Cong demands answer From Modi over reports of dismantling of 17th Mountain Strike Corps

By India News Stream Correspondent

Aug 21, 2018

New Delhi: The Congress today demanded an answer from the Modi Government over this year’s defence budget being lowest since the Indo-China war of 1962, and asked him to respond to the reports that the 17th Mountain Strike Corps raised for the border with China during the UPA regime was being dismantled.

”Under whose pressure this dismantling is taking place?” senior Congress leader Manish Tiwari said at a press conference here, accusing the NDA government of compromising the security of the country.

He said it was not only the Congress which sees a cause for worry on the security front but the Estimates Committee of Parliament headed by no other than veteran BJP
leader Murli Manohar Joshi, and having 16 members from the ruling party out of the total 30 has in its latest report tabled in the monsoon session expressed concern over low budget and low allocation for defence procurement.

”The Defence expenditure which was 2 pc of the GDP in 2014 had in 2017-18 declined to 1.56 pc of the GDP. And this under a
government which projects itself as very mucular and hawkish in nationalism,” he said.

Mr Tiwari said similar concern quoting from a submission of the vice chief of the Army staff to the Parliamentary
standing committee on Defence has been voiced by its chairman, again a BJP Memeber and veteran armyman BC Khandoori.

In fact, the NDA government had totally failed in addressing the security concern of India, Tiwari said, adding that ” Pakiatan was already indemnified by China, Nepal has been pushed into Beijing’s lap by the ill-conceived economic blockade
while the Yameen Government in Maldives was issuing threat to India and the entire water front of Colombo was in charge of a chinese company.”

”China is the real threat. The Government should tell the people whether the reports that the Mountain strike corps has been junked,” he said.
The Congress leader also slammed the Modi Government’s ”blow hot, blow cold ”Pakistan policy, saying that in reality it had no policy at all.