BJP president J.P. Nadda on Tuesday said that his party will always remain committed to national security and the armed forces can be rest assured that the political leadership at the helm was honest in standing by them.
BJP president J P Nadda on Tuesday asserted that his party will always remain committed to national security and the armed forces can be rest assured that the political leadership is standing by them with honesty.
Mr. Nadda was addressing an event at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi to mark ‘Kargil Vijay Diwas’ the anniversary of India’s victory in the Kargil War.
The remarks also come in the backdrop of large-scale protests that had taken place around Agnipath, the new armed forces recruitment scheme that ended permanent recruitment, replacing it with a four-year stint.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, the armed forces suffered from a shortage of arms and ammunition, Mr. Nadda said, adding that the earlier governments shied away from improving border infrastructure on the India-China border because they thought it would "anger" China.
"Defence deals were marred by scams, due to which, for many years, crucial defence purchases were avoided for fear of scams," he added.
Since the BJP came to power, 36 Rafale fighter aircraft had been inducted into the Indian Air Force apart from 28 and 15 Apache and Chinook helicopters, respectively, Mr Nadda said. There was a shortage of bulletproof jackets earlier but India was now exporting them, he added.
He said the first discussions about having a National War Memorial had happened in 1960, and the Congress-led UPA government made a committee for this in 2006 but nothing moved. It was only after the Modi government assumed office, it was conceptualised and then completed in 2019, Mr. Nadda said.
Pakistan was replied in its own language through surgical and air strikes after the terror attacks in Uri and Pulwama, respectively, Mr Nadda said and took a jibe at the Opposition parties for allegedly seeking proof of the armed forces' action.
In his speech, Mr. Nadda also lauded then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's leadership, saying he refused to enter into talks with his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif despite U.S. President Bill Clinton's suggestions to him for this. Vajpayee said he would not talk unless every inch of Indian land was recovered, Mr. Nadda said.
