Wednesday, Feb 20, 2002
Wednesday, Feb 20, 2002 |
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The Defence Minister, George Fernandes, rests his hand on a tripod-mounted machine gun while talking to presspersons during `Defexpo India 2002' in New Delhi on Tuesday. - Reuters
NEW DELHI, FEB. 19. Maintaining that troop morale was high, the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, today ruled out a pullback from the Indo-Pak. borders till Islamabad fulfilled the conditions spelt out by New Delhi. ``The troops were moved to the border in a certain situation and we had laid down some conditions which were not fulfilled. They will remain there till these are fulfilled and a final decision is taken by the Government,'' he said here. Dispelling apprehensions of fatigue or loss of morale among the troops, Mr. Fernandes said ``they are very fine men. You can't beat them.'' He had inspected the forward positions and found that the morale of the troops was unaffected by their prolonged deployment. ``I had a wide interaction with the troops and the nation should rest assured that their morale is on top. The only question they ask is how long do you want us to wait to handle the enemy.'' Mr. Fernandes said additional costs in maintaining the stand-off with Pakistan were not prohibitive. ``Moving troops to forward positions and getting them back does cost a lot. But there is hardly any additional expenditure in deploying them on the border.'' The Government would unhesitatingly sanction additional funds for the defence sector if necessary. ``As far as the defence sector is concerned, the position of the Government is that it will never be starved of funds.'' In a significant observation, Mr. Fernandes expressed his misgivings over the discussion of defence purchases in the public domain. As a result, policy-makers were not prepared to take crucial purchase decisions. On the lingering decision on the purchase of advanced jet trainers (AJTs), Mr. Fernandes was critical of those who were sabotaging a final decision. ``Unfortunately, far too many people are getting involved. It has not moved a step forward but there are a lot of people who wouldn't care less,'' he said without naming anyone. On the casket controversy, the Minister declined to discuss the issue publicly and termed recent reports on it as ``lies, more lies and super lies.'' Supporting public sector ordinance factories, he said it was unfair to criticise them on grounds of quality. The factories had risen to the occasion by operating round-the-clock to supply ammunition during the Kargil War. The quality of their products was good, which was evident from the interest shown by some countries. ``We should not denigrate what is ours,'' he counselled. Mr. Fernandes was positive about the future course of Indo-U.S. ties and said a road-map for closer ties between the two militaries had been worked out. American objections to transferring high-tech military equipment had also ebbed. ``In the past one year, their stand-offishness gradually went away. A different relationship has emerged after September 11.''
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