A perspective on Khalistanis, Drugs, Indian Air Force and China

The perspective of Brigadier Hemant Mahajan (Retd) on the Khalistani insurgency, the growing narco-trafficking in Punjab, the Indian Government’s strong stance against China, and the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence regarding issues pertaining to the Air Force are discussed in this article.

1. Aggressive stance of the Indian Government to curtail Khalistanis

Last month, Khalistani separatists attacked the Embassies of India in 5 different countries. To trace them, the Government of India requested the Governments of the respective countries to take their photographs and trace them.

It was noticed that most of these Khalistani separatists protesting in various countries have Indian passports. Now the Indian Government is trying to bring them back. After this, appropriate action will be taken against them. This will discourage the Khalistani separatists. The British Government was not ready to take action against these Khalistanis. Only when the Indian Government took the tough stand of reducing the security of the British Embassy in New Delhi, the British Government ‘woke up’ and stopped Khalistani separatists from approaching the Indian Embassy. The Governments of all the countries where protests are being carried out by Khalistanis should be told that the security of the Indian Embassy, as well as the Indian diplomats and representatives, is the responsibility of the Governments of those countries.

2. New measures to tackle Drug addiction in Punjab

It is well-known that more than 12 lakh citizens of Punjab are addicted to drugs, of which, 4 lakh are undergoing treatment in Government hospitals, while the rest are being treated in private hospitals. Despite there being 528 hospitals in Punjab just for de-addiction, the number of drug addicts every year is increasing. It has to be noted that the possibility of more people being addicted, than the official number given by the Government, cannot be ruled out. This is a very important and priority issue.

The Government has taken a stand against this, and not only healing through drugs, but the counselling of the addicts will be done by various Government officials, preachers from religious organisations, social organisations. Hopefully, this will inspire the youth and they will get rid of their drug addiction.

3. Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence points out the issues related to the Air Force

A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence has recently released a report pointing out the problems related to the Indian Air Force. The report says that the Indian Air Force is facing many problems. The Air Force has said that while it has an official strength of 42 squadrons (Combat force units), the current strength is as small as 32 squadrons.

Three squadrons of MiG-21s are expected to be replaced by ‘LCA Mark 1A’ squadrons as the former has become inoperable, but Hindustan Aeronautics Limited which manufactures these planes is not capable of producing enough. The Committee has highlighted in its report that the speed of production of Fighter jets needs to be increased. The new Fighter jets were to be produced in the form of Medium Combat Aircraft (5th generation Fighter jets) instead of the Jaguar and Mirage fighters, but this has still not been done. The Government of India and the Air Force should jointly decide on how to speed up the production of these aircraft in the country by selecting Aircraft manufacturing firms.

4. Funds allocated for the Air Force are inadequate

Due to the non-availability of the weapons required by the Air Force, the funds allotted for them have been reduced from $10 billion (Rs 1,000 crore) to $8 billion (Rs 800 crore). This will also slow down the production of modern weapons. Due to the Ukraine-Russia war, the pace of arms supply from Russia to India has slowed down. The availability of various aircraft parts required by the Air Force has also reduced. Even in the anti-aircraft defence system, the S-400 anti-aircraft attack system has not been procured in the required numbers.

5. Strong steps of the Indian Government against China

India has taken many strong steps against China’s Multi-domain War (Fighting on multiple fronts at the same time). While the Prime Ministers of Japan and Australia were on a visit to India, many defence agreements were signed between these countries. This has strengthened India’s international security. This is an indicator that the international organisation ‘Quadrilateral Security Dialogue’ involving India, Japan, Australia and US to counter China, is progressing in the required direction.

Britain and US have supplied nuclear submarines to Australia. This has raised China’s fears, and hence, it is opposing this. Taiwan is also now trying to sign various security agreements with several countries to counter China.

– Brigadier Hemant Mahajan (Retd), Pune.