Make a Wish!: India’s Achilles Heel

Dependence on foreign suppliers for military hardware is harming national security

Arun Prakash

The latest episode of alleged corruption in a deal to purchase Italian helicopters for the IAF’s VIP Squadron constitutes yet another blow to India’s national security. The most detrimental consequence of the ongoing probe into wrongdoing – the CBI has registered a case yesterday – is the harm that it will cause to the morale, cohesion and self-esteem of the armed forces.
    No matter what the final outcome of enquiries by the investigating agencies – and past precedent shows that they rarely come to any definitive conclusion – serious damage has already been done to this esteemed institution.
    However, a deeper malaise and far more toxic threat to national security, of which this incident is yet one more symptom, is India’s abject dependence on foreign sources for military hardware. It is no secret that the Indian armed forces are equipped, overwhelmingly, with platforms and systems acquired from Russia, Israel, the UK, France, Italy and the US, amongst others. Even when we claim that a tank, ship, submarine or aircraft is ‘indigenously built’, the fact that seldom emerges is that 70%-80% of the electronics, weaponry and other vital systems that go into it are imported.
    India’s past experience has clearly demonstrated the multiple penalties that we pay for this external dependence. The Comptroller and Auditor General, in his annual report to Parliament, regularly highlights the proportion of our imported tanks, artillery, submarines, fighters and radars that are out of action, thus degrading the combat-readiness of our forces.
    There does not seem to be any appreciation of the stark fact that every piece of hardware that the Indian armed forces acquire from abroad places them at the mercy of the seller nation for 30-40 years thereafter. The nonchalance with which we continue to import huge quantities of arms not only undermines our security but renders all talk of ‘strategic autonomy’ meaningless.
    India is fortunate to have a vast defence technology and industrial base (DTIB) which would be the envy of developed nations. This base comprises thousands of talented scientists working in a network of sophisticated DRDO laboratories backed by the advanced production facilities of the ordinance factories and defence public sector units (DPSUs).
    And yet, India’s DTIB has rendered our armed forces hollow by failing to deliver, for six decades, capabilities they direly need. A willing and capable private sector has been kept out of defence production while the DPSUs have hoodwinked the nation with spurious claims of ‘technology transfer’ and ‘indigenisation’.
    It is deeply disturbing to note that no one in India’s national security establishment, comprising the political leadership, scientists and bureaucrats, has seen fit to demand accountability for this gaping void in national capability. Worse still, no roadmap has been drawn up for attaining selfsufficiency in weapon systems. India’s massive arms imports constitute a double jeopardy for the nation. Not only do they constitute a serious security compromise, they also extract a heavy moral price as corruption scandals erupt with regularity, smearing the country’s good name and eroding its self-respect.
    Banning or ‘blacklisting’ of arms companies alleged to be involved in malpractices may appear to be a dramatic antidote. But in reality, it is counterproductive because it harms our security far more than the impugned firm. The army’s artillery wing has not received a new gun for 30 years because the MoD has blacklisted every reputed gun manufacturer on the basis of allegations. By disarming ourselves in this manner, we are thoughtlessly fulfilling the fondest dreams of our adversaries.
    It is time for Indians to ask why every foreign arms manufacturer feels compelled to offer bribes in India even when marketing a product which could win the competition purely on its superior qualities or price. The answer is devastatingly simple: because they are convinced, and know from past precedent, that no arms deal ever goes through in India – regardless of the product’s merit – without kickbacks being paid. The only service that the so-called middlemen provide is to advise their principals whom to bribe how much.
    So deep-rooted is this conviction amongst foreign companies that no amount of fiddling with defence procurement procedures or insistence on ‘Integrity Pacts’ will deter them from offering bribes as insurance that their deal is not scuttled – either by some influence-peddler in Delhi’s backalleys or by a frustrated rival.
    According to one viewpoint, parties across the political spectrum see the arms import business as a veritable golden goose for election funding, and are obviously loath to kill it by encouraging the indigenous arms industry. Since alleged scams come in handy to settle political scores, we have witnessed, since the 1980s, every single major defence contract getting embroiled in allegations of corruption and kickbacks. Consequently India’s defence modernisation has come to a grinding halt at a time when China’s defence budget has hit a new high and AfPak poses a deadly potential menace.
    In this grave scenario, India’s decision-makers and politicians can take two major initiatives which will help salve wounded national pride and serve the cause of national security. One is to launch a 25-year public-private ‘national mission’ to attain self-sufficiency in arms; if we start today, we may wean ourselves off foreign dependence by 2038. The other is to get all political parties to sign an Integrity Pact in which they will, in the national interest, undertake to treat defence purchases as sacrosanct and seek election funding from other sources.