Expenditure on armed forces should not be viewed as burden on economy: Army chief

The Army chief said that the security of the nation, however, does not only depend on the armed forces but also on its people.

Chief of Army Staff General M M Naravane. (File Photo)

Expenditure made on armed forces should not be viewed as a burden on the country’s economy, said Chief of Army Staff General M M Naravane while speaking at the Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) at Gandhinagar Wednesday.

“For a country to prosper, you need a stable and peaceful environment. That will happen only if you have strong armed forces that will secure your borders. Therefore, whenever we talk of our armed forces and the expenditure made on our armed forces, we should not see it as an investment. It is an investment from which you can get good returns and it should not be seen as a burden on the economy,” said Naravane, who launched a book titled ‘Fifty Years of the 1971 War: Account from Veterans’ at the university in Lavad. The book, which is a compilation of accounts of various war veterans made by RRU, also contains a message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“You should see how the economy suffers the moment there is a crisis. The moment there is a war anywhere or instability in the region, the impact can be seen on the stock markets. You can survive that kind of shock only if the armed forces of the country are strong,” Naravane said in a short address at the university.

In March this year, The Indian Express reported that the Ministry of Defence, including the armed forces, has been allocated Rs 5.38 lakh crore in this year’s budget, which is nearly one-fourth less than its projected demand of more than Rs 7 lakh crore.

The Army chief said that the security of the nation, however, does not only depend on the armed forces but also on its people. “Citizens of the country also have a major role to play. Each one of us is responsible for the security and well-being of our country…We can do that by being outstanding citizens and not spreading fake rumours on WhatsApp. Little bit of rumour mongering leads to riots. Buses get burnt. Whose loss is it? It is a loss to the country,” he said.

Naravane also said that the first two women officers inducted into the aviation wing of the Army will be graduating in July 2022. “We also now havein the Army, a fair number of women officers.. We have also started enrolling women in the core of military police. More and more avenues have been opened up for women to join the armed forces. The Army aviation has been opened up for the women and the first two women officers are under training and should be graduating sometime in the month of July,” he said.

The Army chief also held meetings with the directors of RRU and also witnessed a demonstration at School of Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security in the RRU campus where he was shown the developments being made in constructing an autonomous boat where an UAV can take off and land. Naravane was also shown studies conducted on the Kalpsar project where a dam is proposed to be built across Gulf of Khambhat, creating a fresh water reservoir.

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