Successful test firing of indigenously built nuclear-capable Prithvi – II missile for the second time in two days at test range Chandipur in Odisha is a feather in the cap of the scientists and technocrats at DRDO. The missile, selected at random from the stockpile and mounted on mobile trajectory, has the capacity of carrying 500 to 1000 kilograms of load up to a distance of 350 kilometers surface to surface. The test carried out with pinpoint precision reconfirms our country perfecting missile technology. The purpose of the test that has been termed as complete success was to ensure our operational preparedness. The good point about this achievement is that it is indigenously made and makes India self sufficient in this field.
Our missile and space scientists have already won many a laurel and given sufficient boost to country’s defence preparedness. It falls under prestigious Integrated Guided Missile Programme (IGMP). Under this enterprise, India has embarked on an ambitious programme of space technology, which, as the present thinking goes, has potential for peaceful exploration of the space as well. It is not to be looked at only from defence and security prisms although that is a priority with our country.
There is much truth in the sadistic axiom that if you want peace be prepared for war. From day one our leadership declared its commitment to regional and international peace. We abhor war as it solves nothing but brings a multitude of woes in train. We know some will find only ridicule in such an assertion and charge us of hypocrisy. But it is one thing to declare commitment to peace and another thing to protect our sovereignty and solidarity. The two should not be mixed up and confused. India has a record of not going to war with any country unless provoked and attacked. We have unpredictable neighborus on the right and the left. One has unabated territorial ambitions and the other is a rabid India basher on numerous counts. It goes to the credit of our leadership that despite serious provocations that could have flared up into a big upheaval, they did not lose their cool. The more recent Karen incursion is the case in point. Earlier, too, such provocative and intimidating situations were created but we did not let patience and restraint leave us alone.
The belligerence of these two hostile countries in blatant violation of mutually agreed mechanism of defusing tension on the border has taught us a lesson. The lesson is that we cannot lower our guard and we cannot allow complacence take better part of us. Therefore military preparedness has the highest priority with our policy planners. Since modern warfare is radically different from conventional warfare, and we are having a mix of convention and modernity in our defence preparedness, our nuclear and missile programme have to be developed fully as deterrent and not a source of intimidation. We are entitled to the right of self protection and a big country of India’s size does not need crutches to bolster her defence preparedness or assault capability. We have to depend on our own resources, our defence forces, our technological and scientific expertise and our decision to strike when we must. This is the reason that all the three services are needed to be made operationally fully prepared. Development of missile technology is a part of our defence policy and we are making good progress in the area.
But we need to alert the defence organization of the country in a couple of areas. First is that the scientists and technocrats who are deployed on very sensitive and crucial task closely connected with the security of the country and her territorial integrity should be given very special treatment, facilities and incentives. They are the pride of the country and any brain drain on this count is absolutely unacceptable to the nation. Secondly, in view of vicious conspiracies and designs of our enemies, we have to ensure that our sensitive defence installations, sites, stockpiles and structures are fully secured against terrorist sabotage, internal as well as external. A multi-layer security arrangement of the entire defence establishments wherever these are has to be tested at short intervals to ensure that no lapse is allowed. Thirdly, and of course that is very much there, is perfect coordination among all arms of defence structure. Periodic testing of defence preparedness and surveillance are components of this preparedness. It has to be kept in mind that our enemies are unpredictable and with each defeat of their designs their appetite for doing harm to us is redoubled. We shall not give them the way.
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