AN OPEN LETTER

TO THE KNOWLEDGEABLE RAKSHA MANTRI

Samuel’s Take :

I am surprised that the RM’s reference to the retired  Chief of the Air Staff, ACM SP Tyagi, VM. AVSM, PVSM, ADC, as ‘Chote Log’ within the hallowed precincts of the Parliament, went uncontested till now, both within and outside it. 

This was another example of this Govt’s determined effort to belittle every institution, except themselves, be it the opposition, the state govts or even the Military and the highest Judiciary.

Do we have to invite the Gens from across to give pep-talks to these characters, for them to learn what the true status of a Defence Chief is ?

I will keep on repeating my warning ad nauseam, “This Country will have to pay a heavy price for the five years of misrule of the Parivar”.

The Article, as earlier published, has been edited slightly.

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         Minister Parrikar, A Defence Chief  

Is Not "Chote Log", 

He Is Known By His Rank

GROUP CAPTAIN T.P.SRIVASTAVA

Dear Mr Parrikar, 

I listened to your entire speech in the Indian Parliament on 4th May, 2016 with regard to Agusta Westland acquisition fiasco. I was expecting that you will bring out/highlight some substantive issues.

Ironically your statement lacked substance, commitment to bring to book and mention the names of the political and bureaucrat culprits (who were responsible for directing/ ensuring/influencing that parameters such as maximum operational ceiling and cabin height were changed to suit only Agusta Westland knocking out S-92 out of contention), and most importantly make/submit explicit measures that you have instituted/propose to implement that will eliminate/minimize the scourge of kickbacks in defence deals. 

Your political statements were all in the future tense viz “---- Hum kisi ko bhi nahi chorenge chahe who kitna bhi bara ho---( we will not spare anyone however powerful the person may be) or words to that effect. The entire nation knows that such utterances by politicians mean nothing. 

It is, however, the latter part of your statement, as elaborated below, which has forced me to write to you.

                   "---- Gautam Khaitan aur Tyagi to chote log hain—etc

                            etc)." 

As an Indian citizen and a proud soldier, in  that order, I am ashamed that our Defence Minister does not know how to address a Service Chief, retired or serving. 

I fully understand your total lack of experience or even a theoretical knowledge of defence related issues, keeping in view your background, but I fail to comprehend why after having spent over a year as Defence Minister, you have apparently deliberately failed to learn the basic protocol or even etiquette so very essential while addressing a Military officer, granted permanent commission in Defence Forces of the Nation by no less than the Commander-in-Chief, the President of India. 

It was morally incumbent on you to either mention/state all the names or take no names. You have mentioned Khaitan and Tyagi because they cannot retaliate politically, while the others can and would. 

On the altar of political expediency you chose to bring into disrepute the name of a Service Chief. By the way, was there no bureaucrat involved in the Agusta Westland negotiations? Were you trying to tell the Nation a blatant lie, albeit in an indirect manner, that it is the Service Chiefs, who decide what equipment to buy, when to buy, from where to buy and most importantly at what cost. Your statement conveyed just that to a common man on the street. In doing so, you have willfully sullied the image of Defence Forces. 

Mr Minister, historically, traditionally as well as legally, a Military officer is to be addressed by prefixing his/her rank whenever his/her mention is made in public domain/official communication. You have either failed to learn this fundamental rule or deliberately chose to address a former Service Chief in this wanton manner forgetting law of the land, historical practice and even basic courtesy, so very essential in public life. 

Incidentally, Mr Minister, you were referring to a former Chief of Air Staff and not a sepoy. Please know that a Service Chief is not an individual, he is an institution. Institutions should not and must not be denigrated in the manner you have done, seemingly, deliberately. 

Mr Minister there are only three persons in our Nation, who can either win or lose a war against an aggressor. They are the three Service Chiefs.

