Minister of defends- Tatra trucks deal

Posted on Feb 9 2015 - 9:01pm by IBC News

Hyderabad: Defending the government’s decision to partially revoke the ban on Tatra trucks, Union defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday said companies shouldn’t be blacklisted over “small issues”. Faulting the previous UPA regime for blacklisting companies, he said random and indiscriminate blacklisting creates supply chain problems for the armed forces.

Taking another dig at the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Mr Parrikar said the world was looking to India when it came to space technology but it was not so in the defence sector.

Mr Parrikar was in Hyderabad on Saturday to address a conference organised by the Forum for Integrated National Security. He later visited the Bharat Dynamics Limited facility here. Speaking at the conference, he said, “No decision should be taken blindly. Any decision that we take should be in the national interest. You cut down your options by indiscriminate blacklisting of companies.”