Bangalore:
Defence Minister George Fernandes, who was speaking at the
Partnership Summit 2002, organised by the Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII) here, said: "Our defense forces are so strong that
we need not worry about security at all."
Speaking at a session on Indian Security: Dangers and Challenges to
the Nation, he said: "There is, however, just one weakness of
our defense system our indigenous defense production needs to meet
the world-class requirements of modern, state-of-the-art technology
while reducing dependence on foreign supply of arms and armaments.
There is a need for increasing private participation in defense
production."
Fernandes said in the last two days, he had travelled extensively to
all border posts, covering posts from Kargil to Drass to Rajasthan,
Punjab and Gujarat areas where India might have to face many
challenges. "The popular notion is that India has not paid enough
attention to national security, is unmindful and careless towards
national defense and security. this has been proved on many
occasions."
"This, however, is not because of the defense forces, which are
strong and responsible. Rather, the problems crop up due to Indias
dependence on foreign supply of defense production. It is to
strengthen our defense system that the government has come up with an
agenda, which includes use of nuclear power for security,
restructuring of the armed forces and creating awareness among people
about defense issues," he said.
Fernandes said privatisation of defense production will improve the
quality of indigenously-produced arms and armaments and will also save
a lot of foreign exchange. "It is a serious issue that over the
last one year, only 20 per cent of the budget allocation for defense
production has been utilised." He invited the private sector to
participate in defense production. "We must not let India remain
a second- or third-level nation in defense production we must
become competitive."
Fernandes said today there are two very important issues that face the
Indian defense sector. "Firstly the issue of a lack of integrity,
and the other of rising corruption. Corruption stalls development and
hence must be done away with. It is very important to build a strong
national character. In the matters of national security, we must act
in a responsible manner, and must encourage our defense sector and
build up the morale of the armed forces."
CII director-general Tarun Das thanked Fernandes and said CII has been
working with the ministry of defense for the last four years. Das said
CII will soon set up an association of defense industries with
companies involved in defense production. "We are happy that the
guidelines for privatisation of defense production have been
announced. CII has taken defense sector missions to the UK and South
Africa and will soon be taking more defense business missions to
Israel, France, Russia and the US, as the private sector in these
countries have shown interest in investing in India."
Referring to the case of aluminum caskets, Das said: "We
need to move from a system of mistrust to a system of trust from
one of assuming dishonesty to assuming honesty. Here, we must start by
trusting our armed forces. Let us start by trusting people who guard
our frontiers; lets start by trusting George Fernandes."
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