by Sara Nazir

Since the start of 21st century, India has invested heavily in building a navy equipped to dominate the northern Indian Ocean- a vital maritime highway from West Asia to China, Japan, and Southeast Asian countries, as well as for the movement of goods manufactured in some of the European states. With China's military confrontation on the Himalayan front with Tibet, New Delhi is continuously trying to sought strategic security from possible control over China's sea lanes of communication (SLOC) but a number of incidents that have recently occurred, pose question mark over capabilities and professionalism of Indian armed forces, particularly its Navy.

Accident based Incidents are serious in nature but details are always concealed via lack of scrutiny in order to salvage the country’s so-called reputation. There are number of incidents from 1990 till date, where Indian navy made significant blunders which ultimately reflecting their lack of discipline and disregard for safety of the region. In 1990, Indian navy during an anti-submarine warfare exercise sank an Arnala-class corvette, which resulted in 15 deaths. The exercise was conducted on Andaman Island and the incident is remembered as Andaman incident. Adding further, in February 2014 Sindhuratna accident took place where a Kilo-class submarine, caught fire on board when trials were being conducted which resulted in smoke leading to suffocation and death of two officers and seven sailors getting injured. Inquiry revealed poor maintenance as the cause of fire. The Incident led to the resignation of Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral D K Joshi, resulting in massive national embarrassment.

Operation swift retort magnified Indian incompetence to next level wherein its own forces miscalculated and hit own helicopter, later declaring it a friendly fire. The ensuing dog fight resulted into humiliation of India Air Force (IAF) while the Indian aircraft was shot downed by Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and the pilot Abhinandan was taken as prisoner. He was handed over to India as good will gesture giving a message to the world that Pakistan is peaceful neighbour. Incident of “Brahmos Missile misfire” last year added to the history; wherein a nuclear capable missile landed in Pakistanwhich could have triggered a full-blown nuclear war if Pakistan had not exercised a rational and mindful approach. Pakistan armed forces have always responsibly responded to such blunders and provocation by India. Another most recent testament of Indian poor safety mechanism occurred in March 2023 when three missiles of Indian army went out of the range during a firing exercise.

Unprofessionalism of Indian armed forces is not only limited to the incidents that happened in the battle field but also in the shape of suicide cases which is on the rise. As per Indian media reports, there are growing numbers of suicide death cases in Indian military due to multiple reasons but the most chanted reason are lack of motivation, poor training and lack of beneficial prospects causing resentment in the ranks and files. In July 2022 Minister of State for Defense Ajay Bhatt, in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha quoting last five years’ figures said: “Indian Air Force reported 148 cases of suicide death, Navy 29 while Army accounted for 642”. ‘The Times of India’ quoted, 1,100 Indian defense personnel deaths due to suicide between 2010 and 2019 with Army figuring 895 cases followed by 185 and 32 in IAF and Navy, respectively. Indian military has been losing over 100 soldiers every year due to non-combat reasons, with one soldier dying nearly every third day by either suicide or an attack by a fellow soldier. News9, quoted a study (2019-2020) conducted by ‘United Service Institution’ of India (USI) reported: “Suicide cases are on the rise due to increasing severe stress emanating from operational and non-operational assignments”.

Suicide rate in the Indian Army is about half of India’s rate of 16.5 suicides per 100,000 people. Indian Army has been losing more personnel every year through suicides, fratricides and other non-combat incidents than in the actual line of duty. There is also increasing frequency of suicide cases in civil armed forces (CAF), of the country as well.

Indian government on one hand, is increasing its foot-prints across the region in order to secure the status of regional hegemon but on the other hand fails to prove it due to incompetence. Moreover, inexperienced operating staff, mismanagement and corruption have always resulted in repeated events of international embarrassment. There is dire need on global level to impose restraint on India’s military threat to the region, bordering country’s as well its own population. More scrutiny should be demanded by international community over India’s never ending “military misadventures” that may turn into a global catastrophe in case of escalation from the country’s that remain constantly exposed to it’s foolhardy conduct.

 *Opinions expressed in this article are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of The South Asia Times