Modi second Indian PM accused in shady defence deal

LAHORE: Nearly three decades after the late Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi was accused of receiving kickbacks in the US$1.4 billion deal between the Swedish arms manufacturer Messrs Bofors and New Delhi, Narendra Modi becomes the second Indian head of government to be alleged publicly and vociferously by his political adversaries of seeking personal benefits---instead of looking after national interest-- in a shady defence-related scam with a 89-year old French aircraft manufacturing concern, Messrs Dassault Aviation.

Following former French head of state Francois Hollande’s recent revelation that New Delhi had influenced Paris for the choice of a local partner in the purchase of 36 Rafale planes from Messrs Dassault Aviation for a price of $8.7 billion, sitting Indian Premier, Narendra Modi, now faces calls for resignation and trial.

While the French foreign ministry has issued a statement saying French authorities were not involved in the choice of Indian industrial partners involved in the Rafale deal, Modi’s political party BJP has rejected former French President Francois Hollande's sensational claim on the Rafale deal, saying it does not know under what compulsion he said so.

Indian government's Defence Ministry has responded by saying: “Neither government of India nor French government had any say in the commercial decision.”

The 2017 revenues of Messrs Dassault Aviation were 4.808 billion Euros, while its net income was 489 million Euros, research shows.

In recent months, a few key opposition parties like the Indian National Congress have questioned their government on the choice of billionaire Indian businessman Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence as Dassault's local partner, instead of the highly-experienced state-run manufacturer, Messrs Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi, son of late Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi, grandson of Premier Indira Gandhi and great grandson of yet another head of government Jawaharlal Nehru, has even gone up to the extent of saying: “Modi had said that he was not the prime minister but the 'chowkidar' (watchman) of the country. The country's chowkidar has executed a robbery. He went to France and said gave the contract to Anil Ambani. The country wants to know what the chowkidar has done.”

As the Indian elections of 2019 are not far, Congress allegations have certainly made Modi and his Bharatya Janata Party (BJP) in a precarious position.

And history might repeat itself after 29 years because Congress had lost the November 1989 polls after Rajiv Gandhi was implicated in the infamous “Bofors Scandal,” which relates to illegal kickbacks paid in a US$1.4 billion deal between the Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors with the government of India for the sale of 410 field howitzer guns, and a supply contract almost twice that amount.

It was the biggest arms deal ever in Sweden, and money marked for development projects was diverted to secure this contract at any cost.

The Swedish company had reportedly paid US$8.9 million in kickbacks to top Indian politicians and key defence officials.

Rajiv Gandhi's finance minister, V.P. Singh (later Prime Minister of India), had actually uncovered compromising details about government and political corruption

Upon discovering the scandal, V.P. Singh was dismissed from office and he later resigned his Congress membership.

Although Rajiv was posthumously cleared of this allegation in 2004, his tarnished image could not help him win keys to Premier’s office again.

Whistle-blower, V.P. Singh, was sworn in as Prime Minister despite the fact that his “National Front” could only bag 143seats compared to Congress's 197.

V.P. Singh’s coalition front had gained majority in the lower house of the parliament through outside support from the BJP under the leadership of another future Premier Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani and the Communist Party of India etc.

In later years, Congress party was hit by a series of damaging corruption scandals.

For example, during 2012, the BJP-led opposition had made regular calls for the-then Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resign.

In its April 18, 2012 report, the “BBC News” had highlighted the major corruption controversies to have beset the Congress government in its second term of office.

These scandals included the issuance of 122 telecommunications licences awarded to companies in 2008, the 2010 Commonwealth Games corruption row, the much-publicized Army bribery row in which the-then Indian Army chief General VK Singh had revealed that a defence industry lobbyist had offered him a bribe of $2.7million if the army bought hundreds of its substandard

Trucks and the Wikileaks “Cash for Vote” scam that unearthed a senior Congress aide showing a US embassy official, some "chests of cash" that were allegedly used to bribe legislators to support the government in a crucial vote of confidence in 2008.

The vote was over a controversial deal between India and the United States that had paved the way for India to massively expand its nuclear power capability. The government's left-wing allies withdrew support, but Congress narrowly survived the vote. Opposition parties at the time accused the government of offering cash for votes.

