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| Defense need or desire to become a military power: Why is India buying so many weapons? |
India has been the world's largest buyer of arms for the past five years, despite an 11 percent decline in arms imports.
According to the annual report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), an organization that researches the purchase and sale of weapons around the world, India alone bought 11 percent of the weapons sold in the world during the last year.
According to the Sipri report, the reason for India's high demand for weapons is its border tensions with China and Pakistan.
In May 2020, India's tensions with China escalated after the clash in the Galwan Valley, and a large number of troops were deployed along the borders, and weapons were installed.
Where India has bought this weapon is also an important question. According to the report, Russia is the world's largest supplier of arms to India from 2013 to 2022, although the share has now come down from 64 percent to 45 percent.
In the same report by Sipri, it is also stated that between 2018 and 2022, Pakistan's arms procurement increased by 14 percent.
According to the report, "Pakistan's share in the global sale of weapons is 3.7 percent, while 77 percent of Pakistan's war equipment is supplied by the supply chain."
According to the report, after India, the largest arms buyer in the world is Qatar and the largest arms seller is the United States.
"India's effort to reduce dependence on foreign-made weapons"
Last month, the junior minister of the Ministry of Defense of India, Ajay Bhatt informed the Parliament that in the last five years, India has bought warplanes, helicopters, and missiles, worth about 24 billion dollars from countries like the United States, Russia, France, Israel, and Spain. Bought rockets, salt rifles, and ammunition. This did not include the $8 billion Rafale fighter jets purchased from France.
For the last five years, the Modi government has started a campaign to manufacture various types of weapons within the country with private companies under the 'Atam Nirbhar Bharat' program. Private companies are now making weapons in the country in collaboration with foreign companies.
The government has allocated approximately 12 billion dollars in this year's defense budget for the purchase of weapons made in the country. The government is trying to reduce its dependence on foreign-made weapons in the coming years.
Last Monday, Ajay Bhatt, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, said that the expenditure on arms procurement from other countries has come down from 46% to 37%, but experts believe that India's army is too big. And India will have to import war equipment from other countries for many more years.
The Indian government is trying to reduce its dependence on foreign-made weapons in the coming years
Defense analyst Rahul Bedi, citing a defense expert, told the BBC that India is preparing to buy 114 fighter jets for its air force. Apart from this, the Navy also needs 26 aircraft for the Indian-built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. Their net worth is around 45 billion dollars.
Rahul Bedi further said that India is also in talks to buy 18 Predator armed drones from the US.
Rahul Bedi says that India has been heavily dependent on Russia for the purchase of weapons but for the past several years it has been trying to reduce this dependence but it will take a long time to remove Russian weapons to a large extent.
According to him, there is very little use of indigenous technology in the equipment being manufactured in India. Most of its equipment comes from abroad or this equipment is being manufactured in India under license.
Why is India buying so many weapons?
Why is India buying so many weapons? Does it want to be a military power along with economic development?
In this regard, analyst Rahul Bedi says that Sipri also mentioned in his report that the demand for weapons has increased due to rising tensions with China and Pakistan and this is the main reason. In India, there is definitely a mindset at the grassroots level that if you don't have power, no one will listen to you.
Therefore, the current government is definitely trying to become a military power, but India's military policy is mainly defensive in nature, which aims only to defend its borders. Despite having a nationalist government in the country, the policy and philosophy of the three forces are not to attack anyone but to defend themselves.
Speaking to BBC, Ghazala Wahab, co-editor of the defense magazine "Force", said that "After the clash between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh in 2020, there is severe tension on the Sino-Indian border from Arunachal Pradesh to Ladakh.". This changed situation is the reason for the massive purchase of weapons.
At the same time, the army in India is also undergoing a massive modernization phase. Its policy is primarily to defend its borders. The aspect of aggression is not seen in it. A country must have a very large military force to invade. At the same time, there should be all arrangements to respond to a counterattack. Such preparation is not seen in India.
Ghazala Wahab further says that even as a share of GDP, India's defense budget is very low compared to other major countries.