The central government has decided to spend around Rs 78, 000 crore on the defence projects following a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council, chaired by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley.
India would be building six submarines indigenously at a cost of about Rs.50, 000 crore rather than sourcing it from outside. This would be in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' pitch. The submarines will be equipped with land attack cruise missiles. Out of the Rs.78, 000 crore, 47, 000 crore is already handed out for the purpose. All the defence deals were nullified under A K Antony earlier, as a part of curbing corruption prevalent in the sector. This had invited criticisms from all sides.
The defence sector in India is highly susceptible to corruption and is the most corrupted at present. The erstwhile governments including the Congress had always maintained a military and strategic relationship with Israel. By records, India is the largest customer of Israeli military equipment with the military business between the two nations coming up to nine billion US dollars. India is also Israel’s largest defence market accounting to almost fifty percent of Israeli sales.
But Israel’s Zionist strategies have always led to its criticizing by the world nations who had strongly denounced and even boycotted Israel and its products. There have been many large pro-Palestine and pro-Israel demonstrations throughout the world. The Israeli brutalities in Lebanon in 2006 and in Gaza in 2014 have tarnished the country’s image in front of the international community. The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement was launched globally to increase economic and political pressure on Israel due to its ill-treatment of the Palestinians.
Despite all the factors, India had maintained a neutral stand, remained almost indifferent to the Israeli war crimes in Gaza justifying that it could not strain the diplomatic ties with Israel. The country is also involved in the purchase of weapons from Israel. India had brought more than 50 % of the Rs 360 crore military weapon deal by Israel in 2005. Besides the corrupted dealings, the quality and credibility of the weapons supplied is also being questioned. The earlier UPA government had nullified a military deal worth Rs.75.3 crore dollars following the allegations and had barred many foreign weapon manufacturing companies including the Israeli Military Industries from bidding for defense contracts in the country for 10 years.
Given the Kargil coffin scam, due to which the government incurred a huge loss of around 1, 87, 000 dollars during the corrupted coffin transactions, the latest move is viewed with much skepticism. The then ruling NDA government had purchased 500 caskets worth $2500 each which was presumed to be thirteen times the original amount. It’s blatantly clear that India’s defence affairs have a huge foreign influence and the robust ties with a Zionist country which initiates a bloodshed for its petty gains is unacceptable. The relation with Israel for mutual political, economic and military gains is against basic principles of non-violence preached by Mahatma Gandhi. Military equipments are essential as far as the safety and security of the nation is concerned; but manufacturing it inside the country would be finer rather than buying them from non credible sources.