Reference Auto

Cutting across party lines, the Indian governments’ (past as well as present) apathy towards enhancing defence systems has taken a huge toll on our military capabilities, and in the latest fallout, 20 key scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation or DRDO have relinquished their jobs within a span of six months.

Owing to a lucrative pay and better working conditions in the private sector (in contrast to the measly salaries paid by the government as well as the bureaucracy and red tapism that is holding up defence development) the scientists, who are supposed to build missiles to safeguard our people from a menacing China-Pakistan defence joint venture, are seeking greener pastures.

So, could the government not hold a probe to see what could bring about a mechanism to stop this attrition?

Now, there is another area (one of the most crucial) in defence that is in doldrums: nuclear weapons programme. Pakistan has just scored a century in nuclear weapons (at an estimated 110) while India is the laggard at 60 to 100.

Pakistan stepped up nuclear weapons production and in just four years it has achieved a tremendous feat: from 30-60 weapons it has reached 110.

So, in case the Mumbai terror attack is repeated on the county’s soil, and India points its finger towards Pakistan, can India even think (forget talk) of a hot pursuit under such circumstances or if there is a conflict with China, where will our missiles come from with our top defence scientists migrating to the private sector?

The government must enhance pay packets of defence scientists and match them with the private sector and also make our defence PSUs autonomous, so that there is little government interference in the progress and funding of our projects.

This will pave the way for attracting the best brains to our government organisations such as the DRDO and enhance our defence capabilities manifold.

Moreover, if defence is also thrown open to the private sector, which has proved to be highly capable, our capabilities would will take a decade to match the best and this will also help our nuclear programme leapfrog to the next level, making India a potential threat to China.