Rahul Gandhi, Congress members walk out of Defence Parliamentary panel meeting

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and two party members of parliament on Wednesday walked out of a meeting of the House Standing Committee on Defence, alleging that the committee was wasting its time by discussing armed forces’ uniforms and ranks instead of national security, it is learnt. Many opposition members in the earlier committee meetings have been unsuccessfully demanding a structured discussion on the situation in Ladakh in the wake of incursion by the Chinese forces.

Before the Congress MPs’ walked out, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut is learnt to have abruptly left the meeting, after the chairman initiated discussions on the listed agenda of uniforms and ranks of the forces. Some members noticed Gandhi and Raut exchanging a note, wondering the rationale of committee discussing such subjects. Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and Defence Secretary too were present to make a presentation on the listed agenda.

What led to the walk-out, sources said, was Committee chairman Jual Oram repeatedly stopping Gandhi when he intervened to disapprove BJP member D V Vats’s proposal that all three Indian forces should have identical uniforms for the same ranks, as followed by the US forces.