“Government will have to further tighten defence procurement mechanism”
On the eve of budget session of Parliament, which promises to begin on a stormy note with the Opposition appearing determined to corner the UPA government on allegations of kickbacks in the Rs. 3,600-crore VVIP chopper deal, Defence Minister A.K. Antony lamented that corrupt practices were taking place despite the government taking precautions and blacklisting six major defence firms, including four foreign vendors.
In an obvious reference to the allegations of kickbacks to the tune of Rs. 362 crore in the 2010 chopper deal with AgustaWestland, the Minister said the government would have to further tighten the mechanism of defence procurement and depend less on imports.
“Whenever allegations are made, we have to go to the root and find the truth and punish the guilty. We cannot waste a single penny of Indian taxpayers’ money for greedy players,” Mr. Antony said.
He said that indigenisation of military hardware was the “ultimate answer” to avoid controversies such as the VVIP chopper scam and asked the armed forces to change their mindset of relying on imports to meet operational requirements.
“The need to maintain transparency, honesty and sincerity at every stage cannot be compromised. In spite of our taking so many precautions, again here and there things are happening,’’ Mr. Antony said on Wednesday while addressing a seminar here on Army Air defence in 21st century.
Referring to the arms middleman Abhishek Verma, who remains in jail after the Defence Minister referred to the probe agencies allegations about his involvement, Mr. Antony said that even after this “there are people who are not learning lessons.”
On the demand from the Defence Committee of the Confederation of Indian Industry for more government support, the Minister said that he agreed with it, especially after the recent controversy. “… the ultimate answer is maximum indigenisation. Depending too much on imports is not the solution.”
Production policy
Mr. Antony said the government would have a “second look” at its defence production policy as well as the procurement policy so that indigenisation could be speeded up in “mission mode.”
While stressing that the armed forces must get the maximum support for speedy modernisation, he said, “The Security scenario around us is so volatile that we cannot take any risk. We are living in dangerous surroundings, so armed forces need most modern equipment at the earliest.”
“But see what is happening sometimes. At the last moment we have to reverse the process because of the foul play. We are back to square one,” he said. He added that the armed forces should ensure that “import is the last resort not the easiest resort. That mindset you must change. Priority should be given to indigenisation. Zero import is not possible but maximum should be indigenous. New thrust will be given to self-reliance,” he said.
Keywords: VVIP chopper deal, chopper scam, budget session, A.K. Antony
Yes, if all the defense equipment is produced in Govt factories with indigenous technology, the amount of corruption that we see in defense purchases would be eliminated to a very large extent. However, this not realistic given the state of of the capabilities available. DRDO has been very slow in providing the sort of state of the art technology in a timely fashion that the military needs. Examples are the LCA, Kaveri engine, Arjun MBT and even modern assault rifles needed by the infantry. Moreover, the defense manufacturing facilities including naval shipyards are not able to keep to schedules. India needs rapid modernization of its armed forces to guard against hostile neighbors. The only alternative is to have a very clear and transparent purchase policy. Any violations should result in swift and heavy punishment of the guilty. Blacklisting firms will only hurt the country,s interest as the Bofors case demonstrated
What a lame excuse.. Corrupt practices exist not inspite of government,
but because of the government..
In the short to mid-term it is impossible to expect India to be self sufficient in defense tech field. It does not however mean that each procurement episode should involve a bribery scandal. There should be more scrutiny and openness in the procurement process. More importantly erring officials and politicians should be severely punished so that the remaining would mend their ways. Another important issue is the active participation of the private sector in defense manufacturing for the long term growth of the country.
this could have been stopped if culprit of earlier scam would have been punished
The VVIP helicopter deal has shown clearly that the chiefs of IAF, Army and Navy can be swayed by kickbacks and corruption and favor foreign defence deals. Indian politicians favor kickbacks. This interest in kickbacks is the primary reason that the indigenous defence sector has been killed. The HAL Tejas program was sabotaged for kickbacks.
With all due respect Mr. A.K Antony, indigenisation ain't that easy as
you said. Indigenisation requires lots of research and innovation which
cant be possible with India's pool of talent but what is worrisome is
govt. never promoted research aggressively. U.S.A spends more than 2.5%
of their GDP on research whereas India spends less than 1% of GDP on
research and that says everything. Funding for research has to be
increased for the much required indigenisation.
The costliest purchases which the government makes are those of
military equipment.Therefore the suppliers can afford to have a small
percentage added to the price of these as provision for paying large
amounts as bribes and still be competitive. The decision makers of the
purchasers, who believe in the dictum "make hay when the sun shines",
can therefore manage to get the stuff by the sackful. Even if all
purchases are made from inside the country, the above dynamics of
bribery will still be in operation. The choice is not between foreign
suppliers and indigenous suppliers, but it is between honesty and
greed.
It is not here and there but everywhere, if we count the numbers and
amounts involved in defense imports related scams since the days of
Bofors. It is amusing to hear the sanctimonious sermon that we cannot
waste a single penny of Indian taxpayers’ money for greedy players
without serious efforts to track down the real culprits who compromise
the nation's honour and dignity and give them exemplary punishment,
however highly they are placed. Any scam is an anti national activity
and if the country is to be freed from this menace, the guilty should
be quickly identified, guilt established and sentenced to life
imprisonment after confiscation of their ill gotten wealth.
