Modernisation Delays Solved? India's New Defence Minister Also Controls The Funds!

[arp2041]

Jetley?! Jet Li bhi likh do, kya jaane wala hai?

Saley tereko Spelling ki padi hai...........yahan Desh ki raksha ki baat chal rhi hai

 

[Indischer]

Saley tereko Spelling ki padi hai...........yahan Desh ki raksha ki baat chal rhi hai

Isiliye toh bol raha hoon....Jaitley ki jagah Jet Li aur Jetley ko kyon Defence Minister bana rahe ho?

 

[Abingdonboy]

@arp2041 @sancho

https://twitter.com/x/status/471189995693166592

Yes it's talk but did Antony make any such comments?

 

[sancho]

Yes it's talk but did Antony make any such comments?

What for? Does it solve any issues? These useless bashing of UPA and Antony really doesn't make sense anymore. We have a new government, so lets move on and look at what changes actually happens when they start doing things and lets look at these things a bit more unbiased.

 

[Dash]

I have the feeling that it's also a cover up to strenghten Jaitly, after his loss in the elections. With this short term positioning he gets much "positive" PR, which wasn't the case in the last few weeks, since he was the only prominent BJP leader that lost even with the UPA punishing mood in India. And contrary to Smriti Irani's case, the loss was not even seen as positve, since she gave Rahul a good fight as the media says. So lets give Mr Jaitly some weeks to recover, but more importantly will be who really takes over as final DM and what the new policies of BJP will be in this regard.

He is the analytical brain behind all statistics for BJP. Has a good grasp of attention to detail. Hence is a favored guy for this. His loss in Punjab, didnt matter much as he is already a Rajya sabha member. Smriti Irani is a very pragmatic lady and talented. Modi likes talent and wants to groom them.
On the DM protfolio, it will be remained to be seen who takes it, there will be an expansion shortly. as of now its very unclear, who will get that post, there are ministers from allies that could be picked up or someone inside BJP itself. V K Singh has been ruled out. There is a possibility that defence ministry might go back to Modi himself, until he settles down.

 

[Kloitra]

Yes it's talk but did Antony make any such comments?

Antony did his hardest to clean the system. The system is so corrupt that it got clogged. If you want to blame some one, blame all that came before him, including the NDA ones.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

The man expected to officially take charge as India's new Defence Minister is expected to hold the joint charge of Finance Minister. The implications of such an unusual dual charge are immediately apparent: quicker clearances, faster processing, and shorter lead time for modernisation, funds allocation and flexibility of budgetary proposals. The dual charge also makes Mr Jaitley one of the most powerful persons in the brand new Narendra Modi Cabinet in Delhi. In the early hours today, it had been speculated that Prime Minister Modi would keep the Defence portfolio with himself. The dual charge of Finance and Defence to Mr Jaitley signals the importance the new government could be placing on efficiency and swifter decisions.
The new leadership will soon receive presentations from the armed forces chiefs on priorities, both operational and modernisation related. This, coupled with inputs from former Chief of Army Staff, Gen (Retd) VK Singh, himself now a junior minister (in charge of North East Affairs) and former Minister of State in the MoD Rao Inderjit Singh, will be a template for forward movement on a littany of deals and proposals that have drifted endlessly for years with little or no clarity on when or how they'll end. Big hopes from a new dispensation. Let's see how it works out.

Livefist: Modernisation Delays Solved? India's New Defence Minister Also Controls The Funds!

HaHaHaHa, rather fanciful thinking emanating from (that over-grown school-boy) Shiv Aroor.
This arrangement is purely temporary (as it HAS to be); the main reason is that the BJP does not have enough suitable people on its Benches to fill all slots yet, also factoring in all the other conditions that Modi has set for selecting candidates. Rather this odd dispensation points at other things.
There will be only one spin-off from this (a good one at that) probably. Jaitley will get a chance to understand the 'genuine requirements' of the armed Forces and the priorities thereof. Which will come later to Finance for the fiduciary OKs. While the MoD will become the responsibility of somebody else (as it WILL become, in a matter of weeks).

Both Finance and Defence are huge responsibilities and far beyond the capabilities of even the most capable Managers.

