Minister of Defence (India)

The Minister of Defence (Rakshā Mantrī) 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.

Minister of Defence Rakshā Mantrī
Emblem of India
Flag of India
Incumbent Rajnath Singh since 15 January 2023
Ministry of Defence
Style	The Honourable
Member of	Union Cabinet
Reports to	Prime Minister
Appointer	President on the advice of the Prime Minister
Term length	5 years
Formation	15 August 1947
First holder	Baldev Singh
Deputy	Ajay Bhatt Minister of State
Website	mod.gov.in

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.

List of Defence Ministers

#	Portrait	Name	Term of office			Prime Minister	Party
1		Baldev Singh	15 August 1947	13 May 1952	4 years, 272 days	Jawaharlal Nehru	Indian National Congress
2		N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar	13 May 1952	10 February 1953	273 days
3		Jawaharlal Nehru Prime Minister	10 February 1953	10 January 1955	1 year, 334 days
4		Kailash Nath Katju	10 January 1955	30 January 1957	2 years, 20 days
(3)		Jawaharlal Nehru Prime Minister	30 January 1957	17 April 1957	97 days
5		V. K. Krishna Menon	17 April 1957	31 October 1962	5 years, 197 days
(3)		Jawaharlal Nehru Prime Minister	31 October 1962	14 November 1962	14 days
6		Yashwantrao Chavan	14 November 1962	13 November 1966	3 years, 364 days	Nehru Shastri Indira Gandhi
7	File:Sardar Swaran Singh.jpg	Swaran Singh	13 November 1966	27 June 1970	3 years, 226 days	Indira Gandhi
8		Jagjivan Ram	27 June 1970	10 October 1974	4 years, 105 days
(7)	File:Sardar Swaran Singh.jpg	Swaran Singh	10 October 1974	1 December 1975	1 year, 52 days
9		Indira Gandhi Prime Minister	1 December 1975	20 December 1975	19 days
10	File:Bansi Lal.jpg	Bansi Lal	21 December 1975	24 March 1977	1 year, 94 days
(8)		Jagjivan Ram	24 March 1977	28 July 1979	2 years, 126 days	Morarji Desai	Janata Party
11		Chidambaram Subramaniam	28 July 1979	14 January 1980	170 days	Charan Singh	Indian National Congress (U)
(9)		Indira Gandhi Prime Minister	14 January 1980	15 January 1982	2 years, 1 day	Indira Gandhi	Indian National Congress
12		R Venkataraman	15 January 1982	2 August 1984	2 years, 200 days
13		Shankarrao Chavan	2 August 1984	31 December 1984	151 days	Indira Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi
14		P. V. Narasimha Rao	1 January 1985	25 September 1985	267 days	Rajiv Gandhi
15		Rajiv Gandhi Prime Minister	25 September 1985	24 January 1987	269 days
16		V. P. Singh	24 January 1987	12 April 1987	78 days
17		K. C. Pant	13 April 1987	1 December 1989	2 years, 232 days
(16)		V. P. SinghPrime Minister	2 December 1989	10 November 1990	343 days	V. P. Singh	Janata Dal
18		Chandra ShekharPrime Minister	10 November 1990	21 June 1991	223 days	Chandra Shekhar	Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)
(14)		P. V. Narasimha Rao Prime Minister	21 June 1991	26 June 1991	5 days	P. V. Narasimha Rao	Indian National Congress
19		Sharad Pawar	26 June 1991	6 March 1993	1 year, 253 days
(14)		P. V. Narasimha Rao Prime Minister	6 March 1993	16 May 1996	3 years, 71 days
20		Pramod Mahajan	16 May 1996	1 June 1996	16 days	Atal Bihari Vajpayee	Bharatiya Janata Party
21		Mulayam Singh Yadav	1 June 1996	19 March 1998	1 year, 291 days	Deve Gowda I. K. Gujral	Samajwadi Party
22		George Fernandes	19 March 1998	16 March 2001	2 years, 362 days	Atal Bihari Vajpayee	Samata Party
23		Jaswant Singh	16 March 2001	21 October 2001	219 days		Bharatiya Janata Party
(22)		George Fernandes	21 October 2001	22 May 2004	2 years, 214 days		Janata Dal (United)
24		Pranab Mukherjee	22 May 2004	26 October 2006	2 years, 157 days	Manmohan Singh	Indian National Congress
25		A. K. Antony	26 October 2006	26 May 2014	7 years, 212 days
26		Arun Jaitley	26 May 2014	9 November 2014	167 days	Narendra Modi	Bharatiya Janata Party
27		Manohar Parrikar	9 November 2014	13 March 2017	2 years, 124 days
(26)		Arun Jaitley	13 March 2017	3 September 2017	174 days
28		Nirmala Sitharaman	3 September 2017	30 May 2019	1 year, 269 days
29		Rajnath Singh	30 May 2019	Incumbent	5 years, 284 days

List of Ministers of State

Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence

Minister of state	Portrait	Political party		Term		Years
M. M. Pallam Raju		Indian National Congress		29 January 2006	22 May 2009	3 years, 113 days
				28 May 2009	28 October 2012	3 years, 153 days
Rao Inderjit Singh		Bharatiya Janata Party		26 May 2014	5 July 2016	2 years, 40 days
Subhash Bhamre				5 July 2016	30 May 2019	2 years, 329 days
Shripad Naik				30 May 2019	7 July 2021	5 years, 284 days
Ajay Bhatt				7 July 2021	Incumbent	3 years, 246 days

See also

• Ministry of Defence (India)
• Defence ministers