Minister of Defence (India) explained

Post:	Minister of Defence
Insignia:	Ministry of Defence India.svg
Insigniasize:	280px
Insigniacaption:	Emblem of India
Flag:	Flag of India.svg
Flagsize:	110px
Flagborder:	yes
Flagcaption:	Flag of India
Incumbent:	Rajnath Singh
Incumbentsince:	30 May 2019
Department:	Ministry of Defence
Style:	The Honourable
Member Of:	Union Cabinet
Reports To:	President of India Prime Minister of India Parliament of India
Appointer:	President
Appointer Qualified:	on the advice of the Prime Minister
Termlength:	5 years
Formation:	15 August 1947
First:	Baldev Singh
Deputy:	Sanjay Seth

The Minister of Defence (ISO: Rakṣā Maṁtrī) is the head of the Ministry of Defence and a high ranking minister of the Government of India. The Defence Minister is one of the most senior offices in the Union Council of Ministers as well as being a high-level minister in the union cabinet. 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.

They are 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 Chokkar, who served in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet during 1947–52. Rajnath Singh is the current defence minister of India.

Cabinet Ministers

	Portrait		Minister	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
				From	To	Period
1			Baldev Singh	15 August 1947	13 May 1952		Indian National Congress	Nehru I		Jawaharlal Nehru
2			N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar	13 May 1952	10 February 1953			Nehru II
			Jawaharlal Nehru (Prime Minister)	10 February 1953	10 January 1955
3			Kailash Nath Katju	10 January 1955	30 January 1957
			Jawaharlal Nehru (Prime Minister)	30 January 1957	17 April 1957
4			V. K. Krishna Menon	17 April 1957	2 April 1962			Nehru III
				2 April 1962	31 October 1962			Nehru IV
			Jawaharlal Nehru (Prime Minister)	31 October 1962	14 November 1962
5			Yashwantrao Chavan	14 November 1962	27 May 1964
				27 May 1964	9 June 1964			Nanda I		Gulzarilal Nanda
				9 June 1964	11 January 1966			Shastri		Lal Bahadur Shastri
				11 January 1966	24 January 1966			Nanda II		Gulzarilal Nanda
				24 January 1966	13 November 1966			Indira I		Indira Gandhi
6			Swaran Singh	13 November 1966	13 March 1967
				13 March 1967	27 June 1970			Indira II
7			Jagjivan Ram	27 June 1970	18 March 1971		Indian National Congress (R)
				18 March 1971	10 October 1974			Indira III
(6)			Swaran Singh	10 October 1974	1 December 1975
			Indira Gandhi (Prime Minister)	1 December 1975	20 December 1975
8			Bansi Lal	21 December 1975	24 March 1977
(7)			Jagjivan Ram (Deputy Prime Minister from 24 January 1979)	24 March 1977	28 July 1979		Janata Party	Desai		Morarji Desai
9			Chidambaram Subramaniam	28 July 1979	14 January 1980		Indian National Congress (Urs)	Charan		Charan Singh
			Indira Gandhi (Prime Minister)	14 January 1980	15 January 1982		Indian National Congress (I)	Indira IV		Indira Gandhi
10			Ramaswamy Venkataraman	15 January 1982	2 August 1984
11			Shankarrao Chavan	2 August 1984	31 October 1984
				31 October 1984	31 December 1984			Rajiv I		Rajiv Gandhi
12			P. V. Narasimha Rao	31 December 1984	25 September 1985			Rajiv II
			Rajiv Gandhi (Prime Minister)	25 September 1985	24 January 1987
13			V. P. Singh	24 January 1987	12 April 1987
14			K. C. Pant	12 April 1987	2 December 1989
			Vishwanath Pratap Singh (Prime Minister)	2 December 1989	10 November 1990		Janata Dal	Vishwanath		Vishwanath Pratap Singh
			Chandra Shekhar (Prime Minister)	10 November 1990	21 June 1991		Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)	Chandra Shekhar		Chandra Shekhar
			P. V. Narasimha Rao (Prime Minister)	21 June 1991	26 June 1991		Indian National Congress (I)	Rao		P. V. Narasimha Rao
15			Sharad Pawar	26 June 1991	6 March 1993
			P. V. Narasimha Rao (Prime Minister)	6 March 1993	16 May 1996
16			Pramod Mahajan	16 May 1996	1 June 1996		Bharatiya Janata Party	Vajpayee I		Atal Bihari Vajpayee
17			Mulayam Singh Yadav	1 June 1996	21 April 1997		Samajwadi Party	Deve Gowda		H. D. Deve Gowda
				21 April 1997	18 March 1998			Gujral		Inder Kumar Gujral
18			George Fernandes	19 March 1998	13 October 1999		Samata Party	Vajpayee II		Atal Bihari Vajpayee
				13 October 1999	16 March 2001			Vajpayee III
19			Jaswant Singh	16 March 2001	21 October 2001		Bharatiya Janata Party
(18)			George Fernandes	21 October 2001	22 May 2004		Janata Dal (United)
20			Pranab Mukherjee	23 May 2004	26 October 2006		Indian National Congress	Manmohan I		Manmohan Singh
21			A. K. Antony	26 October 2006	22 May 2009
				23 May 2009	26 May 2014			Manmohan II
22			Arun Jaitley	27 May 2014	9 November 2014		Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I		Narendra Modi
23			Manohar Parrikar	9 November 2014	13 March 2017
(22)			Arun Jaitley	13 March 2017	3 September 2017
24			Nirmala Sitharaman	3 September 2017	30 May 2019
25			Rajnath Singh	31 May 2019	9 June 2024			Modi II
				10 June 2024	Incumbent			Modi III

