Not sustainable
The South Asian region is among the most volatile regions in the world. Power struggle, terrorism, arms race, border tensions, regional instability and security problems are among some of the glaring issues. With the presence of two emerging powers in the region, China and India, it is only inevitable that a race for superiority in the region has begun. One particular aspect of this tussle is the increased spending on defence, something that concerns other regional players as well.
India has just announced a hike of 17 percent in its defence budget for fiscal year 2012-13, taking it to the $ 40 billion mark. This noticeable hike, which follows a 12 percent hike in the last fiscal year, is in no way something that will sit well with other countries, particularly the ones which have a history with India. Pakistan, for example, has its legitimate concerns on this arms building spree of the Indians. The already lopsided balance of power will further tilt towards New Delhi forcing Islamabad to enhance its own funding on defence. A region where more than 400 million people live in poverty, more than half of the world’s poor, these hikes will do anything but ameliorate the miserable conditions for them, and will additionally put a strain on the national budgets of states.
The Indian defence pundits would be quick to justify this hike, so would ours be correspondingly, on the basis of their ageing military hardware and an increasing threat from China’s strong technological build-up. Even though latest steps by both the neighbouring countries seem to thaw off the tensions created after the Mumbai incident, this trend of one-upping the other will certainly end up in no one’s benefit. After all, economies of both the countries can sustain only so much of a cut without any return. Better sense should prevail and only as much focus should be given to these toys for the boys as is necessary. But deciding what is necessary should be a prerogative of the politicians. Their consideration is usually more cognisant of what a country needs than that of the khakis is.