Arun Jaitley in charge of defence too

New Delhi: After defence minister Manohar Parrikar moved to Goa to take over the mantle of the chief minister, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley taking additional charge of the ministry promised “continuity in policy”.

Mr Jaitley told reporters that the defence ministry has a “distinct responsibility with regard to nation’s security and armed forces, procurement for security equipment for the country.”  

He said he will continue from where Mr Parrikar had left. “We have a continuous government and I will take it up from where Parrikar has left it,” Mr Jaitley added.

However, some in the ministry raised questions over the fate of the strategic partnership (SP) plan following Mr Parrikar’s departure from the ministry. The central idea behind the SP model is to harness the strengths of the private industry under a well-defined model to create capacity and infrastructure for these strategic segments above that existing in public sector units, such as ordnance factories and the DRDO. This was aimed at enabling the defence ministry to be at liberty to utilise all these private entities for its needs. Mr Parrikar was the main force behind it.

Sources said one reason why the SP model has not been finalised is because of lack of consensus within the defence ministry as a few top bureaucrats are opposing it on various grounds.  “So much so that even the issue has not been able to make it to the agenda of the apex defence acquisition council meeting till now,” a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Last week, however, a parliamentary panel on defence had strongly recommended that the SP policy “should be finalised by the defence ministry at the earliest in consultation with all stakeholders and experts”.

Though it’s not yet certain how long Mr Jaitley will hold the additional charge, he had indicated clearly that Mr Parrikar’s roadmap will be followed.

Suggested first by the Dhirendra Singh committee, SPs would not only be long-term relationships between an Indian private sector entity and the defence ministry, but would also be critical from the perspective of achieving self reliance in respect of national security and the defence production apparatus of the country. Parrikar was of the view that the SP will prompt India’s defence PSUs to be proactive and pose stiff competition to the private sector.