Corruption in the selection of mid-size 4x4 vehicles for the Indian Army  

March 26, 2012

Selection and purchase of motor vehicles for the armed forces has to be done in an open and transparent process. Not necessarily from only the one who has had a monopoly since Independence—and has not done much to upgrade their 4x4 either

Veeresh Malik

General VK Singh has well and truly thrown an angry wet cat into a room full of Delhi’s best, and the grapevine as well as the jungle drums are abuzz with savage verbal exchanges of the sort that would can overshadow the Jeep scandal of the sixties. The chief of Army Staff has revealed that he had been offered a bribe of Rs14 crore by a lobbyist on behalf of a well-known and existing supplier of vehicles to the Indian Army. There is almost no doubt on the identity of the manufacturer involved, or the vehicle offered and rejected.
 
Corruption in the armed forces is nothing new. If anything, the scale has gone up, and so has the brazenness. Across all levels, whether it is using service vehicles for private use, or taking land meant for army usage and converting it into golf courses or apartment blocks maintained through funds meant for other purposes, or even the way officers and their wives are spotted in full uniform and plumage at airports to welcome their seniors or others—it is no longer only about dipping into regimental mess funds or fiddling with the rations.
 
Nor does it, apparently, have to do with which government was or is in power. Nor, also, is corruption anymore about being discreet. It is all out there in the open. Even the armed forces drivers on duty in Khan Market talk openly about such things—you just have to hang around the car repair shops there to listen in.
 
Take, for example, the case of the IAS couple, Tinoo and Arvind Joshi. Mr Joshi's tenure in the ministry of defence during the NDA government and the purchase decisions made by him then in his capacity of joint secretary are the talk of the town. Some of the results were found in his possession during the income tax raids in Bhopal and elsewhere. That one is well-known.
 
Here’s another one that is not so well-known—the supply of fresh meat “on the hoof” during the IPKF activities. A friend who was on a ship providing support services then recalls how they would typically receive about 10% of the animals manifested—because the supply officers and audits would calculate the total cubics of the single deck holds without realising that you simply can not carry live animals stacked on top of each other. That one is still doing the rounds of the agencies.
 
Then, moving on from the army and the navy, the scandal in 2006 of fuel adulteration at Pune’s Lohegaon air base—from where the high-end Sukhoi Mk-IIs operate was simply hushed up—and never heard of again. But that does not mean that fuel, adulteration or misuse, is not part of the whole corruption scenario in the armed forces. Yes, we will keep hearing of engine failures and crashes therein.
 
Likewise, in what is probably the crux of the current matter, is the way that sub-standard 4WD vehicles are sought to be foisted onto the Indian Army from a particular manufacturer. A rebuilt 4WD, tentatively named after an implement used to chop wood with, is sought to be sold to the army at a price of about Rs15 lakh when the civilian version of the same is sold at about slightly less than half the price. Talk to serving or recently retired armed forces officers, or ride by trains past army positions, and you will see backyards full of rotting vehicles of this brand, suffering for lack of spare parts or being cannibalised.
 
Here it is very interesting to analyse the current position with smaller 4WD vehicles used by the Indian Army. On one side, you have the petrol-driven Maruti Gypsy, which appears to be giving good service, for the role it has to play. On the mid-range side, the Ashok Leyland Stallion and the Tata LPTA 715 seem to serve the purpose in the 2.5-tonne to 5-tonne payload range, and then there are the bigger ones.
 
But it is the space between the Maruti Gypsy and the Ashok Leyland Stallion that remains in a haze, and this is where the current controversy seems to be centred, and rightly so. This used to be occupied by the now defunct Nissan Jonga of the fifties vintage and the various models on offer from Mahindra & Mahindra. To some extent, you also see Tata Sumo 4x4 vehicles, but not as many.
 
Regardless of which manufacturer it is that General VK Singh refers to, fact remains, without compromising national security, there needs to be some transparency in some matters pertaining to the armed forces in India, especially in matters like vehicle selection. There is nothing secret about these 4x4 vehicles, they are also used for private and civilian government customers, and their technical specifications as well as performance parameters are up there in public domain.
 
As a motoring journalist, it is my submission that selection and purchase of motor vehicles for the armed forces, barring the highly specialised ones, be done in an open and transparent process. If that is one good thing that comes out of this whole episode, then the nation will be served that much better.
 
After all, for a price of Rs15 lakh (without taxes, since these are for the armed forces) our soldiers can pick and choose from pretty much any decent brand and model of 4WD on offer by other manufacturers, too. Not necessarily from only the one who has had a monopoly since Independence—and has not done much to upgrade their 4x4 either.

(Veeresh Malik had a long career in the Merchant Navy, which he left in 1983. He has qualifications in ship-broking and chartering, loves to travel, and has been in print and electronic media for over two decades. After starting and selling a couple of companies, is now back to his first love—writing.)