Mad arms race

By
PakistanToday
-
28
161

The Indian defence officials’ stance that its 5,000km range nuclear capable Agni-V missile is for defence of the country and not for offence, it is accepted as true and does not attract any criticism from the international community. But when it comes to Pakistan’s peaceful minimum nuclear deterrence, and Islamabad rightly claims to have it only for peaceful purposes, nobody takes it serious and true.

When India piles up arms, raises defence budget every year, buys heavy and modern weapons, nuclear submarines and warships, nobody objects to it. But when it comes to Pakistan that is fighting the world war against terrorism, suffering and sustaining huge losses, that too within the allocated range of its defence budget, there is hue and cry and Pakistan is considered amongst the top buyers of weapons.

In the latest display of its growing military might, India is all set this week to launch the maiden test-fire of its nuclear-capable Agni-V missile from a coastal range in Orissa, which has a range of 5,000 km. With this India is likely to join a select group of countries – China, Russia, France, US, UK and Israel – possessing the stockpile and capability of the intercontinental missiles.

India is among the world’s top 10 military spenders, with Jane’s Defence Weekly forecasting its total purchases between 2011 and 2015 will top $100 billion. Last month it raised its defence budget, triggering an international debate as to why India is in the arms race. Its whopping $38.6bn defence budget is having 17 percent substantial increase from the yester year.

It is spending a huge amount on the war machinery and since last 5 years she is the number one buyer of the arms in the world. This budget is besides the long term huge commitment and deals with different countries like, purchase of 129 Rafal combat aircrafts, 145 Light Howitzer, 49 warships and up gradation of more than 50 Mirage 2000 fighters.

As compared to India, Pakistan has purchased nothing significant, nor has it been given by the world countries in accordance with its requirement, nor is it allowed to have the indigenous drone technology, even the night-vision goggles are not being provided.

One of the international monitoring organisations, the other day, clearly said that India has no threat at all from China, nor has it from any other country of the world, except Pakistan. So the massive piling of arms, the frequent test-fires and heavy build-up along the Pakistani borders is solely Pakistan-specific.

Question is if New Delhi and Islamabad are in for friendship, back channel diplomacy is going on for strengthening trade ties, the Wahga border has in addition now the business exchange centre, the Pakistani traders have been allowed investment in India, etc, then where stand the chances of aggression and subsequently of piling up of arms?

This mad race has instead subjected the region to a great suffering that needs to be stopped.

F Z KHAN

Islamabad

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28 COMMENTS

  1. Please stop comparing pakistan with india when india is trying to build up its military. India has global ambitions today. Like other global powers, india cant achieve her global ambitions without rising its military. The days have passed in india when our decisions were based on pakistan. India understand that it has no permanent enemies and no permanent friends. World need india today and india is encashing that situation. Its a give and take policy.

    • So according to you Achieving global ambitions without a substantial military machine is impossible. Time for a reality check.
      Japan a global powerhouse in terms of technology has no army. Malaysia too has no significant military. So your argument does not hold true that for every country to make an impact globally has to be a Military Powerhouse.
      More than half of the Indian population lives below the poverty line. States like Bihar are experiencing water-shortage among other socio-economic problems.
      Countries like India and Pakistan where poverty is prevalent, more money needs to be spent on thwarting corruption and improving the infrastructure than wasting crazy amounts of money and fiscal budgets in buying weapons.

      • India is a confident proud and among oldest living civilizations of the world. Japan is nothing without usa. India dont have aims like that. India aims to have relations based on equality with other global powers. If usa looses its power, status of japan will also go down. India already have no first use policy, so no friend of india need to worry. A country where 1/6th of humanity lives is not aiming to depend on others. Its a natural power in itself. To be a super power…a country needs three types of power…cultural power, economic power and military power. India already have the first one, we are slowly and confidently trying to achieve economic power status and while we are doing great on these two power staus we cant afford the third one which is military power.

        Yes we have poverty in india, but we are already on right track. Our poverty is decreasing. We are doing same what china was doing when it was at our stage 5-10 years ago.

    • sunil u r absouloutely rite my friend only the fact that india can never achieve its target without sorting the problems with pakistan first is being overlooked rite now but i know you will come to the same conclusion in good time THE ONLY WAY TO DO THAT IS
      1. ELIMINATE PAKISTAN which cant be done
      2.MAKE AMMENDS AND START AFRESH which can bedone but entails solving kashmir dispute according to the wishes of kashmirires which you wont ever do.
      3.WAR it out

      i only see the 3rd option being opted eventually

      • tariq,every year free n fair elections takes place in kashmir,infact last govt was elected with highest voting-more than any state in india..if they are not with us then y they are voting…have u thought abt it.,why to eleminate pak ..every second decade the army takes over the pakistan govt and destroys itself,can u forget zia ul haq,pervez musharaff,..india is only nation behind china who is developing with a double digit GDP,first pak supports taliban n after global pressure fight with it,for last 5 years laden was ur state guest,deny it? nuclear scientist QADIR sell nuclear technology..than how can pak be trusted

  2. If india' threat is only from Pakistan then why India is testing a missile with range of 5000 km?

    • Who said India's threat is only from Pak? Who is this international monitoring organisations? Does France has threats like you people, they why they have ICBM? It is all matter of Global ambitions. They won't allow either you to develop nor India to develop.

