Have broken nexus between middlemen and Defence Ministry: Parrikar

The nexus between middlemen, arms agents and Defence Ministry officials has been broken, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Friday and termed it as one of the “biggest achievement” of the NDA government.

He asserted that he had inherited the ministry with “fear psychosis and frozen mindset” in the department, where no one was ready to take a decision and changing that system was a challenge.

The minister highlighted transparency, fast decision- making process and ease of doing business among his other successes. “Under our tenure, we have broken the nexus that the middlemen and 

arms agents had with officials in Defence Ministry,” he said .

Parrikar said things have come to such a change that officers were not afraid of putting negative views on a file, which they avoided earlier. 

“The crux of the achievement is change in the mindset. The Ministry was in a fear psychosis and was stuck up in a frozen mindset. I have managed to break this barrier of fear and create an atmosphere of trust, if not full but partial that is good enough for the Ministry to start moving,” the minister said.

Parrikar, who assumed charge of the Ministry in November 2014 from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, talked about wide- ranging issues concerning his Ministry including Rafale deal, AgustaWestland scam and acquisition programmes.