CPI General Secretary D Raja on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s observations in the recent Mann Ki Baat about the defence sector are far from truth. Raja said that in the radio talk Modi wrongly said that after Independence, India did not concentrate on defence factories and manufacturing.
“Prime Minister was far from truth. When the Britishers left India, there were only 18 Ordnance Factories and the arms, weapons, ammunition, etc, were manufactured based on British technology. After Independence, the elected democratic government led by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had a vision and mission about achieving self-reliance in defence and indigenisation of defence manufacturing. As a result, many defence PSUs like HAL, BEL, BDL, BEML and others were established. Today there are 41 Ordnance Factories, with 23 of them established after Independence and not a single factory was established by the BJP government in the last six years.
“Today our Ordnance Factories are producing indigenously-developed arms, ammunitions, rifles, weapons, protective clothings, battle-field dress, tents, parachutes, etc, for the Indian Armed Forces. India has been equipped with the arms, ammunitions and other equipments produced by the Ordnance Factories and PSUs. How can the Prime Minister belittle the contribution of the Indian Ordnance Factories? ,said Raja accusing the Government for trying to privatise the defence sector by allowing 100% FDI in the sector.
