Thursday, March 08, 2007

BOFORS CONUNDRUM

The Ghost of Bofors is once again revisiting the Indian political scenario since the arrest of Quttarochi in Argentina recently. Curiously, the Bofors scandal simply refuses to die a natural political death. This may be due to the high value protagonists of the scandal who are also the key players in the Indian political scene. Also engrossed are some investigative journalists who are in the hot pursuit of truth behind the alleged kick back.
It may be interesting to know that the cat is not yet out of the bag not because the concerned are not able to reach it but because it is a handy political stick to beat the Congress party from time to time. There is no other plausible reason before the ordinary people who are considered as the ruled by the political class.
Take for example, the non-Congress parties were in power at the centre from 1989-1990, 1996-2004. For any purposeful government this long period was adequate enough to investigate and find out the true story behind this stenching scandal. Sadly, nothing of this kind happened during this period.
The ghost of Bofors returns with renewed vigour and tenacity only when the Congress Party is in power or whenever the political adversaries choose to embarrass a member of the Gandhi family. The artful dodger of the Indian Politics, Shri VP Singh, rose to the post of PM primarily because of his skillful deployment of the Howitzer Gun, which had proved its battle-worthiness during the Kargil conflicts in 1999. Once again, the Indian politicians are using the Scandal for scoring political brownies. Alas! They do not know that they are flogging a dead horse.
In fact, few Indians know the extent of damage the Bofors Scandal has done to the Indian Defence preparedness. Prior to the scandal, the middle men were officially allowed to operate within the legal framework of the Government purchase procedure. They were contractually entitled to receive a certain percentage as agent’s commission for the liaisoning work they do in India for their principals abroad. This was based on the reasoned ground reality that it was not always practical for the Foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to operate from India. This ensured a transparency and the convenience to deal with the foreign OEMs. The VP Singh government did away with this provision of employing the Indian Agents officially. This was politically expedient to prevent the Indian agents, but not so from the Material Management angle as the Government lacks the wherewithals to deal with the foreign entities and the Foreign OEMs in turn find the cumbersome Indian administrative mechanism far away from the best practices. As a result of this the offer price by them goes up in foreign deals. So, if one sums up the whole purchase procedure, s/he may find that the state is a big loser without the help of a legal agent who can ease the deal in many ways than one.
Moreover, the Foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers are always hard nuts to crack at any stage of procurement including the price negotiations. With frequent Mergers & Acquisitions abroad fixing their accountability also poses a serious problem in many cases. Look for Bofors, Union Carbide etc. They are no longer in operation as a separate entity. The honest Government officials also find it increasingly difficult to take informed decisions fearing witch hunting in future for the decisions taken in good faith based on the available information on that particular point of time.
It is high time we buried the ghost of Bofors for ever and formulated pragmatic purchase procedure for the Government. What is required is an informed public debate, convergent Political views and a strong political will. We must come out of the Quttarochi Syndrome and the Bofors conundrum without any further delay before the system does irrecoverable damage to our Defence preparedness.



1 comment:

RADHAKRISHNAN said...

I dare to say that Bofors is a fiction created for destabiling the country on various fronts. I dont know how many would agree that Rajiv Gandhi was a force to reckon with for the USA. Had Rajiv Gandhi survived in the Indian political scene, it would have strengthened the country on many fronts. The CIA had visioned India as a vibrant political and economic giant to take on the Americans. One may recall that prior to the publication of Bofors fiction, there were very few regional political parties. V.P. Singh`s political ambition was fuelled by the enemies of India and thus was born the anti-Rajiv force. It created political instability resulting into unscheduled general elections putting a heavy burden on the national exchequer. Rajiv Gandhi would not have been killed but for Bofors. There are still larger corruption cases in India. But none including the media is concerned. All the political parties of India in unison should bid good bye the ghost of Bofors and spare their valuable time for more important work in the development of the nation. The media will look for greener pastures.