Defense is often a taboo topic in Nepal. Writing on defense from a strictly nationalist perspective is, for many, a no-no because you are not only accused of being undemocratic and unrealistic, but also a lobbyist for the army. You are also deemed insensitive to your neighbors’ security concerns. Therefore, a lot of defense-re­lated writing one gets to read follows one of two lines: that we need to downsize the military or we need to address the neighbors’ security concerns, as if we are irresponsible and we delib­erately harbor forces acting against Chinese and Indian interests. Therefore, it is not wrong to say that most foreign- and defense-related articles we read make no sense. (And it’s astonishing that our security experts are miraculously silent on the threats we face from our neighbors on economic, environ­mental and security fronts).The mistaken liberalism that many of our analysts subscribe to views a strong military as a challenge to democracy; hence there is no need to strengthen it. And this runs counter to the suggestion they often make, i.e. we need to address our neigh­bors’ security concerns. To assure our neighbors that we take both our and their security concerns seriously, we need to have a well-equipped military.

 

The Nepal Army is under- and-ill-equipped. During the Military Day celebrations each year on the Mahashivaratri day, the army has absolutely no new weapons to display to instill a sense of security among the gen­eral public. Now contrast that to the annual military parades elsewhere where the people get to see modern weapons procured by their armed forces. But for us, it is always the same drill and equipment. It’s disheartening to see the army display bulldozers and other construction equip­ment instead of new weapons—guns and artilleries—in the annual military parade.

 

The situation is pathetic, to say the least. The Nepal Army does not even have sufficient stan­dard issue rifles for its troops. Its arsenal is mostly a hodgepodge of old weapons donated by or bought from China, the UK, India and the US. Some weapons are so outdated that even the coun­tries that produced them do not use them anymore. For example, the UK-made ferret armored car, which the Nepal Army proudly displays on every possible occa­sion to awe us civilians, is no lon­ger used by the British Army. We the civilians have seen it so many times that we aren’t awed by it anymore. It feels like a musket in the age of advanced rifles!

 

The anti-aircraft guns, some of which were made in 1956, were bought from China. In fact, their import is what led to the Indian economic embargo of 1989-1990. These guns are not very effective in securing our air­space in the age of digital technol­ogy and rapid advancements in fighter jet technology.

 

The Indian Army will be retiring the INSAS rifles because of their many faults. But the Indian gov­ernment wants our troops to keep using them. Therefore it came as no surprise when the CoAS Rajen­dra Chettri told the legislature parliament in December 2015 that 45 percent of the weapons in the army’s arsenal are antiquated and need to be replaced immediately. But thanks to the mistaken liberals dominating the security discourse and the political leaders with little or no knowledge of security, the army is cash-strapped and forced to accept help from every possible country, making it probably the only army that accepts help from countries with such conflicting interests as China, India and the US. So much for the brave Gorkh­ali pride!

 

Now, can Nepal address its and its neighbors’ security concerns with the antiquated weapons? Perhaps it’s about time we trusted our men and women in uniform and made them feel proud of the job they do by equipping them with the latest weapons. That would also make us feel more secure.