 

[sancho]

He is the analytical brain behind all statistics for BJP. Has a good grasp of attention to detail. Hence is a favored guy for this. His loss in Punjab, didnt matter much as he is already a Rajya sabha member. Smriti Irani is a very pragmatic lady and talented. Modi likes talent and wants to groom them.
On the DM protfolio, it will be remained to be seen who takes it, there will be an expansion shortly. as of now its very unclear, who will get that post, there are ministers from allies that could be picked up or someone inside BJP itself. V K Singh has been ruled out. There is a possibility that defence ministry might go back to Modi himself, until he settles down.

Might be, but then again it would had been useful to have him as a propper DM and not only as a short term stop gap solution, that doesn't really make him look too good either. The loss in the election overall of course didn't mattered, but was a personal disappointment for sure.
The solutions that were discussed so far (V.K Singh, Jaitley, or Modi) were not really good once, lets hope the BJP can find a propper one soon.

 

[Abingdonboy]

What for? Does it solve any issues? These useless bashing of UPA and Antony really doesn't make sense anymore. We have a new government, so lets move on and look at what changes actually happens when they start doing things and lets look at these things a bit more unbiased.

Sir, can you honestly say that Antony's inaction, indecision and overly-cautious approach hasn't stalled countless defence procurements? I mean this is an established fact and I'm rather surprised you don't think a Def Min willing to put their neck out and sign some deals wouldn't address the significant back log that has appeared under Antony's tenure.

You seem to want to blame 99% of these things on the "corrupt" Indian Mil brass but in reality such instances only account for 20-30% of the delays, most of the time it was Antony's unwillingness to use his discretion or taking anonymous and malicious complaints against winning bidders too seriously, initiating needless investigations and ensuring countless delays. I've provided the specifics to you before. There is no doubt Antony's pathetic attempts to keep HIS image clean has hampered Indian defence procurements for the past however many years- this is something most analysts agree on.

 

[axisofevil]

You clueless morons still blame AK Anthony ignroing the fact that Sonai pulled up all the strings. Knowing full well how Sonia can control a PM like a puppet, what makes you think it was any different with defence minister who is a strong supporter of the Congress madam. Your blame reveals your stupidity

 

[Dash]

Might be, but then again it would had been useful to have him as a propper DM and not only as a short term stop gap solution, that doesn't really make him look too good either. The loss in the election overall of course didn't mattered, but was a personal disappointment for sure.
The solutions that were discussed so far (V.K Singh, Jaitley, or Modi) were not really good once, lets hope the BJP can find a propper one soon.

Our defence/national security agenda lies at the hand of our PM, the stronger the PM, the stronger the push and focus. I believe a good person, with a synchronized agenda with Modi, will do good to defence. We dont need a defence expert here, and thts what has been made clear by not appointing V K Singh.

We are seeing a shift in strategy, a very corporate style of governance. Which is a good indication.

 

[sancho]

Sir, can you honestly say that Antony's inaction, indecision and overly-cautious approach hasn't stalled countless defence procurements?

Yes I can and I showed you some days ago, that actually only the LUH delay based on investigations wrt to the VIP helicopter deal was actually causued by him. The rest has various reasons often not even remotely related to him or the MoD, but because of the frustration in the public, things gets generalized to simply blame somebody.
And I don't think India needs a PM, let alone a DM that uses Twitter or other Social medias to talk, because what we need is not talk but solutions! Solutions to improve corruption problems in the forces, to make the forces more effective (operationally but also in terms of procurements), to speed up procurement procedures and if necessary change laws, to lead the Indian defence industry to more effectiveness...all this needs to be improved and was to a big extend already adressed by Antony, but it needs to be further improved!
So now blaming Antony for not talking enough is pointless, because he is out of the government and plain talk won't help Indian defence in any way.

it was Antony's unwillingness to use his discretion or taking anonymous and malicious complaints against winning bidders too seriously

Which just shows the fact that you have a dislike of the situation and him, but what you miss is, that he didn't do it out of his personal interest, but because the law and rules of India makes him do it! If a complaint is issued, he has to investigate the issue, but even I said, that in certain cases, where opposition parties (including BJP!) made baseless claims just to purposely delay things, he should had called that boldly! And I also told you that it must be possible to hold an investigation, without stopping or delaying the overall procedure (trials or evaluations), but even anonymous complaints must be investigated, if a DM takes corruption as a serious problem, because you can't rule out that the source is a whistle blower too.
But as said, even if WE don't like it, a minister is or at least should be bound to the laws and rules of the country and only because we want to see and discuss about new arms, doesn't mean he can simply overrule these things.

