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Rising to India's
defense
By Ramtanu Maitra
No job in Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh's cabinet is easy, but perhaps the one with
the most pressure of money and power is that of
the defense minister. India budgeted US$17 billion
in 2004/05 for military spending (in addition to a
carry over of $7 billion from the previous budget)
as it prepares for its  perceived role as a
major power in Asia.
The modernization of
India's armed forces is still a way off, however,
as it struggles to shake off bureaucratic
bungling, political wrangling and the more than a
sniff of scandal that has characterized arms deals
in the past. The task that confronted veteran
politician and a minister of proven timber, Pranab
Mukherjee, was all that and more when he took over
in May last year. The only thing going in his
favor was the roadwork done by his predecessor,
George Fernandes. Despite all the allegations now
being thrown at him, Fernandes did very well to
merge the Defense Ministry bureaucracy with the
armed services. In fact, Fernandes was perhaps the
most successful of all the ministers that served
in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet.
Running scared
Notwithstanding
the success enjoyed by Fernandes, some basic
things remained unchanged; it is now up to
Mukherjee to remove those heavy odds and advance
India's military. The most difficult task
Mukherjee faced on taking over the Defense
portfolio was that of moving the bureaucracy.
Shaken by the scandals associated with the
purchase of howitzers from Bofors, and buying
submarine spare parts, in the 1980s, Defense
Ministry officials are still running scared, to
the point of becoming virtually dysfunctional.
Constantly watching their backs, they are
reluctant to move decisively with any
purchase. There have been much more recent
scandals, too, of bribery related to defense
purchases that have only added to the inertia.
This paralysis is fed by continuing
scandal-mongering in the media and among
politicians, the latest being the alleged payoff
in a deal for the purchase of rifles from South
African firm Denel during Fernandes' tenure.
After Bofors was blacklisted and a
political and bureaucratic witch-hunt began, the
army realized that the original idea to
manufacture Bofors guns in India had also been
dismissed. It is not clear what lessons the army
drew from the experience, but the Defense Ministry
bureaucracy concluded that extreme caution was
needed. In 1990, the Indian army asked the
government to have their old 130mm guns up-gunned
to 155mm One year later, New Delhi gave its
clearance, and Soltam of Israel was picked from
among five bidders. Soltam carried out trials in
1993, but the paralyzed Defense Ministry took
another five years to approve the bid and fulfill
the army's requirement.
This level of
paralysis has hurt the Indian military badly. It
was noticed by everyone, but the fear of becoming
politically tainted by big-money defense purchases
was overwhelming for political minnows. Writing
for Jane's Defense Weekly, defense correspondent
Rahul Bedi pointed out last October that India's
parliamentary defense committee, declaring that
the newly created Defense Procurement Board had
"miserably failed" to expedite the procurement
process, called on the Ministry of Defense to
establish a thorough study to "identify the
bottlenecks and take remedial measures to
streamline the system".
Little has been
done so far. "There seems to be no move to
expedite systems for acquiring military equipment,
despite Mukherjee's declared commitment to the
swift modernization of the armed forces," a senior
Indian defense source told Bedi. What is
extraordinary is that over the past five years,
India's Ministry of Defense has returned to
federal coffers close to $7.3 billion earmarked
for new equipment and modernization due to the
inability to take timely decisions. Needless to
say, the paralysis has affected India's military
preparedness and, not surprisingly, earned the
wrath of the armed services chiefs charged with
assuring the nation's security.
Tortuous delays
Such delays have
jeopardized a number of vital purchases, such as
the Israel Aircraft Industries Heron unmanned
aerial vehicle, the Russian Smerch multiple-launch
rocket system and the Bhim self-propelled
howitzer, in which the Denel T6 turret has been
mated with the chassis of the locally designed
Arjun main battle tank.
What concerns the
Indian army brass is that such witch-hunts can
cause permanent damage across the board, involving
the entire Ministry of Defense and the armed
forces. This is of great concern at a time when
major military powers in the world have undertaken
the arduous task of modernizing their armed
services.
Mukherjee's inability so far to
clean up the Augean stable that has clogged the
Defense Ministry seems to have affected his
professional relations with the armed services
chiefs. There is no doubt that the utter
mishandling of the Nepal situation since February
1, when King Gyanendra proclaimed a state of
emergency and dismantled Nepal's nominal
democratic structure, made the Indian army chief
unhappy. Many believe that the defense minister
should have put his foot down when Delhi adopted
counterproductive policies (such as stopping arms
supplies to the Royal Nepalese Army) , instead of
allowing things to drift.
Only recently,
Singh agreed in principle to resume military aid
to Nepal, on King Gyanendra's assurance that it
would be employed exclusively against Maoist
insurgents. What role the defense minister played
in making the prime minister change his stance is
not known.
