this is where you are right and wrong as well..
did we got sanctioned in last 15 years..NO..so you are wrong on account of sanctions, do we expect to get sanctioned during war, well not before the war is over(wont last more than couple of days), and probably not after the war is settled, and who knows whether we will have flying f16s left!
so ideally we shouldn't have gone for f16s but the decision was done in 1980s and if we wanted to go for another platefrom than 2.3 billion is not enough, you would need atleast 6-8 billion dollars..
as 2.3B this will only get you 8 rafales or even less if weapons are counted vs 63 f-16s (18+ 45 getting complete new look +weapons) both were similar platforms than before rafales got there AESA
there is no comaprsion, the decision is straight forward
now one can argue why did we brought more..but thing is we have been under IMF since 2008, poor policies and lack of structural reforms, if any reforms happened it happened under IMF, all credit of our development goes to IMF, our politicians ***w up things than IMF comes and correct things and cycle is repeated, be it privatization, taxation, liberalization, everything has been done under IMF...only this time IMF was laxed, otherwise you would have seen PIA, steel mills go away which ate 1 trillion rupees...
if concept of people is "agar khata hey tou lagata be hey" irrespective of party politics than what do you expect? in every country there is corruption but in this country there is clear disregard for a convict and complete disregard for corruption
IMF is blamed for inflation and austerity, but IMF usually wants to jump correct things in months as compared to years that are needed..yes IMF destroys economies in short run but if it doesnt come instead of destroyed you get a collapse
india is booming yet you dont see it trying to match china as it knows USSR didnt collapse due to war but failure of its social services and econmy
PS:
go look at your budget and purchasing power than and now, the economy has tripled since than
