Col J P Singh, Retd
Defence deals rarely go as per plan and never materialize without kickbacks. It is no secret that putrid stench of corruption is all pervasive in all defence deals. Defence procurement involving jeeps, guns, submarines, fighter aircrafts, Tatras and the recent VVIP Heptrs are the ones known to be smeared in scams. Innumerable will remain buried under the carpet. Whenever such a scam has surfaced, it has shamed the nation and grabbed our attention, because, let us face the fact, it impacts each and every one’s survival in the potentially explosive subcontinent.
Nation took it with a pinch of salt when ex Army Chief made a sensational disclosure that he was offered 14 Crore to buy sub standard Czech Tatras. Rs 362 Crore bribes have allegedly been paid in VVIP Heptr deal. Present and previous CEO of Italian Augsta Westland have been arrested by Italy for paying bribe money to Indians. Thanks to the Italian investigators that the scam has been unearthed. CBI has commenced its investigation with then Air Chief S P Tyagi’s relatives. Tyagi is next in the firing line. This was not an Airforce procurement where Air Chief had a prominent role. The Airforce at best may have played an advisory role. Why should any payment be made by the seasoned fixers to someone whose role was so peripheral. The focus should shift on looking at the money trails and big deal fixers; who paid whom, when, and their political mentors. Money may have been offered to Air Chief like it was offered to ex army chief. Whether or not will be known after investigations. After this scam it looks as if Indians, even at top, can be easily bought over. Yet we don’t want to face the truth. We do not find out what exactly is the reason that those in whom nation reposes full faith and trust are tempted to gratifications at the cost of reputation and security; which means treason. If a debate starts on scams, it becomes a Congress versus NDA blame game. Hence no scam gets exposed and none gets punished and the scams keep repeating, our defence preparedness takes beating.
Are the scams associated to Army and Air Chiefs not an extremely serious issue? Is it not an issue of nation’s repute and security? Can anyone really bribe the military chiefs, if so, can Pakistan / China be an exception? Can military chiefs take drastic action against corrupt practices in their organisation and defence deals which are controlled by MOD. I think they cannot. Therefore they are rubber stamps. Castration of Chiefs of 3rd largest military of the world facing tremendous threats within and around is treason as well. Keeping quiet on such serious issue or gentle simmering of bureaucrats and politicians to weaken or punish them would compromise national security and hence no less than treason. This is the scene at Delhi these days despite what Antony might say. That is why octogenarian Gandhian Anna Hazare fasted against corruption risking his life.
Italian media has disclosed business links of Christian Michel’s father with Congress party and has revealed that Kanishka Singh’s relative is a director on the Board of real estate company Emaar-MGF. Michel is a British middleman in the VVIP Heptr deal and Kanishka Singh is owner of Emaar-MGF and his relative, on the board of this company, is another agent in the deal. Kanishka Singh is said to be close to Rahul Gandhi. Italian charge sheet suggests payment of 28 million Euros to a family in India. Which is this family? Other suspects are Abhishek Varma, Gautam Khaitan and Praveen Bakshi. They may be probed but will the truth come out if higher ups are involved.
Ironically nation faced a strange situation where two honest persons ie, Antony and Gen VK were pitched against each other instead of being together to fight the menace called Armsgate. The fault lies there. MOD is known for defending the indefensible despite Mr. Antony’s honesty. The fact is that successive govts have been making money on defence deals without paying serious attention towards modernizing the armed forces while China and Pakistan are way ahead of us in their budget allocations and defence preparedness. Chinese current defence budget has been hiked by 10.7 % by the new leadership with the allocation of 119 billion $ whereas our defence budget is 2,03,672 Crore (37.8 billion $); less than 1/3rd of China. Our defence officials accept that Chinese actual defence spending is 60% higher than their declared budget. India spends just about 1.5% of its GDP on defence whereas MOD has been asking for minimum 3%.
Lots of modrenisation and acquisition projects have gone for a toss due to corruption and blacklisting of armament majors. Since Bofors scam, army has not got any 155 mm caliber gun. Major acquisitions in the pipeline include 126 multirole combat aircraft, 22 attack heptr and 15 heavy lift chopper. There is also an up gradation plan of existing troops and infrastructure by MOD along the indo-China border. Lots of money is involved in it. Kickbacks, when exposed, hold the deals which leads to depriving armed forces of modern weaponry apart from tarnishing their image. Military modernisation is a casualty due to scams. Indian forces may have to resort to traditional methods of guerilla warfare with muskets, swords, bows& arrows. This will not be by choice but compulsion due to huge scams and delays in procurement of quality weapons.
Credibility of the govt and military sinks low by each day and we feel guilty of regretting over things that are not in the best interest of the nation. Consequently nation losses faith in politicians and military commanders. In the peace time we can accuse whomsoever we wish to but God forbid, if a war starts in a few years from now, perpetrated by China or Pakistan or both, will the armed forces be able to win such a war and will the nation face this challenge united. Hope, in worst of the times, the best will come out. It is because in all eventuality it is all of us jointly who have to take the nation forward. What comes out clear is that politicians hate the very idea of anti corruption mechanism which can send them to prison for their crimes. Luckily the final verdict lies in the hands of public through secret ballot. Hence nothing much is lost for the nation except queries by patriotic young men and women on their wisdom to die for the motherland when those on whose orders they die are making money at the cost of their lives. This case, like the others before it, will follow the predictable course. The investigators will get joy trips to Rome and the honest reputations will get tarnished, major procurements delayed and made torturous.
In the end one can easily sum up by stating that the temptation to make money is always great, indeed irresistible. But can we allow our national interests to be gambled? Politicians, Babus and decision makers know our vulnerabilities vis-a-vis our hostile neighbours. How long can we starve our armed forces of state of the art weapons. For God sake spare the defence procurements of greed and empower the military chiefs for the sake of the nation.
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