Every year 26th July our country pays tributes to our 527 martyrs who attained martyrdom in Kargil War with pride in our hearts and prayer on our lips. But have we learnt from Kargil War where like everytime we were caught with our pants down??The recent emergency panic purchase exposes our vulnerability yet again.
Each and every conflict India had since 1947 has showed that we have always lacked critical military hardware and ammunition and have always resorted to panic buying when enemy is at gates.Indian soldiers throughout the world have been praised for their fighting skills even earning respect from most racist armies-Aussies at Gallipoli. Many Australian diaries and letters feature references to Indian soldiers. History is full of examples where we have snatched victories from the jaws of death.Read "Slender was the thread-Brig L.P.Sen" to understand how we saved Srinagar and would have easily captured Muzaffarabad and rest of POK had it not been for British masters then who were still in command despite India gaining Independence.British officers engineered and halted our troops forward movement from URI.They never wanted India to share borders with Afghanistan because British policy makers never wanted a scenario of Soviet Union standing on Indian borders in order to contain reach and hegemony of Soviet Union in the future. How far sighted Britishers were. If POK was captured by India then we would have shared borders with Afghanistan and Britishers in 1940s had realised Soviet Union would one day will set foot in Afghanistan which they indeed did in 30 years later in 1978.
There is also an apocryphal story behind British intention behind engineering partition of India was infact the same reason - premonition of Soviet Union on the Afghan border-The Durand Line.
Soviet Union intervention in Afghanistan failed because the Western allies USA & Britishers gave safe heaven and funded and directed Afghan resistance-the Mujahideen from across this Durand Line.If India was not partitioned in 1947 then in all probability Soviet Union would have succeeded in its Afghan intervention and probably not collapsed in 1991.
The reason why i have mentioned this above is all countries which today have a weightage in world affairs always had a Security strategy aka National Security Policy thinking abt 35-50 years ahead unlike we Indians whose political masters have squandered away territorial gains achieved in battlefield in the negotiation table.For example Lal Bahadur Shastri's decision of handing back Haji Pir Pass back to Pakistan.Till today we are rueing this foolish decision as Pakistan's lion share of terrorist infiltration comes from the same Haji Pir Pass. Our policy makers decision at the time of crisis reflect that we have never sensed National Security from 35-50 years perspective.We need to learn a lot from British.
Most of our foolish decisions of political masters comes from the fact that Military top brass recommendation are often overruled by the IAS lobby.IAS lobby has always ensured our armed forces are under-armed they have ensured there is a fear psychosis in ruling political class that only way to ensure there is no coup in India is to keep our armed forces under-armed.Also incidents in past such as Operation Brasstacks when many things were hidden from PM by then COAS General Sundarji as well as the apocryphal story of COAS General V K Singh ordering a brigade towards Delhi at the height of his public verbal tussle with erstwhile GOI was utilised to the fullest by IAS lobby to keep the fear of impending coup in the minds of the ruling political class that if armed forces are given all their weapons requirements.
Because of this reason at every moment in our past when war clouds were looming and when enemy was at the gates we have seen news bulletins of Indian Government increasing budget and indulging in panic buying of critical spares and ammunations.
Take the example of India's decision to equip it's new Rafale Fighter jets which are already coming with deadly weapons package with "HAMMER" Air-to-Ground precision munitions from France. Infact Israel's SPICE-2000 had edged out the HAMMER in an IAF competition to arm the Mirage in 2012 mainly because French Hammer was costing almost double that of Israel's SPICE-2000.Since Integrating SPICE-2000 with Rafale would have taken time the decision of IAF to go for expensive HAMMER exposes our lack of modern weapon system.
It was because of our obsolete military hardware we failed to punish Pakistan Air -Force post Operation Swift Retort which exposed our fighter pilots were cut off the communication circuit with ground controllers as Pakistan's AWACS had electronically jammed our fighter jets communication with ground controllers.It was because of this Wing Commander Abhinandan didnt recieve the warning and direction of ground controller to go cold and not enter Pakistan's Air Space.
The recent decision to acquire Light tanks under emergency purchase procurement exposes the vulnerability of the heavy T-90's Tanks in the higher altitudes in Ladhakh. Today when we are celebrating Kargil Vijay Diwas lets not forget it was Kargil Review Committee which had recommended creation of a post of CDS who would be first among the Generals in order for better synchronization among our three armed services which was found wanting in the same Kargil war.It was formulated only on 24 December 2019 almost 20 years after Kargil Review Committee had recommended it.
Also Kargil War had exposed our survelliance capability.The present day Chinese occupation of our territory again exposes our survelliance capabilities.Whether it was Kargil,URI surgical strike,Pulwama massacre or the present day tensions with Chinese we have always been found with our pants down when it comes to military equipments.
When any country buys weapons or ammo in panic they will never get the best price because they dont have the time to negotiate and the weapon supplier also knows this and we will be looted.
