AIR Marshal R.S.Bedi (retd)

All the governments during this decade, including the present BJP govt have not been able to push the defence budget beyond a point of neutralising inflation. A near status quo situation in regard to defence allocations has existed through the years. The allocations are just adequate about sustain the armed forces at their present level, without being able to introduce any high technology equipment, general modernisation or upgradation programme.

The armed forces will have to devise ways and means to survive on the available kitty with little to spare. The army has already set an example by suppressing the intake of manpower by as much as 50,000. The navy and the airforce too can follow suit by similarly suppressing the intake within reasonable limits and without effecting national security.This exercise can become more meaningful if the government specifically defines its internal and external threat perceptions. This will help evolve force levels objectively and work out the state of the art weapon systems required to meet the challenge. The nuclear element must necessarily play it’s role in thinning the conventional forces sooner or later.The indigenisation process to reduce dependence on foreign vendors must be hastened in earnest to reduce the ever-mounting bills of imported spares. This will boost industrial production too. The defence sector should offload large scale technologies at a cost to the private sector. The cash-strapped armed forcescan be helped by supplementing their resources from outside the government.

The sale proceeds of defence hardware sold to other countries could well be channeled into defence.If a country doesn’t want a war, it must avoid one. Diplomacy has to operate at it’s best to preclude high tension and war like situations with the neighbours. China has done it successfully to concentrate on national development. This has helped India too in reducing the military deployments and their corresponding costs. The Siachen imbroglio is unnecessarily burdening the armed forces and the national exchequer. Also India must avoid ventures a la Sri Lanka and employ diplomatic sophistry to prevent conflicts with the neighbours.

Simultaneously, the armed forces must keep retain their sharp edge.

The writer is a former Director General Defence Planning Staff, MOD