Minister of Defence (India)

Minister of Defence (Raksha Mantri)
Emblem of India
Incumbent Manohar Parrikar since 09 November 2014
Ministry of Defence
Style	The Honourable
Appointer	President on the advice of the Prime Minister
Inaugural holder	Baldev Singh
Formation	2 September 1946

Republic of India

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The Minister of Defence (or the Defence Minister) is the head of the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India. He is often assisted by a Minister of State for Defence and less-commonly, the lower-ranked Deputy Minister of Defence.

The first Defence Minister of independent India was Baldev Singh, who served in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet during 1947–52. Manohar Parrikar of the Bharatiya Janata Party is the incumbent Defence Minister.

List of Defence Ministers

Name	Term of office		Political party (Alliance)	Prime Minister
Baldev Singh	2 September 1946	1952	Indian National Congress	Jawaharlal Nehru
Kailash Nath Katju	1955	1957
V. K. Krishna Menon	1957	1962
Yashwantrao Chavan	1962	1966		Jawaharlal Nehru Lal Bahadur Shastri Indira Gandhi
Sardar Swaran Singh	1966	1970		Indira Gandhi
Jagjivan Ram	1970	1974
Sardar Swaran Singh	1974	1975
Indira Gandhi	1975	1975
Bansi Lal	21 December 1975	24 March 1977
Jagjivan Ram	24 March 1977	28 July 1979	Janata Party	Morarji Desai
Chidambaram Subramaniam	28 July 1979	14 January 1980	Janata Party (Secular)	Charan Singh
Indira Gandhi	14 January 1980	1982	Indian National Congress	Indira Gandhi
R. Venkataraman	1982	1984		Indira Gandhi
Shankarrao Chavan	1984	1984		Indira Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi
P. V. Narasimha Rao	1984	1985		Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi	1985	1987
V. P. Singh	1987	1987
K. C. Pant	1987	1989
V. P. Singh	2 December 1989	10 November 1990	Janata Dal (National Front)	Himself
Chandra Shekhar	10 November 1990	21 June 1991	Samajwadi Janata Party (National Front)	Himself
Sharad Pawar	21 June 1991	6 March 1993	Indian National Congress	P. V. Narasimha Rao
P. V. Narasimha Rao	6 March 1993	16 May 1996	Indian National Congress	P. V. Narasimha Rao
Pramod Mahajan	16 May 1996	1 June 1996	Bharatiya Janata Party	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Mulayam Singh Yadav	1 June 1996	19 March 1998	Samajwadi Party (United Front)	H. D. Deve Gowda I. K. Gujral
George Fernandes	19 March 1998	2001	Samata Party (National Democratic Alliance)	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Jaswant Singh	2001	2001	Bharatiya Janata Party (National Democratic Alliance)
George Fernandes	2001	22 May 2004	Samata Party Janata Dal (United) (National Democratic Alliance)
Pranab Mukherjee	22 May 2004	24 October 2006	Indian National Congress (United Progressive Alliance)	Manmohan Singh
A.K. Antony	24 October 2006	26 May 2014	Indian National Congress (United Progressive Alliance)	Manmohan Singh
Arun Jaitley	26 May 2014	9 November 2014	Bharatiya Janata Party (National Democratic Alliance)	Narendra Modi
Manohar Parrikar	9 November 2014	Incumbent	Bharatiya Janata Party (National Democratic Alliance)	Narendra Modi

Heads of the Ministries of the Government of India

Leadership	Prime Minister Deputy Prime Minister

Ministries	Home Affairs Finance External Affairs Defence

Ministries	Agriculture Chemicals and Fertilizers Civil Aviation Coal Commerce and Industry Communications and Information Technology Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Development of North Eastern Region Health and Family Welfare Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises HRD Information and Broadcasting Labour and Employment Law and Justice Mines Minority Affairs Parliamentary Affairs Panchayati Raj Railways Rural Development Science and Technology Textiles Tribal Affairs

Common types of government ministers and ministries

Leadership	Prime Minister Deputy Prime Minister Cabinet department

External affairs	Defence (list) Foreign / External Affairs (list) Immigration

Economics / Infrastructure	Commerce Communications Finance (list) Industry Public Works / Infrastructure Transport

Environment / Natural resources	Agriculture Climate-change Energy Environment (list) Fisheries Forestry Irrigation Land management Mining Natural resources Water resources

Social	Education Culture Health Information Interior / Home Affairs (list) Justice Labour Science (and Technology) Sports Tourism Religion

Minister without portfolio Ministries by portfolio

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Minister of Defence (India)

List of Defence Ministers

See also