Minister of Defence (India)

The Minister of Defence (Rakshā Mantri) is the head of the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India. They are often assisted by a Minister of State for Defence and less-commonly, the lower-ranked Deputy Minister of Defence. The defence minister additionally serves as President of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, and as Chancellor of the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology and of the National Defence University.

Minister of Defence
रक्षा मंत्री
Incumbent
Rajnath Singh
since 31 May 2019
Ministry of Defence
StyleThe Honourable
Member ofUnion Cabinet
Reports toPrime Minister
Parliament of India
AppointerPresident
on the advice of the Prime Minister
Term length5 years
Formation2 September 1946
First holderBaldev Singh Chokkar
DeputyShripad Yesso Naik
Minister of State
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The first defence minister of independent India was Baldev Singh Chokkar, who served in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet during 1947–52. Rajnath Singh is the current defence minister of India.

List of defence ministers
№ Name Portrait Term of office Political party
(Alliance)		 Prime Minister
1 Baldev Singh 15 August 1947 13 May 1952 Indian National Congress Jawaharlal Nehru
2 N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar[1] 13 May 1952 10 February 1953
3 Jawaharlal Nehru[1] 27 February 1953 10 January 1955
4 Kailash Nath Katju 10 January 1955 30 January 1957
(3) Jawaharlal Nehru[1] 30 January 1957 17 April 1957
5 V. K. Krishna Menon 17 April 1957 1 November 1962
(3) Jawaharlal Nehru[1] 1 November 1962 21 November 1962
6 Yashwantrao Chavan 21 November 1962 13 November 1966 Jawaharlal Nehru

Lal Bahadur Shastri

Indira Gandhi

7 Swaran Singh 13 November 1966 27 June 1970 Indira Gandhi
8 Jagjivan Ram 27 June 1970 10 October 1974
(7) Swaran Singh 10 October 1974 1 December 1975
9 Indira Gandhi 1 December 1975 21 December 1975
10 Bansi Lal 21 December 1975 24 March 1977
(8) Jagjivan Ram 28 March 1977 27 July 1979 Janata Party Morarji Desai
11 Chidambaram Subramaniam 30 July 1979 14 January 1980 Janata Party (Secular) Charan Singh
(9) Indira Gandhi 14 January 1980 15 January 1982 Indian National Congress Indira Gandhi
12 Ramaswamy Venkataraman 15 August 1982 1 August 1984
13 Shankarrao Chavan 3 August 1984 31 December 1984 Indira Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi
14 P. V. Narasimha Rao 1 January 1985 24 September 1985 Rajiv Gandhi
15 Rajiv Gandhi 25 September 1985 24 January 1987
16 V. P. Singh 25 January 1987 12 April 1987
17 K. C. Pant 18 April 1987 3 December 1989
(16) V. P. Singh 6 December 1989 10 November 1990 Janata Dal
(National Front)		 Himself
18 Chandra Shekhar 21 November 1990 20 June 1991 Samajwadi Janata Party
(National Front)		 Himself
(14) P. V. Narasimha Rao 21 June 1991 26 June 1991 Indian National Congress P. V. Narasimha Rao
19 Sharad Pawar 26 June 1991 5 March 1993
(14) P. V. Narasimha Rao 6 March 1993 16 May 1996
20 Pramod Mahajan 16 May 1996 1 June 1996 Bharatiya Janata Party Atal Bihari Vajpayee
21 Mulayam Singh Yadav 1 June 1996 19 March 1998 Samajwadi Party
(United Front)		 H. D. Deve Gowda
I. K. Gujral
22 George Fernandes 19 March 1998 16 March 2001 Samata Party
(National Democratic Alliance)		 Atal Bihari Vajpayee
23 Jaswant Singh 16 March 2001 21 October 2001 Bharatiya Janata Party
(National Democratic Alliance)
(22) George Fernandes 21 October 2001 22 May 2004 Janata Dal (United)
(National Democratic Alliance)
24 Pranab Mukherjee 22 May 2004 24 October 2006 Indian National Congress
(United Progressive Alliance)		 Manmohan Singh
25 A. K. Antony 26 October 2006 26 May 2014
26 Arun Jaitley 26 May 2014 9 November 2014 Bharatiya Janata Party
(National Democratic Alliance)		 Narendra Modi
27 Manohar Parrikar 9 November 2014 13 March 2017
(26) Arun Jaitley 13 March 2017 3 September 2017
28 Nirmala Sitharaman 3 September 2017 31 May 2019
29 Rajnath Singh 31 May 2019[2] Incumbent

See also

References
  1. "Ministry of Defence, List of Defence Ministers of India". Elections.in. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  2. "Rajnath Singh to be the new Defence Minister, Naik to be MoS". The Economic Times. 31 May 2019.
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