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by Abhijat Bharadwaj
With India at loggerheads with Pakistan on the west and an increasingly aggressive red China on the east, the possibilities of a debilitating two-front war are ever increasing. With heightening chances of a long drawn conflict in the future, maybe it’s time for the Indian government to start thinking about starting a Civilian Marksmanship program on the lines of the one in the United States.
The Indian program would be a little different from the one in the U.S. in that it would be tailored to Indian needs. Civilians could be trained in the use of weapons at the Indian Army’s various facilities in and around cities. Also, the citizens availing these lessons could be charged a substantial fee. That’s why this program could pay for itself as there is no dearth of Indians who would be interested in such learning and experiences (India is a nation of patriots after all). There is also no dearth of people in India who would pay handsomely for the same. The weapons would also be safely kept at training ranges and hence there would be no danger of them falling into the wrong hands. All that the citizens of India would be getting is training in the use of these weapons. In the event of a misadventure planned by China or the Pakistanis, this could come in very handy as we would need as many boots on the ground as possible. Weapons could be distributed to the citizenry in case of a long drawn war, this could help lead to a stalemate and the eventual victory of India’s armed citizenry and armed forces. All these reasons combined make a very strong argument for a culture of training citizens in the use of weapons.
If you’re wondering where these weapons would come from, here’s the answer: India is set to replace the INSAS rifle with a more able rifle soon. That means more than 1 million INSAS rifles can be pressed into service to train Indian citizens.
If India takes this step and starts training its citizens in the use of weapons and military tactics, not even the combined strength of Pakistan and China would dare take a step on Indian soil. This could prove to the ultimate deterrent. More powerful than a hydrogen bomb, are millions of citizen patriots trained to fight.
Abhijat Bharadwaj is a Defense enthusiast. This piece on the emerging Russian stealth fighter was written by him exclusively for IDN. Views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of IDN
http://www.indiandefensenews.in/2017/06/idn-take-trained-patriots-indias.html