Form pressure groups, check “anti-national” sentiments: Manohar Parrikar to ex-servicemen

BHUBANESHWAR: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar urged ex-servicemen to form "pressure groups" to ensure anti-national sentiments don't go unchallenged.
Parrikar was addressing a group of ex-servicemen in Bhubaneshwar on a visit to Odisha for events organised to mark two years of the Narendra Modi government.

Addressing their concerns about One Rank One Pension (OROP) and the implication of the sevent pay commission, he promised the assembled gathering to consider their requests for facilities closer home. Parrikar said he too had a request.

Referring to the incident at Jawaharlal Nehru University in February and the political fracas that followed, he said, “I don’t want to comment on any other aspect of the JNU incident. Everyone has the right to freedom of speech and to criticise whoever they wanted. But statements such as what was said with regards to motherland amount, not to freedom of speech, but treachery. No nationalist will tolerate an attack on the motherland." Parrikar was alluding to the call of “bharat ke tukde tukde tak.”

“There are 21 lakh ex-servicemen, and their families, and another 18 lakh currently in service and their families. You should create pressure groups, you can monitor them yourselves, use social media, talk to the media. The media should also understand people’s sentiments about anti nationals very clearly,” said the minister.

“This nation has to seek peace, and we seek peace, from a position of strength not weakness," he added. Condemning Saturday’s attack in Jammu and Kashmir by Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist that killed 8 CRPF men, he reiterated his message to the armed forces to not hesitate to “eliminate terrorists.” Barring Saturday’s incident, he said 20-25 terrorists have been eliminated over the last 15-20 days without almost no casualty on the Indian side.

The defence minister also promised to double the capacity of HAL's Koraput unit which overhauls aero engines including those of the MiG fighter planes and makes blades for Sukhois engines. He said the Modi government's recent move to allow 100% FDI in defence would not, as some worried, hurt the domestic manufacturers. Particularly because, the new Defence Procurement Procedure rolled out from 1st April, prioritised Indigenously Developed Designed and Manufactured (IDMM) products. Why then have 100% in FDI? Because, over a period of time, India with some indigenous technology and collaboration, and its low cost advantage, can become an export hub for defence goods. “Your security is as strong as what you produce for yourself,” added Parrikar. The minister said by the end of his government's first term in power, share of imports in defence, already down from 70% to 60% in two years, would be brought to under 40%.

The financial implications, was just one of the many underestimated challenges of implementing OROP. In three months cases of 20 lakhs pensioners had been cleared and efforts were on to clear most of the remaining 90,000 cases of which many were entangled in for want of proper documentation, by June end said the minister.