The Supreme Court has shown open-mindedness by rejecting the Government's stance seeking privilege over the admissibility of the "leaked documents" on Rafale deal. I feel that it is a good move for transparency and accountability.
With this, the mystery over the credibility of the deal is getting murkier, compounded further by the reluctance of NDA to subject itself to scrutiny and come out clean.
Many of my FB friends may be of the view that the allegations are all concocted. At least now they should realise that all is not well. The AG had the audacity to tell the top court that the documents published by the daily, have been stolen from the Defence Ministry. He went to the extent of initiating criminal action against Hindu, for publishing it, under official secrets act. This shows the weakness of the government by attacking the messenger ignoring the message. Let us not forget that today’s government was yesterday’s opposition and that in its earlier AVATAR it took the then government to task on the basis of numerous press reports based on “leaked documents”. The Augusta Westland case, for example, saw a blizzard of leaked papers.
The issue in the deal is that there has been avoidable financial loss and there is no official secret about this fact. Every Indian is entitled to know what his government is doing and he has the right to question or criticise, his rulers. Unfortunately, the present dispensation has the mindset that no one opposes its writ. This is the only newspaper which has done its job correctly and courageously and seems it has some ethics.
After new revelations coming to light on the Rafale scam appearing on regular basis in media, the government of the day has been running from pillar to post to get rid of this stigma the deal has created. AG’s averment seemed to echo our PM’s speeches as he campaigns across the country, claiming sole guardianship over national security. By stating that the file has been stolen, the government is pointing the finger squarely at itself for not being able to protect the files of national security.
In fact, I have a feeling that the dispensation has scant respect for the judiciary. It has become abundantly clear that the present dispensation will show no value to the judgments if they don’t fit into their scheme of things. Did we all not see how BJP and RSS openly violated SC’s Sabarimala verdict and tried to foment violence? I'm afraid, in a democracy which government will appear before the Apex court and have the audacity to state that the files of national security have been stolen and nothing has been done about it.
Even when you see the CAG report on this scam, it throws more questions rather than it answers and it’s clearly a dent on the image of the institution, the reputation of which has never been so controversial than of now. As such it is attributable that there is the force from the government in the wake of ensuing elections. We have been let down by CAG on more than one count to the best of my knowledge. First, the report Commits to the pricing issue of 36 Aircraft’s and concluded that the deal was 2-86 percent cheaper than the one which had been negotiated by UPA without going deeply into the history, which itself indicates that it wants to favor the government and to silence the opposition which was making bad propaganda. Secondly, CAG has chosen not to deal with the cavalier manner in which PM 36 aircraft of the shelf, when there are guidelines to be followed. The issue of the government is that it has agreed to drop the standard requirements for Bank Guarantees or at least sovereign guarantee and instead of accepting the letter of comfort from France has been repeatedly raised by critics as the disadvantage. By not rising to the occasion, the office of the CAG has let itself down and the integrity of CAG has become a point of discussion among the public. My friends used to comment that the price aspect has been cleared by CAG and SC gave a clean chit and that there is nothing to question. Now with this everything will come out, if SC does a thorough investigation and that’s what is required.
First, under the cover of the country’s Defence, the argument of classified information was advanced, and later to be followed by “stolen documents." It needs no big brains to conclude that something fishy is clearly wrapped up in the whole episode. It's now time for the top man to break the deafening silence and set the matters to rest by addressing the issue or appoint JPC to probe into the alleged multi-crore scam or some senior judge of SC has to do the investigation.
With this, the mystery over the credibility of the deal is getting murkier, compounded further by the reluctance of NDA to subject itself to scrutiny and come out clean.
Many of my FB friends may be of the view that the allegations are all concocted. At least now they should realise that all is not well. The AG had the audacity to tell the top court that the documents published by the daily, have been stolen from the Defence Ministry. He went to the extent of initiating criminal action against Hindu, for publishing it, under official secrets act. This shows the weakness of the government by attacking the messenger ignoring the message. Let us not forget that today’s government was yesterday’s opposition and that in its earlier AVATAR it took the then government to task on the basis of numerous press reports based on “leaked documents”. The Augusta Westland case, for example, saw a blizzard of leaked papers.
The issue in the deal is that there has been avoidable financial loss and there is no official secret about this fact. Every Indian is entitled to know what his government is doing and he has the right to question or criticise, his rulers. Unfortunately, the present dispensation has the mindset that no one opposes its writ. This is the only newspaper which has done its job correctly and courageously and seems it has some ethics.
After new revelations coming to light on the Rafale scam appearing on regular basis in media, the government of the day has been running from pillar to post to get rid of this stigma the deal has created. AG’s averment seemed to echo our PM’s speeches as he campaigns across the country, claiming sole guardianship over national security. By stating that the file has been stolen, the government is pointing the finger squarely at itself for not being able to protect the files of national security.
In fact, I have a feeling that the dispensation has scant respect for the judiciary. It has become abundantly clear that the present dispensation will show no value to the judgments if they don’t fit into their scheme of things. Did we all not see how BJP and RSS openly violated SC’s Sabarimala verdict and tried to foment violence? I'm afraid, in a democracy which government will appear before the Apex court and have the audacity to state that the files of national security have been stolen and nothing has been done about it.
Even when you see the CAG report on this scam, it throws more questions rather than it answers and it’s clearly a dent on the image of the institution, the reputation of which has never been so controversial than of now. As such it is attributable that there is the force from the government in the wake of ensuing elections. We have been let down by CAG on more than one count to the best of my knowledge. First, the report Commits to the pricing issue of 36 Aircraft’s and concluded that the deal was 2-86 percent cheaper than the one which had been negotiated by UPA without going deeply into the history, which itself indicates that it wants to favor the government and to silence the opposition which was making bad propaganda. Secondly, CAG has chosen not to deal with the cavalier manner in which PM 36 aircraft of the shelf, when there are guidelines to be followed. The issue of the government is that it has agreed to drop the standard requirements for Bank Guarantees or at least sovereign guarantee and instead of accepting the letter of comfort from France has been repeatedly raised by critics as the disadvantage. By not rising to the occasion, the office of the CAG has let itself down and the integrity of CAG has become a point of discussion among the public. My friends used to comment that the price aspect has been cleared by CAG and SC gave a clean chit and that there is nothing to question. Now with this everything will come out, if SC does a thorough investigation and that’s what is required.
First, under the cover of the country’s Defence, the argument of classified information was advanced, and later to be followed by “stolen documents." It needs no big brains to conclude that something fishy is clearly wrapped up in the whole episode. It's now time for the top man to break the deafening silence and set the matters to rest by addressing the issue or appoint JPC to probe into the alleged multi-crore scam or some senior judge of SC has to do the investigation.
