If the establishment is at such an edge that a seemingly innocent troop movement leads to suspicions of a coup, the situation is alarming and grave. Please do not consider this as an overdose on army/defence procurment/ Gen VK Singh etc. In any case, the matter has moved beyond personalities and is now in the domain of core strategic concerns. Without further ado, excerpts below (note that emphasis has been added by me to draw your attention to points I believe are of special significance). Read on..

First, excerpts from Senior minister Sutradhar of coup report? by Madhav Nalapat (emphasis added):

Sources involved in tracking sensitive developments claim that a senior minister of the UPA government was the mastermind of the April 4 front page item in a daily newspaper about a suspected coup attempt. The sources claim that the minister is connected – through his close relative – with the defense procurement lobbies gunning for Chief of Army Staff General V K Singh,and that the decision to “trick the newspaper into running a baseless report was to drain away support for General Singh within the political class”,who could be expected to unite against any effort at creating a Pakistan-style situation in India. However,the minister in question appears to have miscalculated  the response of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defense Minister to the report.”

..Others say that a close relative of the minister in question has been “regularly meeting with arms merchants and their lobbyists,including on his many visits abroad”. They say that the Intelligence Bureau seems clueless about such activities,as “its net does not cover the influential people in question”.

..According to these sources,the minister in question “is well-known to senior journalistic levels of the publication” that ran the coup report.

…While no one accuses the senior minister of wanting to degrade the capabilities of the army, these sources say that he has perhaps unwittingly “played into the hands of certain arms lobbyists who are salivating not only at the prospect of garnering huge army orders during the balance of the UPA’s term in office” but “who seek to weaken the training function of the army and thereby render the force less effective against the sort of challenges that it is facing in Kashmir and other threatres.”

Now who might this “Senior Minister” be? The clue perhaps lies in another article by Madhav Nalapat, carried almost exactly a month ago. From “Who is Lt-Gen Tejinder Singh?” by Madhav Nalapat, read this excerpt (emphasis added):

Those involved in the making of purchases for security agencies..say that retired Lt-General Tejinder Singh,who has been explicitly accused by the Army of having floated reports that Chief of Army Staff General V K Singh spied on Defense Minister A K Antony, is not an unknown figure within the world of suppliers of equipment. One source said that Tejinder Singh “operates in tandem with a Major Hooda (retd) and his son, both of whom are well known to Karthik Chidambaram,the influential son of Home Minister P Chidambaram”. The younger Hooda, a presumed relative of the Haryana Chief Minister, is alleged to be “active in promoting the products of certain agencies, including foreign entities”. These sources claim that Tejinder Singh was very close to a former Chief of Army Staff and that he “knows the incoming Chief of Army Staff,Lt-General Bikramjit Singh, very well”. None of these claims could be verified, especially suggestions that a such link “could influence procurement decisions by the Army in the future”. …That the incoming Chief of Army Staff has very powerful support within the UPA was made clear by the government’s decision to announce that he would succeed General V K Singh,even if the latter were to quit prematurely.

…Reports of suspicious transactions in these agencies have been buried under a carpet of official indifference. By avoiding an enquiry, what has happened is that the miasma of suspicion that is hovering over the head of Karthik Chidambaram is continuing. Numerous sources allege “undue attention and interest” by the young politician in matters relating to equipment suggested as being needed for national security..Interestingly, a source claims that “one of the national security agencies of the Government of India recently asked for an enquiry into Hooda and Singh by both CBI and IB”,but to no avail, “as high-level circles shield the two” .

Time for an interesting aside. From Revealed: The real story behind CBI’s Tatra probe by T V R Shenoy, these excerpts (emphasis added):

..who was in charge when the Tatra deal was struck, how did the CBI get on Ravi Rishi’s track with such impressive speed, and where do matters now stand between the Union defence minister and the chief of the the army staff?

The answer to the first question is that the Tatra agreement was signed in the Rajiv Gandhi era. What is more, it might have happened at a time when the then prime minister was simultaneously holding the defence portfolio. To go back a quarter of a century in time, V P Singh was abruptly shunted out, for whatever reason, from the finance ministry in January 1987, and thrust into the defence ministry. He lasted barely two-and-a-half months in his new post, resigning – or being forced to resign – in April 1987.

