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