You probably know that a politician Raksha Mantri and his minions do not fight war on the battle field. Even today, 54 years after the 1962 debacle, an ordinary citizen perceives that the Indian Military, (Not the then Defence Minister or Defence Secretary), lost the war. A look at the Henderson Brooks-Bhagat report on the 1962 fiasco which will tell you a lot. You may instruct your minions to put up a copy of that report for your perusal.

Addressing a Service Chief in the manner you did in the Parliaments, you have willfully denigrated the institution of the Service Chiefs. You owe an apology to the Nation and to the over 2 million soldiers, including reservists. 

Listening to the Agusta Westland debate for the past three weeks, was like having one’s mind raped every hour day after day. Your speech was no better. You failed to bring out any facts and repeated untruth doing rounds in the public domain. Indeed you succeeded in projecting your jaundiced vision, harming the greatest Institution of all ‘Our Bharat’.

What was even more appalling was the fact that your speech failed to make any distinction between the men/women involved in the scam and the machine in question. That is where national security issues come in. Individuals are culpable in giving/taking bribes. But, just as it happened in the case of the Bofors guns, you have made the Nation believe that the ‘helicopter’ itself was guilty of act of bribery. 

The Bofors Artillery Gun is an unmatched piece of equipment, which saved the day for us in the Kargil War with its pin-point accuracy. Further acquisition of this gun has not been barred because we put national security on the back burner and instead have constantly been keeping the pot political expediency boiling. 

We are doing exactly the same in the present Agusta Westland case.

Let me risk making a forecast. Mr Minister, you or your successor and the government of the day will deliberately fail to acquire clinching evidence that will bring any political figure to book and be jailed entirely due to political compulsions. The Enforcement Directorate and CBI, who still remain ‘caged pigeons/parrots’, will simply not ‘find’ any  clinching evidence. Courts will have no option but to acquit the accused, if any, barring the ‘Chote log’, who have already been identified by you. 

My response and rebuttal to your profligate behaviour on the floor of Lok Sabha is not (r) not to Defend Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi. It is against your willful dishonor, shown to a Service Chief, by deliberately failing to inform the house and the Nation about the process of acquisition of Defence equipment and the extremely limited role/authority of a Service Chief. Service Chiefs merely ‘ratify' the proposal in as far as qualitative requirements, (QRs), are concerned. The ‘cash’ part is handled by bureaucrats and politicians. 

You and your predecessor have failed to let the nation know as to why Defence procurement process was followed for acquisition of helicopters, which were meant exclusively for civilian use, although operated by IAF personnel. After your reckless statement calling Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi ‘chote log’ or words to that effect, quite a few media channels and self-proclaimed experts on Defence matters have addressed him in the same derogatory manner as yourself during the past week. That is why I decided to bring to your notice your appalling conduct in the floor of Parliament.

Let me shift focus to more substantive issues. Entire process of Defence Equipment Acquisition is controlled and overseen by the Defence Secretary because it is he/she, who heads the Defence Procurement Board and not the Service Chiefs. The Defence Acquisition Council headed by Defence Minister is not the executive body. It is the DPB, the executive decision making body that is responsible and accountable for all decisions taken and is headed by the Defence Secretary.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) merely stamps the decision taken by the Defence Secretary. Service Chiefs even as on this date cannot buy a ‘pin’ worth five rupees without the express approval of the MoD. It is the Defence Secretary, who must be held responsible/accountable for delays in acquisition (root cause of middlemen making merry) and possible financial impropriety in close connivance with the political bosses of the time in all Defence deals.
Mr Minister why have you not considered it fit to call all the Defence Secretaries involved in the process of the Agusta Westland acquisition? Even the ‘caged pigeons/parrots’ have only called the the Deputy Chiefs of Air Staffs as informed by the media. Service Chiefs have little or no say during the Price Negotiation Process. Why have these simple and elementary facts not been stated even by so-called defence experts baffles me. A common man has been made to believe tha the service chiefs can buy whatever they want without any checks and balances due to prolonged lopsided debate in media, mentioning false and/or incomplete facts. The image of the Services has taken a beating.

