Arms deals have surfaced time and again in India.
By Rajiv Theodore
NEW DELHI: From Stockholm to Tel Aviv, Moscow to Geneva, arms deals has always rocked the world. And India has been no stranger to such scandals — Jeeps, Bofors Howitzers, Barak Missiles, Coffins, Tatra Trucks and now the AgustaWestland helicopter scam has shaken the nation.
Both India and Italy are currently involved in probing the 2010 deal in purchasing the VVIP choppers after allegations that AgustaWestland paid bribes to win the contract from the Indian defence ministry. The reverberations of the deal boomed in the Parliament Tuesday with the country’s leading audit body, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), tabling a report.
The CAG questioned the decision of the Indian Air Force chief in 2007 for opting for these VVIP choppers which had been unreasonably high in cost. The benchmarked cost of Rs 4,871.5 crore for the helicopters were steeper than the offered cost of Rs. 3,966 crore. The offered price was more than six times the estimated cost, which indicates that the Air HQ had not prepared proper estimates of the requirements. The Defence Ministry deviated from the laid down procedures for the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters from the Italian firm, Agusta Westland, worth Rs 3,727 crore, the auditor said.
Norms were deviated as the initial request for proposal (RFP) issued in March 2002 for replacement of Mi-8 copters stipulated a mandatory altitude requirement of 6,000 meters. The report says that the EH-101 (later named AgustaWestland-101) could not be field evaluated as it was certified to fly up to an altitude of 4,572 meters only. The first RFP was cancelled due to a single-vendor situation, and in the revised RFP issued in 2006, the altitude requirement was reduced to 4,500 meters. Moreover, a requirement of cabin height of at least 1.8 meter was introduced, which further “reduced competition”. “…the lowering of altitude requirement was against the inescapable operational requirement of 6,000 meter for transportation to many areas in North and North East,” the report said.
Also odd is that the evaluation trials were conducted in the UK, when the aircraft had been meant for India and its local terrain. The report pointed out that field evaluation trials were conducted abroad in the UK on representative helicopters and not on the actual machines as the aircraft was at that time in its developmental stage. This move by the Chief of Air Staff on October 2007 lacked justification. In this context, the CAG has referred to the rejection of the proposal for conducting trials outside the country twice earlier by the Defence Ministry.
The report also flayed the ministry for the inordinate delay of over 10 years in finalizing the acquisition process, which led to the IAF facing an operational disadvantage as it had to keep using ageing helicopters. The CBI is also investigating corruption allegations in the Rs. 3,600 crore deal after the arrest of two former CEOs of Finmeccanica and AgustaWestland in Italy. India has already received three of the 12 helicopters.
Let’s do a quick run through of major arms deals that had created flutters in the country over the years.
The Jeeps scam of 1948 hit a young India soon after Independence. The Indian government signed a deal with a company in England to supply 200 jeeps for Rs. 80 lakh. In reality only 155 jeeps were delivered embroiling the then India’s high commissioner to England VK Krishna Menon in a controversy. The case was shut in 1955. Menon went on to become former Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru’s trusted aide and India’s defence minister.
In 1987, the Bofors scam was on everyone’s lips. Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was at the center of the Bofors scandal after allegations that Rs. 64 crore was paid to middlemen to facilitate the deal for acquiring 155mm howitzers from the Swedish firm Bofors. An allegation, first made by a Swedish radio station, pointed out that Ottavio Quattrocchi, who was close to Rajiv Gandhi, acted as a middleman in the deal worth $1.3 billion and received kickbacks.
The Barak missile scam of 2006 happened at a time when former President APJ Abdul Kalam was the scientific adviser to the Prime Minister. Kalam had opposed the purchase of this weapons system from Israel. But India bought these missiles nevertheless for a sum of Rs. 1,150 crore from Israel. The CBI had questioned why the system was purchased even after the DRDO had raised its objections. According to the CBI, the missile system was purchased at a much higher rate than that initially quoted by Israel. Fingers were pointed to the then Defence Minister George Fernandes who had ignored the objections raised by the scientific adviser.
The bizarre Coffin scam of 1999 happened during the 1999 Kargil war when coffins were purchased to send the bodies of soldiers to their families. The CBI registered a case for buying the consignment at higher prices, against a US contractor and some senior Army officers. Then Defence Minister George Fernandes was also accused of being involved in the case.
In 2009, former Ordnance Factory Board Director General Sudipta Ghosh was nabbed by the CBI, accused of allegedly taking bribes from two Indian and four foreign companies which had been blacklisted by Defence Minister AK Antony.
Former Army Chief General VK Singh alleged that he was offered Rs. 14 crore as bribe to clear the purchase of Tatra trucks whose quality has been doubtful.
(Rajiv Theodore is a journalist based in Delhi. An alumni of St. Stephen’s College, he likes cooking, traveling, and contact sports.)
To contact the author, email to editor@americanbazaaronline.com