New Delhi:
Army chief General VK Singh is likely to give a written statement to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today over the 14 crore bribe bombshell. The General, in an interview to The Hindu newspaper, said that the kickback was offered to him six months after he took over as the Army chief in 2010 by a retired defence officer for an equipment deal.
The CBI is waiting for the General's statement to file an FIR in the case.
The Defence Minister addressed the Parliament today on the allegation made by the General. "I will go to any extent to investigate the army chief's allegations," said the minister today. He said he is ready to cancel any contract tainted by corruption.
General Singh said he had informed Defence Minister AK Antony immediately about the conversation. Breaking his silence in Parliament today, Mr Antony said, "Asked the Chief to take action, he didn't want to push the matter."
The latest controversy has led to a full-blown political war with the Opposition parties asking why neither the General nor the Defence Minister asked for an investigation earlier, or blacklisted the company that allegedly offered the bribe.
"There is eventually civilian control of armed forces...but issues that should be settled in closed doors are becoming a public debate which in case of armed forces should be avoided," said the BJP's Arun Jaitely. He added that the government and the army chief "should not have put blinkers on their eyes. This is learning to live with corruption," he said. Mr Jaitley made the point that the minister and the army chief appeared to have dismissed the offer of the bribe as a frivolous charge.
The BJP has decided to raise all controversial issues related to the ministry in the demand-for-grants discussion of the Budget in the Lok Sabha. Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj yesterday said that the BJP will choose the Defence Ministry as its subject of discussion during the debate. In the Budget discussions, each party is allowed to choose a ministry.
The reported differences between the Ministry of Defence and the armed forces, the conduct of both the ministry and the Army in the case of General Singh's date of birth, the one-rank-one-pension issue for retired defence personnel, delay in buying fighter planes and other equipment are among a host of issues BJP is likely to raise during the debate.
The controversy created by General VK Singh is the latest in a string of issues relating to the Defence Ministry.
Yesterday morning, the Army chief disclosed that he has been asked for a 14-crore bribe by a retired defence officer in 2010. By the evening, the controversy had expanded to question why General VK Singh had not shared this earlier, or filed a case against the man who offered him the bribe, or blacklisted the company on whose behalf the kickback was allegedly offered.
The General has not named the man who visited him in his office in 2010. But sources say, the deal in question was related to Tatra and Vectra Ltd., which provided trucks to the Army via a contract. The bribe was allegedly offered to convince the Army chief not to introduce competitive bidding. The truck manufacturers had allegedly worked out that if that happened, they would save 40 lakhs per truck. So to clear the consignment of 1600 trucks, General VK Singh was allegedly offered almost Rs. 88,000 per truck, adding upto 14 crores.
In his interview to The Hindu newspaper, the General said he'd been offered the money to clear sub-standard trucks. But the Defence Ministry has pointed out that nobody from the Army has ever complained about the performance of the trucks supplied by Tatra, which is a Czech company. "We have never received any complaint from the armed Forces," Joint Secretary (Land Systems) in the Defence Ministry Rashmi Verma said.
The government has ordered a CBI inquiry, but both the Congress and the BJP have said the Army chief should have filed a case against the retired officer for trying to bribe a government servant. "It was not like he was giving me bribe in my hand. This was an indirect method and that is why no arrest was made," was the General's explanation.
Though the General has not named the officer who met him, earlier this month, in a press release, the Army targeted former Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh for trying to create a rift between the government and the Army chief. Tejinder Singh had also served as chief of the Defence Intelligence Agency. The Army chief said he had been interrogated earlier about purchasing off-the-air interceptors without required clearances. The Army's statement added that Tejinder Singh had offered bribes on behalf of a company named Tatra and Vectra Ltd., which supplies vehicles to the Army.
Former Army chief VP Malik said to NDTV, "There was a need to take strong prompt, ruthless action. The Army Chief should have pursued the matter. I would have taken action against person offering bribe."
Meanwhile, Lt Gen Singh earlier denied the charges of bribing the Army chief. Speaking to NDTV earlier today, he said, "I do not think VK Singh has said that I made or did not make this sort of offer." He also said that he met with the Army chief once after he retired, but said he would disclose the circumstances of that meeting later. He further said that he would initiate "legal action against the people concerned".
The retired officer has also been allotted a flat in the Adarsh Society, a high-rise building in Mumbai whose apartments were intended for war veterans and widows, but were instead given to politicians, bureaucrats and defence officers.
The government and the chief will now have to answer whether the company was blacklisted once the bribe was offered, and why it has taken so long to commission a formal inquiry.
The Congress today suggested that the Army chief's own actions were wanting. "If someone offered him a bribe, as a government servant, he should have filed a case against the person under the Prevention of Corruption Act," said the Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari.
The Congress-led coalition at the Centre has been entangled in a maze of financial scandals, with the opposition accusing it of serving as a "government of scams" and of creating an environment that lends itself to graft as the Standard Operating Procedure.
In January, General Singh became the first serving military chief to take the government to court. He wanted the Defence Ministry to accept that he was born in 1951 and not 1950 - records with the Army list both years. The Defence Ministry had refused the General's claim, stating that he had accepted many promotions on the basis of his seniority as established by the documents that showed he was born in 1950. The chief withdrew his petition in the Supreme Court after the judges, through their remarks, indicated they would not side with his claim. He is scheduled to retire at the end of May.