New Delhi: One thing is abundantly clear. As far as Budget 2020-21 is concerned, the government has not walked its talk. There is no money for the military.
One needs to go just a year back. Over the morning skies of Pakistan on February 27, 2019, an Indian Air Force (IAF) Mig 21 fighter plane streaked across leaving a trail of smoke before crashing even as its pilot bailed out. It had just been bettered by a Pakistan Air Force F-16 fighter aircraft. It was an uneven match where technology prevailed. For there is no comparison between a US-made F-16 and a Russian-origin old Mig 21.
A cacophony of rhetoric followed about our ageing and inadequate fleet of fighter aircraft. But on Saturday, a year later, there was no obvious recollection of the high talk.
On the contrary, the IAF got even less money for capital acquisition or the money required for buying a new flying machine and weapon platforms than what it got last year. At Rs 43,280 crore this year, the IAF got Rs 1,588 crore less than the revised estimates of last year.
It doesn’t stop at that. The IAF has only about 31 squadrons at its disposal. The minimum number of fighter aircraft squadrons needed for a two-pronged war scenario (read total deployment at least along the western, northern and eastern borders) is about 43.
Coming back to Budget 2020-21, from a budgetary provision of Rs 3.18 lakh crore in 2019-20 (the 2018-19 number was Rs 2.95 lakh crore), the finance minister on Saturday set aside just Rs 3.37 lakh crore for the defence forces (or a 5.97 per cent hike) that is fighting on several fronts including modernization and procurement not to speak of a belligerent Pakistan and a Chinese military that is modernizing its forces at breakneck speed.
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