In addition to undertaking the
daunting task of marrying a paralyzed Defense
Ministry bureaucracy with the required defense
preparedness of the nation, Mukherjee also is
obliged to deliver politically on behalf of the
Congress Party, which forms the core of the ruling
coalition government. Reports indicate that the
defense minister is under pressure from the
Congress leadership to implicate Fernandes in
corruption related to defense deals. Fernandes,
who has been particularly critical of Nehru-Gandhi
family members [1] over the past three decades, is
deeply disliked by many in the Congress Party, who
see the defense purchase-related controversies as
soft targets to hurt Fernandes. This has created
additional pressure on Mukherjee.
Positive note
Despite the tug and
pull from various directions, and the utter
collapse of the Defense Ministry minions,
Mukherjee has made some clear decisions in
widening India's procurement market. Nevertheless,
there is no question that over the past two years
the Cabinet Committee on Security, headed by
Singh, has selected military equipment based
predominantly on political considerations.
"Politics and not operational requirements dictate
equipment preferences, despite high-powered
procurement committees," a senior officer told
Bedi. But, he noted, as the armed forces seek to
diversify imports to replace and upgrade their
predominantly Soviet and Russian weapons systems,
the progress of the new acquisition projects has
slowed.
While that may be true, it is also
true that Mukherjee is looking at Russian,
American, Israeli and European suppliers with an
open eye, and has already begun to diversity the
country's procurement sources. For instance, it is
on Mukherjee's watch that India's reluctance to
buy US arms and systems has declined
significantly. Although the system has not yet
been fully evaluated for purchase, it was with
Mukherjee's approval that US arms major Raytheon
proposed the sale of a special electronic warfare
system that can jam enemy radar and communications
in a radius of 1,200 kilometers.
In
another pending deal, New Delhi has conveyed to
Washington that India is not particularly
impressed with the PAC-3 missile unit offered with
the two-tier US anti-missile defense system, on
the grounds that it is too slow for the very short
reaction period required in the sub-continent,
especially with regard to neighboring Pakistan.
Reports are that the Indian defense minister will
be taken by Pentagon higher-ups to the US Pacific
Command in Hawaii for a live demonstration of
advanced anti-missile defense systems.
There is also a definite shift in India's
policy on arms purchases from Russia. Unlike in
the past, these purchases are no longer automatic.
Reports indicate that the Indian political
establishment and the Indian army have differences
on the 155mm field gun deal; the establishment
insists on quickly purchasing 400 systems from
Russia, while the army wants to examine offers
from Israel, France and Sweden. The Indian
political establishment claims such a large order
would bind the Russians to transfer technology and
provide spares in time, but the army points out
that there is no reason for emergency purchase and
that other offers should be properly evaluated.
The US push
Recently, Mukherjee
told newsmen that India's air force currently
flies fighter jets made by France's Dassault
Aviation, and signed a deal in September 2000 to
buy 10 new planes to replace aircraft lost out of
a 1985 order of 49 Mirages. Mukherjee said the
Cabinet Committee on Security had authorized the
Defense Ministry to open negotiations with Qatar
to buy a dozen more Mirage warplanes.
India had also given the green light for the
purchase of 11 Dornier aircraft at a cost of $157
million, and for upgrading British vertical takeoff
Sea Harrier fighter jets with a new missile
system from an unnamed Israeli firm, Mukherjee
said. Earlier this year, India announced plans
to buy 126 jet fighters to bolster its fleet by
five squadrons in the next 15 years. It is considering
a number of potential suppliers, including
Russia's MiG-29K, Dassault's Mirage-2005/5,
the Grippen from Saab, a British-Swedish
consortium, and Lockheed Martin's F-16
and Boeing's F-18.
What the defense minister
must take into account, however, is the new level
of pressure that he will face from potential new
suppliers. For instance, news reports indicate
that apart from discussing and demonstrating
anti-missile defense systems, the key US aim in
taking Mukherjee to Hawaii will be to remove
mistrust in US-India strategic relations.
In February, while in Bangalore attending
Aero Show 2005, US Ambassador David C Mulford made
note that with India indicating that it will
source military equipment from more countries, the
US, which has a small market share in this sector,
intends to become a major player. The US-India
bilateral relationship, which was at an "all-time
high", was getting better, and greater military
cooperation was an integral part of these ties,
Mulford said.
Note
[1]
Jawaharlal Nehru was India's first premier after
independence in 1947. His daughter Indira Gandhi
later became premier, as did her son Rajiv.
Present Congress Party leader and power behind the
throne, Sonia Gandhi, is Rajiv's widow.
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