Smriti Irani to meet soldiers at Siachen on Raksha Bandhan

Union textile minister Smriti Irani will visit Siachen base camp on Raksha Bandhan while seven other Union ministers of the Narendra Modi government will be visiting soldiers elsewhere on that day.

Union textile minister Smriti Irani will visit Siachen base camp on Raksha Bandhan while seven other Union ministers of the Narendra Modi government will be visiting soldiers elsewhere on that day.

Union textile minister Smriti Irani will visit Siachen base camp on Raksha Bandhan. (HT File Photo)

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, women and child welfare minister Maneka Gandhi and water resource minister Uma Bharti will visit border areas and interact with the soldiers.

Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman, food processing minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and health minister Anupriya Patel will also meet jawans on August 18.

Soldiers at Siachen have seen visits by Prime Minister and defence ministers on special occasions but perhaps this will be the first time when a women minister will visit Siachen. In 2014, PM Modi visited Siachen on Diwali and interacted with the soldiers.

The visit comes amid a fresh debate over the army’s presence in Kashmir valley and escalated tension with Pakistan.