The agenda for the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence that is to meet here on Friday has been altered. Instead of a discussion on the prevailing shortage of ammunition for the Army, including the Mountain Strike Corps, the Committee will discuss the more prosaic issue of proxy and postal voting by Defence Services personnel in the General Elections.
Coming as this does in the wake of the surgical strikes undertaken by the Army’s Special Forces on terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), the change in agenda acquires significance.
When contacted on the change in the agenda, Major General B.K. Khanduri, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and chairman of the Committee, declined to say anything other than that it would be improper on his part to say anything outside of the Committee.
The committee’s members have received the following message: “...Instead of having oral evidence of the representatives of the Ministry of Defence on Shortage of Ammunition for Army... the Committee will now have oral evidence of the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Law and Justice and the Election Commission of India on the Status of implementation of E Postal Ballot System...”
