Army's importance has diminished due to lack of wars for the last 40-50 years: Parrikar

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Sunday that the importance of the Indian army had gone down because it had not fought any wars for the last 40 to 50 years. [caption id=“attachment_2295600” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. PTI[/caption] Parrikar, however, also clarified that he was not endorsing wars. He was speaking at a conference in Jaipur on challenges and solutions regarding border safety. “I have written to many chief ministers (over defence matters). Some have acted on it and at many places, it (response) has ended. The primary reason for this is that we have not been to war for 40-50 years. I don’t mean to say that we should go to war. I mean to say that without war, the Army’s importance has diminished,” Zee News quoted the Defence Minister as saying. Parrikar also stressed on “zero tolerance” to acts of terrorism to address concerns about national security, according to PTI. “You can drop a glass but you don’t drop a child because you take all precautions and that is mindset. The day you would take a decision not to drop the glass, you won’t drop it ever. Zero tolerance is the only solution for matters related to national security and that has to be the mindset,” he said. Apparently referring to the army’s cross-border strikes in Myanmar following the killing of 18 soldiers in an ambush in Manipur, the minister said, “A recent incident has changed the national security scenario and there appears to be a change in the mindset of people.” Parrikar said national security may be endangered due to internal disturbances, which could be a result of “internally or externally created problems.” He said external issues could pose a threat to national security as happened during the Bangladesh liberation war in 1971 when people from that country crossed into India to escape “genocide”. “External issues could be problematic to a nation as it happened in Bangladesh in 1971 when people had started moving to India due to genocide. Danger to India by external factors… I am not going into details… but it is permutation and combination of various factors,” he said. Parrikar also sought to assuage the concerns of ex-servicemen protesting over the delay in the implementation of the One Rank One Pension scheme. “I assure you whatever we have promised that all would be done… but some people need to be patient,” Parrikar said. (With inputs from PTI)