India is still being shaken by the dramatic arms bribery scandal that
erupted three weeks ago when a group of young dot.com warriors posted proof
on the Internet of the staggering degree of corruption in India's ruling
circles.
The scandal has so far forced the resignations of India's Defense Minister,
George Fernandes, and the presidents of two parties in the ruling
government coalition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). India is well
rid of the loudmouthed, bellicose Fernandes, who repeatedly threatened war
- including nuclear attack - against Pakistan, and seriously raised
tensions with Beijing by branding China India's number one enemy.
The mushrooming scandal has also badly tarnished the image of Prime Mini
ster Atal Behari Vajpayee, who had billed himself as India's "Mr. Clean"
and promised to clear up the swamp of corruption left by the former ruling
Congress Party - which itself was done in by a still ongoing scandal over
huge bribes allegedly paid in the 1980' s to PM Rajiv Gandhi and his family
on the purchase of 155mm howitzers from Sweden. Caught red-handed, the BJP
adopted the Hillary Clinton defense, claiming the whole scandal was a plot
by a vast, mysterious conspiracy.
Videos secretly filmed by members of the Internet news company,
Tehelka.com, disguised as arms dealers, showed Indian politicians generals,
and bureaucrats readily accepting thick bundles of rupees to promote the
sale of fictitious thermal imaging devices to the Indian Army, or boasting
they could peddle influence higher up, right to the prime minister's
office. The Tehelka raiders may have modeled their sting operation on the
FBI's late 1970's Abscam operation. FBI agents, comically disguised as Arab
"sheiks," offered bribes to corrupt US congressmen and then arrested them.
The bribery scandal now rocking Delhi amply confirms that India's
government, bureaucracy, and military are steeped in corruption.
Unfortunately, many developing nations are no less corrupt than India. In
fact, the main lesson to be drawn from the current bribery uproar in India
is how arms purchases are the principal way ruling oligarchies feather
their nests. Power plants, roads, civilian airliners, telecom systems, all
offer good opportunity for payoffs, but nothing equals the opportunities
for kickbacks from buying jet fighters at $40 million each and the future
flow of spare parts that can reach $80 million or more per aircraft.
Few nations are immune from buying weapons not for real defense needs, but
to generate kickbacks or votes for corrupt or self-serving officials. The
United States had its V-22 Osprey, a flying coffin that was forced on the
Pentagon by senators and congressmen from the states where the aircraft
were built.
France uses the Paris Air Show to sell unneeded weapons systems to African
and Asian generals, clinching the deals with champagne and blond
courtesans. Many of these buyers receive discreet payments in Switzerland
or Monaco. French politicians get a steady stream of secret payoffs from
the arms deals, as illustrated by the current courtroom drama in Paris over
kickbacks from the sale of frigates to Taiwan.
Most of the tens of billions of US and British arms sold to Saudi Arabia
and the Gulf States sit unused in warehouses. Commissions of 5-20% on these
sales are routinely kicked back to ruling royal families through middlemen,
and used on occasion to bribe western politicians or fund secret "black"
intelligence operations. No weapons systems are sold to pro-American
Mideast regimes without massive bribery, kickbacks, and "consulting fees."
The generals who run Egypt and Turkey behind a thin veneer of parliamentary
government have long received "commissions" on the purchase of western
arms. Egypt's late ruler, Anwar Sadat, reportedly received a fat percentage
of all arms purchases and kickbacks on shipments of American wheat.
Pakistan has been deluged with bribery scandals over purchases of arms and
civilian airliners.
The story is the same across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Money that
should be devoted to development and health is spent on weapons solely to
enrich members of the government and their cronies. What sets India
somewhat apart from this sordid business is both the outrageous crassness
of its grasping officials, and the appalling contrast between India's
poverty and its increasing purchases of high-tech arms.
While Delhi was requesting and receiving substantial aid from the outside
world to help repair damage from the Gujarat earthquake, India's defense
establishment was busy buying billions worth of Russian T-90 tanks, SU-30
series warplanes, and a large aircraft carrier with 40 fighters. India
didn't even have the good taste to at least temporarily suspend any of
these major arms purchases after the earthquake.
Was it callousness, indifference, or the need to keep payoff money coming
that led Delhi to keep buying arms while Gujarat lay in ruins? It is
estimated that India's purchase of arms from Russia, France and Israel
somewhat exceeds the total funds it receives in development and health aid
from the west and Japan. While at least a third of India's people live in
the direst poverty, with millions sleeping on city streets, Delhi just
announced it will acquire a nuclear submarine and deploy sea-launched
ballistic missiles to complement its air and missile delivered nuclear
forces.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2001
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