National Security Conversations

Happymon Jacob speaks with Abhijnan Rej (Defense Analyst & Political Risk Consultant) about India’s Defense budget. Mr. Rej compares defense budgets of the UPA and NDA governments and looks at how much has been allocated to capital and revenue aspects of defense. Additionally he talks about defense misspends, reasons why defense modernisation in budgets of successive governments bear the burnt when it comes to budget cuts; relationship between opposition to small sizing the Indian army and electoral implications due to shift in recruitment patterns from martial to non-martial states & other holy cows concerning defense spending. The conversation also touches upon the concepts of two & two and half front wars, India’s nuclear doctrine and indigenous defense production. In conclusion Mr Rej argues that intent without capabilities is bluffing, but if this bluff is exposed either by China or Pakistan, the outcomes for India will not be good. Hence any future government must focus on capabilities by re