A demand for having a ‘regular’ Defence Minister to address security challenges faced by the country and ensure modernisation was made in the Rajya Sabha on Friday. Other issues, including non-functional lokpal, missing girl child in Bihar and protection to whistle blowers also figured in the House.
Raising the issue of Defence Minister, Harivansh (JD-U) said the NDA Gover-
nment came to power promising matters related to Defence and urged the ruling combine to pay serious attention to security issues. He urged the Government to appoint a ‘regular’ Defence Minister while expressing concern over some recent incidents of fire in ordnance factories. Contending that the neighbouring countries were rapidly modernising their armed forces, he said the need of the hour was to have full time Defence Minister to address these issues.
The JD-U member made this point in the backdrop of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley holding additional charge of the Defence Ministry after Manohar Parikkar resigned earlier this month to become Goa CM. Earlier too, Jaitley had held additional charge of the Defence Ministry when the NDA Government assumed power in May 2014.
Tapan Sen CPI(M) drew the attention of the House to the Government not appointing the lokpal even after the law to this affect was passed. He said the law came into being following a countrywide upsurge against corruption. Sen said there could be practical problems as technically there is no leader of Oppo-
sition but if the Government could take the Ordinance route to appoint the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, it could do something to appoint a lokpal as well. Mini-
ster of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the matter was ‘sub-judice.’
Another CPI(M) member Ritabrata Banerjee raised concerns over the safety of whistleblowers and their kin.He referred to the case of a man from Kerala, who had in a soc-
ial media post, said that there were attempts to intimidate him as he and his family members were being followed by unknown persons.Banerjee said the person concerned was a prime witness in an important case.
Prabhat Jha (BJP) raised the issue of missing girl children in Bihar and said the data suggests that over 3,000 girls were missing and sought to know what was the reason. Some Opposition members raised objections after which Jha said he was raising the issue going above political considerations.