DEHRADUN: Defence minister
Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday asserted that India was “ready for any unforeseen situation” in
Doklam and will “maintain” its territorial integrity. Sitharaman’s comments came a day after India’s ambassador to China dismissed reports that the Chinese military was stepping up infrastructure build-up in the Doklam area.
“There are lot of narratives which are doing the rounds, but as defence minister, I can assure you that the country is prepared for any kind of eventuality on all borders. We are taking steps for modernisation of the forces,” Sitharaman said in Dehradun.
She was in the state capital to felicitate Uttarakhand students who cleared the entrance examinations of
National Defence Academy (
NDA) and Combined Defence Service (CDS) for Indian Military Academy. A total of 140 such students were given a cheque of Rs 50,000 each.
“There is no reason to worry about China because our armed forces are also undergoing modernisation which will be visible in the coming days. Moreover, we are very well prepared and we are fully alert as well when it comes to any activity on the borders. We will maintain our territorial integrity,” Sitharaman said.
On February 21, Army chief General
Bipin Rawat had also echoed similar sentiments and assured that there is nothing to worry about the Doklam standoff.
“A lot of questions have been raised in the past few days about the preparedness of the armed forces and I must say that there is no lack in that aspect. Apart from this, the government has given complete power to the vice chiefs of all three services to purchase weapons and equipment as they see fit,” the defence minister said.
On being asked about the unified commands like those in USA, the defence minister said, “We are working on getting unified commands in India and we already have one existing in Andaman and Nicobar.”
