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| Pinaka & Smerch MBRL systems on Tatra trucks | Photo: Shiv Aroor |
On March 2, INDIA TODAY, India’s largest weekly news magazine fronted a story about a bug scare in Defence Minister’s A.K. Antony’s office. We at Headlines Today picked up the story and put it on air. The story was denied almost instantly by the Army and MoD, but was followed up by virtually every news organisation, channel and wire agency. The story made a mention of suspicions that “off-the-air” interceptors had been employed by the Army to snoop on communications in the national capital, completely in violation of the law. On March 4, The Indian Express led with the story. A day later, the Army issued another denial, this time more comprehensive. My head still hurts when I read the denial, so I’ll put it up here, in full, for you to see. Trust me, read it fully:
The Story on Maligning the Army is a fabricated fiction and people responsible are some disgruntled officers, retired and serving, whose sole aim is to create a mistrust between the Army and the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The Military Intelligence has the mandate to routinely debug the offices of senior functionaries of the MoD and the Army. In a routine check, some abnormality was noticed in the Raksha Mantri’s office, which was brought to the notice of the Defence Secretary. Further checks carried out revealed that the voltage drop noticed was due to malfunctioning of the instrument. The Army does not carry out “Of the Air Monitoring” but seeks the assistance of the IB, if it finds the need. The Monitoring equipment is in the possession of the Signal Intelligence and is deployed along the borders and in Counter Insurgency areas. This equipment is under the control of the Director General Defence Intelligence Agency(DG DIA) and not under the Military Intelligence. The present story has been put out by Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh, who was the Ex DGDIA and who has been earlier questioned on the purchase of the “Of the air Monitoring System”, without sanction by the technically empowered committee. This officer has also been an allottee in Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai and has also offered bribe on behalf of Tatra and Vectra Limited, which supplies vehicles to BEML. The Officer along with some disgruntled serving officers of the military intelligence, against whom disciplinary and administrative actions is in the pipeline has worked out this fictitious story. The Army strongly denies this and take strong exception to such salacious and malafide stories, coming out as news.
Its sickening to see how all this is playing out in the Media, the Army has become a laughing stock in the eyes of the public. Really wish it all gets cleaned up sooner than later. I wont be surprised if the MOD is behind this to squish the office of chiefs even further. High time Govt appoints a CDS and shields our armed forces from all this gross manipulation
First ever video of IN MARCOs training (atleast that I've seen):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3Euv8VNN9L4#!
Hey the BEML assembled Tatra truck in front is Pinaka Launcher built by L&T.
The one in the background is a Smerch Launcher but I'm not aware of Tatra supplying trucks for Smerch.
Why is young Aroor getting all hyped up about the Army's
statement ? And resorting to inane Americanisms.
Surely, this is a very serious matter that the Army has brought out. It points to dangerous machinations by some individuals who are trying to destabilise the Army. They are conspiring against the present COAS in order to implicate him in fabricated offences.
TATRAs are used for SMERCHs as well as for Brahmos TELs.Nothing against TATRA as such as they are rugged and dependable trucks.The real scam is why BEML,after all these years has still not gone on to develop an indigenous capability of these grades of trucks. I wonder how much has indigenous content the TATRA has.Indian manufactures like TATA have also developed their 8X8 vehicles.Why has BEML not gone beyond a mere assembly agent of TATRA?
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Was'nt a former MGO
the MD of TATRA?????
