Skip to main content

India's military hardware in "vintage" state, main problem is democracy: Top US daily

By Our Representative
In a scathing commentary that would, ironically, sound music to diametrically opposite sides – Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on one hand, and Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, on the other – the top US daily “The New York Times” (NYT) has said that India has lost the air dogfight to Pakistan, insisting, this raises questions about India’s “vintage military”.
The commentary by Maria Abi-Habib, dated-lined New Delhi, comes close on the heels Modi, participating at an event organised by “India Today”, claiming that the strike on Pakistan’s Balakot region and the subsequent shooting down of an Indian Air force’s MIG-21 plane, followed by the capture of pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, showed that if India “had Rafale, then the result would have been different.”
The Pakistan media was quick to pick up Modi’s rather unusual statement, which was meant to attack the past Congress-led governments for allegedly failing to keep the Indian Air Force up to date. Thus, Pakistan’s most-viewed Geo TV said, “Modi admits Pakistan Air Force superiority in air warfare.” Pakistan’s ruling party, the Tehreek-e-Insaf, insisted, Modi’s statement “confirms that Pakistan outmanoeuvred Indian Air Force in the recent skirmish”.
Calling the India-Pakistan skirmish “an inauspicious moment for a military the US is banking on to help keep an expanding China in check”, NYT says, the skirmish showed how an Indian Air Force pilot found himself in a dogfight “with a warplane from the Pakistani Air Force, and ended up a prisoner behind enemy lines for a brief time.”
While the Indian pilot returned home “in one piece”, NYT continues, “The aerial clash, the first by the South Asian rivals in nearly five decades, was a rare test for the Indian military.” It left observers “a bit dumbfounded”.
It adds, “While the challenges faced by the India’s armed forces are no secret, its loss of a plane last week to a country whose military is about half the size and receives a quarter of the funding was still telling.”
Claiming that India’s armed forces are in an “alarming shape”, NYT seeks to predict, “If intense warfare broke out tomorrow, India could supply its troops with only 10 days of ammunition, according to government estimates. And 68 percent of the army’s equipment is so old, it is officially considered ‘vintage’.”
Quoting unnamed American officials, who are “tasked” with the aim of dealing with the Indian military, NYT says, they talk too about “their mission with frustration: a swollen bureaucracy makes arms sales and joint training exercises cumbersome; Indian forces are vastly underfunded; and the country’s navy, army and air force tend to compete rather than work together.”
Contending that despite these “problems, the US is determined to make the country a key ally in the coming years to hedge against China’s growing regional ambition”, NYT recalls how last year, when Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced that the Pentagon was renaming its Pacific Command to Indo-Pacific he emphasized India’s importance in a shifting world order.Already, says NYT, the American military has begun “prioritizing its alliance with India as its close relationship with Pakistan soured over the last two decades.”
Further quoting US officials’ “concern” that Pakistan is not doing “enough to fight terrorism”, NYT says, “In just a decade, US arms sales to India have gone from nearly zero to $15 billion”, even though “Pakistan can still draw on a powerful American-supplied arsenal”, something that continues to be disturbing.
Thus, says the daily, the American Embassy in Islamabad was looking into reports now Pakistan was made an “offensive use of an F-16 warplane” against India, that might have been “a violation of the sales agreement.”
Be that as it may, NYT states, “For India’s military, funding remains the biggest challenge.” Thus, “In 2018, India announced a military budget of some $45 billion. By comparison, China’s military budget that year was $175 billion. Last month, Delhi announced another $45 billion budget.”
However, it underlines, “It is not just a question of how much India spends on its military, but how it spends it”, as “the majority of the money goes to salaries for its 1.2 million active duty troops, as well as pensions. Only $14 billion will be used to buy new hardware.”
Another problem with India, suggests the daily, is India’s democracy. It says, “Unlike China, where an authoritarian government is free to set military policy as it wishes, India is a democracy, with all the messiness that can entail.”
NYT comments, “As the world’s conflicts are increasingly fought with state-of-the-art weaponry rather than the large invading armies of the past, India is falling behind. Despite being the fifth-largest military spender, only about a quarter of its military budget this year will purchase new equipment...”
It adds, “Although the purchase of military hardware is a slow-moving process in most countries, in India it moves even more sluggishly amid a swollen bureaucracy. There are also concerns about corruption.”

