Why not think about it now???

Recently after the submarine accidents Adm. D. K. Joshi, chief of the Indian naval staff, submitted his resignation, “taking moral responsibility for the accidents and incidents which have taken place during the past few months”.

The submarine, Sindhuratna, was forced to surface after smoke was detected on board. Seven crew members were airlifted from the submarine and admitted to a hospital in Mumbai, where they were in stable condition.

The fire on the Sindhuratna came six months after another Russian-made submarine, the Sindhurakshak, exploded and sank while docked in Mumbai, killing 18 crew members, the worst maritime loss in India in four decades.

The above mentioned lines are the recent breaking news in the whole nation. Amid all these accidents something bigger and graver has stepped into existence, and that appalling thing is a question. Today a question mark has been punctuated on the whole nation’s security. After the recent mishaps with the Indian submarines and the Navy officers on board, the whole nation’s security’s vulnerability has reached out to every home and to every enemy too and has  compelled the whole nation to mull over the real cause behind all these and  moot this important issue for debate and discussion.

Notwithstanding blame game, let’s focus on the issue to excavate the paramount problem behind all such things.

Indian Navy, which is considered as the most professional of the country’s three military services, is there is serve the nation not to be an impediment to the progress of the nation and a commendable thing is that all the officers of Indian Navy as well as all the military services are completely resolute to their duty and the whole nation but can a workman work sans good tools. No doubt, it would be pretty hard for him to work and in some cases next to impossible. In India the same story continues. Here first of all the workman is not provided with sufficient tools and if he is provided then tools are not taken care of by the authorities. Today so many accidents are taking place with the ships, submarines etc. just because of lack of service and maintenance of the ships, submarines etc. by the government. All Indian submarines have lived 75% of their desired operational life and if a war breaks out then they all would act as a failure because of lack of servicing and bad equipment. All the bad effect of this has be borne by the military men at work.

Here scientists, economists, innovators and soldiers get no support and this is the main problem that we are facing. Brain drain problem which has been harassing the whole nation took birth just due to a lack of interest of government in science and other sectors. Today 36% of the scientists at NASA are from India.  If that's not proof enough of Indian scientific and corporate prowess, digest this: 34% employees at Microsoft, 28% at IBM, 17% at Intel and 13% at Xerox are Indians.  In India adequate instruments are not provided to the scientists as well as military which lead to huge problems in the long run. Today India is not having its own military tanks, aircraft carriers, submarines etc. just due to lack of funding for scientific research. India has to import military equipment from countries like Russia, USA and UK and these machines are not of the expected quality.

Former Navy Chief Admiral  Arun Prakash notes that “The Russian defense manufacturing system is decrepit, unreliable and corrupt and the navy has to take a deep and hard look at its equipment.” The research work in India is not being funded and the scientists are not able to make breakthrough and have to import various equipment from countries like Russia and USA. India is building dozens of other warships also, but many of the projects rely on Russian equipment. For example- the  refurbished aircraft carrier that India recently purchased from Russia has had its own share of problems, including breakdowns in its boilers .At any given time, India has just five or six operational submarines, considered far too few to guard the country’s extensive coastline and all this makes the whole nation vulnerable to an easy defeat at waters.

Today the whole world is advancing forward and in Asia a very serious condition similar to cold war has been there. India’s opponents are more in numbers and its pals are less and today India definitely needs to be more self-reliant and self-dependent to face the competition. Advances in scientific research in nations like China are also very threatening and if we fail today, if we don’t make sure that we are ready to defend ourselves  then I believe that we will not be able to stand up against with the same might. Today due to lack of interest shown by the government in defense sector, India is facing a lot of problems which can be very ghastly and fatal and can further become irreparable and that’s why I believe that we need to ponder about it today.

Jai Hind, Jai Bharat

Jai Ma Bharti