comments on Ajai Shukla's Article

Sorry, the comments did not publish in the last post . Here they are :-

While Shukla's patriotic fervor deserves appreciation, he somehow divorces himself from realism about the capability of our DPSUs, especially HAL. Almost 50 years in standing, it has 19 Production Units and 10 R&D Centres in 08 locations in India and employs perhaps the highest number of employees wrt any contemporary aircraft manufacturing facility on planet earth. And pray what have they given us in these fifty long years? Hyperboles of accomplishments, which truly were/are pain, pain and more pain with billions of dollars spent on foreign trips and collaborations. Some of their products that attained moderate success, courtesy the IAF, as no one else found them suitable, like HT-2,Kiran(HJT16) and HPT32,all Trainers were direct ripoffs from the Chipmunk, Jet Provost and Bulldog respectively. Among fighters the HF-24 designed by Dr Kurt Tank, a German, limped its way through in the IAF for want of a suitable engine.The others claimed to be manufactured by HAL like the MiG 21,Jaguar,Hawk and Su30 are either assembled or manufactured under license with over 75% imported components. The much touted IJT and the LCA have been in the making for 30 years and are yet to reach anywhere near oprationalisation. While the LCA was hurriedly given op clearance by Mr Antony in December 2013, just before CAS Browne retired, as per conservative estimates it will take at least five years before it is fully ops in the IAF. The prototype IJT that flew in the Air Show at Yelahanka in 2005 crashed in 2010 and nothing has come on line since then even in prototype form, when will it reach the IAF, if ever. 

So that brings me to the two most disingenuous and unviable suggestions made by Shukla. Rescind the Rafale deal to save one lakh crore and do the following: (a) improve the serviceability of Su-30s to 75% to get additional 95 ac online. Well said and highly wishful, but do remember all Su-30s are assembled at HAL leaving much to be desired in the finished product and costs the IAF close to Rs 500 crore besides being heavy on maintenance. In addition, 20% of the holdings go for MR&SOW. To achieve 75% serviceability of the remaining 80% , effectively 92% serviceability would need an uninterrupted continuous flow of product support, which is well nigh impossible because the IAF depends on HAL/Roseboron, who depends on foreign vendors, who never oblige.

 Anyway, being ex Army Shukla will not find it hard to corroborate, as the serviceability rate of a soldiers common weapon is dismal, forget about the heavy eqpt like TANKS, BMPs and Arty Guns etc. 
(b), mould the LCA Mk 2 on the lines of Gripen E and acquire the Aerospace Division of SaaB for the “change” left over after operationalising the LCA Mk 2 so as to promote aviation ecology and ancillary units in India. First of all SaaB is a billion $ co with worldwide presence whose annual turnover is ten times that of HAL.So I wonder if it can be bought off with the small change. And then the product Gripen E. Saab has signed a deal on 18 Dec 2013 with Brazil to supply 36 Gripen E for USD 4.5 billion. The first ac will reach Brazil in 2019 and the last in 2023. So there is no way we could persuade them to sell their holdings for the change till 2023. SaaB is yet to integrate the AESA Radar on the Gripen , a must for modern fighters.
 Wonder if the HAL has even thought of this Radar for LCA Mk 2. So could HAL replicate the Gripen Model on LCA Mk 2 is anybody’s take. Regrettably Shukla’s suggestions besides being incoherent smack of utmost ignorance on affairs Air Force, Aerospace and Air Power. If Mr Jaitely, in his wildest nightmares, were to ever implement these, he will do yeomen service to DRDO /HAL by filling their overflowing coffers with another one lakh crore – FOR NOTHING.

Shaming the Shameless

  

 

Roughly 800 million people, more than the populations of the US, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia and Bangladesh combined will be eligible to vote, making the upcoming election the largest since Independence in 1947.Fervent hope of every common man/woman is to elect representatives who have the fundamental virtues that are essential for a statesmen: integrity, courage, perspicacity, vision, empathy etc. Regrettably all political parties, especially the major ones, playing assiduously by the rules of realpolitik, throw up candidates whose antecedents are far from desired, yet they get elected.

 These stalwarts are that special breed of turncoats, the Aya Rams Gaya Rams, whose singular aim is to stay in power or close to the seat of power, whatever the cost. They bloom during the election season and have no compunctions in party hopping, like honeybees in a garden, for the political nectar. The end result is that more than 35% MPs in the current Lok Sabha were tainted with charges ranging from murder to rape, theft, misappropriation of public money etc. They turned our Parliament into a “nest of crooks”, where lies are considered truth and truth is considered seditious.

 

 Given the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of such leaders, the craft of governing well has been forsaken and disrespected and replaced by scams, indecision and unethical compromises. No one can deny the truism that the political standards have been falling over the years. But the yawning holes which the decline has opened up indicate the dearth of their cerebral and ethical caliber.

The country has for years been ruled by this small clique of pettifogging, wire pulling, self centered and opportunistic political elite, who have yet not developed in the people a sense of true citizenship in which national identity trumps any other allegiances to religious, ethnic, or tribal identities nor they have succeeded in tackling the underlying political, economic, and social challenges the country faces.

Now that the ever growing deficiencies of our political elite are out in the open, one wonders whether the popular elections, which we are so proud of, an adequate criterion to judge our country’s commitment to democracy. What is the way out for a country of 1.3 billion people from the machinations of the likes of Jaswant Singhs, Jagdambika Pal and Sabir Alis et al who having been denied ticket by the parent party (whose virtues, ethos, policies and programmes they eulogized 24/7) suddenly become unbearable and abhorrent to them. Wonder what their patriotic values are and the small price they will extract to sell their country to the enemy? Should they ever get into the Parliament is what every Indian needs to introspect.