In a delicious irony, the reason was that he had, reportedly without keeping Rajiv Gandhi in the loop, ordered an investigation into the purchase of HDW submarines from Germany. This was resented by the Congress – then still called the ‘Congress (Indira)’ — because the investigation seemingly called Indira Gandhi to account; the agreement was signed in 1981 when the Congress matriarch ruled India. Be that as it may, Rajiv Gandhi then took over the defence ministry temporarily. It was a masterpiece of poor timing; literally days after V P Singh’s leaving, a Swedish radio station broke the news of the Bofors scandal, and Rajiv Gandhi’s image never recovered.

Speaking of Bofors, during the heyday of the scandal one of the Congress’s chief talking points was that Rajiv Gandhi had taken the initiative to bar middlemen from anything related to defence procurement. Remember this point, it is important.

…We must now come to the second issue, the alacrity with which the CBI is pursuing Tatragate. Some reports suggest this happened because of General V K Singh’s interview by The Hindu. This is wrong.
Some others say the credit should go to Dr Hanumanthappa, a Congress MP from Karnataka [ Images ], who wrote to several people, intimating that something was wrong with the Tatra deal. This too is wrong. However, we should look a little into the Hanumanthappa episode. In 2009 Dr Hanumanthappa complained about alleged misdoings in the public sector undertaking BEML..

..Hanumanthappa complained that the Tatra trucks were not being purchased from the original manufacturer, but through intermediaries, who included Bharat Earth Movers Ltd and Vectra (in London). This violates the defence procurement rules quoted so often and so loudly by the Congress in the Bofors era. I am not sure if any recipient got the message. Hanumanthappa spent several pages in general complaints before coming to the central point in, I think, the fourth paragraph of the fifth page (or something like that).  Hanumanthappa’s letter reached Sonia Gandhi, who, rather peculiarly, handed it to Ghulam Nabi Azad. (The Congress’s rationale is that he is the Congress functionary in charge of party affairs in Karnataka, but a defence deal is scarcely a party issue.) At any rate, in October 2009 the letter found its way into A K Antony’s office.

The defence minister did not ignore the letter, and asked for the matter to be probed. But A K Antony then made a mistake, he did not pursue the matter, something that he himself would openly admit as an error. (As far as I know, Hanumanthappa has still not received a proper response!)
…But if it was neither General V K Singh’s interview nor the Hanumanthappa letter that did the trick, what stirred the CBI into action? Very simply, the CBI, like the tax authorities, looks into matters if it receives ‘credible evidence’. This was one of those cases, and behind the scenes the investigators built their case without any fuss. And on February 21, 2012, if I have the date correct, the minister gave the sanction to prosecute.
Please note the date, it was about five weeks before General V K Singh’s explosive interview. Note too that the sanction was given not just to ‘investigate’ but to ‘prosecute’.
So, why did the CBI wait to go after Ravi Rishi, the man behind Vectra?
It has been wrongly reported in the media that Ravi Rishi is an ‘NRI’, a ‘Non-Resident Indian’. The fact is that he is not an Indian at all, but a citizen of the United Kingdom. You could describe him as a ‘PIO’, a ‘Person of Indian Origin’, but he is not an ‘NRI’. And trying to extradite a British citizen from Great Britain is difficult at the best of times.  But the CBI also knew that ‘Defexpo 2012′ was scheduled to start on March 29. India is one of the world’s largest defence equipment importers, and it was extremely unlikely that any manufacturer would refuse to visit.  Sensibly, the CBI waited a few days until Ravi Rishi was in India, and available for questioning. That is how it reacted with such speed — because it was already on the case.

…This brings up the last topic..namely how A K Antony and V K Singh get along…Frankly, this third issue is, at least to me, rather a banal topic. It is, one suspects, a smokescreen to divert attention from the mechanics of the Tatra deal, particularly how and why intermediaries were used when middlemen are barred from defence procurement matters.

And finally, from a post by Sanjeev (emphasis added):

The rot that has set in, in India’s defence establishment, concerns EVERYONE – not just in India but across the world. A strong India is vital to strategic partnerships across the free world. And India simply can’t afford a defence establishment that is not respected by the sepoy.

