Rajiv Gandhi also went on a defense shopping spree during his PM term; and by the time he died, India was on the verge of bankruptcy.
The whole thing about Chowkidar had to do with posture and decision making/political will + cutting out corruption. Which has been done. This Gvt is far more fiscally responsible than most previous Gvt's, and on top of that they have to keep everyone happy because Congress has turned our politics into a "Who can give me the most free shit" Contest - and the moment Modi tried to deviate from all that, and tried to bring reforms - he immediately got hit with suit-boot jibes in his first term, which could have turned into his version of an India Shining moment.
So now economic reforms and progress, as well as key spending areas like defense - are hostage to ensuring that all the poor people (including farmers who whine for loan waivers every couple years) are taken care of - so they don't vote out the Gvt before it gets to implement its various agenda points. COVID would logically cause further budget crunches - though the 2 front situation makes me believe we don't have a choice but to raise spending. And being left with the hot potato that was OROP has likely played a role in budget shortages too, but it had to be done.
Still, compared to previous Gvts, the budget may seem small, but the current Gvt has done well to trim the wastage/inefficiency and has cut out the massive corruption and acquisition scams that used to plague us.
Before the budget is raised, I believe the Army needs to take a long-hard look at its manpower size/manpower centric approach, certain big projects (like the IAC 3 and MMRCA) need to be re-considered/altered, and where possible - we need to learn to make do with locally produced systems/hardware (LCA + MWF instead of a huge MMRCA order, ALH and LUH can meet most helicopter needs, we have plenty of good artillery guns made at home, Arjuns vs importing thousands of Russian tanks etc).
A budget increase should be based on the findings of these reviews/studies - and priority for spending should be on local products where possible, even after an increase.
IMHO trump will win , but will be close.
