How Bofors Affairs Transformed India

[bengalraider]

Sundarji had little power to change things in the face of the mandate Enjoyed by the Congress Government in the Eighties, this entire episode only confirms what many already know that there was a definite collusion by members of India's ruling class to ensure that we chose the BOFORS, we chose a substandard weapons system for our forces and then had that mired in the scandal that has wrecked any attempts to procure artillery after that. i feel Gen Sundarji comes very close to revealing the truth in the rediff interview, the funny part is he does not mention an austrian gun at all,he mentions the BOFORS, The SOFMA and a tri nation gun developed by germany, britain and Italy
i quote:

What I did was to give professional advice on the three major foreign gun manufacturers that the then Indian government was negotiating with -- the Bofors gun, the British tri-nation gun jointly developed by Britain, Germany and Italy, and the French Sofma. All these guns were pretty close to each other on quality, maintainability and utility.

also something i found interesting was

Was the 'order from above' from Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's office?

Certainly. The order to continue with the deal came from the Prime Minister's Office. In 1991, Arun Singh told me that the entire cover-up operation was to save just one man's skin.

Was that Rajiv Gandhi?

I do not know whether Rajiv was involved in the scam. That is what the CBI should find out from the secret papers. But definitely Rajiv was definitely in the know of things. He knew who were all involved in the payoffs and probably he wanted to save his friends.

Rediff On The NeT: The Rediff Interview with General K Sundarji

Also the link to the article on which this thread is based
http://www.indiandefencereview.com/IDR-Updates/How-Bofors-Affairs-Transformed-India-.html

 

[Ray]

The information in public domain was that the Austrian Gun was better, but was not combat tested.

 

[lemontree]

Interesting,...reports like these just change the concept of patriotism....
How futile, the parents, wives and children would feel, for the loss they bear for this selfish nation!

 

[sob]

We must remember one important thing, we are reading these reports after nearly 2 decades. Perceptions have definitely changed over the period. In hind sight I am sure many of the people involved would like to change their stated position. As with any decision we cannot expect 100% acceptance from all involved. People will have different views and different understanding of the subject.

But one thing that we need to keep in mind that these Artillery Guns have performed to full expectation of the IA during the Kargil War and they gave the edge to our forces.

The need of the hour is that we need to streamline the entire procurement process so that the same mistakes are not made again. Lessons have to be learnt from this. Holding up all the files is not the response to this refreshed episode.

 

[H.A.]

Could someone please tell me how Mr. Bachan's name got dragged into it?

 

[sesha_maruthi27]

At last the truth is starting to come out and we can do nothing about it...........

 

[Kunal Biswas]

But one thing that we need to keep in mind that these Artillery Guns have performed to full expectation of the IA during the Kargil War and they gave the edge to our forces.

Other guns would have preformed same or better..

 

[Bhadra]

But one thing that we need to keep in mind that these Artillery Guns have performed to full expectation of the IA during the Kargil War and they gave the edge to our forces.

.

How does one know. Purely due to the propaganda of IA Artillary gunners ! They might have outspoken about Bofors in their perchial desire to procure 155 meduim guns...

155mm is OK but why only bofors !! It was also an attempt to bring good name to the equipment which had earned an evil name