In pursuit of its aim of becoming a “great world power”, the ruling big bourgeoisie is headed on a course of rapid militarisation.

Reports estimate that $40 billion will be spent in the next five years on the purchase of weapons systems such as submarines, tanks, jet fighters, artillery, and so on. This will make India one of the largest markets for arms purchases anywhere in the world.

This prospect is sending major arms exporting countries like the US and Russia rushing headlong to grab huge contracts. The president of US armaments company Raytheon Asia said that he expects India to be “one of our largest, if not our largest, growth partner over the next decade or so.” Lockheed Martin's president for South Asia says that in terms of growth potential, “India is our top market”.

For many years during the Cold War, the Indian state was not favourable to relying on the US for its arms purchases. This situation has changed radically now, and big arms deals with the US are part of the growing “strategic partnership” with the US that the Indian state is now pursuing. The near-finalised deal with Lockheed Martin for the purchase of $1 billion C-130J cargo planes would be the largest such deal with an American company so far.

At the same time, Russia is determined to maintain its longstanding commanding position with respect to supplying the Indian state's armament needs. For a few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, this military relationship had been weakened, but now the Russians are making all out efforts to revive it. The Indian government has called for bids for a $10.2 billion order of jet fighters. The Russian MIG Aircraft Corporation, which already supplies the Indian Air Force, is hopeful of bagging this deal.

British and European companies are also greatly interested in getting a share of the Indian arms market. A key feature of some of the deals being finalised is that a substantial proportion of the military hardware must be made in India. This means that various foreign arms firms are tying up with partners in India, like Larsen & Toubro, the Tatas, Bharat Electronics and Dynamatic Technologies, etc.

The massive arms purchases are expected to support a new military role that the Indian big bourgeoisie wants to play on the world stage. In particular, it sees itself as the policeman of the Indian Ocean region, all the way from West Asia to the Asia-Pacific – a highly strategic region as 70% of the total movement of petroleum products in the world passes through it. As the strategic alliance with the US indicates, this role will be dovetailed with and subordinated to the overall strategy and designs of US imperialism in this region.

What is significant is that the current militarisation drive of the Indian state is no longer being justified solely in terms of alleged threats from Pakistan, China, etc. The Indian state is projecting itself as one of the 'big league' of world powers, and wants an arsenal to back up this claim. Far from increasing security of the Indian people or of this region, it will only further endanger our security. It is bound to trigger greater militarisation in the region as a whole. It will increase the interference of the US and other big powers here, and give them greater leverage over the military and political establishment. The danger of getting embroiled in conflicts in areas further away from India also increases.

As always, the financial burden of these huge arms purchases will definitely be passed onto the backs of the Indian people, through increased taxation and more indirect means. It is a sham and cynical nonsense to say that the possession of a massive arsenal will increase the prestige of India on a world scale, when the largest number of poor, homeless and illiterate people in the world are to be found in our country. The Indian working class should take the lead in coming out in open opposition to the growing militarisation of the state, and in demanding a rollback of its armament purchase drive.