Kolkata, September 11
The Defence Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, denied today that either the Army or the Assam Rifles had been involved in any way in the raping of Monorama in Manipur which sparked off chaos and disorder in the state. Still the troops had been held responsible for the crime committed by the state police there, he regretted.
Mr Mukherjee was talking to mediapersons after inaugurating a workshop on
defence news reporting at the Kolkata press club, which was attended, among others, by Lient-Gen, Arvind Sharma, GOC-in-C, Eastern Command.
The Defence Minister said the Centre had not taken any decision regarding the demand for withdrawal of the Special Armed Forces Act, prevailing in Manipur and other NE states. An appropriate decision would be taken after reviewing the entire law and order situation there, he added.
Mr Mukherjee defended a larger expenditure on defence by arguing that the protection of the country against any outside attack was more important a job than sinking tubewells for irrigation and constructing roads in villages.
He said the country’s defence-preparedness would continue though peace had been prevailing on the Indo-Pakistan and the Indo-Chinese borders.
Peace time was the right time for defence-preparedness to which the Centre was committed, he remarked.
The Defence Minister regretted that the Army had to do some odd jobs while handling the law and order problems inside the country while their main task was to protect the nation from outside aggression.
He said the Army could have been geared up better and strengthened if the entire troops could be engaged only in protecting the nation from outside attacks.
The Defence Minister commended the role of the troops both in handling the terrorist problem in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab and elsewhere as well as in guarding the borders in Siachen and Kashmir.
He claimed that Punjab could be saved from the 11-year long terrorist activities till 1991 only through the deployment of the troops in tackling the prevailing unrest there. He hoped such nightmarish days were over in the state.
Replying to the reporters’ questions, the Defence Minister said the Nepal Government had not asked for Army assistance from India to tackle the Maoist activities in the country. It had, though, requisitioned several Army jeeps and other material which had been supplied, he added.
Mr Mukherjee said they had information that several terrorist groups were camping inside Bangladesh from where they had been launching frequent attacks on India.
He said India had repeatedly requested the Bangladesh Government to dismantle all terrorist camps inside its territory. He hoped that like Bhutan, Bangladesh would respond positively and flush out terrorists from that country.
