It is general elections again and it is time to take stock of how much we achieved in the last 10 years and what more ought to be done. Have the government achieved or have they done their job correctly or have they been an utter failure? Let us analyse-
India is situated in a dangerous and volatile region of the globe. In the west, we have a neighbour who is sinking to civil war and anarchy but which also posses nuclear fangs which really makes that country unpredictable. On the east we are confronted with a larger neighbour who with decades of stable economic growth has now engaged in rapid development of defence but who is anything but aggressive to their neighbours. India has long running territorial dispute with both the countries and had also fought many wars with these countries. Further they both in their own right had been aiding and abetting non state players with the intention to destabilize us because it is in their special interest to see a weak India. Under the circumstance, it is time for us to access as to how much we have worked on making our armed forces stronger and making our country secure.
For India, the economic growth had anything but stable. Coupled with economic slowdown and a tardy economic recovery measures by the government coupled with high inflation and the weakness of our currency, the economic situation is grim. What aggravates the vows is the fact that the Government seems to have lost a strategic vision of development of the national defences and foreign policy. In the last year or so, China has continuously shocked the world with steady development of cutting edge technology. Be it combat aircrafts or for that matter any other weapon systems, China has definitely stolen the show over India. China now has two 5'th generation planes flying, they being J-20 and J-31 respectively. At the same time, India's own project of an Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) still languishes in the drawing boards. Also the Indian joint collaburation Russia for the development of the 5'th gen FGFA aircraft is also lagging behind by years. Adding insult to injury is the fact that India is just now rolling out and completing it's first fourth gen aircraft, The Tejas while for many countries , they are retiring their forth gen aircrafts. In the same way, many projects of weapons development are running late by years with still no sign of being completed.
IAF is also copping with falling squadron strength which now hovers around 33 squadrons which is volley inadequate for India's strategic necessaries. India in times to come will have to deal with a two front war. The IAF had been candid in their admission that they are not equipped to deal with such a scenario. The induction of Rafale aircraft which ought to have acted as a mid gap measure are also running late with the govt even not interested in completing the deal and that too at a time when China are inducting large numbers of aircrafts to their inventory.
The story is not different for the navy and the army. The navy is seriously copping with steep fall of their submarine arm. The government had been dragging their feet in the approval of many projects for the development of indigenous combatants which is having a negative toll on the preparedness of the armed forces.
China is increasing it's defence posture with raking up territorial disputes with huge number of countries. India is no exemption with many reported cases of China's incursions deep inside Indian territory with no assemetic counter responce from us. Summing up, it has to be surmised that the government has been a total failure in taking steps to beef our defences and be aggressive in protecting our claim over hostile neighbours. It is time for us to take urgent steps to correct the anomaly and build a credible defence, foreign and strategic policy that will be in toe with India's emergence as a first rate world power capable of protecting our interests and projecting our power where ever it may so be necessary. It is time for India to select a leadership who are strong and capable of protecting and securing our interests thus making us one of the shinning lights in galaxy of nations in years to come
VANTE MATHRAM
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