By Mrittunjoy Guha Majumdar
Navy Chief Admiral DK Joshi put in his papers on 26 February 2014. This came close on the heels of a major mishap on INS Sindhuratna, one of the significant few submarines involved in accidents over the past 12 months. Although naval ships such as the INS Konkan had faced similar or worse accidents in the recent past, Admiral Joshi took the moral responsibility for the incident, which led to the death of two officers – Lt. Commander Kapish Muwal and Lt. Commander Manoranjan Kumar. He resigned fifteen months before the end of his tenure at the helm of the Indian navy. Given the manner in which the episode unfolded and thereafter the Government conveniently accepted the highly decorated Naval chief’s resignation, one has to ponder over some pertinent questions that have arisen after the episode. Who is responsible for these incidents? Are we capable enough to defend our sovereignty with the present state of our armed forces? Do we lack clarity in policy-making and sufficient budget allotment for Defence in India? Before I embark on my small journey at trying to highlight possible solutions for a few of these issues, let us quickly look at the state of the military forces of some of our neighbours and compare certain aspects with those with those of the Indian forces.
China: Being two of the most densely populated countries in the world, India and China possess two of the biggest armies in the world, with the Chinese military strength being nearly twice that of the Indian military strength. The Chinese have around 250 nuclear warheads as against our total of around 100. The Chinese DF-41 has a strike potential of more than 10,000 km. as against the Agni-V that has a maximum strike distance of 5000 km. China has 5 times the number of submarines and 5 times the number of tanks that India does. The one thing we can probably be proud about is the number of aircraft carriers, having received a significant few erstwhile Russian and British carriers as against the couple of indigenously developed Chinese ones. However, studies show that we may be headed for better times as India is projected to narrow the gap in combat power with China to desirable ratios by 2027.
Pakistan: The Pakistani army consists of around 6,00,000 active personnel, nearly half that of the Indian army. The former have nearly 2500 battle tanks as against India’s total of around 4000. The air-force combatant ratio is around 1 : 3.8 :: Pakistan : India while the naval troops of India are around twice the size of their Pakistani counterparts. With most facts put and gloated over, one has to understand that warfare is not a simple exercise in Mathematics! More often than not, strategic and more importantly psychological warfare can get you rich dividends. In Pakistan, with the pre-eminent position of the Pakistani Military Forces and the ISI, besides the non-state actors associated with certain sections of the forces, the sentinels have found an added enthusiasm to enact ruthless acts of aggression. Even though the Indian forces are in no way less capable than their hostile Pakistani counterparts, timidity and over-restrained decision-making by the present Indian political dispensation has not only led to absurdly disproportionate reactions to these acts but also to the hesitation that the Indian soldier at a key outpost feels when faced with a relevant and immediate crisis. I will come back to this point a little later.
Having looked at certain facts related to the military strengths of the major players in southern Asia, let us try to understand the reason for the problems faced by the military forces in our country.
A major problem that the Indian armed forces face is obviously that of equipments. Most of the times, given financial constraints and defence action-plans, we source equipments from erstwhile Soviet Union or Britain. Often these equipments are used, obsolete or not fit for use. For instance, we have aircraft carriers that were built by the Royal Navy for the IInd World War, which have still not been decommissioned! One has to laud the immense contribution of the armed forces in maintaining such equipments for warfare and being able to tackle the toughest of problems with their limited resources. However, one can only keep working with such equipments for a limited amount of time. The latest incident on INS Sindhuratna is a case that highlights this issue. Even after putting up the relevant subject of a change of batteries, the administration continued to commission officers on this floating bomb! India’s Defence Procurement Procedures are a complex and involved set of regulations, which severely encumber the administration and the military forces during their pursuit of better prospects in this regard. Another interesting and surprising fact that I came across was that the Indian armed forces are ambiguous and unclear about procurement specifications and qualitative descriptions as well, at times. When ambitious action-plans are drawn, most often tenders tend to circulate and procurement becomes a long-drawn process.
But more often it is the political and administrative will that is lacking. During his term, General VK Singh wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stating that we lack ammunition for tanks and the infantry is in bad shape. More than a year has passed and no appreciable action or initiative can be seen in this regard. Other issues such as the lack of night-fighting ability and low range of artillery (even with respect to Pakistan’s) remain, unresolved.
Another significant and alarming cause of concern is, as discussed, the psychological side of the picture. Due to various reasons, ranging from low pay-scales to improper conduct of seniors, the morale of our troops has begun to sag, often leading to violent ends. Suicides have surprisingly become greater causes of deaths in the army than even combats, according to an analysis! Just as in the times of yore, when the death of a general or the king led to a colossal drop in morale often leading to a rout at the hands of one’s opponents, we have cases today. The one difference probably is the rebellious attitude of certain individuals, with cases of ‘fragging’ (a term born during the Vietnam War, which refers to the act of a subordinate killing a senior with a fragmentation grenade) having become more frequent.
What we need is a systemic change, which has to involve a clear Defence policy-making structure, potentially comprising subject-specific think-tanks. One also has to have a significant budget allotment for defence. India’s budget allocation is peanuts in front of China’s percentage allocation. We cannot keep working with Kiev-class carriers or ‘60s copters.
Change is the only constant, and those withstanding that in Defence, needs to kiss good times goodbye in an increasingly hostile and politically charged environment. The golden sparrow may be a beautiful creature but without all its lucre to shield it, it remains feeble and weak. We are moving progressively towards the glory this nation lost all those centuries back. Why then should we compromise on the safety and security of our motherland?
He is a student of Physics at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. Mrittunjoy has written a number of articles for various social forums in the past, in which he has addressed issues relating to the changing socio-political aspect of our times, and often, in the process, coining interesting terms such as ‘LOL Salaam’ and ‘Churnalism+’! He is also a poet and has had his poems appreciated in poetry summits and societies, such as the Poetree Nite Society.
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