Indian Defence Review

The Defence Minister A K Antony going round the Defence Pavilion, during Defexpo-2014

No, this is not about unfortunate people gone bonkers or senile. Nor is this about the mad cow disease or Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD), the human form of mad cow disease amounting to degenerative neurological disorder that is incurable and invariably fatal. This is not about the brazen statements of the venerable Defence Minister either that we are not short of ammunition and are battle ready while the Army alone is reportedly short of arms and ammunition to the tune of Rupees 1,41,000 crores – forget modernization; hoping conflict will not happen and if it does, force another Chief to say “we will fight with what we have” leaving serving Chiefs no option to publicly say “we are battle ready.” But this article is about MaD: the revised designation earned through years of consistency shown in putting down the armed forces by the bureaucrats of our own Ministry of Defence (MoD). You guessed it right, MaD is the acronym for Ministry against Defence.

So Shashi Kant Sharma, erstwhile Defence Secretary (now CAG) is to stand in the Supreme Court on 13th February 2014 along with his other cronies from MaD in response to SC summons in wake of a 49-page contempt petition filed by the Retired Defence Officers Association (RDOA) in the apex court over non-implementation of the court’s September 2012 order – summons that came in wake of non-implementation of the SC order to MoD (read MaD) to pay the dues it owes to the former defence officers vide the said SC order. It is quite public by now that the ‘rank pay case’ was initially fought by Major Dhanapalan and later RODA too took up the case and moved the court. After years of legal battle, the SC had envisaged re-fixation of pay for all affected military officers for Rank Pay with effect from 1st January 1986 – the date of implementation of the Fourth Pay Commission. However, the MaD in its implementation order of the December 2012, based on the SC verdict, very mischievously changed it to “as on 1st January 1986” – while Shashi Kant Sharma was the Defence Secretary. The SC summons say, “You shall attend the court in person and shall continue to attend the court on all days thereafter to which the case against you stands adjourned and until final orders are passed on the charge against you. Herein fail not.”

Whether Shashi Kant Sharma will be present in SC on 13th February or feign a heart attack like Musharraf is not known but what he and his MaD cronies symbolize is the essence of the MaD Club’s contempt to those in uniform plus those who have hung up their boots. This is also the reason why they have been stonewalling all attempts to rectify the politico-military disconnect. There was talk of rewarding Sharma’s services to the mafia in breaking the institutional integrity of the military and concert with Goolam Vahanvati, the Attorney General. While the latter got an extended tenure, this can hardly be the only reason for Sharma to be appointed CAG anyway. The surprising part is that despite willfully committing contempt of the SC order with respect to the rank pay case and the fact that the contempt notice was sent when Sharma was still the Defence Secretary, he was still appointed to the high constitutional post of CAG. So the services that Sharma rendered to the ‘supreme mafia’ must have been of very exceptional order indeed. The real reasons perhaps will never been known but maybe one of the reason could be that Sharma happened to be the DG (Acquisition) of MoD when the Augusta Westland Helicopter deal was signed in 2010. Now it quite logical that it is the DG (Acquisition) who signs papers, negotiates the cuts and decides who gets what including the delivery mode. So when India has already paid 45 percent of the deal value, it is no way the deal would have been signed without the ‘cuts’ on the total deal (100 percent) having been delivered at required destinations. So, no one is fooled by the amount mentioned with respect to the Tyagi brothers which is small pocket change. Then, the Augusta Westland helicopter scam is a recent case. Shashi Kant Sharma was in the MaD club for over a decade. So, his ‘exceptional services’ would have gone way beyond the above two issues when so many more major defence acquisitions were made.

