On Saturday, the Congress party accused the NDA government of taking the defense of the country, very lightly. The accusation came because the Indian Army is battling a critical shortage of ammunition, especially for its tanks.
“The Prime Minister and his government have to answer definitely since he assumed this office he had taken the defense very lightly,” the senior Congress leader, Anand Sharma said to the reporters.
“Now if the country is not prepared or under prepared and the requirements, the critical needs of ammunition and spares have not been met for 3 years then this government is definitely in the dock,” he added.
Sharma has been reacting to the report of Comptroller Auditor General, which revealed there is no improvement made in the availability of War Wastage Reserve (WWR.) He said that ammunition is needed to meet the requirements of 40 days of a full scale war.
“The report of the CAG is revealing and disturbing amid tension on both the borders,” Sharma stated.
He explained that there were heavy artillery firing and exchange of firing for a long time on the international border and across the Line of Control (LOC.) Sharma had made a demand that the government has to ensure that the needs of the army are met.
“And for any professional army, particularly when you have to guard such large frontiers against the nuclear power neighbors, there is no room or luxury for the shortages of critical spares and repairs,” he said.
Expressing that Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has not appointed a full time Defence Minister, Sharma said, “India does not have a full time Defence Minister. When he took the oath there was no full time Defence Minister. Then (Manohar) Parrikar came who was not serious and a non-performer. Now he has gone back to Goa and again the country is back with no full time Defence Minister.”
“So it is for everyone to see concerning India’s defense and the security of our borders is not a question of politics. But we as an opposition have the duty to ask questions and we will surely ask questions about it,” he added.
“This government and Prime Minister believes in talking all the time,” he said.
