NEW DELHI : In a candid admission, the Indian Army has said it is arming to deal with a future scenario where eastern neighbour China may get more hostile and aggressive. Vice-Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Philip Campose while deposing before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence said after the analysis of threat perception for the next 15 years it was predicted that China may get more aggressive. During oral evidence of the representatives of the Ministry of Defence, the Committee was keen to know the status of Mountain Strike Corps, which was primarily approved to be raised to effectively counter threats that may arise from the neighbouring countries.
Answering questions from the members of the committee, Lt Gen Campose said,”Firstly, why the mountain corp. has been sanctioned, and why did we request for it? This is in keeping with our 15 years perspective plan.” Explaining further, he said,”The process started with our analysis of the threat perception after 15 years and in that analysis it was predicted that the way @@@ (China’s name withheld by the committee) has been getting more aggressive in resolving its disputes with neighbours, especially, in view of what we have seen with its maritime disputes in the South China sea, it was our attempt to make sure that we are fully prepared to deal with this threat if at any time @@@ decides to raise the ante and get more aggressive.”
The committee was informed by the Army that the Mountain strike Corps was being raised with, what it called, war wastage reserves.
Army keeps all sorts of equipment, weapons and stores as the war wastage reserve to deal with any eventuality of war. These reserves were being used to raise the new corps in want of the sufficient funds.
“A certain amount of about Rs 5,000 crore has been set aside saying that this is meant for the Mountain Corps,” the Army Vice-Chief said, adding that,”We need money over and above the budget if we are able to make up all the stores and weapons which we have pulled out from the war wastage reserves for the initial raisings.”
When the Committee inquired from the Defence Ministry why enough funds had not been allocated for raising the Corps, Defence Secretary R K Mathur said,”We have been projecting a higher requirement for the Defence budget. I had mentioned that initially also that we feel that what is being given to us is not adequate.”
(AGENCIES)
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