Anna has set the flame of integrity alight in the minds of millions of people. There is no knowing what can happen.
After reading Shantanu’s post, I’m now inclined to side with General Singh (keeping my fingers crossed, though, waiting for more evidence to emerge). He seems to have done the country a great favour by raising this very serious matter.
India has been repeatedly betrayed by its own, in its long history. Jaichand’s betrayal led to the conquest of India by Mohammed Ghouri – an action which arguably led the way for the Mughals to take over India in the coming centuries. India should hang to death – preferably PUBLICLY – any armed service officer or politician who is found guilty of lining his pockets through arms purchases.

It is time perhaps to say, enough of talk, discussions and online comments…As Sh Ranganaathan-ji said, “(It is) Time Time for (every) Bharatiya to Arise, Awake & not rest till the goal of clean governance is achieved. The next Gens would have to face worse situation if we do not arise to this occasion. Jai Bharat…Vande Mataram.

P.S. For those who may not know this (I did not), the Tatra scam was first publicly exposed in July 2011 by DNA:

…Flouting defence ministry guidelines, BEML, formerly Bharat Earth Movers Limited, a Rs3,500 crore company in which the government of India is the majority shareholder, has been buying components for the 6×6 and 8×8 trucks from a middleman in London.

…But DNA’s investigations show that BEML, nodal production agency for the family of Tatra trucks, has been dealing with Tatra Sipox (UK) Ltd, which is neither the OEM nor a subsidiary of the OEM. This racket has been in operation since 1997, according to documents in DNA’s possession. A former employee who held a senior position in BEML said that so far the company has completed transactions worth Rs5,000 crore with Tatra Sipox (UK) Limited, purported British subsidiary of Tatra Sipox a s (Slovakia), with at least Rs750 crore having been paid as kickbacks to BEML and defence ministry officials.

Senior advocate KS Periyaswamy, a shareholder of BEML, who sought the intervention of the president and a CBI probe into the Tatra deals, said: “At least 15% of the money sanctioned for the purchase of Tatra trucks is siphoned off as commission. Everyone from top to bottom gets their share. In my capacity as shareholder, I had highlighted this issue in the 2002 annual general meeting, but it wasn’t taken up.”

The deal worked so well for the officials involved that BEML signed another 10-year agreement with Tatra Sipox (UK) in 2003, four years before the first agreement ended, to increase the scope of the relationship. Since BEML doesn’t have the know-how to manufacture these trucks even 14 years after the deal was first struck, it sources components from Tatra Sipox (UK) and uses them for assembling the trucks.

Related: Read this and weep.. and somewhat related: Karti Chidambram should read Milton Friedman

Image: Self-assembled collage from headlines and images available publicly and/or on Wikipedia. Images do not imply any statements or allegations against any of the personalities, companies or publications shown in the image.

*** Excerpts from Gen V K Singh uncovers Armsgate Scam by Prof Nalapat ***

Delhi is the nest of no fewer than six dozen international arms dealers, and they are the most desirable of friends to have in the national capital of what is effectively the world’s fourth-largest economy. Every week, each of them throws at least one if not more parties, at which liquor flows in the same profusion was water into bathtubs. The pot-bellied, ageing politicians and civil servants – now joined by a smattering of those in uniform – in attendance do not bring their wives along, for in such gatherings, there are numerous charming young ladies who attach themselves to the powerful attendees throughout the evening. What they whisper into the ancient, unsightly ears of the senior civil servants, select military brass and politician is not known, but whatever it be, the honeyed tone is effective.

Contract after contract gets awarded in profusion to the lucky hosts, who are usually called upon to design tender specifications in such a way that only their chosen candidate will get selected. The name of the game is to frame the rules and the conditions in such a way that the rest of the pack gets eliminated.

Thus, in the selection of the $11 billion contract for the MMRCA (Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft) ,the single-engined Saab Gripen was excluded “because it has a single engine and is therefore less safe than twin-engined aircraft”. The reality, of course, is that statistics show that twin-engined combat aircraft are no safer than those with single engines. Saab being bankrupt, the entire company could have been bought over for the price of the 126-aircraft deal, thereby enabling India to gain access to advanced technology as well as providing it with a platform that can enable Delhi to enter the field of sale of defense aircraft, the way China is already doing.

