JOIN USRahul Gandhi, Congress members walk out of Defence Parliament panel meeting
Top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and two other party MPs walked out of a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, claiming that the panel's time was being wasted by discussing armed force's uniform instead of issues related to national security.
Rahul was not allowed to speak at the meeting when he sought to raise the issue. He along with two Congress MPs Rajiv Satav and Revanth Reddy walked out following this.
The multi-party panel headed by senior BJP MP Jual Oram had met in the afternoon for a briefing by the Ministry of Defence officials on the "introduction to the Rank Structure of the Defence Forces including their Uniforms, Stars and Badges" and "Review of Working of Cantonment Boards".
As the meeting took up the issue, sources said Rahul told the meeting that the panel was "wasting time" by discussing uniforms and badges and that they should be discussing more serious issues like better equipment for soldiers at the border in Ladakh and Chinese aggression.
"We are wasting the time of top officials like the Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat. The force could decide on this," sources quoted Rahul as saying in the meeting.
The political leadership should discuss the issues of national security and how to strengthen the forces who are fighting the Chinese in Ladakh, he said.
In the meantime, a presentation on the colour of uniforms in the Army, Navy and Air Force was made during which BJP MP Lt Gen DP Vats raised the issue of disparity in the uniform of soldiers and cited that there is unity in uniforms and badges of the United States.
To this, sources said, Rahul again said that why should one copy the US and it should be left to the military to decide on what the colour of their uniform should be.
"The politicians should have no business to tell the Army, Navy or Air Force which uniform to wear and it is neither their jurisdiction nor domain and should not belittle them or insult them. The political leadership should instead provide hot tents, boots and equip the soldiers who are braving out at the border and are fighting the Chinese in Ladakh," he said.
Rahul is also learnt to have told the meeting that the leadership should also focus on how to push back the enemy and support and strengthen the armed forces rather than dictating the colour of their uniforms.
However, Oram intervened and disallowed him to continue, which led to a heated exchange. As Oram continued to disallow him, Rahul then said that there was no point in attending there as if they did not want to hear him and walked out.
Sources said some Opposition MPs, including BSP's Danish Ali, told the meeting that Rahul should have been heard and it was not the way to treat a senior leader.
Sources said Opposition MPs were of the view that the government does not want to discuss serious issues. They claimed they had demanded a discussion on the Ladakh border row in the last meeting but the ruling side had not agreed to it.
During a meeting on September 11 when the panel discussed "provision and monitoring of the quality of ration and livery items to the Defence forces, especially in border areas", NCP chief Sharad Pawar had demanded a detailed presentation on the situation on the India-China border.