NEW DELHI : The Congress on Friday felt pity for Manohar Parrikar kept in dark about the Raffle fighter jet deal despite being India’s defence minister as the Prime Minister finalised it during France trip without keeping him in loop.
No wonder that Parrikar was making all sorts of statements on the deal without knowing anything about it, Party spokesman and former union minister RPN Singh told a press conference at the AICC headquarters here.
He said, Parrikar is not alone as other ministers are also slighted in a similar manner in the new style of Modi’s governance as he takes decisions on behalf of all ministries, keeping the concerned ministers in the dark.
He asked the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to at least brief Parrikar about the Raffle deal to prevent him from making contradictory statements every day that demoralise the Armed Forces.
Referring to the massacre of 18 soldiers in Manipur on Thursday, Singh said the defence minister’s primary job is to ensure security of the country and the Army personnel, but his focus appears to be elsewhere as one day he talks about eyes of Ganesh, another day talks of eliminating terrorism with counter-terrorism and yet another day talks of population control with a bomb.
Manipur is the third shocking incident in the northeast in one year, negating the peace that the UPA government had restored through dialogue while there has been almost 1000 violations of the ceasefire on the Kashmir front, Singh said, wondering if India will remain safe and secure if this goes on. “Only speeches and promises cannot secure the country,” he said, pointing out how the BJP has forgotten its poll promise to take revenge of death of even one Jawan by killing 100 Jawans of the aggressor country.
