By Ajai
Shukla
Business Standard, 11th Nov 14
Since May
26, when Arun Jaitley took charge of the ministry of defence (MoD) in addition
to his primary job as finance minister, the elegant Room No 104 in South Block,
New Delhi --- the defence minister’s office --- has been occupied only in the
afternoons, when Jaitley would cross the road from North Block.
At 4.15
p.m. on Monday, in a flurry of activity and camera flashes, Defence Minister Manohar
Gopalkrishna Prabhu Parrikar entered the room, accepted a bouquet of welcome
from the defence secretary, and seated himself without ado in one of the most
powerful chairs in the country.
Thanking
the prime minister for “showing confidence” by entrusting him with “this very
important and sensitive ministry”, Parrikar candidly admitted that he had much
to learn about defence.
“I’m coming
from a state. Though (I have) exposures and good administrative experience… the
type of requirement at national level may be at a different connotation or a
different class”, he said.
Side-stepping
a question about whether his training as a metallurgist in the Indian Institute
of Technology (IIT) Mumbai equipped him for handling defence production,
Parrikar responded, “I feel that, as much as possible, we should manufacture
here in India. Any country with a good manufacturing base… can come up
economically by generating a lot of employment.”
Flagging
the shortage of technological skills in the country, Parrikar said he would
make use of the new Ministry of Skills Development, which Rajiv Pratap Rudy
heads after being sworn in today as minister with independent charge.
Terming
“very unfortunate” that equipment requirements of the armed forces have not
been adequately met so far, Parrikar expressed confidence he could combine
transparency with expeditious procurement.
“Whatever (acquisition)
is there will be very transparent, but (will be a) fast process. I think that
is one of my specialties, but let me understand (the process) first.”
Insisting
he needed some time to get to grips with his new job, the defence minister
nevertheless indicated that he was worried by the spate of accidents on naval
warships, the most recent being the sinking of a vessel off Visakhapatnam
(Vizag) on November 6 due to flooding.
In what the
MoD would see as a good omen, reports came in from Israel while Mr Parrikar was
assuming office, announcing the first successful test of the Long Range Surface
to Air Missile (LR-SAM), which the Defence R&D Organisation is developing
in partnership with Israeli Aerospace Industries. Due to three years of delay
in developing the LR-SAM, several frontline naval warships have been operating
without protection against enemy anti-ship missiles.
Manohar
Parrikar is the first IIT graduate to be the chief minister of a state, and now
the defence minister. He passed out from IIT Mumbai in the same batch as Nandan
Nilekani, the former UIDAI chairman. Parriker is a long-time RSS member, and
was a sanghchalak (local director).
He was active in the Ram Janambhoomi agitation.
Off Topic , Im concerned that how is it that Media Personnel are brought to the chamber of the Defence Minister. Ive also seen media teams inside the chambers of Service chiefs.
ReplyDeleteIf I was a foreign power, this would be my dream opportunity to drop listening devices and bugs.
I expect they electronically sweep the place afterwards ?
The defense minister seems to be lying on his back for this meeting, like all other Indian politicians. Being a defense Minister one is suppose to sit with straight back, face your opponents squarely and appear to be in control of the situation. His posture tells a lot about this minister, lack of backbone may be ? We will see ?
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