The ghost of Bofors is severely haunting the Gandhi family. Even 30 years after Rajiv Gandhi concluding this deal, the issue of bribes taken has not died down. The Indian predeliction of not to let bygones be bygones is so glaringly visible in every aspect of Indian polity.
With Modi winning the 2014 elections on the issue of corruption, one finds a no-holds-barred attack over the Rafale deal by those opposed to the Modi government. There are no civilities. Look at Rahul Gandhi instigating the employees of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd at Bengaluru: “a very senior person in the government said that HAL does not have the capacity. What about the person who got the contract?” he questioned. He also accused the government of ‘snatching’ the Rafale offset contract from HAL and ‘gifting’ it to Anil Ambani’s company.
The Defence sector has for long been considered a sacred cow. Its activities had been opaque. Excepting the Parliamentary Committees, few had access to Defence dealings and units. Most Defence public sector undertakings had an unflattering record. Look at the main battle tank project of Heavy Vehicles Factory taking decades to deliver by which time battle tanks had lost much of their relevance.
We have a plethora of defence research units. Little analysis is available on their effectiveness. Most of these are doing university-type research, not entirely related to costs and benefits or designing new on many products for civilian use, characteristic of NASA of USA.
Look at the largest of these, HAL. It had its origins in the 1940s ahead of Independence. HAL seems to believe in the inevitability of gradualness. Its Tejas aircraft are no match to contemporary fighter jets and these are also much more expensive. There have been severe delays in deliveries.
For eight long years
A K Antony functioned as the Minister of Defence in the UPA government. He has earned a name as a ‘clean’ politician, but sadly, he has also been known as one who shunned taking decisions. Look at the pathetic state of Defence preparedness. Rakesh Sood, former Ambassador to France, points to the vulnerability of Defence: “Indian Air Force’s strength had reduced to around 32 squadrons against the authorised level of 42. Instead of fast-tracking the negotiations, A K Antony was indecisive, prolonging the process.” (The Hindu 16 Oct) Without timely action, the strength is slated to fall further.
Negotiations for the Rafale deal began in 2000. After 11 long years, in 2011, Rafale was selected and negotiations commenced with Dassault in 2012. Nothing much happened over the next two years.
Understandably, concerned over the vulnerability of further drop in IAF’s squadron strength, the NDA government had to come out with a new-thrust in Defence policy act. The fast-track negotiations with Russia, France, Israel and the US point to the appreciation of the urgent need to strengthen defence capabilities.
Arun Jaitley pointed to the total value of the Rafale deal of Rs 58,000 crore. Rs 29,000 crore will be supplied from India to Dassault by over 120 offset suppliers. Ambani’s Reliance is just one of these that may account for supplies of around Rs 1000 crore. Sounds sensible, but in the divisive Indian polity who worries about the logic?
The Congress, with aspirations to return to power, should endeavour to look at national interest and help build a measure of consensus on major issues. Aadhaar, GST, land acquisition and defence production need to be approached from national interest. The NDA should also endeavour to meet halfway opposition leaders as Vajpayee did.
For long IE has been advocating a strong focus on a barter system for bilateral trade. In such high-value deals like Rafale, India can build reciprocity, through agreements to export vast quantities of consumer products and household items that would be needed in large volumes. Such contracts can be concluded with US, Russia, France, Britain, Germany, Japan, South Korea and China. From these India has been importing a lot of hi-tech, high value products. In a barter system, there can be some give and some take.
