Punjab CM backs Rahul's decision to walk out of parliamentary defence committee meeting

Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], December 17 (ANI): Terming Rahul Gandhi's walkout from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence committee as totally justified, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to look into the working of the committee.
According to an official release, the Chief Minister said the committee should have been discussing strategic security issues and the urgent requirements of defence forces in view of problems being created by China and Pakistan.
"With both China and Pakistan breathing down India, the committee should have been discussing strategic security issues and the urgent requirements of our forces and not the polish they need to shine their shoes and buttons. I'm very sad to see today that the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Defence is trying to make issues into non-issues. What Rahul Gandhi said was absolutely correct," he said.
"People who know nothing of the defence forces are made to sit on these committees now and we expect them to protect the nation. Political affiliations were guiding the functioning of the panel, whose chairman probably had not even ever been part of the NCC," he added.
The Chief Minister said that politicians with no knowledge of the history and armed forces are sitting in the committee and added that the chairman should understand that what is done or discussed in these committee meetings is in the larger interest of the nation "and he should not behave in such a petty manner".
"For God's sake, think about our forces, think about the country," he said, asserting that Rahul Gandhi was right to walk out of the meeting, which rather than talking about what the forces need to combat the threat of China and Pakistan, "was discussing trivial issues".
Singh stressed that senior army officers attend the committee meetings not to talk about petty matters but to discuss more vital subjects of national security and the concerns of forces, who are fighting out there every day and losing their lives.
"The way Rahul and other Congress members were treated was atrocious," the Chief Minister said citing reports that he was not allowed to speak.
The Chief Minister pointed out that Rahul Gandhi had wanted to discuss more important and larger issues. "Instead of discussing operational and larger issues, such as the equipment and food that our jawans at the borders have or do not have, the committee was discussing buttons and badges and uniforms," he said. (ANI)