's letter to PM created ripples not only in defence circles but in political corridors also. In light of these intriguing developments, top opposition leaders and former Army Chiefs have called for a full probe into the allegations made by Gen Singh and verify the facts related to country's defence preparedness. The sensational letter by Army chief General V K Singh to Prime Minister painted a grim picture of the operational capabilities of 1.13-million strong force grappling with tanks running out of ammunition, obsolete air defence systems and lack of adequate weaponry for infantry and special forces battalions.
In his letter, Army Chief also compared the present state of military to its situation in 1962, when it was woefully unprepared to tackle hordes of Chinese sweeping through Arunachal Pradesh, the eastern parts of J&K and considerable stretches of upper Assam. He alleged that the Army is still ill-prepared. He stated that the government might want to believe all is well on the eastern front but the Army, aware of the ground reality, has been trying hard to get the Centre to sanction Rs 12,000 crore so that our borders with China can be strengthened and a Mountain Strike Corps set up.
There is no doubt that the Indian armed forces need to be constantly modernised and armed with equipment which are better than the ones with the adversaries. The army chief seems to have rightly pointed out the deficiencies that exist today. However, what is not pointed out are the real reasons for such hollowness and the corrective actions needed to plug the holes, which are multi-faceted and as complex as the issues of planning, budgeting and procurement. Not surprisingly, India earmarks huge budgetary allowance for procurement of latest arms and ammunition but it gets struck due to the tussle between the Bubus in the defence ministry and the senior army officials.
Apart from serious differences among the officials in army and defence ministry there are allegations of corruption at different levels-selection, procurement to supply. The acquisition of Tetra Trucks is a glaring example.
The corruption bomb shell too was dropped by none other than the Army chief himself. While the Army chief has raised the preparedness issue India's Defense Minister dismissed reports that the country is not battle ready. Reacting to Army chief's assertions Defense Minister A.K. Antony denied that ammunition for tanks in the Indian army was down to four days of reserves. "India is in a much, much better strong position compared to the past. On the whole, Indian armed forces are now well prepared and they are in a much more better position to meet any challenges to our integrity," said Antony. The question arises if every thing is fine with the Indian army then why the Army chief's letter has sounded alarming bells in the government circles. It seems the UPA government was not jolted as much from the Army chief's concern on his forces preparedness as much due to the leakage of content of the letter in the media. From the statement of the defence minister it seems the government is confused how to save itself from the embarrassment. Interestingly, on the one hand government is denying Army chief's assess ment and on the other it orders a CBI probe to investigate the matter. Apart from that a parlia- mentary panel has summoned the heads of the army, navy and air force, later this month, to seek their opinion on the state of India's defense readiness. If the content of Gen V K Singh's letter is true then it raises serious questions about the striking capacity of the country. Incidently, people have a notion that Indian Army-world's third largest army- is not only disciplined, patriotic and robust but also well equipped with the best of weapons but when army chief states that we don't even have enough ammunition then it deserves serious attention and action.
There is no doubt that critical shortages in the Army's combat power, as reported in the leaked letter to the Prime Minister, are long known. The efforts should therefore have been made long before the current situation has reached an alarming proportion.
It seems nothing gets done in this country unless media creates a controversy and ruckus. For UPA it is late but not too late. Top Army commanders will now discuss next week the state of preparedness at a meeting which assumes significance in the light of Gen Singh's assessment of deficiencies and shortages in the force. The development holds significance as the leakage of Army Chief's letter and the bribery allegations made by him has become a major source of embarrassment for the UPA government, which is now under pressure to act.
The concern needs to be addressed not because it is raised by the chief of the third largest army of the world, but for safeguarding country's national security at a time when India's neighbours, particularly China is undertaking a massive military modernisation with a defence budget which now officially exceeds $100 billion. |
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