You must educate yourself by reading Chanakya’s works on statecraft. One of the fundamentals of statecraft is the art of assigning authority, responsibility and accountability. Service Chiefs (Not the Defence secretary or Defence Minister) are accountable to the nation at large in ensuring territorial integrity of the nation but have little or no authority in decision making with regard to Defence procurement. Inordinate delays in procurement not only results in national security being marginalized but also results in huge cost escalation. Acquisition of AJTs for IAF and Aircraft Carrier for the Navy are merely a few examples. The appalling state of Defence PSUs is yet another inheritance the nation has suffered and continues to suffer entirely due to myopic and jaundiced vision of your predecessors and yourself. National security imperatives be damned. 

As a nation, the largest democracy in the world, we have achieved a unique status. We have become a nation of SCAMS, virtually in all areas, where public funds are involved. Chronology of scams since independence deserves to be printed as a set of volumes, because one book will be too voluminous to record all the scams. Perhaps most of the scams would be a wonderful study in acquainting the future generations on the total lack of governance or bad-governance. 

While every scam hurts the national interests but scams involving procurement of defence equipment from foreign vendors effects the national security directly. The stark reality as on date is that in foreseeable future (till around 2050 A.D.), we are unlikely to produce ‘Big Ticket’ Military hardware viz Aircraft Carrier, Submarines, Tanks, Heavy Artillery Guns, Aero-planes, Drones, Electronic Warfare Systems/Suites, which will match the best in the world. Hence the military will remain dependent on acquisitions from foreign vendors. We must make clear distinction between indigenous hardware and licensed products. To emphasize the point, just one example would be adequate. We still have not been able to manufacture an aero-engine, which can equip our fighter, transport and/or helicopters that we might produce in next few decades. We have not been able to develop steel with required tensile strength, which can be used to manufacture turbine blades. 

It is ironic that the Defence Ministers have excelled in finding a scapegoat extremely conveniently by dismissing/ forcing to resign the Service Chiefs leaving the bureaucrat, the real culprit, as happened in cases of few former Chiefs. Even the professional conduct of nearly all defence secretaries has been less pathetic. Strict adherence to flawed acquisition procedures took primacy over national security. To quote an outstanding example of total lack of understanding on part of Defence Secretary is the instance of rejection of Marcel-Dassault offer of Mirage-20009(DASH-5) and Rafale in the final months of previous NDA government in 2004. Chuck Eddleston the Marcel-Dassault official made this offer personally during his meeting with the then MoS Defence, Mr Rao Inderjit Singh. 

The offer was rejected on a flawed and insane logic of the then Defence Secretary that we in India conclude the deals only after multi-vendor contract has been processed. Rest is history. For his act of ‘conspicuous stupidity’, the individual was rewarded with either the Governorship or an extended tenure in a plum post after his retirement.

Service HQs cannot be absolved of such terrible state of affairs. I would like to hear from past and present Service Chiefs as to why none of them have ever raised the issue with the government that Defence Procurement Board should be headed by them and not Defence Secretary. Indeed if they have and the government declined, they must tell the Nation why.

Yet another aspect that Service HQs must address is the process of finalizing qualitative requirements prior to the commencement of the acquisition process.

I have absolutely no hesitation in submitting that we ask for the moon, which simply is not the requirement. Then starts the process of dilution of QRs, which allows the tongues to wag as is already happening in the media by questioning the PILATUS deal. Can we be a little more realistic in our demands/expectations from the machines that we wish to acquire?

Mr Minister, the malaise of kickbacks in defence deals can be minimized, if not eliminated, if you decide to adopt the following simple measures :-

Firstly, every Defence deal must be concluded in less than three years. This, however, is not possible due to current organizational limitations. You need to introduce following simple reforms:- 

·      Abolish the post of Defence Secretary and Secretary (acquisition). Instead appoint a separate Secretary for each Service, who will report to Service Chief. It will enable each Service Secretary to devote more time to understand, examine and make sensible recommendations in shorter time frame. 

