Aishwarya Khosla

aishwarya.khosla@htlive.com

Chandigarh : Highlighting the importance of the indigenisation of submarine production, national security expert Bharat Karnad said India would never be a sovereign country if we continue to depend on foreign countries for arms’ production.

He was speaking at a session on underwater warfare ‘Run Silent, Run Deep, Strike Hard’ at the Military Literature Festival (MLF) on Sunday. Admiral (retd) Sunil Lanba, Vice-Admiral AK Singh and Commodore Anil Jai Singh were among the other panellists during the session.

Praising the model that seeks to identify a few Indian private companies as strategic partners who will initially tie up with a few shortlisted foreign original equipment manufacturers to make big-ticket military platforms, which was favoured by former defence minister Manohar Parrikar, he criticised his successor Arun Jaitley for discontinuing the plan. “The Prime Minister should say that no defence minister should be able to overturn the reforms initiated by his predecessor,” Karnad said.

Former Admiral Lanba said, “In 2014, there was a talk about ‘Make in India’ programme. We needed submarines, helicopters and rifles and thought of ways of getting the private sector involved in their production.” “This had not been done for a long time. It took the minister a long time to come out with how to go forward with the strategic partnership programme and identify the partners,” he said.

Commodore Anil Jai Singh said, “A consolidated model like this cannot be made on a competitive bidding game as they will offer the cheapest possible alternative.”