Our defence ministry importing weapons from foreign nations and our students buying final
year projects from vendors is very closely linked. Indigenisation is not possible unless
changes are made at the grass root. Remember, it's the same students who reach higher
positions in the future and you cannot expect them to be creative or to encourage
creativeness no matter how much money is poured in. I am not pessimistic but trying to
explain the reality.
A tacit admission by the Defence Minister that the Govt can not control the corrupt thugs in the army ! How are they going to defend our Country ???
The "indigenisation" comment seems to be based on the fallacy that India
should continue to have government run organisations carrying out
research and production in defence. Infact if anything has held us back
- it is the incredibly slow, shoddy and financially disastrous progress
government run organisations like DRDO have shown on projects like the
LCA. Does the government not realise that it is only when they have
"gotten out of the way" that true potential of the country's talent has
been unleashed?
Indigeneous production of high tech fighter aircraft, helicopters etc. is a far fetched idea. Our leaders, scientists and administors lack ideas and commitment.
A transperant procurement mechanism can be possible,,rather going for indigenisation and zero import theory?? import not only a purchase of product from outside,,but should be a purchase of technology!!!
Defence Minister A.K.Antony’s assurance ‘to tighten defence deal norms’, to prevent corrupt practices in import of equipments to the Services, gave no meaning when he added that “he did not know what to do”. His confession comes out of his personal knowledge that corruption is practically the face mark of the government of which he is also a part. He is well aware of how government decisions are arrived at in our country, particularly on Italian-connected files. His solution that ‘indigenisation of military hardware is the ultimate answer’ is nothing more than an excuse to his inability, as he again adds that ‘zero import is not possible’. Perhaps, he has to accommodate with the trend of globalization and liberalisation which rules the nation. Fact is that he has no capacity to create the necessary political will which is the one essential to eliminate corruption. Moreover, Antony’s political life does not show any definite instance of his success in eliminating corruption or punishing the corrupt. He has only records of quitting his positions out of helplessness, in the name of principles. He is likely to put in his papers shortly.
After roaring about zero tolerance for corruption, Mr Anthony is now
mewing like a pussy cat. Regarding indigenisation, I would like to
ask Mr Anthony why has India become so dependent on defense imports?
India is now one of the largest buyers of weapons in the world. I
believe that the Manmohan Singh government has willingly surrendered
to international arms lobbies, rather than develop the indigenous
defense industry.
In 1971, the last major war we fought, the Indian armed forces fought
on despite the Western arms embargo because we produced most of our
weaponry. Today we even have to import sub-machine guns. There was a
time when purchase of war planes was linked to their production in
HAL. Now HAL remains a white elephant and we are totally dependent on
imports for planes as well as spares. This seems to suit foreign arms
companies as well as our corrupt government. This is the legacy of
Manmohan and Anthony to India's defense forces.
If Mr.Antony is the Minister in charge of the police force,he might say
is that people get killed on the roads in spite of good traffic control
by the police and therefore the best thing for the people to do to save
their lives is not to use the roads.
Local production of high tech armamaments should be encouraged it should be for the sake of our good. I dont think local production will eliminate bribing. Local companies dont pay bribes? What then is charge on the BHEL in the recent truck scam?
Mr. Antony, your government should bring in a new Act to give exemplary
punishment to those who make money out of defense related deals. The
punishment should be no less than public flogging, confiscation of the
properties of the corrupt, and imprisonment for the rest of his/her
life. For serious irregularities that are exceptional, the punishment
shall be death penalty. The people of India do not want any compromise
in defense and internal security
Instead of handing over the website and crucial information management of indian citizens to private companies like TATAs; they can ask tatas to get the engines done. Nodoubt, how tatas can everytime detect the actual demand and market trend because it has access to all the crucial data of the country and even has its own research units whic shells some white papers to show and uses the actual analysis to dove!!
National character,implementing reforms within a time schedule,dedication etc are essential for any endeavour including indigenisation. A Nation cannot ignore purposeful inaction for many years on the various scams.Let us wake up
When, How and by Whom? If one could closely study the indigenisation
projects for the Indian defense, every project is killed by the Army,
Air force or Navy top brass. They will set a goal and when the R&D
people near the goal they will change the specification, citing our
enemy has better equipment. This demoralizes the R&D team and finally
the imports takes place for the second grade equipment from US, USSR
or Europe.
Well said, has it taken 50 years to realize that our Universities, Technical Institutes to realize that we cannot produce real innovative high technology to lead the world? Lets not mince words here: we are still slaves to the west by being at their mercy to buy airplanes, helicopters, engines and advanced electronics. Our educational system appears to train willing serfs for the west but lack the skills to produce it right here.
Few observations first if you mean that in order to stop corruption
the tender has to be complicated and that is far from the truth, all
tenders that are overly complicated can and will result in scams. The
tenders have to be transparent and simple and have checks and balances
and I guarantee you will be able to eliminate corruption.
I agree with intelligence abound India can send rocket to the moon/
mars yet does not have capability of designing and building its own
hardware is beyond me. There are engineering systems and processes
should be incorporated (reverse engineering etc) which would promote
indigenization high end big products both military and civilian.
The only way to avoid corruption in defence is to avoid purchasing so many arms and ammunitions which is possible if we make genuine efforts to strike ever lasting peace with Pakistan and China
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