Our defence/national security agenda lies at the hand of our PM

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the President of India is also the head of the forces in first place and the cabinet / the PM in addition. The DM then is the responsible person from the cabinet for this field, so putting the PM into this is giving a single person too much power to decide over one of the largest and also nuclear forces. Such power needs to be divided for good reasons and a PM (especially one that's prime issue was developing India), should give that responsibility in other hands, while overseeing it as a PM like all ministries.

 

[Dash]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the President of India is also the head of the forces in first place and the cabinet / the PM in addition. The DM then is the responsible person from the cabinet for this field, so putting the PM into this is giving a single person too much power to decide over one of the largest and also nuclear forces. Such power needs to be divided for good reasons and a PM (especially one that's prime issue was developing India), should give that responsibility in other hands, while overseeing it as a PM like all ministries.

The presidential decoration on armed forces is decorative and he doesnt hold any real power. Not a party to its agenda of develpment and modernization. The best of involvement I have seen is a presidential fleet review and some supersonic flights from past presidents, but that too not so often So leave that aside.

Now let me come back to teh point when you said "devide the powers", I would though read it as "devision of responsibilities". But in either way. Where the DM is responsible for its modernization and policy affairs, the latter was done seamlessly by Antony, however the former was plaugued with not even one seignificant deal able to see the light of the day.

Now if we analyize, I have no doubt in my mind that, the approach, FM, allocating budget, DM and its machinery then deciding what to buy, plan etc, then again going bak to CSS clearance and FM clearance, (though democratic) but puts a serious huddle in making any move in terms of development.

This entire mechanism, of circulation of paper from one desk to other, can only find momentum if your PM takes a special interest on it. We have seen it all over the world! and if we are moving towards functioning like that, then its good. I am not saying having a DM is not needed, what I a m saying that and hope Modi will take a special interest in it. and from what it looks like he has. so im optimistic.

 

[Abingdonboy]

@sancho

"The navy anticipates that prime minister-designate, Narendra Modi's, new administration will be more receptive to the many gaps in its equipment profile" a three-star IN officer told IHS Jane's .

Indian Navy hopeful BJP will move on delayed procurements - IHS Jane's 360


Seems to imply that the last GoI/Def Min was less receptive to such things, doesn't it? This is coming from a 3-star IN officer no less. I think they are more qualified to make such assertions than either of us.


The cherry on top of the cake:

The MoD's [Ministry of Defence's] administrative delay in acquiring heavyweight torpedoes should never have been allowed to happen, former IN Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta told IHS Jane's. Far too much time is taken by the MoD in booking equipment and placing orders, he added.

It is not my personal dislike for Antony that clouds my judgement but my judgement is based on pricing together all i have heard- as a Def Min Antony was just not up to the task. For WHATEVER reasons he slowed defence acquisitions down to a trickle and one simply can't look past this. With a new Def Min/govt and a much weaker opposition defence procurements WILL BE speedier.

An MoD-appointed independent committee rejected the complaints earlier in 2014, but the ministry has since ignored repeated IN requests to sign the ATAS deal

I mean, doesn't that just say it all? The allegations where cleared and Antony STILL did nothing.

 

[sancho]

This entire mechanism, of circulation of paper from one desk to other, can only find momentum if your PM takes a special interest on it.

But there is a big difference in the PM taking special interest in the modernisation of the defence field and him taking over the DM position. The earlier can be done even without him being DM, by supporting the DM, but in war times, it is crucial to have a DM (as the responsible person from the cabinet) that can advise the PM with different point of views to reach decisions and not have just one person to take such big decision on it's own.

Seems to imply that the last GoI/Def Min was less receptive to such things, doesn't it? This is coming from a 3-star IN officer no less. I think they are more qualified to make such assertions than either of us.

Come on, the forces have their own interests in mind and doesn't care about the bureaucracy, laws and rules behind it. IAF wants fighters, they don't care about political benefits, the offsets, the ToT, the legal contracts and negotiations between the foreign and the Indian industries..., but the GoI / MoD has, because they need to look at the overall picture.

For WHATEVER reasons he slowed defence acquisitions down to a trickle and one simply can't look past this.

You still "believe" he had reasons to do it, but actually can prove that in any way. Most of the cases you presented, had clearly no relation to him as I showed, so it remains just your or a generalized perception, just like everything was bad in UPA is a generalized perception.