Why should there be any discussion or debate in India on defense budgets when there is consensus among all political parties that military spending should increase?
A5: That may be a good explanation of lack of debate, but the size of the increase at 34% year over year should be too big to slide through parliament without much scrutiny. And it’s strange that there is no such consensus on similar spending increases on food, health care, education and poverty alleviation where India lags behind many of its neighbors. In 2008, Indian Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed acknowledged that India is worse than Bangladesh and Pakistan when it comes to nourishment and is showing little improvement. Speaking at a conference on “Malnutrition an emergency: what it costs the nation”, she said even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during interactions with the Planning Commission has described malnourishment as the “blackest mark”. “I should not compare. But countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are better,” she said. The conference was organized last year by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Ministry of Development of Northeastern Region