In contrast, the Dassault Rafaele (which key circles in Delhi had told this columnist was the chosen craft, nine months before the selection was made public) involves no significant transfer of technology.  The company remains French, and has indeed been saved from financial collapse by the huge Indian order, although no other country in the world has bought the Rafaele, save its captive market, France. Even the GCC countries, who are normally very obliging in such matters, have not touched the Rafaele, despite strenous efforts by the Sarkozy government to get them to buy the aircraft. However,the French President has succeeded in India, perhaps because of the persuasive abilities of his Italian-born wife Carla, who shares such roots with the all-powerful Congress President, Sonia (Maino) Gandhi France is indeed experiencing a bonanza from India…

Although there have been numerous corruption allegations against key French companies such as Thales, this has not prevented them from landing juicy contracts in India…The common link in all that is that the money for such expenditure comes from the Indian taxpayer. Clearly a case of the poor feeding the rich, in that India could have had a flourishing defense production industry, if its policymakers had not been determined to acquire only foreign platforms and systems. For more than three decades, successive governments have talked of “indigenisation”, but in 2012,more than 81% of critical defense equipment is sourced from foreign suppliers, even trucks, of which the private sector in India is an international supplier. You will find Tata or Leyland or Mahindra vehicles in much greater profusion in foreign countries than in the Indian military, which wears a distinctly foreign look.

…Indeed, the lifestyles of some of the retired senior brass of the three services is such as would rival that of a prince, complete with multiple airconditioners and Audi and BMW cars littering the garages. Of course, nobody from the Income-tax department asks just how a retired military officer can afford such luxuries on his pension…The lifestyles of some retired super-senior military officers is clearly too opulent for them to have made the money they spend ethically, and yet no action gets taken against them.

After all, they are just joining a very populous club, that of crooked officers and politicians, that include some of the biggest names in Delhi.

…what is likely is that the CBI…will doctor and destroy the tapes given to them, so as to enable well-connected fixers and lobbyists to escape. The CBI is unlikely to undertake a genuine probe into what may be called India’s Armsgate scam, for fear of angering politicians at the very top of national life.

…General Singh is under attack not only by the ruling parties but by the Opposition. After all, when they were in power, they too fed at the same filthy trough as those on the ruling side are now doing. However, the tide seems to be turning against them.

Read it in full here. Also read this excerpt from Gen VK Singh is a hero for fighting the Enemy Within (emphasis added)

…The political establishment in its entirety is equally appalled. The General has become a guerilla warrior, they thunder. He ought to abide by the code, yield to civilian supremacy, and either stay silent or be sacked. In the same way that they rubbished Team Anna’s campaign against corruption last year and continued with their rollicking party in Parliament, they have ganged up against Gen VK Singh. In words eerily reminiscent of last year (in the context of Anna Hazare’s campaign), Lalu Prasad Yadav wonders if Gen VK Singh is angling for a career in politics….

It’s a bizarre, perverted world if we are asked to tolerate the status quo, even when we know it to be venal, merely because the alternative – of shaking things up — makes us queasy. Because it violates Section 2, Subsection 3(a) of the club rules….

Any self-respecting civilian government or military force or civil society ought to be celebrating Gen VK Singh for being a true warrior and taking on the Enemy Within. The problems that he highlights are our collective problems. Those problems have turned us into a banana republic…If what it takes to get us to even talk about the colossal mess we are in is for Gen Singh to shake the government and our civil society out of our stupor, more power to him!

Additional Links: Sh Jaswant Singh on “Governance, please” and the less-known fact that not just AK Antony but Madam-ji too was aware of the scam.  And finally, this bit: “Congress loyalists working overtime to ensure CBI limits its inquiry & Rajiv Gandhi’s name does not crop up“. Read and weep…

P.S.: Read comment #20 here to understand why Prof Nalapat was hounded out of journalism and forced into academia. Also read the truly shocking 2-part series on EVMs and some Unanswered Questions. As I said before, read and weep…or start preparing for the long war..

The note accompanying the photograph mentions, among other things how…

After a decade of meritorious service in IAS, today, Narayanaswamy is being forced out of the IAS profession.