However, the Congress party and all of those named in the leaked cable denied the allegations. One world president, two prime ministers and a defence minister have till date lost their jobs due to suspicious weapons deals:

Sitting Indian Premier Narendra Modi should know that till date, shady weapons deals in the world have till date made a president, two prime ministers and a defence minister lose their jobs.

Although countless defence-related scams continue to shake nearly every country of the world frequently since 1914, the way law has proceeded promptly in these nations to apprehend even the most invincible personalities can be gauged from the fact that an Italian president, two Japanese Prime ministers and an Indian Defence Minister had to lose their prized offices after they were found guilty of accepting bribes in shady armament contracts.

The first Japanese Premier to resign on this count was Admiral Yamamoto Gonnohyoe. Although Yamamoto was not directly implicated in the Siemens Scandal of 1914, he was primarily probed because he was also the Navy Minister concurrently.

In 1914, Messrs Vickers had offered the Japanese authorities a more lucrative deal, involving 25 per cent kickbacks, with 40,000 Yen for Vice Admiral Yawara, the then Chief of the Japanese Navy Technical Department dealing with procurement issues.

In this scam, Admiral Fuji of the Japanese Navy Procurement Office had also confessed to have received 0.2 million Yens from Messrs Vickers. The story was somehow leaked to the “Reuters” news agency, which flashed it across the world just ahead of World War I.

The second Japanese Premier who was sent packing on bribery issue in a defence scam was Kakuei Tanaka. After the surfacing of the notorious Lockheed Scandal, the sitting Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka was forced to resign in 1974.

In 1976, he was arrested for taking $ three million bribe from the US-based aerospace company Messrs Lockheed. His Transport Minister was also convicted on similar charges.

The accusations against the Tanaka regime had also led to the indictments of 16 leading Japanese politicians. Premier Tanaka was convicted in a lower court.

Former Italian President Giovanni Leone also had to resign in 1978, after charges of accepting $ two million pay-offs from the Italian branch of Messrs Lockheed were levelled against him and his Prime Minister Mariano Rumor.

The scandal in Italy involved the purchase of C-130 Hercules transport planes by the Italian Air Force. These high-profile resignations had surfaced after US Senator Frank Church had concluded in 1976 that the Lockheed board had bribed the Japanese, West German, Dutch, Saudi Arabian and Italian governments to guarantee contracts for procurement of its military aircraft.

In 1976, it was publicly revealed that Lockheed had paid $22 million in bribes to powerful foreign officials.In US, Lockheed’s Chairman Daniel Haughton and President Carl Kotchian also had to quit as a consequence.

Apart from the Lockheed scam, the United States has also witnessed various defence procurement rip-offs like the 2005 Cunningham scandal, in which defence contractors Mitchel Wade and Brent Wilkes had paid bribes to members of Congress and officials in the US Defense Department, in return for political favours in the form of Pentagon contracts. The contractors were blamed for illegally winning $ 80 million contracts in a just a decade’s time.

Most notable amongst the recipients of the bribes was the California Congressman Duke Cunningham, who had pled guilty to receiving over $ 2.3 million. Legislators Virgil Goode and Katherine Harris were also found guilty of pocketing $ 90,000 and $ 32,000 graft respectively.

In 2007, US Army’s top procurement official, Claude Bolton, had to resign after Army leaders had decided to analyse how Bolton’s department ran its $ 4 billion-a-year procurement operation in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait.

Earlier, a US Army Major John Cockerham was accused of allegedly taking $ 9.6 million in bribes from contractors in Kuwait. A West German Defence Minister, Franz Josef Strauss, was implicated in the Lockheed scam too. He was accused of taking $ 10 million from Lockheed.

In Netherlands, the then Prime Minister Joop had ordered inquiry against Queen Juliana’s husband Prince Berhard for receiving $ 1.1 million kickbacks to ensure that the Lockheed planes would win the contract, though the Royalty had kept on denying these accusations till his death.

These events within Europe had finally led the European Commission to issue a Green Paper in 2004 on Defence Procurement to improve the transparency levels.

A proposal for establishing a common defence market within Europe was hence proposed so that the member states could utilize their 180 billion Euro combined defence budgets in a desired fashion sans any dubious procurement deals.

