05-02-2008, 03:43 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Junk from Britain </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Why did India buy second-rate Hawks?
<b>Three months since they were inducted into the Indian Air Force, the British-made Hawk fighter-trainers have been grounded for a second time. </b>The most recent episode comes after a Hawk plane crashed in Bidar, Karnataka. Investigations have suggested that some of the components of the <b>plane were old and rusted.</b> The Hawks have also been reported for technical snags and shortage of spare parts. While only 10 of the 66 planes India has agreed to buy have arrived, <b>IAF circles are already wondering if they have been led into a Rs 8,000-crore dud deal.</b> It is astonishing that the British company that won the contract after hectic lobbying has supplied faulty planes. It is even more astonishing that the technical checks that the IAF, the<b> Defence Ministry and other Government agencies were required to make cleared these shoddy and accident-prone planes and actually permitted Indian pilots to fly them</b>. It is not surprising that cynical Indians should smell a scandal. Indeed, Congress Governments and British defence and aviation deals have a dubious past. India's first defence swindle was the Jeep purchase of 1948. The country paid for first-rate vehicles for use by the Army in the war against Pakistan. What eventually arrived were World War II discards, some of which could not be driven out of the port because there was no engine inside. If the Jeep scandal was India's first introduction to the infamous and Mephistophelean VK Krishna Menon, the Westland helicopter deal anticipated the Bofors mess that eventually formed the most salient memory of the Rajiv Gandhi Government. In 1986, the then Prime Minister forced the public sector <b>Pawan Hans Corporation to buy 21 helicopters from a British company that was shutting down. A series of technical faults and crashes followed. The helicopters were eventually discarded as junk and lined up at an unused airport in Mumbai.</b> Needless to say, kickbacks and sweetheart transactions were alleged in both the Jeep and Westland affairs. Is the Hawk following in their footsteps?
There is reason to be suspicious and cautious<b>.<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'> This is an election year and one in which the UPA Government is promising to commit to some of the largest defence purchases in Indian history.</span> </b>Over the past four years, wherever else it may have surrendered to its allies, the Congress has kept the Defence portfolio with itself and packed the upper echelons of the Ministry with civil servants of decidedly partisan credentials. After the Hawk failures, it is impossible to trust the defence establishment and ignore the discomforting feeling that political rather than professional considerations played their part. <b>Mr Manmohan Singh has been seen as a weak and ineffective Prime Minister but </b>even his critics have not questioned his honesty. Given the contested and contentious nature and history of arms deals in Indian politics, it would be best for him, and for his personal legacy, to institute a thorough and transparent inquiry into the Hawk embarrassment. British authorities, commercial and governmental, must be forced to collaborate, if necessary under threat of cancellation of the rest of the contract. Accounts of their Indian interlocutors, where these don't impinge upon national security, should be made public. The Prime Minister must realise that when it comes to defence deals, Congress Governments are guilty until proven otherwise.
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Election money is coming from these deal. Before losing power they want to fill their foreign bank account. Good going.
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Why did India buy second-rate Hawks?
<b>Three months since they were inducted into the Indian Air Force, the British-made Hawk fighter-trainers have been grounded for a second time. </b>The most recent episode comes after a Hawk plane crashed in Bidar, Karnataka. Investigations have suggested that some of the components of the <b>plane were old and rusted.</b> The Hawks have also been reported for technical snags and shortage of spare parts. While only 10 of the 66 planes India has agreed to buy have arrived, <b>IAF circles are already wondering if they have been led into a Rs 8,000-crore dud deal.</b> It is astonishing that the British company that won the contract after hectic lobbying has supplied faulty planes. It is even more astonishing that the technical checks that the IAF, the<b> Defence Ministry and other Government agencies were required to make cleared these shoddy and accident-prone planes and actually permitted Indian pilots to fly them</b>. It is not surprising that cynical Indians should smell a scandal. Indeed, Congress Governments and British defence and aviation deals have a dubious past. India's first defence swindle was the Jeep purchase of 1948. The country paid for first-rate vehicles for use by the Army in the war against Pakistan. What eventually arrived were World War II discards, some of which could not be driven out of the port because there was no engine inside. If the Jeep scandal was India's first introduction to the infamous and Mephistophelean VK Krishna Menon, the Westland helicopter deal anticipated the Bofors mess that eventually formed the most salient memory of the Rajiv Gandhi Government. In 1986, the then Prime Minister forced the public sector <b>Pawan Hans Corporation to buy 21 helicopters from a British company that was shutting down. A series of technical faults and crashes followed. The helicopters were eventually discarded as junk and lined up at an unused airport in Mumbai.</b> Needless to say, kickbacks and sweetheart transactions were alleged in both the Jeep and Westland affairs. Is the Hawk following in their footsteps?
There is reason to be suspicious and cautious<b>.<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'> This is an election year and one in which the UPA Government is promising to commit to some of the largest defence purchases in Indian history.</span> </b>Over the past four years, wherever else it may have surrendered to its allies, the Congress has kept the Defence portfolio with itself and packed the upper echelons of the Ministry with civil servants of decidedly partisan credentials. After the Hawk failures, it is impossible to trust the defence establishment and ignore the discomforting feeling that political rather than professional considerations played their part. <b>Mr Manmohan Singh has been seen as a weak and ineffective Prime Minister but </b>even his critics have not questioned his honesty. Given the contested and contentious nature and history of arms deals in Indian politics, it would be best for him, and for his personal legacy, to institute a thorough and transparent inquiry into the Hawk embarrassment. British authorities, commercial and governmental, must be forced to collaborate, if necessary under threat of cancellation of the rest of the contract. Accounts of their Indian interlocutors, where these don't impinge upon national security, should be made public. The Prime Minister must realise that when it comes to defence deals, Congress Governments are guilty until proven otherwise.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Election money is coming from these deal. Before losing power they want to fill their foreign bank account. Good going.