Former defence officials want to see ex Army chief VK Singh as defence minister in Modi's Cabinet

22 May, 2014

On May 26, Narendra Modi is set to take oath as the country's next Prime Minister. With him there would be some key cabinet ministers also taking the oath of the office. It will be interesting to watch who handles what in Modi's Cabinet.

Home affairs, finance, defence and foreign are some of the key ministries that the tall leaders with in the BJP are eyeing. The few names doing rounds, who are supposed to take oath along with Modi are Arun Jaitely, Rajnath Singh, Arun Shourie, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari and Murli Manohar Joshi.

Ministry of Defence is one of the most important ministries in the Cabinet, which looks after the functioning of the three armed forces guarding our borders. Experts are of the view that India needs such defence minister who can fill the huge operational gaps, can take strategic decisions, bring higher defence reforms and can bring back the stagnant defence production sector.

To know more about what should be the desirable qualities in a defence minister and who are those leaders with in the party, BJP should think of elevating as a defence minister, we talked to few former defence officials and analysts.

There were suggestions that the country's next defence minister should be none other than former Army General VK Singh, because a person who will be handling this sensitive portfolio should understand the defence requirement of the country and the requirement of defence forces.

Brigadier (retd.) Arun Bajpai wants VK Singh to be the next defence minister, because in his opinion the ministry of defence is totally controlled by the bureaucrats which is not good for the country. “We should have a minister who is highly articulated, highly educated and understands defence sector,” said Bajpai.

Echoing some similar sentiments, Brigadier (retd.) Chittaranjan Sawant says that he also wants to see VK Singh as the next defence minister. He said, “AK Antony has messed up everything in last 10 years. Now we need a defence minister who understands the defence, knows about weapons and can put up a brave face to Pakistan and China, and I think VK Singh is the best person for this post.”

Elaborating the desirable qualities in a defence minister, Prakash Singh, former Director General of Police (UP and Assam) said that the Defence minister should be somebody who can fast track defence acquisitions, brings quick modernization and indigenise defence production.

Singh added,“A defence minister should be able to do faster upgradation of the capabilities of the three wings of the Indian defence forces namely Army, Navy and Air force.”