'Congress will restore National Security Advisory Board'

'Congress will restore National Security Advisory Board'

New Delhi: Former Northern Army Commander Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda, former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram release national security plan, during a joint press conference, in New Delhi, on April 21, 2019. (Photo: IANS)

New Delhi, April 21 (IANS) Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram said that if voted to power, his party will re-establish an empowered and fully equipped National Security Advisory Board.

In a response to a question on the NSAB, Chidambaram said that Congress, in its 2019 manifesto, has pointed out that National Security Advisory Board was in limbo between January 2015 and October 2016 and then truncated.

"We reject all these attempts to interfere within, denigrate and downsize the National Security Advisory Board. We will reestablish the National Security Advisory Board," he said during a press conference, organised by the Congress to release its national security plan, prepared by Lt Gen D.S. Hooda (retd), former Commander of Northern Army, which carried out cross-LoC surgical strikes in September 2016 after the Uri terror attack.

Chidambaram further added that the party will appoint the board's full membership and provide it with a statutory basis.

"So, please don't assume that we will continue where the NDA left it off, for the NDA did was wrong and we have to draw the curtain on that and start afresh by constituting an empowered and a fully equipped National Security Advisory Board," he said.

--IANS

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