On Wednesday morning, following the escalation with Pakistan, India lost a MiG-21 Bison and IAF pilot, now identified as Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, was captured by Pakistan. Following the military escalation, with war clouds looming over their heads, a common question being asked is, “Where is the Defence Minister?”
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah asked if we still had a Defence Minister.
We do still have a Defence Minister, right?
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) February 27, 2019
Twitter was abuzz.
What does the Indian Defence Minister do?
— TheAgeOfBananas 🇬🇧 (@iScrew) February 27, 2019
Haven't seen Defence Minister, EAM, Home Minister or any other Minister's saying anything to the citizens on a day like this? What are we doing to #BringBackAbhinandan ?
— Shabbir Ahmed (@Ahmedshabbir20) February 27, 2019
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman a.k.a Raksha Mantri did not issue any public statements on the matter, or attend the meetings with security officials and chiefs of Indian Army, Indian Air Force and Indian Navy. Two such meetings were held in one day and were attended by the Prime Minister and the National Security Advisor, but no Defence Minister.
She did attend a Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) meeting to approve some defence purchases.
On her Twitter account too, she did not post a word about the escalation with Pakistan or the IAF pilot’s capture or safe return. She only retweeted two tweets pertaining to the National Youth Parliament and the launch of the Khelo India app.
After the 21 Opposition parties issued a joint statement expressing concern over the IAF pilot’s safety and slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders for “blatant politicisation of the sacrifices made by our Armed Forces”, one expected Sitharaman to make an appearance defending her government, like she has in the Rafale scam matter. The Raksha Mantri has been on the frontlines — in the Lok Sabha, before the press — of defending the NDA government over corruption allegations in the deal. But this time, it was Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar who held a press conference to respond to the Opposition’s statement.
A detailed report, by Shishir Gupta in Hindustan Times, about the Balakot airstrikes conducted by India, says that only seven people — The Prime Minister, the NSA, three service chiefs and two intelligence officials — knew of the air strikes before they occurred. The list, clearly, does not include the defence minister.
“The fighters took off at 1.30am on February 26 (the Mirages from Gwalior and the Sukhois from other bases). They landed at 4.00am. Soon after, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman was informed about the operation. The Cabinet Committee on Security was briefed shortly after,” the report adds.
This article unwittingly reveals that the Defence Minister was not consulted or even informed about the air strikes at Balakot: https://t.co/WcVYyIfOoH
— Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) February 27, 2019
Only "Modi, Doval, the three service chiefs, and heads of RAW and IB" knew of the timing of the air stick on Balakot". India's first female defence minister @nsitharaman evidently was not in the know about the air strike. So much symbolism. https://t.co/JMfy9eZb1k
— Rupa Subramanya (@rupasubramanya) February 27, 2019
Was the Defence Minister of India only told about our air strikes after they occurred?
This well researched article suggests that.If this is correct then surely there is cause for concern about the system of cabinet government. https://t.co/mJW3qXXidG— vir sanghvi (@virsanghvi) February 27, 2019
Finally, on Thursday morning, ANI reported that she would be meeting the three service chiefs ‘shortly’.