The Augusta Westland deal has been cancelled and probably one odd guy will be asked to return his / her cut that will be quietly made known to the environment, like it happened when the Eurocopter deal was cancelled and just one fellow was asked to return a few million Euros but then immediately given solid immunity by moving him as Governor. So in the Augusta Westland helicopter deal too, the balance will retain the moolah as part of future investment that is adjustable at the international arms industry level. And yes, the probe agencies would not dare to question top bureaucrats like Defence Secretary without government approval but then who do you think constitutes the ‘supreme mafia’? If you still are wondering then perhaps you need to read Gen. VK Singh’s autobiography that tells you that the corruption trail from MoD goes right up to the PMO. You would probably dub it a flight of fancy especially since we have such a clean Defence Minster but then you get wondering if the reported losses in crores of Air India includes the Rs 28 crores paid to the Defence Minister’s spouse by AAI for four of her paintings to be put up at civil airports. The appointment of CAG is arbitrary by the government, whereas the selection should be through a committee / collegiums constituted for the purpose. Then what about the Defence Minister’s penchant to ban firms at the drop of a hat and pray what is the criteria for lifting the blacklisting? Who does the inquiry and examination? Since it is all in-house you can well assume what the main criteria would be? This was a classic query with regard to the 155mm gun displayed at DEFEXPO 14 by Denel, a firm till recently blacklisted. Look at the manner in which the procurement of the Barak anti-air systems approved in 1997 for our Navy was kept in abeyance for several years.

Historically, the foundation of MaD can be traced to the Nehru’s disdain for the military and Krishna Menon, his blue-eyed Defence Minister who masterminded the first defence scam of independent India (Jeep Scandal), brought the country to shame in 1962 by ignoring basic military equipping, and yet ended up with a road in the heart of New Delhi Krishna Menon Marg) replete with his bust installed on a pedestal and an annual garlanding ceremony. The least the nation could do is to rename this road after the first PVC winner. With that take off point, the idea of the MaD Club has blossomed through the decades. There have numerous defence scams where the MaD bureaucrats should have been investigated and tried but that never happened in India. No bureaucrat from MaD has been punished and transfers, in an odd case has been to an equally if not more lucrative assignment. Take the case of the Augusta Westland helicopter scam. Guiodo Ralph Haschke’s diary reportedly had entries indicating appointments of MoD that were possibly involved but no one will inquire into this. The CBI team that travelled to Italy only inquired about the Tyagi brothers. So the arrangement of requiring a government approval for a probe against these officials, which they know will never be granted, grants them not only blanket immunity but more importantly a heady arrogance despite being professionally incompetent. No wonder there is no urgency to get any security strategy in place. They are protected by the ‘supreme mafia’ and the latter considers the military a necessary evil. This stance permeates to other MaD related departments of the government as well.

The rank pay case is just one example. Similarly, the grant of bounty of Non Functional Advancement to all central services officers by the 6th CPC and denying the same to the defence services officers is blatant display of bias against the military. Ironically, while MHA fights in the interest of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), MaD works hard to deny the military even what the latter should deservedly get. Many would not know that policemen, unlike soldiers who are retired at 35 years age, retire at age 60 years and further end up getting much higher pension. Despite over 20 anomalies still remaining unaddressed in the 6th Pay Commission, the 7th Pay Commission has again been appointed without a military member despite continuing demands by the military to do so. The stance of MaD’s Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (DESW), again without any service or military veteran, has been utterly shameless and even against welfare of veterans who have lost their limbs during wars. It continues to willfully withhold payments till the veteran is dead or in abject penury. What a country where soldiers and veterans have to knock on the doors of courts, even a former Vice Chief filing a case in Supreme Court for his disability pension having lost a leg in the 1965 Indo-Pak War as a young Captain. But lo and behold, MaD challenged the disability pension of this gallant officer – appeal filed by the DESW. It is a different issue that MaD lost the appeal. This again is just one instance. MaD and Associates don’t hesitate to lie in Parliament and Parliamentary Standing Committee or give misleading statements. Take the case of OROP, when suddenly one fine morning media blared “OROP Sanctioned”. Not only nothing like that had happened but the Defence Minister had made it clear to his staff that this would not be sanctioned – as revealed by an MoD official since retired.

