Chidambaram mocks Centre's 101 items embargo list; says 'promised bang, gave whimper'

Following anuncement of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh issuing an import embargo on 101 items, Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram mocked  Defence Minister, accusing him of for promising a ‘bang’ on a Sunday morning and ending with a ‘whimper’. Slamming central government's 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' push, Chidambaram said that 'Import Embargo is high sounding jargon'.

"What it means is we will try to make same equipment (that we import today) in 2 to 4 years and stop imports reafter!", he said in his tweet.

Criticising Defence Ministry decision furr Congress leader said " only importer of Defence equipment is Defence Ministry. Any import embargo is really an embargo on oneself. What Defence Minister said in his historic Sunday anuncement deserved only an Office Order from Minister to his Secretaries!"

READ | Big scoop on Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh's 'important anuncement' accessed: What we kw

Defence Minister's anuncement

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in a massive statement anunced that Ministry of Defence would embargo imports of 101 items to boost indigeus defence production. He said  Ministry of Defence has prepared a list of 101 items for which re would be an embargo on import beyond timeline indicated against m. This decision will offer a great opportunity to Indian defence industry to manufacture items in negative list by using ir own design and development capabilities or adopting techlogies designed & developed by DRDO to meet requirements of Armed Forces, Raksha Mantri said.

"PM Modi has given a clarion call for a self-reliant India based on five pillars, that is Ecomy, Infrastructure, System, Demography and Demand and anunced a special ecomic pack for Self-Reliant India named ‘Atamnirbhar Bharat’" Defence minister said in a tweet.

READ | India issues import embargo on 101 defence items; delivers boost to 'Aatmanirbhar' push

Ministry of Defence has bifurcated capital procurement budget for 2020-21 between domestic and foreign capital procurement routes. A separate budget head has been created with an outlay of nearly Rs 52,000 crore for domestic capital procurement in current financial year. More such equipment for import embargo would be identified progressively by DMA in consultation with all stakeholders.

A due te of this will also be made in DAP to ensure that item in negative list is processed for import in future. All necessary steps would be taken to ensure that timelines for production of equipment as per Negative Import List are met, which will include a co-ordinated mechanism for handholding of industry by Defence Services. embargo on imports is planned to be progressively implemented between 2020 to 2024. Our aim is to appraise Indian defence industry about anticipated requirements of Armed Forces so that y are better prepared to realise goal of indigenisation, Raksha Mantri asserted.

anuncement by Singh comes right after India received first 5 Rafale aircraft from France, which is seen as a mega boost to Indian Air Force's firepower.

READ | Latest News: Import embargo on 101 defence items; 9 killed in fire at Covid facility

READ | Big scoop on Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh's 'important anuncement' accessed: What we kw