It is hard to determine what India pays to perpetuate AK Antony's reputation for honesty, but the monetary penalty alone is thousands of crores a year
Ajai Shukla / New Delhi Feb 23, 2010, 00:18 IST
Sarojini Naidu famously observed that it cost India millions to keep Gandhi in poverty. It is harder to determine what this country pays to perpetuate Defence Minister AK Antony’s reputation for honesty, but the monetary penalty alone is thousands of crores per year.
Here’s how it adds up. Antony’s obsessive quest for unblemished weapons procurement has delayed the acquisition of artillery and anti-aircraft guns, fighters, submarines, night fighting gear and a host of equipment upgrades. With arms inflation at 15 per cent per annum, a five-year delay means that India pays twice what it should have. And when that equipment is obtained through government-to-government purchases and other single-vendor contracts, the cost is about 25 per cent more than it would have been in competitive bidding. Conservatively estimating that delays afflict just half of the defence ministry’s Rs 50,000 crore procurement budget, India buys Rs 25,000 crore worth of weaponry for 125 per cent more than what it should have paid.
Over and above that figure is the cost to national prestige and the devaluation of India’s military deterrent when — as in the wake of the 26/11 terror strikes in Mumbai — India’s armed forces are unprepared for immediate strikes. That happened on Antony’s watch.
To inconvenient questions about procurement delays, Antony declares that “India is a democracy” and “we have to ensure full transparency”. Point out to him that many democracies manage timely procurement in a transparent manner, and you will get a patronising, “Don’t worry, we are doing all that is necessary to safeguard the security of the country.”
After five years of insensibility to Antony’s disastrous custodianship of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Congress party seems to be realising that in India’s deteriorating security environment, Antony’s functioning might leave the party with having to account for a military embarrassment. Last week, Congress party spokesperson Manish Tewari wrote an opinion piece in a national daily, arguing for all the changes that Antony has assiduously blocked during his five disastrous years in office.
Tewari called for “reforms that are visionary”; treating Indian private industry on a par with the public sector; and “drastically retooling” the Department of Defence Production. Though qualified as his personal views, the article represented growing opinion within the Congress party.
Is it fair, Antony’s defenders will ask, to pin the blame entirely on him? After all, George Fernandes had publicly declared that fear of the three C’s — the CAG, the CVC and the CBI — held back MoD bureaucrats from making decisions. But Antony, like no other defence minister before him, endangers national security by his otherwise laudable fetish for probity. The message that flows out of Antony’s office and seeps through the procurement department is: cancel an ongoing procurement at the first hint of irregularity. It does not matter whether the suspicion has been planted by a rival arms dealer; a paid-for Parliamentary question; or a letter from an MP which has clearly been dictated by someone who possesses every detail of the tender in question. Just put the process on indefinite hold.
One MoD official asked me: Point out one official who has been punished for delaying the procurement of even the most vitally needed equipment. But if I am seen to move a file quickly, the defence minister’s office will ask, “What is the hurry. It seems almost as if you have a stake in that deal.”
Then there is Antony’s obvious bewilderment about the technical issues of the military, a crashing ignorance that cannot be condoned in India’s top military decision-maker. Antony’s apologists cite his preoccupation with party matters; but that is hardly convincing. His predecessor, Pranab Mukherjee, who had an immeasurably larger role in the party and national affairs, handled the MoD with skill and knowledge.
At a lunch, three years ago, I asked the Australian defence minister why his air force was buying F/A-18F Super Hornet fighters when Australia was already in line for the futuristic F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which was nearing completion. His answer: Australia’s ageing F-111 fighters would be retiring in 2010; since the F-35 project was running a couple of years late, 24 new Super Hornets would be inducted to retain Australian capability. (The Super Hornets are reaching Australia next month.)
Contrast that urgency with Antony’s “we-will-consider” approach, even though India faces a greater chance of military confrontation with Pakistan or China than Australia does with New Zealand or Papua and New Guinea.
