there are many theories to why India never fixed LOC issue these are some over the years:
1)corruption leaders to busy looting to worry about soldiers
2)no money
3)worried how will we look internationally and a goal to project a peaceful weak image
4) an effort to keep Kashmir issue burning for maximum political gain
5)unknown deals made with pak to keep status quo
6)technology hurdles (which no longer exist)
7)upsetting vote banks setup by parties
True dat. I would add a few more:
1. Corruption within the armed forces itself (SP Tyagi IAF scam, Indian Navy Mumbai housing scam, Indian Army arms scandals - BOFORS, small arms, canteen stores etc.).
2. Arm twisting forces to use low quality domestic ordnance.
3. Inability to prevent Pakis from gaining nukes, F-16s etc (i.e. no intent like Israelis to prevent Iran from acquiring nukes or only acquiring it at great costs to themselves).
4. Bad foreign policy management - even now we are not working to deny porkis loan deference requests in G20.
5. Bureaucracy - we just don't know how to form organizations, leadership, execution plans, policies, strategies, vision documents. For example, we dont have an annual national security assessment released to the public like in the US that details how the government perceives security threats to the nation. No state of the union addresses in Parliament every year to record what was achieved during the year. Presenting financial budgets alone is not sufficient. The government must be asked to detail how every year they have improved on key pillars - defense, economy, health, education, water and sanitation, urban development and jobs.
6. More bureaucracy - Example, formation of CDS and DMA has not ushered in any meaningful changes despite the urgent need for it as the PLA strategy is no longer short term now but long term - they will be on the LAC forever and build infrastructure to make their lives easier. No visible changes in creation of theater commands, procurement to match creation of theater commands is visible. No document has been released to the public as to how we want our defense posture to be. Professional armies do not just issue two line statements by their ministers. They publish strategic vision and execution documents. Good stuff: the new procurement policy is getting more nuanced - budget for local defense goods, export target, listing of in house R&D focus areas.
7. Even more bureaucracy - IAS, IFS, IRS, IES, IXS are outdated ways of recruiting officers and decisions are always taken in committees - like if you want to change the specification of a screw in a small arms, you form a committee of 10 people deliberating for a year and when the decision is taken the spec is no longer state-of-the-art. IAS/IFS have no exposure to technology education and how to use technology to advance a nation's security, how to work in teams (like how to get ISRO to share critical technologies to be used in DRDO arms manufacture or R&D), how to milk organizations we are in (we have been in MTCR for so long now - not even China is there - yet no critical ToT has occurred despite our status), how to communicate effectively (IAS/IFS officers are the worst communicators with zero communication skills. Even in Government PR, they just suck. I once spoke with our consul general in NY. He plain sucked - could not even present his view points coherently and in a citizen friendly fashion - and these people are the cream-of-cream IFS?)
Our issues are deep rooted. This is the first administration that is genuinely striking at the roots of the problems:
- modernizing education of the next generation via the NEP.
- speeding up decision making through the use of technology.
- reducing corruption through the use of technology.
- focus on wealth creation and respect for wealth creators and innovators.
- putting India first.
- lateral (i.e. industry) hires in top government services especially where IXS services have totally failed to deliver.
In conclusion (and after a long rant), I would say that we are changing and becoming better but we are in the first generation of reforms. But several more bold and urgent reforms are needed like China does (mass purges of thousands of corrupt officials) to get anywhere close to becoming a nation that can take on the CCP in technology, execution speeds, exerting power, foreign policy etc. I just hope the Modi administration does not go passive like the UPA did in its second term. Right now it "looks" like that, as PM Modi himself has become very passive and has hardly announced any path breaking reforms (his ministers just announce the usual reforms) that changes the fate of our nation (can he mass purge corrupt officials?). And this is what I am worried about that our usual slacking ('chalta hai') and lack of aggression in tackling problems is setting in. I hope I am wrong.