Levina
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Generals in TOYSHOP!!
When Narendra Modi sat in the cockpit of a MiG-29K parked on the flight deck of INS Vikramaditya on June 14, he became the first PM to go for a military event on his first outing.
Most PMs have their military moments, but they come late in their reigns. Narasimha Rao rode an Arjun tank with Gen. Shankar Roychoudhury. Deve Gowda posed, though with a sad face, beside warjets at the Bangalore air show. I.K. Gujral got snapped in the first Sukhoi's cockpit. Vajpayee had his atom-Shakti moment. Manmohan stood by his wife's side when she launched the super-secret atomic submarine Arihant. The photo didn't show him.
Standing on the flight deck, Modi said India should sell arms. Another first. PMs have so far been talking of making arms only for our own use. Close to three-fourths of our arsenal is foreign-made or foreign-designed, including the massive platform on which Modi was standing when he made the 'im-pious' wish. Vikramaditya, formerly Admiral Gorshkov of Russia, is the costliest piece of military ware that we have ever bought, and is the largest and most lethal ship owned by any navy east of the Suez.
We export only non-lethal stuff—tents, parachutes, and a few unarmed Dhruv helicopters—to small countries like the Maldives, Ecuador and Surinam. We do make a lot of mean stuff, but don't sell any.
For several reasons. First, our factories don't make enough even for ourselves. So we import a lot of stuff. Modi has a solution to this— bring in FDI, scale up the factories, and make more tanks, ships and planes.
Two, most of our fighter jets and battle tanks are made under foreign licence which prohibit export. But what about the stuff over which there is no such bar? Like BrahMos, the world's only cruise missile which can be shot from land to ship, ship to land, ship to ship, land to land? Any general or admiral anywhere in the world would give his right arm to get such an arm.
Blame our pacifist political class and status-quoist foreign office. They shudder at the mention of selling arms. Sell BrahMos to Vietnam? God forbid, what will the Chinese think? To Brazil? Perish the thought; we can't upset Chile or Argentina. To South Africa? Why do they want it? They have no enemies. Listen to our diplomats, and you would think they are the Atlases holding up the world order. Modi, hopefully, won't take such crap.
If the Tajiks are to buy Tejas jets, Modi should ask the IAF to fly them first. If the Argentines are to buy Arjun tanks, our armoured corps should ride them first.
Therein lies the next problem. Our brand-struck brasshats don't. If at all they buy local ware, they take about a few samples, euphemistically called 'limited series'. The rest they buy from the world market, even diluting their qualitative requirements if what they asked for isn't available or is too costly. But, if home-made ware is just 5 per cent short of the QR, it is dumped.
The latest casualty is intermediate jet trainer Sitara. Just when our engineers in Hindustan Aeronautics thought, after 15 years of development, that they had made what the IAF had asked for, the latter is dumping it, and looking for trainer-planes in Russia, Italy, Korea, Sweden and the US.
TAILPIECE: WE MAKE weapons, but don't build brands. We have been operating aircraft-carriers for 50 years; we own two; a third is being built—Vikrant, the first home-made one.
The Chinese are novices to carriers; they got their first two years ago. But Beijing toyshops had been selling its toy-model before the ship was launched. Ever seen a toy-model of Vikrant, Viraat or Vikramaditya in an Indian toy shop? You may get F-16s or Abrams tanks, not Tejas jets or Arjun tanks.
Pray, who is catching the fancy of our future generals, admirals and air marshals?
prasannan@the-week.com
When Narendra Modi sat in the cockpit of a MiG-29K parked on the flight deck of INS Vikramaditya on June 14, he became the first PM to go for a military event on his first outing.
Most PMs have their military moments, but they come late in their reigns. Narasimha Rao rode an Arjun tank with Gen. Shankar Roychoudhury. Deve Gowda posed, though with a sad face, beside warjets at the Bangalore air show. I.K. Gujral got snapped in the first Sukhoi's cockpit. Vajpayee had his atom-Shakti moment. Manmohan stood by his wife's side when she launched the super-secret atomic submarine Arihant. The photo didn't show him.
Standing on the flight deck, Modi said India should sell arms. Another first. PMs have so far been talking of making arms only for our own use. Close to three-fourths of our arsenal is foreign-made or foreign-designed, including the massive platform on which Modi was standing when he made the 'im-pious' wish. Vikramaditya, formerly Admiral Gorshkov of Russia, is the costliest piece of military ware that we have ever bought, and is the largest and most lethal ship owned by any navy east of the Suez.
We export only non-lethal stuff—tents, parachutes, and a few unarmed Dhruv helicopters—to small countries like the Maldives, Ecuador and Surinam. We do make a lot of mean stuff, but don't sell any.
For several reasons. First, our factories don't make enough even for ourselves. So we import a lot of stuff. Modi has a solution to this— bring in FDI, scale up the factories, and make more tanks, ships and planes.
Two, most of our fighter jets and battle tanks are made under foreign licence which prohibit export. But what about the stuff over which there is no such bar? Like BrahMos, the world's only cruise missile which can be shot from land to ship, ship to land, ship to ship, land to land? Any general or admiral anywhere in the world would give his right arm to get such an arm.
Blame our pacifist political class and status-quoist foreign office. They shudder at the mention of selling arms. Sell BrahMos to Vietnam? God forbid, what will the Chinese think? To Brazil? Perish the thought; we can't upset Chile or Argentina. To South Africa? Why do they want it? They have no enemies. Listen to our diplomats, and you would think they are the Atlases holding up the world order. Modi, hopefully, won't take such crap.
If the Tajiks are to buy Tejas jets, Modi should ask the IAF to fly them first. If the Argentines are to buy Arjun tanks, our armoured corps should ride them first.
Therein lies the next problem. Our brand-struck brasshats don't. If at all they buy local ware, they take about a few samples, euphemistically called 'limited series'. The rest they buy from the world market, even diluting their qualitative requirements if what they asked for isn't available or is too costly. But, if home-made ware is just 5 per cent short of the QR, it is dumped.
The latest casualty is intermediate jet trainer Sitara. Just when our engineers in Hindustan Aeronautics thought, after 15 years of development, that they had made what the IAF had asked for, the latter is dumping it, and looking for trainer-planes in Russia, Italy, Korea, Sweden and the US.
TAILPIECE: WE MAKE weapons, but don't build brands. We have been operating aircraft-carriers for 50 years; we own two; a third is being built—Vikrant, the first home-made one.
The Chinese are novices to carriers; they got their first two years ago. But Beijing toyshops had been selling its toy-model before the ship was launched. Ever seen a toy-model of Vikrant, Viraat or Vikramaditya in an Indian toy shop? You may get F-16s or Abrams tanks, not Tejas jets or Arjun tanks.
Pray, who is catching the fancy of our future generals, admirals and air marshals?
prasannan@the-week.com
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