Fact Check: Did The Defense Expenditure In The Reign Of ManMohan Singh Was Nil As Claimed By Nirmala Sitharaman?

On 21st March 2022, the Twitter handle of @nsitharamanoffc posted a speech of the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman in the parliament on the Defense Budget. Further, the caption of the tweet was “10 years of Indian defense (purchase) history were lost so that after 2014 we had to buy rapidly, from pins to aircraft, everything.”

10 years of Indian defence (purchase) history were lost so that after 2014 we had to buy rapidly, from pins to aircraft, everything.

– Smt @nsitharaman on defence purchases in the Rajya Sabha. pic.twitter.com/19BfJfNxIj

— Nirmala Sitharaman Office (@nsitharamanoffc) March 21, 2022

Defense in Manmohan Sarkar

Nirmala Sitharaman alleged that in the 10 years of Manmohan, there was nil purchase in the Défense. To know the reality of her claim we took a resort to the site of the Ministry of Défense and the annual report of the Manmohan Sarkar.

We found some of the things regarding the budget done by Manmohan Singh Sarkar.

1. In the year 2004-05 exemption from income tax the family pension received by the widow or children or nominated heirs, as the case may be, of a member of the armed forces (including paramilitary forces) of the Union, where the death of such member has occurred in the course of operational duties under Family pension of a member of armed forces – Section 10(19).
2. In the Union Budget for 2005-06, the allocation for Defence has been increased by about eight percent over that of the last year from Rs.77,000 crore to Rs. 83,000 crores, or about $18.5. In October 2005, a contract for the construction of six French Scorpion class submarines indigenously was signed at Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) in Mumbai under Transfer of Technology. The sea trials of the fifth submarine out of those six have also started and are expected to be inducted into the Indian Navy fleet soon.
3. In 2006- the Ministry of Défense and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) signed a contract of Rs 2701.7 crore in March 2006 to build 20 self-made Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Teja’s for the Air Force.
4. In 2007- 40 additional Sukhoi-30 jets for the Air Force were procured through a contract signed by the Ministry of Défense and HAL.
5. In 2008- India signed a ‘Letter of Offer and Approval’ with the US Government for the purchase of six C130J Hercules aircraft for the Air Force. The deal is worth Rs 3835.38 crore.
6. 2009 – In January, the Indian Navy signed a $2.137 billion agreement with Boeing Industries for the purchase of eight P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft. This was done based on the report of the Indian Defense Ministry. In the same report of the Defense Ministry on indigenous defense production, it has been said that how its own PSU BEL got orders for the supply of two squadrons of Akash missiles to the Air Force (Rs 1222 crore) which is such a complex and such a problem from the defense services. This was the first contract for a strategic indigenous weapon system of its kind.
7. In 2014, the Defense Ministry of the UPA government informed the Indian Parliament about the capital spent odefensedefensen the modernization of the armed forces. It was told that while it spent Rs 62,056 crore in 2010-11, this expenditure increased to Rs 70,499.12 crore in 2012-13.

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Conclusion

Hence, it is clear that there were many purchases and expenditures in the Manmohan Singh Government.