Corruption in Indian Defense Deals

This was an old post titled “Indian Army,Indian Politicians and Aam Aadmi“ of March 2012 which has suddenly become relevant.

The latest episode involving the Army has been a heartbreaker at many levels. Despite of many past evidences (Tehelka episode where a Brigadier was willing to sell out for a bottle of whiskey), the aam aadmi believed in the Indian Defense forces. It is primarily because of the human need for heroes because heroes keep us believing in all things good. However recently we have had too many episodes of corruption involving the army and that is painful to all of us. Maybe it is our naïveté, which makes us belief that our soldiers can wade through the corrupt cesspool, which is India, and come out looking like a clean lotus. After all, the soldiers are human with the usual failings. But how did our army that used to be our pride and joy come to this pass.

Defense budget is one of the largest and India is one of the biggest buyers on weapons and other defense related equipment. Needless to say the money involved is huge and even a small percent of that is enough to put an honest man to test. Since our current system is more opaque than a concrete wall and involves middlemen or as I call them defense-pimps it should be expected that people will steal. All our systems were put in place during the British rule and we all know of their intentions, how can we expect anything except widespread theft. These defense-pimps were put in place to deal with foreigner suppliers who did not know the language and culture. These defense-pimps made their money like prostitutes. Of course when they make such large amounts of money do you think the politicians are not going to demand their share of laddoos. This is where things get hairy. If everyone else is making money and saying “SCREW YOU” to the country, why should the soldiers make all the sacrifices and ignore all that laddoo out there.

In an article whose url is attached, there are two schools of thought. One says that the role of these defense-pimps should be legitimized thereby making them accountable. But the problem is that if they are not part of the system, they CANNOT have accountability. Moreover the huge commissions made by them will still be too much enticement for the political class and we are back to square one. Mr. Uday Bhaskar claims the following:

The so-called middleman provides a domain knowledge that goes beyond the commercial. By officially allowing such expertise to be made available to the Indian decision-making process, long-term decisions that enable indigenous capacity-building will be positively enabled. These days the arms trade is increasingly technology-driven, and very often officials authorised to take decisions do not have the requisite technical, commercial and legal competence. Knowledge, in their case, is acquired on the job, or through a trusted loop of family and friends which may include the same middleman.

This of course is hard to digest. I work in R&D and use all kinds of instrumentation. The user is the best judge of equipment. Purchase department nowadays are manned by users / ex-users and not babus. So I do not agree with Mr. Bhaskar’s premise at all. His suggestion of bringing transparency by legitimizing the defense-pimps reeks of self-interest.
What does make more sense is suggestion by a retired Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Raj Kadyan who claims that there may have been a need for these defense-pimps in the past but with the advent of communication technologies and internet where any information is available within seconds with a few strokes on a keyboard that need has evaporated. The seller can now directly communicate with the user in terms understood and appreciated by the user. Lt. Gen. Kadyan goes on to say that:

Direct contact between buyers and suppliers is possible, and must take place without intermediaries. There must also be transparency right from drafting the request for a purchase to the stage of final evaluation and award of contract. The bidders need to be allowed to witness the different stages to instil confidence. On larger purchases, where political considerations might exist, the contracts must be negotiated and finalised on a government-to-government basis. In the interest of national security we must spruce up indigenisation and achieve self-sufficiency in our defence requirements. In the interim, we need to do away with the antiquated system of middlemen.

Essentially, the army needs to have their purchase department do the legwork. The process should be open and transparent to the extent that after a while it could be made available to public if need be. The people making the purchase decisions should be kept under the watch of a “defence lokayukta”. No politician should have the final say in the matter because we all know what their priorities are.
Indian politicians have managed to drag our soldiers in their gutter. It is up to the aam aadmi to boot the current politicians out and bring in honest and patriotic politicians. That is the only way we can restore the pride and glory of Indian Army and other such institutions with murky present but glorious past.