If Indian strategic planners were to take up Tarapore on his criticism, and work on those lines, the consequences would be transformative.
Extracting the personnel of Pakistan Army XI Corps and XII Corps, that is 5 Infantry Divisions (? 75,000 jawans), we are left with (535,000 - 75,000 =) 460,000 jawans. The Indian Army then only has to defend against 460,000 jawans, who would normally need a 3:1 superiority to attack.
If we take a humorous, light-hearted view of things, even without counting the higher superiority, ranging upwards of 4:1 or even 5:1, required in mountain terrain, any Indian troops more than 80,000 in number, say around 6 infantry divisions worth, should (theoretically) hold at bay any Pakistani attack. The Indian Army could always elect to be extraordinarily stupid, however, and step aside and allow free penetration and expansion of a Pakistani attack. Of course, assuming that the Americans, the Chinese and the Russians do not interfere. Also, that general officers do not start using their pearl-handled side-arms.
Just for context, today approximately 11, at most 12 Indian divisions are directed against the PLA, and the balance of 27 divisions are concentrated on the India-Pakistan boundaries.
The Tarapore-Ajai Shukla school of thought would release 21 divisions for
- re-deployment
- reduction in personnel head-count, leading to dramatic reduction in budget provisions for pensions and retirement benefits in the middle future
- opportunities to completely set aside conventional formation building and equipping and work towards NBC capable IBGs without inhibitions.
In which format? Image or MilX?
Honestly, I'm not sure.
I have posed the question to another group of interested civilians and would like to furnish this visual evidence for their entertainment.
The question is - how to defend Indian territory without increasing head-count, number of divisions, number of corps, number of armies.
All this while readily accepting that XI Corps and XII Corps can easily stroll across and join the party, whenever their Corps commanders start feeling bored.