Arun Jaitley takes over as Defence Minister

Ajay Banerjee

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 14

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday assumed charge as Defence Minister, replacing Manohar Parrikar, who has resigned and is now set to be Chief Minister in his home state Goa.

Jaitley arrived at the South Block office of the Defence Minister around 11.15 am to assume charge.

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This will be an additional charge for Jaitley, who has in the past held the portfolio of Defence for some five months when the BJP-led NDA government was voted to power in May 2014.

Parrikar’s tenure as Defence Minister saw clearance of a raft of arms deals besides simplification of the acquisition process. He had also pushed for a number of stalled acquisition projects.

A Rashtrapati Bhawan communique had yesterday said that as advised by the Prime Minister, the President has directed that Jaitley shall be assigned the charge of the Defence Ministry in addition to his existing portfolios.

It is not clear for how long Jaitley will keep the two key portfolios.

The deals finalised during Parrikar’s tenure included purchase of 21 Apache attack helicopters and 15 Chinook heavy-lift choppers from American aviation giant Boeing and the US government.

Last year, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Parrikar had approved the much delayed purchase of 145 Ultra Light Howitzers worth about Rs 5,000 crore from the US and also bulk production of 18 Dhanush artillery guns, the first acquisition of such a weapon system by the army in three decades since the Bofors scandal.

In March last year, Parrikar had come out with a new defence procurement policy with an aim to ensure transparency in defence deals, fast-track acquisition process and indigenisation of defence procurement.

In September last year, India had inked a Euro 7.87 billion (approx Rs 59,000 crore) deal with France for purchasing 36 Rafale fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons and equipped with latest missiles.

It was under Parrikar, known for taking a hard line on the issue of countering cross-border terrorism, that the Army had launched the surgical strike in PoK in September last year.

On Sunday, the Goa BJP had passed a resolution requesting the central leadership to make Parrikar the Chief Minister.

BJP’s prospective allies had also made Parrikar’s return a pre-condition for their support.

Parrikar, an IIT (Bombay) alumni, had said some time ago he had still not “settled” in the national capital as he can never be a “Delhi politician”, indicating his fondness for Goa. With PTI inputs