NEW DELHI: Defying his party, Congress MP Manish Tewari has come in support of the Central government's Agnipath scheme. This comes amid a major nationwide protest by the party calling for its repeal.

"The process of Defense reforms, including right-sizing the military, began in the US way back in 1975 when Donald Rumsfield was the Defence Secretary in the Ford Administration and every successive administration has seen it through," Tewari said in a press briefing.

Rumsfeld initiated the conceptual foundation for preparing the armed forces for future warfare because he saw the changing nature of the battlefield.

"Even the Chinese began the process of downsizing the PLA in 1985." "The PLA's size was reduced by 10 lakh in 1985; 500,000 in 1997; 200,000 in 2003; 300,000 in 2015, and from 2017 onwards, the People's Liberation Army of China is being reduced by 50% from 20 to 10 lakh."  "Defense reform is part of a larger strategic horizon, not just an act of internal reorganisation," he stated.

Tewari discusses why the country urgently needs defence reforms in his book '10 Flashpoints 20 Years.' Only 25 paisa of every rupee spent on defence in India goes toward pensions. Salaries consume a significant portion of the budget, leaving little room for capital expenditure on defence modernization, according to Tewari.

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