One Member concentrated his entire speech on the importance of the Navy. Nobody has any doubts in his own mind about the importance of the Navy, but certainly, there are priorities of high and low, looking to the possibility and availability of resources. In the present context of things, naturally, the Navy does stand lower down to a certain extent. But it does not mean that we have got an assessment, to discard the Navy, for all time to come. Naturally, the Navy takes a long time to be constructed and built up. I can assure the hon. Members, some of whom have mentioned about the problem of submarines, that the submarine is not necessarily an offensive weapon; it is also a defensive weapon. And we have made a beginning by having some training facilities for submarine, and, if we can afford and if our efforts succeed, possibly we may have submarines, but I do not want to commit myself at this stage about that particular aspect.
About defence production there are other more important things but I should say what really forms the very basic principle of our defence effort. There is some misunderstanding about these things. I do not understand how a big Army that we propose to have or a big Air Force that we propose to have can always depend upon the process of imports; it just cannot be done. Your Army cannot be made to depend upon the arms and ammunition to be supplied by somebody. The rate of combat consumption is so heavy. It is just not possible to think of fighting any defensive action without having your own defence production base. In the case of the Air Force, and in the case of air production too, naturally, we shall have to depend upon our own. When we can do that, our efforts must be to do that. Our efforts must be to train our people to do that, if it comes to that.
Somebody mentioned about the MIGs, for example. Some Members said `if you get the MIG’s possibly, after two or three years, it will go out of fashion. Then, what will you do about it?’ But even then, the MIG’s will keep flying. There is no doubt about it. Supposing we import from some other country what happens to that also ? If we import some machine from some other country, in the course of two or three years, that also becomes rather out of fashion for that country. How do you maintain those things ? The maintenance line becomes rather very difficult. These arguments can be made against each item. Therefore, one must be very clear in one’s own mind that in these matters we shall have to depend upon our own technological development, and our scientific progress and the training of our own people. Suppose we have got a type of machine, possibly, we can produce that in hundreds and try to make use of it. What really matters is the will to fight, the determination to resist. The Prime Minister has said many times, and rightly so that if it comes to that, we may fight even without our lathis also. In that case, if we have got our own production, possibly, a little backward machine will be there, but instead of fighting with lathis, we shall be fighting with that machine. So, about defence production, we must have some clear ideas in our own minds about certain basic principles about our defence effort. And there is no doubt that we must continuously and watchfully and energetically make efforts to see that we try to broaden and deepen and strengthen the base of our own defence production.
