ALTHOUGH IN PUBLIC PROCLAMATIONS and speeches, leaders of the BJP government at the Centre project the party as the first champion of the country’s defence forces, and the 1.17-million strong Indian Army, there’s rising discontent within the top brass of the armed forces. Against the backdrop of reports in the international media of India’s superpower aspirant neighbour, the People’s Republic of China, sharply increasing its defence budget for 2018-19 by 8.1 percent, some plain speaking was done on March 13 by Lt. Gen. Sharath Chand, vice chief of the army while deposing before a parliamentary standing committee on defence. 

According to Gen. Chand, the Rs.2.94 lakh crore provision for defence in Union Budget 2018-19 was a modest increase of 7.81 percent over the previous year, which barely covered inflation. Elaborating, Chand said the budgetary capital expenditure “allocation of Rs.21,388 crore for modernisation is insufficient even to cater for committed payments of Rs.29,033 crore for 125 ongoing schemes, emergency procurement and other requirements”. According to the general, against the normative classification of one-third of capital equipment of modern defence services being in the vintage, modern and state-of-the-art categories, 68 percent of the Indian Army’s equipment is classified as vintage and a mere 8 percent as state-of the-art. 

Given the unstable geo-political environment in South Asia with divisions of the Indian Army face to face with Pakistan’s troops and irregulars in the west and contingents of China’s formidable PLA (People’s Liberation Army) on the north-west (Aksai Chin) and the north-east borders, the equipment obsolescence of the defence services is alarming. But clearly, a massive increase in defence expenditure isn’t a serious option given the pathetic condition of the Indian economy ruined by over half century of neta-babu socialism. It’s pertinent to note that the Centre’s allocation for education is one-third of the defence outlay in Budget 2018-19. 

An option repeatedly recommended by this publication, is for the Indian Army to generate some of its own revenue by monetising its assets — land and buildings in urban areas — through relocating its training establishments to outlying areas, and deploying its excellent engineers by undertaking civil construction projects. The plain truth is this impoverished nation simply cannot afford a 1-million-plus army in perpetual training. In this connection, it’s instructive to note that the PLA earns an estimated $15 billion (Rs.100,000 crore) from its commercial activities. 

Entry of the highly disciplined engineering and construction units of the armed forces — which have demonstrated their capabilities by building excellent cantonments with roads, power plants, water supply and sanitation facilities — into the civil construction industry, is a win-win proposition for a nation whose landscape and infrastructure has been ruined by government PWDs (public works departments) and a massive army of venal, short-changing civil contractors.