NEW DELHI, Apr 21: The Congress party on Sunday made public a report on national security by a task force headed by retired lieutenant general DS Hooda and said the issue was important but it would be “completely wrong” to say that it was dominating the poll narrative.
The party said the top three issues affecting the people were unemployment, farm distress, and security.
The Congress unveiled the report in the presence of senior Congress leaders P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh, and
said that its approach towards national security is “not ad hoc and not impulsive.”
“The number one issue remains unemployment. The number two issue is farm distress and the number three issue is security of various sections of the people, women, Dalits, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, forest dwellers, journalists, academicians, NGOs,” Chidambaram told reporters.
He said the Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi has been speaking about jobs, farm, distress and security of different sections of people every day during campaigning.
Chidambaram said the report is a broad outline of how to approach the issue of national security.
Hooda, while presenting the report, said there are five pillars of national security in the report. Assuring India its “rightful place” in global affairs, securing India’s neighbourhood, peaceful resolution of internal conflicts like the Jammu & Kashmir issue, and ensuring “jan suraksha (public safety)” are the main goal of national security of protecting the people, he said.
“The fifth and final pillar of national security is strengthening our capabilities. We have drafted the report based on a roadmap for enhancing our hard power,” Hooda said.
“Keeping in view the nature of future war fighting, there is a need to build up capabilities and ensure adequate budgetary support is available to the three services,” said Hooda, who is credited with having led India’s surgical strikes on terror camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in September 2016. (PTI)