Comments

Anonymous said…
It has received the buzz from the State Government of Maharashtra.

And since were talking about parties, listed here are few ideas you can use to
hosting one out of your dorm room. Further educational opportunities subsist at colleges and MBA
in Bangalore, counting transferable Associate in Business Administration degree programs, together with dedicated programs as
Business of Health Care MBA, degrees and certifications.

TRENDING

'Draconian' Kerala health law follows WHO diktat: Govt readies to take harsh measures

By Dr Maya Valecha*  The Governor of Kerala has signed the Kerala Public Health Bill, which essentially reverses the people’s campaign in healthcare services in Kerala for decentralisation. The campaign had led to relinquishing of state powers in 1996, resulting in improvement of health parameters in Kerala. Instead, now, enforcement of law through the exercise of power, fines, etc., and the implementation of protocol during the pandemic, are considered of prime importance.

Reject WHO's 'draconian' amendments on pandemic: Citizens to Union Health Minister

By Our Representative  Several concerned Indian citizens have written to the Union Health Minister to reject amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) of the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted during the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA75) in May 2022, apprehending this will make the signatories surrender their autonomy to the “unelected, unaccountable and the whimsical WHO in case of any future ‘pandemics’.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Bihar rural women entrepreneurs witness 50% surge in awareness about renewal energy

By Mignonne Dsouza*  An endline survey conducted under the Bolega Bihar initiative revealed a significant increase in awareness of renewable energy among women, rising from 25% to 76% in Nalanda and Gaya. Renu Kumari, a 34-year-old entrepreneur from Nalanda, Bihar, operates a village eatery that serves as the primary source of income for her family, including her husband and five children. However, a significant portion of her profits was being directed toward covering monthly electricity expenses that usually reach Rs 2,000. 

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Work with Rajasthan's camel herders: German scientist wins World Cookbook Award 2023

By Rosamma Thomas*  Gourmand World Cookbook Awards are the only awards for international food culture. This year, German scientist  Ilse Kohler Rollefson , founder of Camel Charisma, the first of India’s camel dairies, in Pali district of Rajasthan, won the award for her work with camel herders in Rajasthan, and for preparing for the UN International Year of Camelids, 2024. 

Why is electricity tariff going up in India? Who is the beneficiary? A random reflection

By Thomas Franco*  Union Ministry of Power has used its power under Section 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003 to force States to import coal which has led to an increase in the cost of electricity production and every consumer is paying a higher tariff. In India, almost everybody from farmers to MSMEs are consumers of electricity.

'Pro-corporate agenda': Odisha crackdown on tribal slum dwellers fighting for land rights

By Our Representative  The civil rights network Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), even as condemning what it calls “brutal repression” on the Adivasi slum dwellers of Salia Sahi in Bhubaneshwar by the Odisha police, has said that the crackdown was against the tribals struggling for land rights in order to “stop the attempts at land-grab by the government.”

Deplorable, influential sections 'still believe' burning coal is essential indefinitely

By Shankar Sharma*  Some of the recent developments in the power sector, as some  recent news items show, should be of massive relevance/ interest to our policy makers in India. Assuming that our authorities are officially mandated/ committed to maintain a holistic approach to the overall welfare of all sections of our society, including the flora, fauna and general environment, these developments/ experiences from different parts of the globe should be clear pointers to the sustainable energy pathways for our people.

Hazrat Aisha’s age was 16, not 6: 'Weak' Hadith responsible for controversy

Sacred chamber where Prophet and Aisha used to live By Dr Mike Ghouse* Muslims must take the responsibility to end the age-old controversy about Hazrat Aisha’s age at the time of her marriage to the Prophet (pbuh) – it was 16, not 6 (minimum was 16, Max 23 per different calculations). The Hadiths published were in good faith, but no one ever checked their authenticity, and they kept passing on from scholar to scholar and book to book.  Thanks to 9/11, Muslims have started questioning and correcting the Hadiths, Seerah, and mistranslations of the Quran. Now, the Ulema have to issue an opinion, also known as Fatwa, to end it and remove those Hadith entries. Mustafa Akyol, a scholar of Islam, implores Muslims to stop deifying “the received traditions” and critically study their religious past, shedding rigid legalism and close-mindedness. Someone else used the phrase “copycat Muslims” to identify scholars who copied what was given to them and passed it on without researching or questioni