The Black Spot on the Esteemed Uniform

Once my major dream was to work for the Indian armed forces. At that time with my limited resources, I tried for it but without any success. Like many other Indian I was too fascinated by the armed forces, be it Indian Army, Navy, or the Air forces. Their achievement, discipline and courageous acts always lured me. However, it is sad to see that today the venom of corruption is not spared the segment that once was regarded as the most honest sector. Wherever and whenever there are an arm deal, the Kickbacks or Kick*** too comes with an attachment but at a time army personal were not involved. Nevertheless, the most respected organization was under regular scrutiny for speculated scams regarding lands deals or other. These sort of corruptions and the scandals,  have taken the Indian Army’s sheen, the images of the Indian defense establishment in our perception now not same as before.

Bofors Arm Deal

The Swedish firm AB Bofors was alleged to have paid $1.3bn in bribes during the sale of 400 howitzers to India in 1986, when Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister. The Bofors issue was extremely sensitive politically for the governing Congress party, as Mr Quattrocchi was known to be a friend of Italian-born party leader Sonia Gandhi. Indian investigators have tried unsuccessfully for much of the past decade to get Mr Quattrocchi extradited to India. The case contributed to the election defeat of Rajiv Gandhi in 1989, two years before he was assassinated. In 2004, he was posthumously cleared of any wrongdoing in the deal.

Coffin scandal

The 500 aluminum coffins ordered for the Army personnel who lost their lives during Kargil war. The coffins were overpriced and ordered to the US-based supplier that failed to meet Indian specifications. Mr. George Fernandes only returned as defence minister in October after being forced out of office over a scandal over weapons purchases. The  Auditor General of India found that the government had paid an American company $2,500 for each of the 500 coffins.

Adarsh Housing Society Scam, Mumbai

The case involves top armed forces officers and defence estate officers issuing a no-objection certificate to Adarsh Housing Society, comprising retired and serving personnel, to build a 31-storey housing complex with 104 flats. The building came up on a 6,450 square metre plot of land inside a high security naval campus in upscale Colaba area of Mumbai.

Originally proposed as a housing scheme for widows of Kargil martyrs, it later came to light that politicians, bureaucrats and senior defence officers including three former army and navy chiefs had got flats allotted to them by misusing their official positions.

Ration Supply Scam and Frozen Meat Scam

A top officer, Lt. Gen. S.K. Dahiya and  Army Service Corps chief Lt. Gen. S.K. Sahni were accused in a separate case involving irregularities. Whereas Dahiya is now retired from service and S.K. Sahni was found guilty in the case in 2011 and dismissed from service.

Sukhna Land Scandal

Then army chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor's military secretary Lt. Gen. Avadesh Prakash and then 33 Corps commander Lt. Gen. P.K. Rath and a major general were named in converting a 70-acre land adjacent to Sukna military station in Siliguri of West Bengal into an educational institution by handing it over to a private trust.

The controversy involved issuing of no-objection certificate for the private trust to buy the land for construction of the educational institution on the condition that wards of army personnel from Sukna military station too would get to study there. Both were court martialled in the case and punished for their involvement in the alienation of the 70-acre land that was originally a tea estate. The court martial had dismissed Lt. Gen. Avadesh Prakash from service after finding him guilty in the case.

Tatra Truck Deal

Latest is the ongoing scandal of Tatra truck deals where the outgoing Army Chief General V.K. Singh alleged that an equipment lobbyist offered him a bribe of 14 crore. In an interview to a newspaper, he said the offer was made for approving the supply of 600 sub-standard vehicles to the army. The finger pointed to the  former Defence Intelligence Agency chief Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh, who is retired two years ago, allegedly offered a bribe of Rs 14 crore to Army Chief General V K Singh in order to ensure procurement of sub-standard trucks by the army. Ravi Rishi, the London-based millionaire businessman, owns Vectra, a conglomerate which has a controlling stake in Czech and Slovak-based specialist truck firm Tatra.  The Indian Army has used Tatra trucks for nearly 26 years, of which for the past 19 years the company has been under Ravi Rishi's ownership. According to the Gen. Singh,  "the expensive" Tatra trucks were "substandard". Ministry of Defence also suspended Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) chief VRS Natarajan in connection with the Tatra case. BEML, which co-manufactures Tatra trucks in India.

!!!Shame for the country and its citizen when Minders becomes looters!!!