Congress-led UPA govt in 2014 compromised national security: Nirmala Sitharaman

"Bulletproof jackets were not available for our soldiers...Night vision goggles were not available, so in the night they couldn't do a thing and were exposing themselves like sitting ducks in pitch darkness," she said while replying to the debate on the White Paper in Lok Sabha.

Highlighting the corruption of the UPA government in the Defence sector, Nirmal Sitharamn said, "There was a Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper scam in 2013."

She added that in 2011, CAG had pulled up the Defence Ministry for a delay in buying artillery guns. "Defence was compromised continuously...Total ignoring of the armed forces."

During the reply, the Finance Minister also talked about the steps taken by the Modi government and said that "the Defence budget has doubled during the last 10 years. In 2013-14, it was Rs 2.53 lakh crores".

"Now it is Rs 6.22 lakh crore in 2024–25. Capital expenditure, including border roads and for defence forces, equipment investments, defence capital budget, increased from Rs 86,741 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 1.72 lakh crore this year," she said.

"It is a matter of pride that, due to the Make in India push, today INS Vikrant, LCA Tejas, Akash, BrahMos missiles, the main battle tank Arjun, and the artillery gun system Dhanush are all being manufactured in India. Besides this, today women are flying Rafale and guarding the borders too," Sitharaman said.

On the issue of the economy, the Finance Minister said since 2014, the government has followed the path to take the economy forward by "removing all the misgovernance and hurdles of the previous government".

Sitharaman said that the White Paper is a serious document with documentary evidence for everything that is stated in it.

She said: "It has been prepared with the intention of informing Parliament of the ten years' literal dedicated effort of the government to work in such a way to bring the economy on track."

After the Finance Minister’s reply, the House rejected the substitute motion against the White Paper moved by N K Premachandran of the RSP and TMC leader Saugata Roy of TMC.

Hitting out at the government, Congress MP Manish Tewari termed the white paper "a political manifesto".

He asked why the NDA government did not bring out a white paper in 2014 and waited for 10 years.

The Congress leader also listed out the achievements of the UPA government, including bringing out MGNREGA and AADHAR. He criticised the government for demonetisation of high-value currencies and GST, saying it adversely impacted MSMEs.

[with UNI inputs]