Rohtang/Sissu/Solang Valley (HP): Attacking the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the country’s defence interests were compromised for a long time as their governments kept “playing around with files” and delayed procurement of fighter jets, arms, ammunition and other strategic equipment.
Addressing public meetings in Himachal Pradesh after inaugurating strategically-important Atal Tunnel, the prime minister also took a swipe at the opposition’s protest against farm and labour laws, saying those parties also had similar ideas but lacked the courage to implement these measures because they focussed on elections while his government looked at the country’s and farmers’ welfare.
“Nothing is more important for us than the defence of the country. But for a long time, the country has also witnessed an era when the defence interests of the country were compromised. The Air Force of the country kept demanding a modern fighter plane, while they kept opening and closing files after files, and kept playing around with those files,” he said at Rohtang after inaugurating the tunnel.
Modi’s reference assumes significance in the wake of the government’s repeated assertion that the UPA regime had delayed decisions on the acquisition of Rafale fighter jets from France.
“Be it ammunition, modern rifles, bulletproof jackets, equipment that are used in cold weather conditions, everything was kept in abeyance. There was a time when the strength of our ordnance factories would make many jitters, but the country’s ordnance factories were left on their own,” he said after inaugurating the 9.02-km tunnel, which reduces the travel distance between Manali and Leh by 46 km and the travel time by four to five hours. (PTI)
