Suspicions in Defence Ministry needs to be removed: Parrikar

Admitting that some past scams have led to a mindset of suspicion in his ministry, Defence minister Manohar Parrikar today said there is a need to get rid of this approach as unnecessary tightening of procedures is hurting the industry and country at large.

"Last one-and-half year we tried to analyse. Sometimes it is quite disturbing that because there have been some scams, we have been tightening the screws of the procedures to a level that the basic aspect of procurement procedure or acquisition itself has been forgotten," the BJP leader said.

"I have been thinking about how to overcome this situation by changing the procedure while convincing everyone in the defence that still it can be very transparent," said Union Defence minister Manohar Parrikar

He pointed out that once the Request for Proposal (RFP) is issued for defence procurement changes in it are not allowed because of the suspicion of bribe or foul play.

"The assumption that doing something correct will compromise the transparency is not correct," Parrikar said

"You can't make things foolproof right on day one, you tend to make mistakes," Parrikar added.

Noting that today modifications are not possible in RFP and there are instances they have been recalled because of this, the Minister said "this concept or thinking of suspecting everyone needs to be removed".

He also said this kind of mindset has probably damaged Indian defence and the country's strategic industry very much and added that in the past two years efforts were being made to change it.

"One single most achievement if someone asks me, I can quote in which I have made a reasonable success is changing the mindset of people in defence, where now they have started understanding," he said.