Army rule in Pak has not changed India’s defence needs — George

“Though one lesson learnt from Kargil was that one cannot trust Pakistan, talks with it should go on with some conditions,” he said. Asked what purpose the talks would serve if Pakistan could not be trusted, he said although the United States and Vietnam fought for several years, their Army spokespersons met at Paris twice every weekwhile the fighting was on.

To a query, he said there were a number of controversies about the exact date of Pakistani-intrusion into Kargil and added that the Army became aware of it in the first week of May following which concerted action was taken to deal with it.

About the country’s defence budget, Fernandes said it should be increased from 2.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product to around 3 per cent though even that was not adequate.

On the allegations about the Madhya Pradesh Government misusing funds collected for Kargil, Fernandes said that he had not received any such complaint. He said that as the Defence Minister he was concerned only with the Army Central Welfare Fund and the National Defence Fund.

Apart from the State Government many newspapers had also collected money for Kargil and many had themselves decided the manner in which the money should be used, the Defence Minister added.