We should thank The Pioneer newspaper for bringing to the focus an issue accepted as unavoidable in defence procurement. Its editorial “Defence Compromised” in its issue dated February 5, 2009 how mindless red tape bound bureaucracy is compromising our national defence priorities.
It is fashionable for many of the vocal do-gooders on the TV chats to say that we are wasting money too much money in defence procurement that should be spent on welfare.
It seems the truth is not as simple as that. The truth is the Defence Ministry surrendered a mind boggling Rs 16,000 crores because it could not be spent within the year. The culprit is bureaucract; “unnecessary procedures, bottlenecks and red-tapism”as Defence Minister AK Antony says are to blame for the slow pace of modernisation of India’s defence forces.
We can only say wake up India. Will somebody shake up the slumbering bureaucracy? Will the learned PM speak a little loudly to do it?
The disturbing editorial is worth reproducing in full; here it is.
UPA succeeds in emasculating military
Defence Minister AK Antony, known to be a man of few words, has been extraordinarily candid while admitting that “unnecessary procedures, bottlenecks and red-tapism”, and not the lack of funds, are to blame for the slow pace of modernisation of India’s defence forces. Of course, there’s nothing startlingly new about his comments, nor should we be surprised by the fact that the Ministry of Defence has been routinely surrendering funds allocated under the annual Budget.
As reported by this newspaper on Thursday, the ministry has returned Rs 16,000 crore over the past five years which remained unspent. Budget allocations are not made on the basis of ad hoc calculations, but by computing the financial requirements of a ministry in any given year to meet both administrative costs and expenditure on projects. In the case of the Ministry of Defence, the allocations would include funds to procure military hardware required by the Army, Navy and Air Force, for which detailed internal discussions would have already been completed and the cost computed.
Therefore, if the ministry has been surrendering unspent funds at the end of each financial year, we can only presume that the planned procurements were not made. There is ample evidence to substantiate this point: From conducting anti-terrorism operations to maintaining vigil along the nation’s 7,000 km coastline, from launching surgical strikes against enemy camps to deploying troops for possible conventional war, the defence forces are severely handicapped. This point has been highlighted repeatedly, most notably after the 26/11 fidayeen attack on Mumbai, but neither the political leadership nor the bureaucracy has bothered to fix the problem. Instead, we have heard more promises being made on expediting the procurement of hardware — from night vision goggles to bullet-proof jackets, multi-role combat aircraft to gunboats, precision-guided missiles to field guns — with little or no follow-up action.
The unnecessary procedures, bottlenecks and red-tapism that Mr Antony has talked about are not fictitious reasons causing inordinate delay in the procurement of military hardware. But it is equally true that these can be resolved if the Government of the day is determined to place national interest above bureaucratic sloth and partisan politics. To cite the Bofors scam, from which an Italian ‘businessman’ benefited, as the reason for holding up defence procurements is to talk utter rot and must be ignored with the contempt it deserves. The Bofors scam happened more than two decades ago and had politicians and bureaucrats been truly bothered about not allowing a repetition of that scandal then they would have restructured procurement norms to make them more transparent. Indeed, the UPA Government framed the Defence Procurement Procedure which was billed as a big step towards transparency and expediting the purchase of desperately needed military hardware. The Government now owes an explanation as to why the DPP has not facilitated fresh acquisitions. Did the Government have to wait till the fag-end of its tenure to discover that perhaps the DPP needs further fine-tuning?
The issue, really, is about intentions. This Government is headed by a Prime Minister who would like to see the defence forces emasculated. This is also the Government which initiated a witch-hunt for the defence purchases made by the NDA regime although it could not come up with an iota of evidence to prove wrong-doing.
That Rs 16,000 crore meant for the modernisation of our defence forces remained unspent during its tenure is only to be expected.
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