 "Surgical Strikes: Congress miffed with Parrikar's statement")
The Congress on Thursday upped the ante over the politicisation of surgical strikes by saying the government deliberately changed the agenda of a parliamentary panel meet on October 14 where Army officials were to brief the lawmakers over the action taken against terrorists across the LOC.
"The last minute change of agenda of the forth coming meeting on October 14 is highly unacceptable. We are deeply disappointed," Ambika Soni and Madhusudan Mistry, both Congress members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, said in a statement.
The Congress has been miffed over the defence minister Manohar Parrikar's recent statement that no surgical strikes took place during the previous UPA government.
The Congress leaders demanded that the defence officials should brief the panel on surgical strikes since 2004, when the UPA came to power.
"We demand that the original agenda of the forthcoming committee meeting should be maintained and defence officials should inform the panel about the number of surgical strikes carried out since 2004," said Soni and Mistry.
According to the original agenda, Army officials were to brief the committee members on the recently carried out surgical strikes and subsequently deliberate on the shortage of arms and ammunition for the defence forces.
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"This has now been changed. We believe that the agenda must have been fixed after consultation with top officials of the defence ministry. We see no reason why this has been changed and that too at the last minute," said Soni and Mistry who are Congress members in the Rajya Sabha.
"This is not the first time that the agenda of such meeting is being changed. It has happened before," they said.
The government's decision not to brief the committee over surgical strikes under the garb of secrecy amounted to a lack of confidence in the members of the parliament. Which too, were bounded by the oath of secrecy, said the Congress leaders.
"This is absolutely unacceptable to us."
The Congress lawmakers further pointed out that they came to know of the shortage of arms and ammunition being faced by the Special Forces, which carried out the surgical strikes, through media reports but the Army officials were not ready to discuss or answer queries related to the issue.
Noting the defence ministry never presented the policy and preparedness to meet emergency situations despite repeated mentions in the committee, the Congress lawmakers said the bureaucrats had not come up with valid reasons for delay in acquisition of defence equipment including arms and ammunition.
"The Make in India initiative seems to be a complete failure in the defence sector," said Soni and Mistry.
"It is high time, the attitude of the defence officials towards the standing committee members undergoes a change for the better and committee is informed of the short comings that the defence forces are facing in combating the adversaries on our borders," they added.