Trick or retreat

Itis fashionable to curse Rajiv for Bofors and more, but the truth is that1985-89 was the only period in our history when weapon acquisitions were proactive and futuristic

- SHEKHAR GUPTA

This begins with a spoiler alert-if you promise not to read the postscript first. In this column, I play a trick on you.

After ages, India has a chief who speaks the hard truth. Air Chief Marshal A P Singh has persistently and firmly drawn attention to the Indian Air Force's alarming numbers and technology gap with its rivals. He even held up the mirror to the holiest of the holy among our PSU monopolies, HAL, on cameras and microphones. This is refreshing when you're used to hearing from a succession of chiefs self-pitying platitudes like: "We will fight with what we have." The reaction to the Air Chief breaking the silence barrier is predictable. Anybody pointing to what the armed forces are short of is instinctively accused of being import-hungry or sold out.

The insinuation: An evil cabal is preventing India from developing its own capabilities and keeping it dependent on expensive, unaffordable imports. Defence has also become an "influencer" pursuit and even the chiefs are wary.

Then, Donald Trump throws the F-35 fat into this fire. This all-pervasive fear makes defence purchases nearly impossible. Too little is made in India yet, and even when it is, most of it is in tight joint ventures. Much as we boast about rising levels of "indigenisation" (why don't we say Indian?), ask yourself this: After making over 200 Sukhoi 30-MKIs and countless Jaguars NATIONAL or even MiGs, can we build one entirely on our own even now? SHEKHAR GUPT We won't reverse-engineer like cheapskate Chinese, you see.