Security of Politicians more important than National Security

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This is one undisputed fact, that the political class deems itself more important than the nation.And by extension their security needs come ahead of the national security.

This point has recently been highlighted in an inadvertent slip by our Defence minister while commenting on the Scrapping of the deal with Airbus for the Refueling aircraft and the go ahead for the Choppers for VVIP duty.

DEFENCE Minister A K Antony on Monday said that despite repeated requests by the Indian Air Force (IAF), the Ministry of Finance (MoF) scuttled a mega tender to procure mid-air tankers to support fighter operations but cleared another contract to procure VVIP choppers because of the "changed security scenario".

Antony said cancellation of the tanker contract for which the A330 MRTT (Airbus Military Multi Role Tanker Transport) had been chosen took place after the Finance Ministry refused to support the deal at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).At the same time, the Finance Ministry gave the goahead for a deal to procure 12 VVIP helicopters -- on which it had reservations earlier because of the high price tag -- due to security considerations.

Antony said the Defence Ministry sent the tanker contract for clearance thrice to the Finance Ministry but was forced to withdraw it due to the latter's disapproval.

"We had sent it to the Finance Ministry three times.
Unless Finance Ministry agrees to take it up with CCS, we cannot go ahead. Finance Ministry told us categorically they will not support it (in the CCS)," he said, responding to a query on cancellation of the deal.

While the tanker deal was cancelled on financial grounds, the government last week cleared another major contract to procure 12 VVIP helicopters that would be used to transport the President, Prime Minster and senior government dignitaries.This, despite there being similar reservations by the Finance Ministry on the price of the contract as well as the "single vendor situation" that had led to the selection of the AgustaWestland AW 101 helicopter.

Seeking to defend the government's decision on acquiring the helicopters while giving the tankers a miss, Antony said the Finance Ministry supported the helicopter deal after the Special Protection Group (SPG) insisted that new choppers were required in view of the changed security scenario.

"Not only the Air Force but the SPG also was involved. They told us due to the security scenario, we should consider this proposal and the Finance Ministry also agreed to take their comments and it was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security," he said.

The full article is here.

 

[Triton]

This is one undisputed fact, that the political class deems itself more important than the nation.And by extension their security needs come ahead of the national security.

this is an universal truth if anything exists by that name ever , go anywhere you please and its the same story

While the tanker deal was cancelled on financial grounds, the government last week cleared another major contract to procure 12 VVIP helicopters that would be used to transport the President, Prime Minster and senior government dignitaries.This, despite there being similar reservations by the Finance Ministry on the price of the contract as well as the "single vendor situation" that had led to the selection of the AgustaWestland AW 101 helicopter.

no doubt that security aspect needs to be kept in mind for the VVIP but then what about the the national security , here maybe two points to it
1. the politicians have no knowledge of the armed forces environment for that greater co-operation between the two is needed and this the armed forces must get themselves a bigger and transparent voice why i say this is because all armed forces deals are cloudy and apparently not transparent enough let the common man know the importance of the deal get the man on the street involved in their voices too and you will see the politicians bend away after all its the VOTE that matters .