In Saudi Arabia, Lockheed had allegedly paid $ 106 million to a Middle East arms dealer in commissions to win over the concerned officials.

In India, after Independence, the Indian government had signed a deal with a company in England to supply 200 Jeeps. The contract was worth Rs 8 million but only 155 Jeeps were delivered. The-then India's high commissioner to England, VK Krishna Menon, was embroiled in the controversy. But the case was closed in 1955 and later Menon went on to become former Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru's trusted aide and India's defence minister.

Former Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes was forced to resign in the 2006 Barak Missile Scandal.

In August 2009, Fernandes was also linked to the infamous 2002 “coffin scam” of the Kargil war, along with two retired Indian Army officials and one serving officer.

Noted politician R.K. Jain was arrested for his role in the Barak affair, while a former Indian Navy Chief Admiral Sushil Kumar was also implicated in the con game.

The Barak Scandal involved the purchase of missiles by India from Israel.

In 2000, contracts had been signed by India to procure seven Barak systems at a total cost $199.50 million and 200 missiles at a cost of $ 69.13 million.

In the early eighties, an arms purchase called the HDW German Submarine deal had erupted into a scandal and assassinated Indian Premier Indira Gandhi’s younger son Sanjay was implicated for accepting graft to the tune of Rs 200 million.

A few years ago, dozens of Indian army officers were found involved in illegally selling of arms and weapons.

In July 2011, these officers, mostly lieutenant colonels and colonels, had faced a court of inquiry following a public suit filed in the Rajasthan High Court by an advocate who said that these officials were guilty of selling their private weapons to people of dubious character.

In not-so-distant past , various high-ranking Indian military officers like Chief of Army Staff, General V K Singh, Lt Gen Surendra Kumar Sahni, Lt Gen S K Dahiya, Maj Gen Anand Swaroop, Maj Gen SP Sinha, Maj Gen Anand Kapoor, Maj Gen Gur Iqbal Singh Multani and Brigadier Guredeep Singh etc have been found involved in corruption of various forms.

In January 2013, according to an esteemed Indian newspaper “The Hindu,” the country’s Central Bureau of Investigation had busted a racket thriving on commissions made from supply to ordnance factories.

Investigations showed that a woman named Subi Mally, based in Mumbai, had been mediating for deals between industrial units such and ordnance factories on commission basis, causing loss to the government.

In June 2009, another arms corruption scandal had threatening to delay India’s $ 30 billion plan to modernize its military to counter border security threats.

The scandal involved seven companies alleged of paying bribes to win contracts worth $ two billion. New Delhi had immediately halted all of the deals involving the seven companies hailing from Israel, Poland and Singapore.

In the Czech Republic, investigations were carried out in 2010 with reference to a cross-border defence-contract scandal.

The Czech and Austrian police had launched separate corruption probes against an Austrian firm, alleged of paying hefty provisions to Czech politicians in return for a defence deal involving purchase of armoured carriers from the US-owned form having offices in Vienna.

Similarly, a report appearing in Australian Press on March 19, 2010, has blasted a hole in Aussie government’s plan to acquire a fleet of 12 new submarines.

Among the other international conglomerates blamed for inking suspicious defence deals, the US Information Systems giant Messrs Unisys is on the top.

In 1986, the US Justice Department had started an investigation of fraud in defence procurement, known as Operation Ill Wind. The investigation found that this Fortune 500 Company had committed fraud in the process of obtaining defence contracts.

He result was the initiation of a criminal conviction for the company, a dozen of its employees and consultants. Seven companies, nine government officials and 42 individuals were prosecuted as a result of that investigation, with Unisys’ fines and penalties totalling up to $ 190 million.

A British defence company, Messrs BAE Systems, has also been charged in recent times with allegations of greasing the palms of African and East European officials.

In South Africa, a senior official of the African National Congress was arrested in 2001 on charges that he had profited from a controversial multi-billion dollar arms deal in 1999.

According to BBC’s report of October 3, 2001, Tony Yengeni, the ANC’s chief whip in parliament, was then charged with corruption, fraud, perjury and forgery on allegations that he received a luxury car in return for ensuring the deal went ahead.