Ministers of State

	Portrait		Minister	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
				From	To	Period
1			Mahavir Tyagi Minister of Defence Organisation	16 March 1953	17 April 1957		Indian National Congress	Nehru II		Jawaharlal Nehru
2			Kotha Raghuramaiah Minister of Defence Production, since 14 November 1962	16 April 1962	27 May 1964		Indian National Congress	Nehru IV
				27 May 1964	9 June 1964			Nanda I		Gulzarilal Nanda
3			Alungal Mathai Thomas (Defence Production)	13 June 1964	11 January 1966			Shastri		Lal Bahadur Shastri
4			Jaisukhlal Hathi	29 October 1965	11 January 1966
(3)			Alungal Mathai Thomas (Defence Production)	11 January 1966	24 January 1966			Nanda II		Gulzarilal Nanda
(4)			Jaisukhlal Hathi
(3)			Alungal Mathai Thomas (Defence Production since 31 January 1966)	24 January 1966	13 March 1967			Indira I		Indira Gandhi
(4)			Jaisukhlal Hathi Minister of Defence Supplies, until 13 November 1966
5			Bali Ram Bhagat	13 March 1967	14 November 1967			Indira II
6			Lalit Narayan Mishra (Defence Production)	14 November 1967	27 June 1970
7			Narendrasinghji Mahida	27 June 1970	18 March 1971		Indian National Congress (R)
8			Prakash Chandra Sethi (Defence Production)	27 June 1970	18 March 1971
				18 March 1971	2 May 1971			Indira III
9			Vidya Charan Shukla (Defence Production)	2 May 1971	10 October 1974
10			Ram Niwas Mirdha (Defence Production)	10 October 1974	21 December 1975
11			Vitthalrao Gadgil (Defence Production)	25 December 1975	24 March 1977
12			Janaki Ballabh Patnaik	23 December 1976	24 March 1977
13			Sher Singh Kadyan	14 August 1977	28 July 1979		Janata Party	Desai		Morarji Desai
14			Jagbir Singh	30 July 1979	14 January 1980		Janata Party (Secular)	Charan		Charan Singh
15			C. P. N. Singh	3 March 1980	19 October 1980		Indian National Congress (I)	Indira IV		Indira Gandhi
16			Shivraj Patil	19 October 1980	15 January 1982
17			Kamakhya Prasad Singh Deo	29 January 1983	31 October 1984
				4 November 1984	31 December 1984			Rajiv I		Rajiv Gandhi
18			Sukh Ram (Defence Production and Defence Supplies)	25 September 1985	22 October 1986		Rajiv II
19			Arun Singh (Defence Research and Development Organisation)	25 September 1985	18 July 1987
(16)			Shivraj Patil	22 October 1986	25 June 1988
20			Chintamani Panigrahi (Defence Production and Defence Supplies)	25 June 1988	4 July 1989
21			Dumar Lal Baitha (Defence Production and Supplies)	4 July 1989	2 December 1989
22			Raja Ramanna	20 January 1990	10 November 1990		Janata Dal	Vishwanath		Vishwanath Pratap Singh
23			Lalit Vijay Singh	21 November 1990	21 June 1991		Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)	Chandra Shekhar		Chandra Shekhar
24			S. Krishna Kumar	26 June 1991	18 January 1993		Indian National Congress (I)	Rao		P. V. Narasimha Rao
25			Mallikarjun Goud	18 January 1993	19 January 1995
26			Suresh Pachouri (Defence Production and Supplies)	15 September 1995	16 May 1996
27			Mallikarjun Goud (Defence, Defence Research and Development)	30 September 1995	16 May 1996
28			N. V. N. Somu	6 July 1996	21 April 1997		Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	Deve Gowda		H. D. Deve Gowda
				21 April 1997	14 November 1997			Gujral		Inder Kumar Gujral
29			Harin Pathak	13 October 1999	14 November 2000		Bharatiya Janata Party	Vajpayee III		Atal Bihari Vajpayee
30			Bachi Singh Rawat	13 October 1999	22 November 1999
31			Krishnam Raju	22 July 2001	1 July 2002
(29)			Harin Pathak (Defence Production and Supplies)	15 October 2001	29 January 2003
32			Chaman Lal Gupta	1 July 2002	22 May 2004
33			O. Rajagopal	29 January 2003	22 May 2004
34			Bijoy Krishna Handique	23 May 2004	29 January 2006		Indian National Congress	Manmohan I		Manmohan Singh
35			Rao Inderjit Singh	29 January 2006	22 May 2009
36			M. M. Pallam Raju (Defence Production, until 28 May 2009)	29 January 2006	22 May 2009
				28 May 2009	28 October 2012			Manmohan II
37			Jitin Prasada	28 October 2012	29 October 2012
38			Lalchand Kataria	28 October 2012	31 October 2012
39			Jitendra Singh	28 October 2012	26 May 2014
(35)			Rao Inderjit Singh	27 May 2014	5 July 2016		Bharatiya Janata Party	Modi I		Narendra Modi
40			Subhash Bhamre	5 July 2016	30 May 2019
41			Shripad Yesso Naik	31 May 2019	7 July 2021			Modi II
42			Ajay Bhatt	7 July 2021	9 June 2024
43			Sanjay Seth	10 June 2024	Incumbent			Modi III

