Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said there had never been surgical strikes by the defence forces across the Line of Control in recent years of the kind that were carried out on Sept 29. Answering several questions from the audience at ‘FINS Dialogue with Raksha Mantri’ in Mumbai, Parrikar said what was being referred to in current debates as ‘earlier strikes’ were localized border actions on decisions taken by local army commanders in what are covert operations. These are frequent and are not ordered by New Delhi, the defence minister said.

Parrikar said the surgical strikes (on 29 September) were an operation which was announced (owned up) by India’s DG -Military Operations, and a single, one-time action,’’ and the decision was taken at the highest levels in the Central government. He also said the surgical strikes have established the unpredictability in India’s response and we must use it as a weapon.

Parrikar said that 127 crore Indians and 13.5 lakh Army personnel must take credit for the surgical strikes across the LOC, which have upset the applecart for Pakistan. Taking a dig at the Indian media and erstwhile Congress governments, he said the frustration of 127 crore Indians that was piling up all these years, was released when the surgical strikes were announced on the next day. The Indian media must realise where the credit lies,’’ he said. Parrikar said the credit was due to the decision-making capability of the present government and assured the audience that India’s security was far more assured now than earlier.

On a question about India considering banning Chinese goods, given China’s covert support to Pakistan, the Defense Minister said that India’s Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) had yielded results with China in a reduction of Chinese transgressions across our border on the East. He said India was bound by World Trade Organisation (WTO) treaties and mandates, and so economic bans and the like were complicated questions. But nobody can stop an Indian from taking a personal decision on the use of Chinese goods,’’ he said to loud applause.

The Minister took several questions from the audience on Indian’s defence preparedness and welfare measures for defence personnel. On the issue of defence pensions, Parrikar said several anomalies in the One Rank One Pension (OROP) Scheme had been ironed out and Rs 4000 Cr had been released in the first instalment and Rs 2000 Cr were released in the second instalment. A total of Rs 7500 Cr is annually released, while the demand was about Rs 8000 Cr,’’ he said. On reported shoratges in defence supplies, he said the authorised shortage levels may look high, but in fact, Corps Commanders, etc were allowed to buy equipment as required. Particularly in the Northern Command the purchase budget had been raised from Rs 100Cr to Rs 400Cr’’ he said.

Parrikar said his biggest challenge in his two-year old tenure was dealing with old scams. He said defence production companies get blacklisted and procurements sometimes are stopped completely. `We are trying to buy guns for our ships for years now,’’ he said. Old deals have gone into a spin (owning to some investigation or the other), he said. Explaining that defence producers are few and most companies in the world are linked to each other in operations or by shareholding, he said India has now developed a new blacklisting policy which the government will announce soon. The overwhelming consideration will be that you cannot stop procurement if there is a limited problem with one company, and national security needs will be paramount, he said.

Parrikar said that while contracts worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore had already been signed, the figure was likely to be scaled up to Rs 3 lakh crore worth of defence purchases.

He said the Air Force has initiated the process by inducted Tejas, a fourth generation Light Combat Aircraft. He said our Air Force has been trying to buy fighter aircraft for 16 years, but with the tying up of the Rafael deal, things will change rapidly. He also referred to the induction of Dhanush a 145X46 mm gun, similar to the Bofors Gun, for which an order of 414 guns had been placed. The M777 ultra-light howitzers for mountain warfare had also been ordered. And indigenous production of the Self Propelled 155×52 caliber guns would help replace old guns, the minister said. We didn’t buy new guns for 28 years’’ he said.

Admitting that there had been lapses in Uri and Pathankot, the Minister said one cannot expect 100 percent intelligence inputs. Putting up a strong defence of AFSPA, the Minister said the army needs police powers to carry out patrols, searches etc. He said the order had been given out that civilians are not to be harmed, but anyone carrying a gun, is not a civilian,’’ he said. They would be dealt with appropriately,’’ he said. He said if the number of TV channels airing stone pelting incidents in the Kashmir Valley were reduced, the stone pelting itself comes down. Publicity is what is feeding the morale of the mischief maker, he said.