Antony’s personal image and goals are damaging national security and the image of his party. If electoral seat adjustment and managing state-level dissidence is his particular skill, let him move out of that crucial corner office in South Block and give him a place in the Congress party office.
After Neville Chamberlain had miserably failed to reign in Hitler in 1939, British MP Leo Amery echoed the words of Oliver Cromwell in calling for Chamberlain’s head at a memorable session of the British Parliament: “You have sat here too long for any good you are doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”
Sonia's stranlehold,Manmohan Singh's timidity ,Anthony's fear of Pakistan's retaliation,Chidambran's smooth talk to fight corruption and on the sly banking in Swiss banks with his hoarding,Parnab's ambition to be PM by hook or crook and Krishna's inaptitude with diplomacy make Congress the most hated and undesirable Political Party.The sooner they are kicked out better for India,After Congress who?A Lotus grows in swamps so will a bright star rise from oblivion.
Well done, Ajai. You have made your intentions clear. Keep up the inspired writing. Readers will understand your agenda in one read. This is how journalism should be. Readers should understand why a journalist is really writing what he is writing. Many journalists miss this cardinal point. They try to balance things, thereby confusing readers about the intention. You are so transparent. Well done, again.
He won't go unless pushed, the quicker the better. The new rule in the MOD should be 'delay any purchase and you will be punished, & if you allow any irregularity, you will be punished. Therefore you must get it right first time every time'!
Gr8 job Mr. Shukla. You are absolutely right that Mr. Clean's desperate efforts to keep himself cleaner is taking its toll. Mr. Extra Cautious should look at defence preparedness seriously & militarily. And shud take immediate steps to cover the loss ASAP.
That precisely has been the problem with UPA-II. Antony has only Kerala in his mind, Mamata has only WB elections in her mind, Sharad Pawar has IPL in his mind...
Atleast Rahul Gandhi is doing what he likes (even though it is nautanki!), unlike these people who are wasting taxpayer's money.
well said.
This is the truth of India defence ministry and therefore the country is becoming weak year after year. Make more defence procurement in your term as defence minister and the nation will remember you for years to come. India needs to acquire latest ammunition to keep in pace with China and India. Honesty will not save the country from our enemies.
Antony has such a halo, that is why there is a freeze on defence procurement. Deal after deal scrapped in the name of transparent procurement. And still did any media notice where Mr Joshi, IAS of CBI raids in MP fame was last posted? No points for guessing-Under Mr ANTONY!
GOD SAVE INDIA AND ITS ARMY!
god , when are we going to nail that condescending remark of MRS. NAIDU. For all the millions spent, her govt couldn,t save Gandhi,s life. One may disagree with GANDHI but noone in his senses could doubt his probity, least of all a flamboyant and self indulgent Mrs Naidu .Mr Shukla u could have done without this insult to intelligence of readers.
Mr. Ajai Shukla,
This is all you have to say in each & every report submitted by you? Please question yourself & also the role of private industry in this game of defence procurement.
"treating Indian private industry on a par with the public sector"
Which Defense contractor pays you to write this article?..
Posted by: GG
June 11 , 2010, 00:53 IST
I'm sure they'd be less corrupt than the DPSUs that are hand-in-glove with our socialist MoD for every defence procurement program. But fellow socialists like you two would only celebrate at that news.
Posted by: GG
June 11 , 2010, 00:51 IST
I see a lot of the hot-blooded jingoist types have found their way to this article. They worship the Congress, AK Antony and the Defence PSUs on a pedestal while turning a blind eye to any possible irregularities even when the naked evidence is staring them in their face. Keep it up, Mr. Shukla. Whether or not you are being 'paid by defence contractors' your posts are invaluable towards exposing the flawed manner in which our security issues have been handled for over 50 years.
Posted by: AK
February 26 , 2010, 07:08 IST
A consortium of them and perhaps a lot of corrupt officials!
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