How can India afford to waste Rs 89,000 crore on defence budget when many people are dying of poverty?

Question

Since, you can use limited characters for the headline of your question,that's why had to select such an immature headline for this question just to get 'QUICK ATTENTION'

***The real question is why both India & Pakistan can't realize that the amount of money that they are wasting on defence budgets can so easily & successfully be used to solve so many problems of our people.

India is spending way too much money on defence just to compete with China. Pakistan is no competition now bcz their defence budget is very 'DWARF' as compared to India's foolish defence budget,

Isn't it enough now? We have enough weapons now to take control of Pakistan then why are we bothering about USA & China.

It seems to me that India now is in a serious mood of competiting with US,Russia & China in defence department.
Is it required? Is it that important for us to use our precious money for buying weapons instead of helping our poor people.
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The recent article in the New York Times on India’s defense has some eye-popping numbers. The main news event is, India is looking to buy new fighter planes, and may spend as much as $10 billion on them. American arms manufacturers are chomping at the bit, especially as there are probably other big arms purchases in the pipeline. (For reference, last year’s entire defense budget is between $20-25 billion, according to this source; it may be an underestimate, however.)

While I’m not by any means suggesting that India cut back on its defense spending, I do wonder whether the investment on hardware such as advanced fighter jets is really addressing India’s current (and likely future) military needs. Especially with a serious terrorism problem as well as ongoing internal uprisings, isn’t it possible that other kinds of military expenditures might be warranted? How do fighter jets help with terrorism or guerilla warfare?
India is developing and moving forward in many ways, but in controlling terrorism in its cities I think it has been relatively unsuccessful. Previous bombings in Mumbai and elsewhere in the past two years have usually followed a similar pattern: 1) intense police activity for a few weeks coinciding with nonstop media coverage, 2) possibly some suspects are detained who may or may not be the right people, and 3) everyone forgets, coinciding with a new media obsession. Security measures to prevent repeat attacks are genrally not instituted

Answer 1

Actually this is a tricky question, India actually lost war against China because the then PM, Nehru decided not to spend money on defence.

Any money spend on military/defence is like spending on paid security to ensure we are safe against perceived dangers. India doesent have very friendly neighbours and has faced lots of problems with terrorists supposedly funded by its neighbours so it triggers them to spend money on defence.

An ideal solution would be South Asian countries like Pakistan,Nepal,,Burma,India, Srilanka form a federal union for single central defence,finance and planning while giving autonomy to individual states. This will be the most optimum utilization of their resources and will reduce defence spending in this region drastically.

Answer 2

It's true that one of the core reasons for existence of any Government is to "defend the people". And actually $10 billion is a tiny amount for new fighter planes. Australia's program for example is about $20 billion. But even that wouldn't fill one Russian, American or Chinese aircraft carrier with planes!!! So how futile is it?

Wouldn't it be nice if a larger proportion of that budget could be spent for diplomatic and aid purposes. If those threats were removed - the anger and suspicions between nations, then more money would be available. Imagine what India's 10 billion and Australia's 20 billion could do for the people of, say, Ethiopa if it was put into essential services like water, transport and education.

Australia was privileged enough to be able to help our neighbours after the 'Boxing Day Tsunami'. I think that relatively small amount of expenditure probably did more for our security than any billions spent on arms. It sent a message that 'when times are tough, we are your friend' and I think it gained us a lot of respect and even some surprise from some.

Imagine how good it would be if we didn't wait for Tsunamis and just helped to that sort of degree all the time!

Now imagine if that was America's focus. No strings attached - just help!

Am I dreaming?

Answer 3

Living in India past 25 years, I can say not enough is being spent for defense budget. Even today, where machines can do the work, precious human lives are put to risk. Any increase in our defense budget that you may see is a reflection of the fact that we are beginning to value human lives more than money.

Millions die in poverty and you think directing some of defense money will help solve it? So far, the results of such efforts were not encouraging in that direction.