Deputy Ministers

	Portrait		Minister	Term of office			Political party	Ministry	Prime Minister
				From	To	Period
1			Kumar Shri Himmatsinhji	14 August 1950	29 February 1952		Indian National Congress	Nehru I		Jawaharlal Nehru
2			Surjit Singh Majithia	12 August 1952	17 April 1957		Indian National Congress	Nehru II
3			Satish Chandra (Defence Production, from 14 July 1955)	27 November 1952	17 April 1957
(2)			Surjit Singh Majithia	17 April 1957	10 April 1962			Nehru III
4			Kotha Raghuramaiah	21 May 1957	10 April 1962
5			Dajisaheb Chavan	8 May 1962	27 May 1964		Indian National Congress	Nehru IV
				27 May 1964	9 June 1964			Nanda I		Gulzarilal Nanda
6			Datla Satyanarayana Raju	15 June 1964	24 January 1966		Indian National Congress	Shastri		Lal Bahadur Shastri
7			Shyam Dhar Mishra	24 January 1966	14 February 1966			Indira I		Indira Gandhi
8			M. R. Krishna	16 November 1967	27 June 1970		Indian National Congress	Indira II
9			Janaki Ballabh Patnaik	5 February 1973	23 December 1976		Indian National Congress (R)	Indira III
10			Kamakhya Prasad Singh Deo	15 January 1982	29 January 1983		Indian National Congress (I)	Indira IV		Indira Gandhi

See also

• Ministry of Defence (India)
• Defence ministers

References

^[1]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Former Defence Ministers of State . 2023-05-10 . Ministry of Defence GOI . en.