Army adequately equipped to defend country, says Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Union defence minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said that the Indian armed forces were “reasonably and sufficiently equipped” to defend the sovereignty of the country.

The minister’s response in Rajya Sabha came after Opposition members  raised the issue of defence preparedness in the wake of a CAG report flagging the issue that the Army was facing a critical shortage of ammunition to last just 10 days of war.

The minister said the CAG report had reference to the shortage of ammunition in relation to a point of time.

“Subsequently, thereafter, significant progress has been made,” he said. “Procedures (for procurement of arms and ammunition) have been simplified, powers decentralised and the armed forces are reasonably and sufficiently equipped,” he said.

The CAG has reportedly said that the Army faces a shortfall of 40 per cent, that is 61 out of 152 types of ammunition available were meant for less than 10 days of fighting a war. However, the Opposition was not satisfied with the reply and put tough questions to the government.

“When was procedure simplified,” asked Anand Sharma of the Congress and then claimed that the decision was taken just a few days ago.

“For three years, nothing was done,” he said, adding that there had been no full-time defence minister in the country and the earlier one, Manohar Parrikar, was a “non-performer”.

Deputy chairman P.J. Kurien said if the Opposition wanted a discussion, they would give a separate notice.

The issue was raised by Ramgopal Yadav (SP), who pointed out that the CAG report on the shortage of arms and ammunition came amid tension on the borders with both Pakistan and China.

“Why don’t we have arms and ammunition to fight more than 10 days of war,” he asked. “The people are concerned. Please do whatever is needed to save the country.”