Like an answer already says, a unified defense spending of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangaladesh, Sri Lanka and Burma will be a great one. But we haven't grown up to trust each other so much. At least when it comes to India, none of these other countries trust us. At least I can say, Bangaladesh doesn't want a fully barbed wire border with us because that will deter its citizens from coming to India looking for jobs. Pakistan has just started another never ending rounds of talks with us. Sri Lanka touts our own ethnic groups(Tamils) as our enemies while mercilessly killing them. Nepal has become a source for China to encourage Maoism and export it to India which manifests itself in many forms like Naxals and other warring groups in the north east.

Against all these, our defense budget is not that high. We are stil putting human lives under risk where a bit more money could buy machines to do the dangerous jobs.

If poverty and defense spending could be linked, I am at a loss for words when I see poverty in USA and their defense budget is like they can fight the whole world single handed and win.

You follow news items so close eh? Haven't you followed MiGs crashing and killing people? Or our ships and submarines getting too old? Those planes are ageing. Buying replacements is what you are seeing now.

As for terror attacks in our cities, wel, I don't have immediate answers. You are right when it comes to say there is a frenzied media coverage. But since media in our country goes for sensationalism over sensibility, you wouldn't be able to follow a full case of investigation if you look through its eyes.

Again, weren't there problems when USA was a sixty year old independent country? India is only sixty year old when seen from Indepencence.

Out of pure curiosity, why would you be bothered to see India spending on defense budgets and having poverty?

Answer 4

It isn't a new question. It cycles endlessly in the U.S. for instance. Prior to World War II in the U.S. saw an explosion of largely unsuccessful social programs that have caused longterm problems the country still struggles with. The immediate impact of that change of focus was a proportionate reduction in military spending, which left America dangerously exposed to the tiny island nation of Japan, which from the other side of the world, while simultaneously waging war on all of Asia, managed to fight us to a standstill for over two years.

India has drawn similar lessons from its own history. They've been shoved around by China. They themselves exploited unrest in Myanmar, and at least until recently have been engaged in armed conflict with them. Finally, and perhaps the greatest lesson, was derived from the loss of Pakistan in the first place.

Now India like much of the world, is presented with new lessons in the form of terrorism. Whether they will learn from these lessons is yet to be seen. Still, counterterrorism efforts represent their own rather exorbitant costs that don't get shown off to the public, and that don't result in a shiny new jet that makes it into the Times. So, say what you will about India's discretionary military budget, but at least they aren't building Ospreys.

Answer 5

When we are young we compete with people with our age, when we start growing we start looking around for an equal match , and start competing , when we reach a level where we donot have any one to compete we become our own competetor and try to beat our selves.

Now india is in a position where we are now global players

There are many faces of india one a poor india trying to compete with proverty and come out of the shakels.

there is an india which is trying to assert itself.

there is an india which is shining so defense expenditure is one of the facit of india to play its part as a regional power.
hope i could answer convincingly

Answer 6

FOOLISH BUDGET????????dude the country needs protection and so do the countrymen,and dont talk like bajrang dal ppl ,get real,look arnd,you think america is gonna continue their sweety pie forever and pakistan is gonna all frndly noooooooo,can we stop ignoring the truth,which is that a war is just around the corner and we should be prepared for it and anyway they are not just blindly buying weapons left and right,i would suggest you to check some details

Answer 7

Why don't you address your question to the respective Governments via their respective Embassy's,

Your question really has very little merit as a "Military" question its more of a Political one.

Why not look closer to home, and ask how much money does the US waste in the same way, not all the US Citizens, Veterans, etc are living in the lap of luxury.

Answer 8

Why would you want to willingly invite another country to invade India? Not spending money on national defense is exactly what that amounts to.

Answer 9

Why do think wrestlers spend so much time in the gym bulking up their muscle and improving their techniques?
Answer: To prevent being beaten by their opponents

The same logic applies to your question.

Answer 10

Perhaps you think India should just rely upon Russia to defend it?

Every country has enemies. Without a defense it is as good as saying, "Please invade us."