Arya Banerjee

Till 1962 the Min of Defence Production was in doldrums because Nehru said we are a peace loving nation and do not need an Army and his Defence Minister was busy making money through the infamous Jeep Scandal. After the severe thrashing that we got from the Chinese due to an absolutely ill-equipped and inadequately motivated Army Defence Production perked up and the Indian Ordnance Factories and other units of Defence Production such as HAL, NAL, BEL, BEML etc did good work. However, then came the era of St Anthony, our longest serving Defence Minister, whose principle was "Do no work and you can make no mistake!". It is under his most inept Ministership that the Min of Defence Production lost it's fervour and potential to do good work. IT IS TIME NOW TO HAVE A FULL TIME DEFENCE MINISTER (not a part-time one who does not have his heart and soul in this job) WHO WILL TAKE MORE INTEREST IN MATTERS RELATING TO THE MIN OF DEFENCE AND DEFENCE PRODUCTION. They are fully capable of delivering top class weaponry, given the proper funds, attention and motivation.