Indians love everything ‘made outside India’. From Oscars to religious intolerance to economic achievements, we look up to foreigners and their institutions to set up our benchmark. (Slumdog Millionaire, US Commission on International Religious Freedom and Moody’s, in that order.) No wonder, we had to wait for the Milan court to convict the executives and middlemen of AgustaWestland and force us to revisit the role of Congress leaders, Prime Minister and officers of the Air Force and defence ministry in rigging the Rs 3,546-crore AW101 helicopter deal. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has since released classified documents to show how they tweaked the proposal at every stage to favour the deal in lieu of receiving Rs 360 crore in kickbacks.
Expectedly, Sonia Gandhi and Ahmed Patel, who were unfavourably referred to in the judgement, have dared the BJP to file charges in the court and prove their criminality. Their surrogates (JD-U, CPI, NCP, BSP and SP) have sought an independent inquiry under a Supreme Court judge to identify the beneficiaries. But let us have no illusion. No inquiry by CBI, ED, SIT or a Supreme Court judge can ever produce evidence, linking suspects directly to the bribe. And to believe that they can expose the ‘driving forces’ is daydreaming. At best, they can raise reasonable doubts, list out procedural irregularities and bring out mala-fide intent of officials and concerned ministers. Principal non-official bribe-takers are sure to get away, drawing comfort from legal potholes.
Defence purchases in India have remained historically unclean. Over the years, officers of the defence forces and ministry of defence and its ministers have built a well-oiled mechanism to ensure that deals are clinched and everyone gets his share of the bounty. Responsibilities are neatly defined. Defence ministers take the final call after consulting their political masters. Service officers assist by tailoring technical inputs and specifications to suit vendors. Civilian officials of the defence ministry ‘favourably’ scrutinise proposals, and the might of minister and defence secretary are employed to get financial advisers, the last point of vetting process, on board. Payoffs are then shared, their quantum depending on the position of beneficiaries in the government and the ruling political dispensation.
An Israeli vendor, irritated by my stonewalling, once taunted that it was much easier dealing with the defence ministry where everyone knew his role and transfer of officers did not affect negotiations. A few months later, an Austrian vendor cheekily mentioned that the equipment which I had rejected for carrying suspect software was eventually sold to the army after paying off Rs 2.36 crore to two top army officers.
It is fashionable now for a defence minister, a prime minister, a service chief or a defence secretary to claim that he has been personally honest and never touched the loot. They must understand that intellectual dishonesty is far more debilitating in its long-term effects. By taking bribe, you benefit yourself, but if you connive, you destroy institutions and allow a corrupt system to thrive. None of these ‘honest’ individuals have ever opposed deals on file, gone on leave in protest or resigned. The lure of money, power and constitutional position has been so compelling that everyone of them has acquiesced, letting national security suffer irreparably.
To assume, however, that kickbacks are the preserve of the defence ministry would be a mistake. In every department and agency of the Central government that is involved in major procurements, bribe is a given thing. The situation indeed is hopeless. The few junior officers who oppose dubious deals on files are either reprimanded, shifted out or repatriated.
I recall, in the early 1980s, the Central government had struck a deal to buy a jet for a state government for Rs 135 crore. The concerned officer in the Indian Embassy in Washington was asked to contact the company to ensure early delivery. Alarmed at the price, I got the officer introduced to a US dealer who quoted Rs 77 lakh and spares of another Rs 10 lakh for free. The officer communicated the Rs 77-lakh offer to Delhi. He was swiftly divested of most of his responsibilities and the jet was bought for Rs 135 crore.
So, what do Parrikar and PM Modi do? Throw hands in despair and swim with the sin? Never. But time is running out. Let them not waste resources and energy on digging old deals. They will only get mired in distractions. Instead, they should bring absolute transparency in the procurement system, make it so tight that successive governments are unable to fish in loopholes and religiously subject all those who handle negotiations to surveillance by IB, ED and CBI.
amarbhushan@hotmail.com
Bhushan is a former special secretary, R&AW