sab chor hain …sipahi to hua kartey they..ab sirf chor hain chor…..sarhad ho ya sansad…bihad ho ya jungle…ab sab jagah sirf aur sirf chor hain….ek jata hai doosra aata hai…..its not democracy it a musical chair….sabko mauka milta hai..koi anaaj churata hai koi spectrum koi bofors koi coffin to koi bullet proof jacket..aur koi Adaarsh banata hai to koi sukhna….sahab jagah kam pad jaayegi example nahin…media ho ya election sab ek mandi hai mandi…jahan sab bikta hai…gareeb ki ijjat se le kar uski jaan tak..jo maango sab milega…yahan maseha bas paise walon ke hua kartey hain..aur gareeb ka saath to ab bhagwaan bhi nahin deta…log kehtey hain ki kalyug hai..hahahaha…kalyug..apne paap chupane ke liye kalyug bana liya …. warna to satyug main bhi sita kahan safe thi….ya draupdi ko to kuch hua hi nahin tha….bhai ye sab bahane hain…yahan to jahan mauka miley loot lo…jitna loot sako loot lo..bcz Karma is a bitch and it screws only those who r powerless …rich n corrupt to 21 topon ki salami le ke rukhsat hotey hain..tirangey main lipat kar…aur gareeb …bas uska naseeb..kafan mila to theek warna to kya hai….loot lo…jo yahan nahin loot sakta wo bewakoof hai…sirf lootne wala hi samajhdar hai..aur ye humne humari society se sikha hai…imaandar doctor ho ya engineer..bewakoof hi khelata hai…
It is a very well known fact that ex-Army and ex-IAF officers moonlight as agents for Israeli and Russian arms. After retirement, they become full-time agents of Russian and Israeli arms companies.
So, this news is no surprise.
The lessons from all this are :
1) We must stop treating our soldiers as demi-Gods. True, they are ready to lay lives but they can be as corrupt as the local neta or the local passport officers.
2) That the armed forces do Not accept indigenous weaponry from DRDO may have this angle of corruption as well. Like a certain Army DGMF, who tried his best to stall Arjun's induction in the Army in favour of the T-90. Later, he got a nice slap on his face when the Arjun trumped the T-90s in trials.
3) The Arjun's slow induction and favouring of T-90s, as well as resistance to induct fine Tejas Mk.1s, all the while flying those tottering MiGs smacks of a corrupt malaise within the armed forces.
More on this
Shiv is it possible to get the pics of indo-american exercise taking place in rajasthan.
Hope MOD does not start banning Tatra and Kamaz…so that MOD IAS babubs can start dreaming about new purchase ques .i.e. benefits like kin's seat in foreign/US universities or fund transfers to foreign Banks…which Government wouldn't disclose to media or public any way…so safe game for MOD babus.
If any Ex ARMY/AF/Navy chief is working as Dealer/Agent for foreign company..what's wrong with that unless we buy a substandard/poor quality product ?????
If during any deal it is found that the vendor's agent has paid kickback..ARMY?IAF/NAVY should do a another round of technical/qulity.. study/testing/trial/audit of the said vendor's product's to assure the Armed Forces that the Deal/Procurement does not compromise on any technical parameter/quality.
Cancelling the contracts/banning the companies have resulted in Army not being able to buy a Single Piece of Heavy Artillery gun in last 30 Years after Boforce scandal(Army got only 400 155 mm SP guns instead of 1600 planned)..and now after Dennel,IMI and STK banned…who are left?…the same old Boforce (Now part of BAE)and The BAE itself..and Govt of USA (for Govt. to Govt. deal)..I guess..
Also surprising that our open free and sovereign media and honest journalist's do not find/smell any kind of scandals in deals with US. Don no why ?
India bought Fire Finding Radars,A second Hand Warship, P-8I LRMR ,C-130 J , C-17 , worth of 15-20 Billion USD…no scandals broke !!!
And MOD babus,CBI,AGI all were happy so no issues crop up.
Regards,
Blame it all on Annaji and Ramdev.
From the above comments it can be concluded that the countries which are providing military hardware to India are all corrupt. Soon our Govt. will blacklist all foreign companies who are willing to provide us arms and we will be left with no other option(since net indigenous output is zero). The time will be ripe for China and Pak to invade India.
I hope Sunnithan writes a cover story on "Self before Corrupt"
This issue has made headlines today. is this the same issue which the Army Chief was referring. Congrats Shiv on a Scoop which was made public over 2 Weeks back