India helicopter deal with Italy firm 'may be cancelled'

[Abingdonboy]

You will now hear a lot of cacophony ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. The fact, however, remains that Finmeccanica, a publicly-listed company, is now in the docks & there’s no way the European Union or the EU Parliament will let go of this scandal. Unlike the Bofors & HDW scandals, this time the truth will come out in the following 30 to 90 days since it not only involves the national prestige of Italy, but also of the UK. In the end, therefore, Finmeccanica will most likely have to fork out a sizeable sum of money as liquidated damages & pay back the Govt of India & it will be pressurised to do so by the Govts of both Italy & the UK. This is then likely to lead to a substantial easing of the domestic political pressure that the present-day Govt of India is now facing, & will probably lead to the remaining nine AW-101s being delivered later this year. So far, the MoD has made the right moves in terms of issuing a show-cause notice to AgustaWestland, meaning if no credible answer is forthcoming, then & only then will the contract be abrogated after the next six days, & the MoD will then be legally entitled to claim ownership of the earnest money & encash the bank guarantee that Agusta Westland was reqd to deposit with the MoD at the time of contract signature. I personally believe that the contract should not be cancelled & instead financial damages should be sought through legal means. This is exactly what Taiwan had done when a major scandal had broken out more than a decade ago regarding its acquisition of six La Fayette FFGs from DCNS & THALES. Taiwan did not cancel this contract nor did it surrender its ownership of the FFGs. Instead, it sued THALES & ultimately in a case filed with the International Court of Arbitration, Taiwan won the case & THALES had to pay back US$950 million to Taiwan as damages. Now that is what is known as a win-win solution.
The ‘desi’ mass-media is still missing the woods for the tress. While the headless chicken at TIMES NOW are trying in vain to link Abhishek Verma with the AW-2101 deal, HEADLINES TODAY has already proclaimed former CAS of IAF, ACM S P Tyagi, as guilty without any credible evidence. As the 64-page investigation documentation from Italy clearly reveals, Abhishek Verma was involved in a totally different deal involving the future sale of eight A-109Ps for the Delhi State Govt. Similarly, what is true is that some Indian State Govts (like those of Rajasthan, J & K & Andhra Pradesh) that had bought AW-139 executive transport helicopters from AgustaWestland were actually fleeced by these Switzerland-based Italian middlemen. Nor can anyone fathom exactly how & why HEADLINES TODAY is trying to link the AW-101 scandal with the upcoming firing trials in Nyoma, Ladakh, of the various contenders that are bidding for supplying VSHORADS/MANPADS for the three armed services. All in all, therefore, these ‘desi’ journalists are one helluva confused species whose arses need to be hauled to the courts & be sued for defamation.

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