The government on Friday continued to play down the impact of the leak of confidential data linked to Scorpene submarines, even as more documents are being released into the public domain from the tranche of 22,400 pages.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday told reporters that “basically what is on the website is not of concern to us but we are assuming on our own that this has been leaked and are taking all precautions.”
There are a few points of concern assuming that what is claimed to have leaked has leaked actually, he noted and stated that “we are going by assumption of the worst case scenario.”
Sea trials under way Explaining why the impact of the leak is limited, Mr. Parrikar said details of weapons were not part of the documents released as they come under a separate contract.
“They are with the weapons manufacturer,” he said.
More importantly, he observed that as sea trials of the submarine were under way and yet to be completed, “the most important signature does not form part of the documents.”
The most important part, according to Mr. Parrikar, was that most of the integration was done in India based on “our technical capability.”
Based on all these factors the investigation team had been asked to identify the areas of concerns, he said.
Defence sources pointed out that there are several Indian systems that would be plugged into the submarine and they are Indian intellectual property.
Following the comments on weapon systems, The Australian reporter Cameron Stewart who scooped the story countered it. “India’s Defence Minister says leaked data on Scorpene Submarines does not include weapons systems. Wrong. We will release weapons docs Monday,” he tweeted.
No impact on Rafale deal Asked if the incident would have any impact on the ongoing negotiations with France for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets, Mr. Parrikar questioned if we should stop using all products from France.
Pointing out that the companies were different and the type of equipment was different, he said, “An accident should be punished with whatever contractual punishment is there.”
“It is not intentionally leaked,” he further stated virtually giving a clean chit to DCNS but did not elaborate on what basis it was determined as the investigation is still under way.
Mr. Parrikar said there were two aspects to the leak — security and contractual.
