Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India.
The General Secretaries of the four Left political parties
in India
addressed the following letter to the Prime Minister regarding the
corruption involved in the Israeli arms deal.
Dear Shri Manmohan Singhji,
We have been noting with growing concern the manner in which arms deals
with Israel are being conducted. Israel
is already the second largest supplier to India. It is now clear that Israeli
arms manufacturers, including government-owned entities, have been blatantly
violating Indian laws by using middle-men and by giving kickbacks to
officials involved in the decision-making process.
The scam surrounding India’s
acquisition of the Israeli Barak missile systems manufactured by the
state-owned Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and Rafael corporations is
the latest case in point. The original deal for ship-mounted Barak systems
worth about Rs.1300 crore struck in 2000 during the NDA regime was rife
with procedural violations and outright corruption as emerged during the
Tehelka expose. CBI’s FIR of October 2006 names IAI as an accused,
besides naming Delhi-based arms dealer Suresh Nanda and other family
members as agents of the Israeli firms. The recent CBI raids and
consequent arrests of the Nandas and their associates seem to have added
more hard evidence.
Evidence
has also emerged in Israel
of the bribery and corruption, including payments to agents in India, indulged
in by IAI and Rafael. An Indian agent replaced by another petitioned the
Israeli Defence Ministry claiming additional commissions due to him, and
the matter has even been referred to the Israeli Attorney General. All
this has led to the arrest and impending prosecution of Moshe Keretz,
who headed IAI for 20 years till 2005, and another agent whose name
has been concealed under a gag order of the Israeli authorities.
Regrettably, despite all this evidence, the UPA government has shown a
remarkable reluctance to take action against IAI, Rafael and other Israeli
arms companies. The Swedish firm Bofors was blacklisted after the
involvement of middle-men was proved in the notorious deal. The South
African firm Denel was similarly blacklisted in 2005 for resorting to
agents and kickbacks. But demands that similar action be initiated against
IAI and other Israeli firms have been ignored. Some high authorities have
bent over backwards to argue that the cases were not similar in some
unexplained manner.
To add insult to injury, the UPA government has further cemented the alliance
with IAI by signing a massive $2.5 billion (Rs.10,000 crore) deal for
co-development of more advanced Barak NG (mew generation) and Barak-8
missiles with longer range and for land-based anti-missile applications. How
can India
proceed with this deal in the face of evident wrong-doing by Israeli
firms?
By turning a blind eye to systematic violation of Indian laws by Israeli
firms, India is sending out
wrong signals to international arms manufacturers at a time when India is
embarking on huge overseas military acquisitions, with the potential to
corrupt and derail the entire system. These developments also underline
the importance of self-reliance in defence production which has been given
low priority of late.
The Left parties urge the UPA Government to immediately take strong action
against the errant Israeli firms, and also ensure that the CBI pursues the
Barak scam case to its logical conclusion and brings all the guilty to
book.
Sd/-
Prakash
Karat
A. B. Bardhan
General Secretary,
CPI(M)
General
Secretary, CPI
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