It is hard to quantify the damage that scumbag has inflicted on India because it was not just the countless deals that he CHOSE to stall (S-70B, RSH, AH-64E, CH-47F, M777, MGS, Avro replacement etc) that HAVE negatively affected India's national security and HAVE cost the lives of some the very best Indians alive (service personnel) but the general disruptive and "better to be idle than do something" culture he created within the MoD (that obviously still exists today). This man was the longest serving DM in India's history- think about that for a moment, he had more time to f*ck up the system then anyone else. Parrikar hit the nail on the head when asked, in his first media appearance a few days after becoming DM, what the general state of affairs was within the MoD
"we are in a mess, I can't spell it out"
The perfect illustration to show everything wrong with the previous DM is the AW-101 fiasco. The "Saint" unilaterally cancelled an ongoing deal based on little more than unsubstantiated media reports so as to protect HIMSELF and his oh-so-important image. So the consequences of this?
1) 30+ year old pieces of junk (Mi-8s) are STILL flying the highest echelons of the Indian establishment (PM, President, service chiefs) to this day. In other words the members of India's Nuclear Command Authority who India cannot afford to lose in something as avoidable as an aircraft loss. It should be pointed out that it is not my opinion that these Mi-8s are "junk" but an unavoidable fact- they should have been out of service a decade ago and the majority of the fleet reached the end of the service lives last year, the few still serviceable have less than 10 months of their originally certified lifespans remaining.
Oh and just to make the situation that bit harder to swallow- 3 brand spanking new AW-101s (of 12 ordered) are sat idle at Palam (the HQ of the IAF's Communication SQN that provides air transport to the aforementioned VVIPs) whilst the ancient Mi-8s are having to be cannibalised just to keep flying. I wonder what those ground crews and pilots must feel armed with this knowledge....
2) The funds (HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF USD) the IAF spent on the 12 AW-101s, training, spares, infrastructure etc has all been lost and will never be recovered.
3) His actions set a very dangerous precedent (unilateral contract termination) and hurt India's image significantly- especially in the defence industry (that is very close-knit and inward looking). The cost of this will mean either some companies may think twice about offering their products to India OR these products will be offered at a higher cost to offset the perceived risk of doing business with India- either way the Indian taxpayer and military loose out.
4) The residual effects remain today in a very tangible way. That shiny new, much talked about, Scorpene class SSK the IN is inducting next year has NO heavy weight torpedoes for its sea trials (so how can it actually be commissioned without having carried out mandatory weapons trials?) or its first deployment because the Black Shark torpedo procurement (that the IN had zeroed in on after an open tender) has been unable to progress as they are manufactured by a company in the group (Finmeccanica) that Augusta Westland belong to. The INS Kalervi's situation illustrates far too dramatically the "de-toothing" of the Indian Military that the "Saint" oversaw as DM.
It should be noted the DM/MoD have since repealed the nonsensical and self-harming "backlisting" policy that Anthony had completely overused during his time as DM that fed into an entirely predictable negative repercussion cycle for the MoD/Indian military. For example- company A, B and C compete for a tender, all of their products meet the technical criteria outlined by the military, company B's product is judged to be cheapest (L1) and exclusive talks begin with company B for their product. Company A and C engage in an entirely coordinated smear campaign against company B and its product- alleging graft and whatever dirt they like, during this time the MoD/DM are sent "anonymous letters" alleging foul play. The entire procurement process screeches to a halt as the DM (the "Saint") does not want to have his image tarnished.Then what happens? The tender is either restarted, this time with Company B exclude because it is now blacklisted (still no credible evidence of wrongdoing has been found) OR stalled indefinitely. If the tender is restarted company A and C will engage in the aforementioned tactics until one is left with the oh so predictable impasse- a single vendor procurement (ever wonder why SO many of these existed under Anthony?) and OF COURSE the "Saint" won't progress any of these.
Do you see how it all feeds itself and whilst the variables may change the outcome never does-
procurement paralysis.
In the military an officer can be court-martialled (and imprisoned) for "dereliction of duty" for "conduct unbecoming" (a very broad and loose set of regulations) but the civilian in charge of this highly disciplined military can literally send service members to their graves and or threaten the lives of India's senior most officials and he is allowed to go about his life without a care in the world and even be projected as a potential future PM of India?
@Bang Galore @Koovie @levina @PARIKRAMA @nair @bloo @Dash @Spectre thoughts?
