‘Utilisation, prioritisation the new defence mantras’

NEW DELHI: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has done enough to address issues with the preparedness and priorities of the military, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in an interview on Monday.

“Absolutely,” was her response to a question on whether she is satisfied with the preparedness of the military. The NDA government has made sure that the defence forces are utilising what has been allocated to them in the budget, something that wasn’t previously the case because of “policy paralysis”, she added.

There has been criticism of the NDA government that the current allocation to defence in the budget, expressed as a proportion of GDP, is the lowest it has been in over five decades.

In her first interview to mainstream media after taking over as defence minister last year, Sitharaman said this proportion has to be seen in context. “What was the GDP in 1962, and what is it today?” she asked, pointing to recent World Bank data that shows that India has overtaken France to become the sixth-largest economy in the world with a GDP of $2.59 trillion.

The defence minister sought to nuance the discussion beyond just money. “Utilisation is the first measure I want you to look at,” she said, adding that the defence forces are now fully utilising the money allocated to them. Prioritisation was another measure, according to her. “Critical ammunition, things you need for preparedness, is being prioritised.”