·         Service Chiefs must be appointed as the heads of Defence Procurement Boards. 

·            Process of obtaining NOC from DRDO should be done away with. 

·  Whatever be the equipment, all trials must be done in India. Environmental conditions prevailing in India cannot be replicated in Europe or USA. 

·          Direct the Service HQs to formulate only realistic QRs and then FREEZE them. 

·          In order to make tendering process absolutely transparent, the vendors, (Not the MoD), must be directed to place the details of the offer clearly and unambiguously specifying that the offer is valid for the the entire duration of trials and negotiations or 5 yrs, whichever is earlier, along with the timeline for which the financials of the offer would be valid without any upward revision of the cost and escalation formula thereafter. This must be placed in the public domain well before price negotiations commence. 

Secondly, every Defence equipment procurement proposal must be placed in public domain with its PMR, so that the process of acquisition commences with as much details as possible about the costs involved.

National Security can only be ensured by equipping the Armed Forces with the best affordable equipment. Witch hunting will get us nowhere, especially where Service Chiefs are involved/may be involved. Perhaps the Shloka from Yajur Veda says it all :- 

                                                “Satyam Bruyat Priyam Bruyat 

Na Bruyat Satyam Apriyam” 

Translated into English it means “ Speak the truth but do not speak unpalatable truth”. Chanakya has also elaborated on the same issue. Unpalatable truth causes more harm than good. Welfare of the Nation must be placed before everything else.

From what I hear about your tenure as Goa, Chief Minister, you are an able, honest and competent administrator. Perhaps the South Block ‘climate’ does not suit you. Next reshuffle after current elections just might be what you are  looking for. For your remaining time in office as the Raksha Mantri, please concentrate on national security issues. 

Samuel's Take :

Born in Indore and educated in  Jaipur, ACM SP Tyagi, had no godfathers or godmothers any where in the Indian horizon. Whatever he achieved in his 44 years of uniformed service, he achieved by the dint of his own merit.

The initial years of his career in the air force, Tyagi flew Gnats with No.23 Squadron and later served with Hunters of No.27 Squadron. A veteran of both the 1965 and the 1971 Wars, he was one of the pioneer batch of eight pilots selected for conversion on the Jaguar Interdiction aircraft when it was inducted in 1980s. Whilst training at Lossiemouth, he was one of the two Indian pilots chosen for a Photo Recce Course at Coltishall with No.41 Squadron RAF.

Tyagi commanded No.14 Squadron "Bulls" later after coming back to India. A Graduate of the TACDE with a Fighter Combat Leader and Pilot Attack Instructor qualifications, he had also attended the Junior Commanders Course, the National Defence College and finally the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington. He received the Vayu Sena Medal (VM) for distinguished service in 1965.

In his mid career, Tyagi had several other appointments under his belt. He was an instructor at TACDE. As an Air Commodore, Tyagi commanded 33 Wing at Jamnagar. Later he was also posted as the Defence Attache at the Indian Consulate in Saudi Arabia. Air Commodore Tyagi was awarded the Ati Vishist Seva Medal (AVSM) in 1994.

He also held the appointments of Director Operations (Air Defence), ACAS (Intelligence), ACAS (Ops). He has had a stint as a senior fellow at the IDSA and was also a senior Instructor and Directing Staff at the DSSC, Wellington.

In the rank of Air Marshal, Tyagi was appointed as the SASO of Central Air Command for some time. He took over as the AOC-in-C of Central Air Command not soon after. he is one of the few officers to have the distinction of commanding three Air Commands, Central, South Western and Western Air Command.

Air Marshal Tyagi was awarded the Param Vishist Seva Medal (PVSM) in 2003, and was appointed as one of the honorary ADCs of the President of India. 

He has the distinction of being the one and only Air Chief Marshal to have done skydiving after being appointed to a high post as Chief of the Air Staff of Indian Air Force.