Sir,
During his one-and-a-half day’s stay in India, President Donald Trump successfully persuaded a cash-strapped and recession-hit India into signing defence contracts worth $3 billion. Never mind that India’s trade deficit with the USA stood at an astronomical $23,255.9 million by 2019 end. What is obvious is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan of “Make in India” does not apply to the defence sector. Here, the policy is “Make in USA, buy and use in India.”
The Modi Government has opened up the defence sector, too, to private industries. What the Government lacks is a vision to build up the indigenous armaments industry with public-private collaboration so that India’s dependence on arms imports can be reduced as much as possible within a specific time-frame. India still remains the world’s second largest arms importer after Saudi Arabia. And the situation is not going to change any time soon.
As much self-reliance in defence as possible should be the aim of the country. The Kargil war of 1999 showed the danger of relying on imported arms. At one stage of the war, the Indian navy wanted some US-made spare parts for its vessels. The US refused to supply these. This should be a lesson for the future.
Barun Das Gupta
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