MPs want Gujral to deploy Agni immediately

Fear of neighbouring China and Pakistan becoming major missile powers in the region has compelled members of Parliament to recommend sweeping changes in the country's missile programme.

A 42-member parliamentary committee has urged the United Front government headed by Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral to "build and deploy the indigenously-developed Agni missile immediately."

The committee headed by Congress MP V K Gadhavi submitted its report to Parliament on Wednesday. Other members of the committee include former finance minister Jaswant Singh, Rajesh Pilot, Sushma Swaraj, Shivraj Patil, P Upendra, Amar Singh Choudhary, A Sampath and H D Kumaraswamy.

Saying that defence preparedness in India has not yet received the priority it deserves, the report pointed out that "neighbouring China is not only a major missile power but also the main source of missiles and allied technologies for Pakistan."

"We have unsettled boundary disputes with both China and Pakistan and hence there is a need for greater attention to this aspect of our defence preparedness," the committee has suggested.

Stressing the importance of missiles in modern warfare, the committee said India has no option but to continue to develop and upgrade its missile capabilities for deterrence against any adventurist intentions of a hostile country.

Articulating MPs's fears on China and Pakistan's missile programmes, the report stated: "Capabilities of a country take a long time to build up while the intentions of countries can change overnight."

Therefore, the committee wants the UF government to immediately review Agni -- the intermediate range ballistic missile project -- and to take it to its logical conclusion so that it can contribute to India's defence and deterrence capabilities.

Defence experts say Agni is India's "technology demonstrator". But last year, the Indian government put the Agni project on hold.

Congress MP and former internal security minister Rajesh Pilot says the 38-page parliamentary report on defence is "path-breaking as it has suggested far-reaching recommendations to improve India's defence preparedness."

"We want the government to deploy the Agni missile urgently as the country can no more afford to be plagued by short-comings on the defence front," he told Rediff On the NeT.

Pilot said India cannot ignore the long-term implications of "covert and overt processes of upgradation of armaments by the neighbouring countries." "We also need to launch a series of measures to lift the morale and working conditions of our armed forces," he added.

Towards that end, the committee has urged the government to appoint a separate pay commission for the armed forces. Salaries and perks of India's armed forces are the lowest, compared to their counterparts around the world.

A revision in pay scales of the military is on the cards when the government implements the Fifth Pay Commission shortly. But the parliamentary committee does not want the salary structure of the military to be made on par with civil servants.

The committee wants the government to create a separate pay commission which will deal exclusively with the military's pay scales.