The trick being followed by the bureaucracy is that some of the bureaucrats, who deny the military fair play as part of the Pay Commission, are posted by design to the Finance Ministry subsequently to continue stone walling the military any financial benefits due to them. In an unprecedented announcement on 2nd January 2014, the DESW of MaD has issued a statement that veterans who take the MoD to court for disability and pension benefits have to fight the case all the way to the SC, implying these pussyfooters with convoluted minds have the arrogance to twist the knife into the wounds they are constantly creating through blocking the dues of all they can including the disabled. The master bureaucrat, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh having sneaked into politics quietly via Assam without having fought any election sits sphinx like lording over all the scams and smiling inwardly how he has fooled everyone for the past decade. Not without reason he has not mentioned the military in any of his speeches while croaking from the ramparts of the red fort. Same goes for St Anthony who cooly presides over all the defence scams and sympathizes to the various veteran association delegations saying he will look into the matter, but does nothing.

Post independence, Mountbatten had raised the issue of lack of military officials and expertise within the Defence Ministry but corrupt Krishna Menon did not agree for obvious reasons. More recently, whatever has happened to the Tatra Truck Scam – given the quite burial like many others? Military advice and military expertise be damned. War is going to happen only once in a while and if more military personnel die, well can’t we satisfy them with medals? These fellows in any case return them to the President after staging protests at Jantar Mantar, that too for some paltry amount of pension. As it is, the mafia has reduced the Supreme Commander to a notional head, content with is British era and the Services continue as “attached headquarters” with limited powers. A veteran diplomat who had also served in MaD says new arrivals are only interested to find out what are the procurements in the offing and the avenues to make money – balance can be sorted out at the level of the military itself – we don’t need any advice from them. So why integrate the military with MoD and disturb the golden goose? “Defence Production (MoD) Joint Secretaries and Secretaries of Defence Ministry on the Boards of all PSUs — sickest of sick units …… with the result that the gap is widening between us and China and bulk of the time we resort to imports out of no choice ….. defence industry which could have really flowered around very high technological development and taken India to the next and next level of technological achievement and excellence is not happening”, wrote Manibhai Naik, CEO of L&T to the Prime Minister. No wonder we continue to import 77 percent of our defence requirements while politicians are busy counting votes. No one questions the longest serving Defence Minister (since 2004) and his MaD Club why the countries military-industrial complex has been brought down to such a sorry state that we have to now even import small arms for the army and central armed police forces.

Significantly, the Delhi branch of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) through an order dated 21st January, 2014 with respect to Civil Appeal No. D/41574/2012 filed by UOI & Others Vs Wg VS Tomar (Retd) before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India – Hearing of MA No.673/2013 (in OA No.106/2009) snubbed the DESW for non-implementation of court orders, ruled in favour of the petitioner and imposed the cost of Rupees 10,000 on the Secretary ESW. But despite such isolated cases, the stance of the MaD is unlikely to change albeit even in the instant case the petitioner had to undergo undue harassment. But in sanctioning the AFT, the wily bureaucracy have put in place the arrangement that the AFT does not have judicial independence since it remains under MaD. Hence, it does not have powers of civil contempt and execution to ensure compliance of its orders. There is an urgent need to place to remove MaD control over AFT and bringing it under the Department of Justice.

Then is the right to vote of the soldier like any other citizen of the country, as authorized by the Constitution. This has been denied by the politicians for the last 67 years. Even now when the Mr Rajiv Chandershekhar, MP has written to Manmohan Singh, the sphinx like silence continues. With forthcoming elections, which should be a turning point with an awakening India, every soldier must be given the right to exercise his vote, for which the framework has to be put in place without further loss of time. It is quite understandable, that the mafia will do its utmost to continue denying this right to the soldiers for obvious reasons. But then when the Election Commission has been sending a team deep inside Gir Forest for one single voter, why can’t similar teams be sent to at least every unit level of the military. Give the same voting rights to military personnel at par with all citizens of India. Denial of voting rights to a 1.3 million military is not a small issue. It is perhaps a fit case for the SC to take suo moto cognizance, order the government to ensure every soldier votes and ask for a post-poll report.

We have a situation today where the politician is intransigent to the vital need for establishing the politico-military connect, bureaucrats of the MaD reign supreme sans accountability and therefore the higher defence structures remain defunct. This is dangerous for the country. Rectifying this anomaly should be the top priority for the new government. The present dispensation does not want to tamper with the existing arrangement for obvious reasons, so MaD will prosper until then.