Therefore , the question of becoming self-reliant is a faraway dream . On the other hand , our defence equipment is for the most part obsolescent . So long as the country does not progress to stand on its own feet in designing development , it has to rely on the foreign powers for the second-rate obsolescent defence material .
“ The painful story of the search for a suitable engine for HF-24 is well known ”. What is not adequately appreciated is that the air-frame itself was not designed by the Indian engineers but was designed by a distinguished German , Dr . Kurttank .
The Leander class frigates , under manufacture at Bombay ’ s Mazagaon docks , are based on a design bought from the Royal Navy and are being built with British collaboration . How foreign collaboration can hinder progress , even for old designs and obsolete makes , can be illustrated by the fact that “ it took Mazagaon docks two and half years to build the hull of the first frigate INS Nilgiri . But the fitting of the ship is several months behind schedule largely because of the late deliveries by the British collaborator ”.
The Hulls of the second and third frigates too , are ready . But the fittings are delayed even more , since the Heavy Electricals at Bhopal , another collaboration industry in the public sector , failed to deliver the turbines and allied equipment in May 1970 , probably because the collaborator had failed to supply the needed components and other raw materials . “ There is no knowing when it will arrive ”. (‘ Times of India ’, October 14 , 1971 )
Our progress towards Selfreliance with regard to the frigate does not end here . In our eagerness to improve the efficiency of the frigate , the navy has asked for the replacement of the British fire control system by a Dutch one . The Dutch designer had to be called . The navy now wants to replace the British ( Vickers ) gun with the Italian Bofar . 16
This will mean calling an Italian designer .
As we are progressing towards greater collaboration with every available foreign technology and thus becoming more and more dependent on them , it is as clear as daylight that , “ China ’ s record has been even more impressive ( than that of Israel ) although the Russian design , which it has vastly improved , was abruptly withdrawn along with Soviet experts in 1959 ”. (‘ Times of India ’, October 14 th , 1971 )
Dependence of Bharat Electronics on foreign knowhow is an excellent example of our continuing dependence on foreign collaboration and evercontinuing hegemony of the foreign collaborator over our industry . Bharat Electronics is one of our oldest public sector undertakings , which is producing quite a number of many types of sophisticated radar sets for defense , walkie-talkies for the police , fish-finders , and tape-recorders , apart from a wide range of components for the entertainment industry . ‘ Times of India ’ in an editorial on December 18 , 1971 , comments on the growing dependence of this country not only on foreign knowhow but also its growing dependence on imports . “ But most of its output is still based on foreign knowhow though it has been in business for nearly two decades . It has not only signed 40 long-term agreements with as many as 19 foreign collaborators but also extended many of them when they expired . What is worse , the import content of the equipment manufactured by it , instead of decline has increased from 30 per cent in 1966-67 to more than 35 per cent . The cost of many items produced by Bharat Electronics , compared to their landed cost of the imported counterparts , is high and a large part of the undertaking ’ s capacity is underutilized ”. In all probability , the cost of the items produced by BEL is high because the components imported by the collaborators for this industry is priced higher than the average price in the international market , which is generally the practice of all collaborators in our country who import raw materials and components for the established industries at extremely heavy prices .
Indian Oxygen , which is in the private sector , is a subsidiary of British Oxygen of UK which is said to be under the control of Morgans of USA . Indian Oxygen is headed by an Englishman in India . It produces extremely important strategic defence materials such as high flying gases used by our air-crafts , medical gases , explosives , special electrodes , etc .
The entire air defence of our country is very much dependent on the supplies from this industry . The high-flying gases and medical gases used by Gnats , Jets , and MIGs , are supplied from various factories of this company which are located in Calcutta , Asansol , Gauhati , Delhi , Kanpur , Bombay and Madras . The explosive known as loxite is produced at Ranchi and argon gas at Asansol . The equipment and spares and specical electrodes required for defence are supplied from Calcutta . Ports in India depend on the supply of marine gas from this company . Light houses will cease to operate if supplies are not made in time .
The work of the naval dock-yards and ordnance factories , railway workshops , aerodromes , etc ., will be affected if their supplies of gas are sabotaged by Indian Oxygen .
Thus one of the vital production schedules for our defence is left entirely in the hands of an international monopoly house which is not only connected with the United Kingdom but is ultimately controlled by one of the most famous financial tycoons , the Morgans of America ; and yet , to deceive the people , the Government of late begun to talk in terms of self-sufficiency in defence production and self-reliance of our defence industries .
When such slavish betrayals of the nation ’ s interest by so-called patriots are seen , heard , or experienced , one
Class Struggle