      India clearly and publicly announced its state that their major threat is from China than Pak.

    • Wrong……there are other friendly neighbours around India and so need long range missiles which can even go over the Himalayas.

  3. Money, stockpile and threat questions aside, there is a big difference between India and Pakistan. In Pakistan, the Defense runs the country where as in India, the country runs the defense.

    Big difference…
    As a man of letters Mr. Khan, won't you agree?
    Well, You didn't disagree. Right?

  4. "Pakistan that is fighting the world war against terrorism, suffering and sustaining huge losses". You forgot the main contribution there, Pakistan manufactures and exports terrorism, so stop crying and sort your house first. The recent ambush in kabul and the previous day taliban jail breaking are related! ISI uses these talibans like dogs, they put these people on a lease to feed and nurse them back by keeping them in so called "jails", but when it wants to kill innocent afghans and Indian, they release these dogs. Anyways, pakistan is the center of terrorism, so you are not fooling anybody here.

    • Yaar, dost..this is just an emotional rhetoric that ISI was involved in the attacks carried out in Kabul. Yes indeed Pakistan needs to put its house in order first, but that too can not happen with US Army still stationed in Afghanistan.
      Most of the Indians and western countries don't know anything about the Pashtoon culture and their Past.
      Its the Pahstuns on either sides of the border fighting against the foreign occupancy. Pahtuns fought the Moghuls for 100 odd years, then the Brits for 70 years until they pulled out of the region, they decimated the Sikhs and so on. So saying that its the Taliban forces groomed by the ISI is non-sensical. Its the local Pashtun tribes picking up arms against the foreign troops

    • if India is interfere ring in Baluchistan then we are also interfering in kashmir and asam ………..GIVE & TAKE

  5. hahah 😀 Lols to the core..Pakistan is fighting a world war on terror??? hahhaha 😀 Here are some facts about your world war..

    * 93 percent of all terror attacks around the world originate in Pakistan

    * 93 percent of all terror attacks around the world are commited by pakistani terrorists armed, funded and trained by Pak army

    * Osama bin laden was a pakistani state guest fed and clothed by Pakistan

    *Hafiz Sayeed another terrorist is a state guest in pakistan

    * Taliban is your creation

    * Lashkar, al qaeeda, HuM, Haqqani network and all major terroist orgnaisations are based in pakistan

    and all this is just a tip of the iceberg. If you guys were to do some soul searching you would realise that pakistan is a failed terrorist state and no one sells anything to a terror state. Even if US were to give you a needle tommorow, you will pass it on to terrorists such is the state of affairs today so shut up and accept reality the way it is and stop whining.

    • Who is creator and sponsor of all these groups???? USA, India and alike. Please stop this crap of blaming Pakistan on your doings. Read the history and contemporary research

  6. Posthums, what about the the political and economic exploitation of that empoverished region by the pakistani authorities, all they demand is to self administer themselves. Instead of providing that civil right to them military is killing their political leaders . The continuation of the age old Frontier Crimes Regulation of community responsibilty law and ehtnic massacre of thousands of innocent posthums by the military has forced them to take up arms. So please dont blame the internal turmoil on them.

  7. World knows Pakistan is a great producer of Terrorist & Extremist. So, it’s simple that when Pakistan buys any special weapon it directly goes to terrorist hand. Main problem is this. Nothing else. Pakistani people doesn’t understand this simple funda.

  9. If the kind of attack happen again on Indian army witch happen last days ago.Hindustan ready for make Pakistan army and terrorist handicap.

  10. really now its too much to facing problems created by pakistan and now its the right to time to take action against pakistan how much we will waiting at last responding hard action is necessary to take to lesson to pakistan

  11. Taliban is a creation of CIE dumb indians read the history
    the CIE used the local people of afghanistan + pakistan to defend Afghanistan which was attacked by RUSSIA
    When the local people defeated the RUSSIANS the people rebbled against the foreign states

  12. Pakistan Army is mostly spending its defence budget in fighting with the taliban which r funded by agencies like RAW CIE and israeli agencies to weaken the worlds biggest muslim army like they did in Afghanistan , IRaq and other muslim country

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