Jamil Chughtai
As a general rule, social justice and moral strength have always remained the hallmark of nations that reached the pinnacle of military might and economic prowess, whereby they retained their status as world powers for centuries. History also provides instances where a certain state had compromised on either of the two traits and still managed to rule the world for a limited period of time. But there is no precedence where a nation has dispensed with both justice and morality on purpose and then aspired at the same time to become both military power and economic giant of the time. India has since long been nurturing a similar dream with such a bleak record on national ethics as well as individual morality.
Brazen acts of injustice and violation of basic human rights are constant feature in today’s India when it comes to dealing with Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Dalit communities who are legitimate citizens of the so-called ‘biggest secular-democratic state’. Similarly, dishonesty, fraud, bribery and other corrupt tactics are steadily seeping into Indian civil society and hence are gradually being accepted as a routine phenomena by the masses on the whole. However, no nation can afford to act complacent when it comes to widespread corruption in purchase of equipment for its armed forces who are supposed to guard the geographical, physical as well as ideological frontiers of the country. But it is not something new for Indian defence establishment whose past is replete with corruption scams of its military officers and officials, and hence deprived them of the public trust. In this race of moral turpitude, the personnel from Indian army, navy, air force and the defence ministry have all remained winners in their own stead. It is quite recent that ex-Indian Air Chief S P Tyagi was arrested by the CBI, along with his three cousins and a lawyer, for corruption in the IRP 3,700 crore Agusta-Westland VVIP helicopter deal case. Another similar investigation had unearthed bribes received by Indian military officials to the tune of US$ 17 million from renown engine-manufacturing company the Rolls-Royce in a defence contract worth US$ 310 million.
But this time round, the nation’s moral edifice has been given the heaviest jolt ever as the individual involved in this shady yet utterly disgusting act of corruption is none else but the prime minister of the country Mr Narendra Singh Modi, the highly eulogized icon of Hindu fundamentalism in India. The case in point is the deceitful role of the premier in fraudulent purchase of Rafale aircraft from France.
As per available details, the original transaction involved purchase of Rafale twin-engine multirole combat aircraft for Indian Air Force. The French manufacturer Dassault Rafale won the estimated $10.2 billion deal in 2012, and agreed to supply India with 126 aircraft, with 18 to be delivered in “fly-away condition” and manufacturing the remaining 108 in India. However, in April 2015 PM Modi unilaterally scrapped the earlier deal and astonished everyone with the revised transaction to purchase 36 Rafale aircraft in “fly-away condition” for $8.7 billion instead. The deal was announced in presence of French President Francois Hollande. Accordingly, to fulfil some pre-conditions, the Dassault Aviation partnered with Reliance Group making it Dassault-Reliance Aerospace Ltd to materialize the transaction. Queries and concerns of media and political opposition criticising much higher cost of Modi’s 2015 deal compared to the earlier one were played down by declaring that French government was fully involved in the deal. The cat of cost-overrun has finally come out of the bag owing to unexpected statement by former French President Hollande who recently spilled the beans that Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence Group was not chosen by Dassault. He further revealed that “We did not have a choice. We took the partner that was given to us”. The truth looked even uglier to Indian public as enduring friendship between Modi and Abmani has never been a secret.
The disclosure has worked as an eye-opener for even those die-hard Modi supporters who enthusiastically defended some of his utterly irrational policies on national security and foreign relations during his tenure. More astonishingly, from within the BJP flanks the transaction is being dubbed as,” the case of criminal misconduct”. With every passing day, this unholy Modi-Ambani nexus is becoming obvious. Certainly Rafale aircraft transaction was remodelled by Modi merely to launch his buddy Anil Ambani for building a plant at Nagpur as joint venture with Dassault Rafale to manufacture spares for the jet fighter. Once the nature of Modi-Ambani relationship is understood, it does not surprise much as to why a company with ‘zero know-how’ of aeronautics or military aviation was given priority over the Hindustan Aeronautics having decades of experience in defence- aviation manufacturing. More interesting became the open-secret when it transpired that Ambani’s Reliance Defence was founded only 13 days before PM Modi made the announcement for this new deal. To benefit his front-man Ambani, Modi’s revised deal conceded a loss of around $41 million per plane to the poor nation’s exchequer.
In fact, the widespread corruption within India’s highest echelon ?? both civil and military ?? has badly tarnished the already not-so-pious image of the country. Having made steady inroads into Indian defence set-ups, the elements of corruption and nepotism have now started to corrode the very edifice which India believes would help her win the status of a regional power. Resultantly, their military has become less-professional and more materialistic at higher ranks producing thereby an utterly disgruntled lot at lower officers’ and soldiers’ level. Moreover, as the Indian society in general is d enying itself the sense of social justice and morality, their leaders, both civil and military, are also becoming unmindful of any accountability; even when they attempt to jeopardize their country’s security and credibility. In the backdrop of rampant involvement of country’s top-notch in bribes, kickbacks and other corrupt acts, the Indian dream to become a regional power seems a ‘far and farcical cry’.
