Nirmala Sitharaman is an Indian politician with the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), and has served as Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs since 2019 (this is as of March 2024). In the first Modi government, Sitharaman served as the Minister of Defence between 2017 and 2019, thereby becoming India’s second female defence minister and the second female finance minister after Indira Gandhi, and the first full-time female minister to hold each of those portfolios.
Sitharaman first joined the BJP in 2004 and was appointed party spokesperson six years later. She was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2014. While presenting her first budget, she made a statement by replacing the traditional budget briefcase with a ‘bahi-khata’ with the National Emblem to carry the speech and other documents.
For seventy years, India had developed Delhi, and Delhi alone as an urban center at the cost of the rest of India. How can Kanchipuram, which is uncomfortable even for highly motivated pilgrims, host an International event?
I dare the private sector – the Ambanis, Adani, Mahindra, Tata, any of the neo tech giants – to manufacture arms, guns, tanks, battleships, and sell them to government at reduced prices than what we import, and guarantee quality. It’s after all “for our beloved motherland”. Don’t look at bottom lines, look at how you serve the country. Don’t profit from producing arms, think of how you are helping the army that stays awake while you sleep. If you agree to be non profit, then I ll believe your sincerity. Otherwise you are just arms manufacturers, pushing the country to go to war to test your profit making toys. I understand defence production is big money. But stop fooling people through this Make in India slogan. It is bad enough that foreign manufacturers fool the country through Rafale deals. Now Indians will also start. Pathetic greed.
Like Parrikar, Sitaraman fell for personal political and electoral mileage over practical business sense. Bangalore, or Delhi are the correct expo sites. Rather silly.
Defence minister can’t win herself a loksabha seat from Tamil nadu so why is she taking this to TN. She would be better off having it in Bangalore considering that the city has a large defence hub – hal, bhel, beml, lrde, gtre, ada ,IAF units and large number of private players. Not to forget that she is a rajya sabha MP from Karnataka.