New Delhi, Aug 21 (UNI) Accusing the Modi Government at the Centre of ignoring the Defence sector in the country, the Congress on Tuesday said that there has been a continuous decrease in expenditure on defence in the last four years.
Talking to reporters here, AICC spokesperson Manish Tewari said,’’In the Monsoon session of Parliament, the report of the Estimates committee of the Lok Sabha raised concerns over the reduction in defense expenditure by the Modi government.
The chairman of this committee was senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi and 16 of the members of the 30 member committee belong to the BJP. So, this is not an allegation by the Congress or an opposition party, but it has been mentioned in the report of the Parliamentary Committee on 'Expenditure on Defense Purchase and Production'.’’
Referring to the report, Mr Tewari said,’’the report points out that the the Modi government is continuously cutting defense spending as a per cent of the GDP. Compared to the year 2014-15, the defense spending decreased to 1.56 percent of the GDP in the year 2017-18. This is the lowest expenditure on the defense sector as a percentage of the GDP since the year 1962.
All this will have a direct impact on the modernization and preparedness of the armed forces. Under the present circumstances, the reduction will have a wide impact on India’s defence preparedness.’’
Pointing out that in order to deal with threats on the Eastern border of the country, the previous UPA government had set up the Mountain Strike corps, Mr Tewari said that according to reports, the present government was trying to scrap it.
‘’The government should issue a clarification on this,’’he said.
He demanded a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the cit in defense spending.
Mr Tewari said that in the year 2017, the Standing Committee of the Lok Sabha on Defence, whose chairman was BJP leader BC Khanduri. said that the government is not spending enough on Defense which was affecting the morale of the forces.
The Congress leader said that the attitude of the government had endangered national security of the country.
UNI AR SHK2042