Leaving aside the fact that it is practically impossible to force anyone out of IAS, let us continue with the note (emphasis added)..

…Mr. Narayanaswamy is on the verge of leaving IAS to go to Paris to take up a well paid United Nations assignment. The politicians can laugh thinking another obstacle has been removed. But it is the helpless people of this country who will lose – not Narayanaswamy. But you have the power to support capable and honest bureaucrats

…You have even the power to replace such politicians with these kind of people dedicated to the country. The question is will you do the little you can do NOW? At least a vote or word in support of such personalities?

The bit about the “helpless people” got me going.  I have often lamented the loss in confidence and fatalist attitude resulting from six decades of pathetic leadership and governance. This was the latest manifestation of that..This is what I wrote in response:

1. Raju Narayan Swamy continues to be in the IAS*. This year, he will complete his 20th year in the service (he is from the same batch as me). If I am not mistaken he is currently a Secretary in Dept. of Youth Affairs in Kerala.
2. In a democracy, the “power” lies with elected representatives – as it should be.
3. It is up to us – the voters – to make them do our bidding and up to us to stand up to them as citizens and make them accountable.
4. “Helpless” people of the country lose because most are unwilling to participate in public life, in civic discourse, in political affairs.
5. “Politics” – the noblest of all professions has today become a dirty word. And most people have zero interest in any discussion on “politics”
6. We – You and Me – are responsible for this state of affairs – not the politicians. We elected them – they have not descended from heaven.
7. My final point: If you – and your colleagues, friends and supporters in IAC are serious about political reform and systemic change, we will have to do more and go deep…beyond facebook, twitter, fasts and marches..We will have to prepare for a political career…

Here is a an invitation to all of you…Join me at 8pm on 26th Jan for an online discussion on “What can You and I do to bring about Systemic Change?”. Are you ready for it? Do you have the fire in you to prepare for the long war? If yes, join us in this fight…Jai Hind, Jai Bharat! – Shantanu

P.S. There have been a few other notables from my batch. Pl google for “Marie Lou Fernandes” and you will know what I mean. * I know at least half a dozen colleagues from IAS from my batch who left the services..Marie Lou left too..and I did as well.

A day after I left this comment  on IAC Indore’s wall, I saw this on IAC’s wall (apparently posted around 10pm on Sunday):

There is..need for political movements tht can change national consciousness

Finally, wisdom appears to have dawned on IAC. Better late than never, I think.

Related Post: Now, not just worried but also angry with IAC and Anna

P.S. Stay tuned for more details of the chat on 26th Jan. It is very likely to be in the evening, most probably from 8pm – 930pm IST.

As an example, see this recent news-report about pending RTI applications…

Staff shortage results in a pile of 19,000 pending RTI appeals in Maharashtra

Does this surprise you? Probably not.

Which is why I keep making the point that the real solution must be to focus on “Open Government” rather than another law or more babus…That is how things should be..We don’t need a law (RTI) and then additional bureaucracy (staff to deal with RTI applications). Far better to insist on openness, transparency and easy access to information.. Does this remind you of something?

Tavleen Singh made the same point in her Op-Ed piece today (emphasis added):

Had our political leaders been less duplicitous, they would have admitted that it was lack of transparency in governance that was the root of corrupt practices but they did not.

The only way of reducing corruption in India is by making governance simple and transparent.

Sadly Team Anna does not understand this (or more likely, *pretends* not to understand; although Arvind Kejriwal has at least once alluded to this)..and so we see fasts, rallies and protest marches for Lokpal but Tavleen Singh gets booed for speaking the blunt truth.

So this year, please make a resolution to go deep and below the surface to understand the real causes of what ails India and help others understand them too…We have to do this as our schools and mainstream media have failed to inculcate in us the habit of thinking & deep thought…and until we do this, all we will get are quick-fixes and band-aids – which are pretty much useless in dealing with the cancer of corruption..

P.S. Here is a brief snippet (~2mins) from my talk at IIM Indore in which I made this point.

Related Posts: A great model of good governance and Prof Sh Lalu Yadav, Railway Berths and RTI

Also read: Do we really need a Lokpal?

Image courtesy: Zenoss

I believe and I claim that you can count the number of corrupt leaders of the political class.

Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi