The only importer of defence equipment is the Defence Ministry itself and any embargo is really an embargo on oneself, senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram has said in a series of tweets reacting to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s announcement on Sunday morning of stopping import of 101 items as part of BJP government’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative.
“The Defence Minister promised a ‘bang’ on a Sunday morning and ended with a ‘whimper,’ ” Mr. Chidambaram said. The Congress leader added that the only importer of defence equipment was the Defence Ministry itself. “Any import embargo is really an embargo on oneself. What the Defence Minister said in his historic Sunday announcement deserved only an Office Order from the Minister to his Secretaries!”
And while “import embargo” was a high-sounding jargon, Mr. Chidambaram said, it only meant that India would try to make the same equipment in two to four years and stop the imports thereafter.
