IANS/New Delhi

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday said there should be no controversy over the appointment of the new Indian Army chief.
The Bharatiya Janata had opposed the previous Congress government’s decision on the army chief’s appointment days before leaving office.
“I believe there should be no controversy about the appointment of any person,” Jaitley told reporters here when asked about Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag being named the successor to army chief, Gen Bikram Singh.
“There were some comments on the procedure which happened when the model code of conduct was there. This should not reflect on the person concerned in any manner,” Jaitley added shortly after he assumed office as the new defence minister, an additional charge he has with the finance ministry.
The Congress-led government took the decision to name Lt Gen Suhag the new army chief days before it left office. This was after the Election Commission gave its approval to making the announcement.
The BJP had objected to the new army chief being named, saying there was no hurry and that the decision should be left to the new government.
The former army chief, Gen V K Singh, had imposed a disciplinary ban on Lt Gen Suhag for a botched intelligence operation in Assam. Gen Bikram Singh lifted the ban soon after he took over in May 2012.
Singh is now a minister of state in the newly sworn-in National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.
Jaitley also said speeding up procurement of defence equipment and indigenisation was among the top priorities.
“Security of India is a matter of prime importance. It is about external security of the country and preparedness of armed forces... speeding up (procurement) of equipment required for support is the priority area,” Jaitley said.
“We are concerned that in the last few years some areas have slowed down. Expediting them is a concern,” he said.
On indegenisation of defence equipment, the minister said: “It is an issue, both limbs of which are dealt by my departments. It is already coming up in discussions.”
He added it was an area he was “personally willing to oversee.”
Jaitley, who met the three Service chiefs, also expressed concern over the crash of a MiG-21 aircraft in Jammu and Kashmir earlier in the morning.
“It is a matter of great concern. My heart goes out to the pilot who lost his life,” he said.
Jaitley, who also took over as the finance minister, however, said the charge of defence ministry was additional for him and a new minister would take over in “two weeks” and for now he would try to do a “balancing act.”
“I will be spending reasonable amount of time here (defence ministry) to clear the backlog, and all new decisions that need to be taken. It is a very important ministry, hope it gets a fulltime head in next two weeks,” he said.
In the last parliament, the 61-year-old was leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house, winning a reputation as a forceful speaker and leading critic of the Congress government.
A longtime Modi ally, Jaitley provided one of the only items of bad news for the BJP on results day on May 16 when he lost what was supposed to be a safe seat in Punjab.
The former vice president of India’s powerful cricket board describes himself as a “liberal political activist grounded in law, ethics and humanism.”
In the new government, Jaitley has turned out to be the most important person after Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), the apex decision-making body of the cabinet, Jaitley holds two portfolios - finance and defence. Other two ministers in the CCS, besides the prime minister who chairs it, are Rajnath Singh as home minister and Sushma Swaraj as external affairs minister.