Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday criticised his predecessor A.K. Antony and alleged that the latter was responsible for the AugustaWestland scandal.
“This nation was neglected on the security front because the Congress had posted a Defence Minister who was so scared of his own shadow,” Mr. Parrikar sarcastically said at a function in the city, where he released pamphlets highlighting the achievements of the two-year-old Narendra Modi government.
Mr. Parrikar referred to the initials ‘AP’, found on various documents related to the helicopter bribery scandal. “I am told that if a particular AP said that this file is in the interest of the nation, that file would be cleared. Then you can understand how AugustaWestland happened,” said Parrikar.
The Congress, he said, had a tendency to equate its leaders with the nation and recalled the sycophantic slogan, “India is Indira” and added, “In such a scenario, what is desh (country)? You can understand on your own,” said the Minister.
Earlier, Mr. Parrikar said he considered the Prime Minister’s foreign visits as the biggest achievements of the government. “There is not just one, but if you ask me, the first one, Modi’s achievement is taking the status of this country to the world platform from down under.”
The Minister ranked the distribution of 1.5 crore new LPG connections to BPL families as the second greatest achievement of the government.
Defence units in TN
At a press conference ahead of the event, Mr. Parrikar expressed his desire to expand defence units in Tamil Nadu. He said the priority was to get more out of the facilities at Avadi.
“Avadi can also have more items. We aim to boost production first,” he said, refusing to name the new items that could be considered.
The government had been encouraging private firms to establish production units in South India. He also spoke of the time when he took over and noticed that 93 T-90 tanks were stuck at Avadi because of a complaint about overheating radiators.
Mr. Parrikar said that he found a temporary as well as a permanent solution in six months.
