CHINESE GHOST

The P.M of India has reached the city of Hua Hin in Thailand today to achieve a greaer cohesion with the ASEAN economic order.But the the focus of the visit it appears will be on the meeting between him and his chinese counterpart. The beligrent warnings from China to keep the Dalai Lama away from Arunachal is going to be repeated by Chinese interloqutrs. Going by the language of the invite for talks in Hua Hin it is quite evident that the self styled Lords of the Realm are going to give some lessons to India relatd to the propreity and conduct of the international poliical underworld. That Chinese find it easy to summon a mild mannered soft spoken India and thus assume that they can perhaps bully it to bow in supplication to the dictates of the Lord.
To a degree the PMO and MEA are responsble for promoting this attiude on the part of Chinese.Of curse this has not happened overnight. Sccessive Govts including that of NDA helped in creating an ipression of a maleable, soft and scared India on the internatinal stage, more so when it came to dealing with China The 62 debacle has dominated the subconcious of Indian politics. The succesive Impotent army heirarchy, lacking means and will to convince the political bosses added to the woes of Indian foriegn policy.After 62 till date inspite of being needled by the Chinese at every coceivable step and in the face of open physical hostility from them the Indian order chose to remain smug in the hope of achieveing its utopin goals on the strength of their lame diplomacy. For more than 40 years after the illfated rout of 62 we have failed to understand a simple Clausewitzian teaching i.e any political ngotiation is based and conducted from a position of military and economic strength. The two can not be separated and then used as a whip i.n isolation. The Chinese lernt it from histor and remember it to date. Ther history asa nation is rplete with examples. Th political bargains are not derived from compassion and huility. Only alms are given away to the downtodden.
Te nation is watching ad let us hoe wedon't walk in to a trap te waywe did when talking to pakistan by offering to become suspects on Baluch issue

INDIA: A BIG BUYER OF RUSSIAN JUNK

India has paid $650 million for acquisition of a Russian Nuclear Sub. The submarine in question, an Akula-II class 12000 ton attack machine has undergone repairs and refit at the Russian shipyards at a cost of $60 million after having been involved in a accident at sea wherein 20 of the crew were killed in a gas leak accident. The magnitude of repair spending indicates the the extent of fault which resulted in accident. The sub after repairs will be handed over to Russian Navy for leasing out to India. It is worth while noting down that the Russian Naval equipment and even aircraft are notorious for their being accident prone and require much higher and expensive levels of maintenance. The equipment has relatively shorter life span and lack multi dimensional operational profiles.
We are waiting for junked bath tub Groshkov to join the fleet. One can only speculate the usefulness of this junk collection exercise that too at great expense to the Indian tax payer. The reluctance of the beurocrates and the Govt to go for superior technology is is not fathomable. It is far better to keep the force leaner but muscular and agile than maintain a outdated and antiquated war regime. We are not going to fight future wars inside the museums.

INDIA'S DEFENCE EQUIPMENT ACQUISITION OPTIONS

It is quite heartening to note that India's budget allocation for defence has registered a hike of approx 33%. But I suspect that a major portion of this hike will be absorbed by increased expenditure on account of pay and pensions at various levels. The need to upgrade technologies and weapon system requires a larger allocation. Virtually 60% of equipment in use in the forces is obsolete and perhaps primitive by the standards being followed by any modern state. Our two major concerns are China and Pakistan. While there is no immediate threat from these two neighbours yet it can not be ignored that their equipment and training levels hold an advantage over us. Defence planners in India have to impress the present government of the need to upgrade the technologies and training systems in usage at present.
As for as China is concerned I think we are no match, at this point of time, to claim even a reasonable level of parity. The state of our relations with China not withstanding and the level of insurgency with in the country demands that we should now switch over to a leaner and meaner defence force capable of taking the battle to the door step our state's enemies as and when required.
The recent news item on BBC indicating our leaning towards Russia for procurement of Submarines and by now famous resource sponger aircraft carrier Groshkov must be reconsidered. In recent past it has been amply demonstrated that Russian naval equipment is most vulnerable and prone to system failures. In to days battle field environment the equipment for security forces has to be compact, self sufficient in all respects and self sustaining under the most hostile environment. The Russians designs have demonstrated their inability to meet these parameters again and again. Since Russians are no longer cheap and their conditionality are as complex as any other international supplier country in the world, we may consider widening the scope of procurement of equipment from vendors other than Russians.

ONE RANK ONE PAY

The elusive goal of one rank one pay seems as distant as stars in another galaxy. The approach to the pursuit by movement managers requires a radical shift and infusion of fresh ideas. With government doling out bits of alms to divert attention and elections to the Indian parliament having reached a conclusion in favour ruling party, hopes of ex-serviceman in India for the time being lay in ruins. The leaders of the movement seem to have gone in hibernation. The soldiers who subscribed and sweated in the sweltering heat of Delhi for the movement now appear as wide eyed lost children. It shall be indeed disappointing to see the movement withering away in the aftermath of elections. It raises questions on the sincerity and credibility of the movement leaders.One wonders whether they orchestrated the whole jamboree to attract the attention of the established political parties to gain foot hold for joining the main stream politics and be noticed by the parties. If so, it was certainly a retrograde bipartisan act with self centred motives. If not then it shall appear that the they were perhaps lacking in will and lost their hearts well before the battle is joined.
The movement has perhaps entered in to a long haul mode. It shall require the last of reserves of determination of the aging veterans to sustain and reach a elusive logical conclusion. For the time being it shall have to find new standard bearers and declare its validity to the community at large.It shall require:-
(a) Organisation of service veterans at district and state levels.
(b) Frequent gathering of cell leaders for validating their intent to pursue the goal.
(c) Discussions and debates to formulate tactical approach and draw more people to the cause of the movement
(d) Attract the attention of the politicians in the major parties to raise veterans interest in the parliament.