Shri Ranga and certain hon. Members referred to the recruitment from the mountain regions of the hilly people. In the very large recruitment that was done last year, I have got figures to show that nearly 17 per cent of the people were recruited from those very regions. So, it should not be sought to be conveyed that in the recruitment effort, these regions were neglected or were not taken note of.
At the same time, there was another very pertinent point raised by Mr. Tyagi on some other occasion. He asked, what are we doing about the training of people in the border areas ? I must say that that is a very important point. I do not say it is not important. But we have got certain priorities in this matter, which the hon. Member would try to realise. When we are raising such a large army and making such large commitments, can we give priority for arming them and finding the equipment for this large army which we are raising or can we try to go on arming the border people ? Certainly efforts will he necessary for that, but that will have to be taken up at a later stage. But the very concept of taking the help of the local people is accepted as part of our preparetions. For his information, I may tell him that in U. P. in certain sectors, scouts– not boy scouts, but the word ‘ scout ‘ here really means some sort of trained personnel— will be helping the army in case of operations. Similar training is being undertaken in Himachal Pradesh and U.P. Certainly the idea has taken birth and it will grow from time to time as conditions become favourable.
The other point that was raised was about the military assistance programme. We have given some more information on this point many times on the floor of the House.
Sir, the assistance programme falls under two broad groups. One is the programme agreed to at the Nassau Conference and the other is the post Nassau programme. The understanding between the Government of India and the Government of USA, UK and Australia was that the supplies would be made under certain conditions. Those conditions are: (i) the weapons, ammunitions and other supplies provided will be used only for the purpose of resisting the Chinese aggression–this point was made by the Hon. Member Shrimati Renu Chakravartty- (ii) that’ the Government of India will offer necessary facilities to the representatives of the Government concerned attached to their Missions in India for the purpose of observing and reviewing the use of such articles; and, that the Government of India will offer for return to the respective Governments such articles furnished by them which are no longer needed for the purpose for which they were originally made available. I would like to say that we have accepted these conditions and we want to honour those conditions. But, Sir, I know what the people have in their mind. Suppose tomorrow there is some trouble from Pakistan what do we do ? They will say, have we resources enough? I must say that without these equipments that we receive from these countries, we can certainly resist them.