Until and unless we create a robust military industrial eco-system with active participation of Indian private companies and unless and until Military is given due importance in decision making of weapon acquisition instead of IAS lobby we will continued to get looted like in the past.
Each and every conflict India had since 1947 has showed that we have always lacked critical military hardware and ammunition and have always resorted to panic buying when enemy is at gates.Indian soldiers throughout the world have been praised for their fighting skills even earning respect from most racist armies-Aussies at Gallipoli. Many Australian diaries and letters feature references to Indian soldiers. History is full of examples where we have snatched victories from the jaws of death.Read "Slender was the thread-Brig L.P.Sen" to understand how we saved Srinagar and would have easily captured Muzaffarabad and rest of POK had it not been for British masters then who were still in command despite India gaining Independence.British officers engineered and halted our troops forward movement from URI.They never wanted India to share borders with Afghanistan because British policy makers never wanted a scenario of Soviet Union standing on Indian borders in order to contain reach and hegemony of Soviet Union in the future. How far sighted Britishers were. If POK was captured by India then we would have shared borders with Afghanistan and Britishers in 1940s had realised Soviet Union would one day will set foot in Afghanistan which they indeed did in 30 years later in 1978.
There is also an apocryphal story behind British intention behind engineering partition of India was infact the same reason - premonition of Soviet Union on the Afghan border-The Durand Line.
Soviet Union intervention in Afghanistan failed because the Western allies USA & Britishers gave safe heaven and funded and directed Afghan resistance-the Mujahideen from across this Durand Line.If India was not partitioned in 1947 then in all probability Soviet Union would have succeeded in its Afghan intervention and probably not collapsed in 1991.
The reason why i have mentioned this above is all countries which today have a weightage in world affairs always had a Security strategy aka National Security Policy thinking abt 35-50 years ahead unlike we Indians whose political masters have squandered away territorial gains achieved in battlefield in the negotiation table.For example Lal Bahadur Shastri's decision of handing back Haji Pir Pass back to Pakistan.Till today we are rueing this foolish decision as Pakistan's lion share of terrorist infiltration comes from the same Haji Pir Pass. Our policy makers decision at the time of crisis reflect that we have never sensed National Security from 35-50 years perspective.We need to learn a lot from British.
Most of our foolish decisions of political masters comes from the fact that Military top brass recommendation are often overruled by the IAS lobby.IAS lobby has always ensured our armed forces are under-armed they have ensured there is a fear psychosis in ruling political class that only way to ensure there is no coup in India is to keep our armed forces under-armed.Also incidents in past such as Operation Brasstacks when many things were hidden from PM by then COAS General Sundarji as well as the apocryphal story of COAS General V K Singh ordering a brigade towards Delhi at the height of his public verbal tussle with erstwhile GOI was utilised to the fullest by IAS lobby to keep the fear of impending coup in the minds of the ruling political class that if armed forces are given all their weapons requirements.
Because of this reason at every moment in our past when war clouds were looming and when enemy was at the gates we have seen news bulletins of Indian Government increasing budget and indulging in panic buying of critical spares and ammunations.
Take the example of India's decision to equip it's new Rafale Fighter jets which are already coming with deadly weapons package with "HAMMER" Air-to-Ground precision munitions from France. Infact Israel's SPICE-2000 had edged out the HAMMER in an IAF competition to arm the Mirage in 2012 mainly because French Hammer was costing almost double that of Israel's SPICE-2000.Since Integrating SPICE-2000 with Rafale would have taken time the decision of IAF to go for expensive HAMMER exposes our lack of modern weapon system.
It was because of our obsolete military hardware we failed to punish Pakistan Air -Force post Operation Swift Retort which exposed our fighter pilots were cut off the communication circuit with ground controllers as Pakistan's AWACS had electronically jammed our fighter jets communication with ground controllers.It was because of this Wing Commander Abhinandan didnt recieve the warning and direction of ground controller to go cold and not enter Pakistan's Air Space.
The recent decision to acquire Light tanks under emergency purchase procurement exposes the vulnerability of the heavy T-90's Tanks in the higher altitudes in Ladhakh. Today when we are celebrating Kargil Vijay Diwas lets not forget it was Kargil Review Committee which had recommended creation of a post of CDS who would be first among the Generals in order for better synchronization among our three armed services which was found wanting in the same Kargil war.It was formulated only on 24 December 2019 almost 20 years after Kargil Review Committee had recommended it.
Also Kargil War had exposed our survelliance capability.The present day Chinese occupation of our territory again exposes our survelliance capabilities.Whether it was Kargil,URI surgical strike,Pulwama massacre or the present day tensions with Chinese we have always been found with our pants down when it comes to military equipments.
When any country buys weapons or ammo in panic they will never get the best price because they dont have the time to negotiate and the weapon supplier also knows this and we will be looted.
Until and unless we create a robust military industrial eco-system with active participation of Indian private companies and unless and until Military is given due importance in decision making of weapon acquisition instead of IAS lobby we will continued to get looted like in the past.
