In the heart of New Delhi, the colossal nation of India finds itself at a crossroads, where the perilous reliance on imported military hardware is deemed potentially “fatal” for its strategic autonomy. This stark assertion came forth from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday, underscoring the Modi government’s unwavering commitment to elevating domestic manufacturing.
Addressing a distinguished audience at a conference, Singh, without delving into specifics, alluded to India grappling with “trouble” during “difficult times” in the past due to its heavy dependence on defence imports. Notably, he highlighted that the annual volume of indigenous defence production has surged beyond the remarkable milestone of Rs 1 lakh crore, a considerable leap from the approximately Rs 44,000 crore recorded around 2014.
“In our quest for strategic autonomy, the crux lies in the indigenous creation of arms and equipment, nurtured within our own borders by our own people. Our concerted efforts in this direction have yielded affirmative outcomes,” expressed Singh. “Around 2014, the landscape of our domestic defence production hovered at roughly Rs 44,000 crore; today, it proudly stands beyond the unprecedented mark of Rs 1 lakh crore, with sustained growth,” he articulated at the ‘DefConnect 2024’ conference.
The defence minister emphatically asserted that India, being a substantial nation, cannot afford to tether its fate to imports across pivotal sectors. “A behemoth like India should not find itself shackled by the chains of imports in any critical sector. Continued reliance on imported defence equipment and arms would render us subservient to other nations. Such dependence carries the seeds of fatality for our strategic autonomy,” he cautioned.
Singh contended that without self-reliance, particularly in pivotal sectors like defence, India would be handicapped in taking independent stances on global matters aligned with its national interests.
“Upon assuming power in 2014 under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we discerned that a substantial portion of India’s defence apparatus relied on imports. The vulnerability arising from a significant portion of a nation’s security-related arsenal being imported is starkly evident. In critical junctures, such dependence can unravel into myriad difficulties, a predicament India has grappled with in the past,” he reminisced.
“Our history bears witness to times when dependence on imported arms plunged us into trouble during precarious situations. Therefore, as soon as we assumed governance, we underscored the imperative that, as a nation, we must break free from the shackles of arms imports,” concluded Singh.