Once again, it is time to ponder as to what kind of a Union Budget will the Finance Minister present on the floor of the Parliament on 29th February. Most aspects of Indian economy have already been deliberated in public domain, except for the usual suspect – ‘national defence’.
Yet again, India’s defence budget has escaped larger national attention this year. The defence component of the national budget accounts for 14% of central government expenditure but gets less than 5% of media space, the bulk of which goes towards data released by the government with sporadic analyses by experts. Virtually no discussion on the issue takes place in Parliament either. A call for increased resources for national defence usually only goes out when defence spending by Pakistan and China makes headlines.
The defence budget outlays for 2008-09 (at Rs.1,05,600 crores) have increased by ten per cent at current prices and by 14.1 per cent vis-à-vis last year’s revised estimates of Rs. 92,500 crores. Provisions for more considerable defence efforts typically not included in the defence budget (for example, outlays for civil defence, coast guard, etc.) could put the figure at Rs. 1 25,000 crore or possibly more.
Budgetary outlays for national defence need a careful autopsy for a general understanding, which has otherwise been kept out of a national debate. This apathy must change for the very simple reason that a subject which accounts for 14 per cent of the total government expenditure and is not kept under the planned category needs to be appropriately examined. First, defence expenditure has witnessed only a modest hike this year.
Trends in defence expenditure denote certain clues to assess, especially the military component of a state’s comprehensive national power. Components of national power, in turn, are intricately linked to a state’s grand strategy - the latter connotes the desire of a state to achieve its rightful place in the global community. In brief, trends in defence expenditure tend to objectively assess aspects of a state’s military capability, although a lacuna remains as even the very concept of military capability is often value-laden.