India’s Leading Opposition Leader Hits Out Against Defense Minister AK Antony

A senior opposition politician today called out on Defense Minister AK Antony’s "failure" to take decisions that has lead to the country’s "lack of defence preparedness”.

Arun Jaitley, senior member of the Bhartiya Janata Party, said, “Our defence procurement has hugely suffered," he wrote in his blog while hitting out at Antony. "His (Antony's) failure to take decisions is primarily responsible for this.”

In his blog, he wrote, "Today the geostrategic realities of India have changed. A Pakistan-China military axis has come in to existence. China's increased assertiveness and Pakistan's unpredictability in border relations calls for India never to lower its guard," he said.

Jaitley added that obsolete technologies had to be replaced with the state-of-the-art technologies. "The gap between India's military superiority over Pakistan has somewhat narrowed down. No country with 15,000 km of international border can afford to rely on obsolete technologies.”

The timing of his attack on Antony could be a tell-tale sign of his early campaign for Minister of Defense. Exit polls show that the BJP is expected to win the elections while ruling party, the Congress, will be pushed into the opposition.