11/20/2014

Bankers Adda: SBI PO: Essay on "Bribery in Defence Deals"

SBI PO: Essay on "Bribery in Defence Deals"

In the our previous post, we provided you the brief about "How to write essay
in SBI PO?" Here, we are presenting to you an essay on "Bribery in
Defence Deals".
Bribery has become a very common part of socio-political culture of our
country. It has become a cause of serious concern and is compromising the
security of our nation. A number of controversial defence deals have surfaced
in recent past that shows that bribery in defence deals stinks.
The recent allegations of bribery in 3546 crore VVIP Helicopter deal with UK
based firm Augusta Westland is not the first incident. Right from
Independence many defence deals have courted controversies. The Jeep
scam in 1948 was the first one to invite attention, where the vendor had
delivered less number of jeeps to the country then the contracted figures.
Then the famous Bofors scam in 1987,Barack Missile scam, coffin scam in
1999, Tehelka expose, Tatra trucks scam and now VVIP Helicopter scam are
to name a few.
These scandals that have rocked our country time and again tell a sordid
tale. They compromise our defence strength because instead of having more
competitive armory we get shoddy ones and that too at the expense of
greasing the palms of third party. Bofors scandal has already enlightened us
with the role of middleman in defence deals and taking the corruption to the
highest level. Around two decades back, an Italian businessman Quotrocchi
was found involved paying 64 crore of bribery to Indian politicians for the
successful deals with the Swedish company Bofors. This deal has provided
India with 410, 150 mm Howitzer field guns.
As the scam pointed the fingers to PM office, the outbreak of this scandal
rocked the country. The image of the Congress party was tarred and it led to
the fall of its government in 1989.
History has repeated itself when 12 VVIP Helicopter of worth around 3500
crore was brought from UK based firm Augusta Westland. Similar allegations
of bribery are now alleged on Congress government. Although Augusta
Westland's GM Geoff Hoon is denying any role of middlemen in this deal,
truth will come only after the investigation is completed. Opposition is taking
advantage of the situation and claiming that this will again lead to the
downfall of the Congress government.
Forget change of government, the middlemen or the politicians, more serious
concern is the compromising the security of our country. Bribery in defence
deals will certainly lead to buying of inferior and less competitive
equipments/machines from foreign vendors. These inferior products may
seriously hamper our strength at the time of war or emergency. Something
definitely has to be done to stop the malpractices in the defence deals As
huge money is spent on defence budget and that comes from hard-earned tax
payer's money it is the responsibility of government to make effective and
judicious use of the money and not to squander it by buying sub standard
products, simply because bribe money has changed hands in its
procurement.
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11/20/2014

Bankers Adda: SBI PO: Essay on "Bribery in Defence Deals"

Defence is highly sensitive issue; bribery at such higher level dampens the
morale of the soldiers fighting for our country. Politicians need to set
examples of nationalism to the citizens and especially soldiers and boost
their confidence instead of dealing illegally for their own hunger for making
money.
And more than that, these scams are seriously hampering our country's
International image. Bofors deal investigation had cost Rs. 250 crore and the
Supreme Court has allowed CBI to close the investigation on the grounds of
lack of proof against middlemen Quattrocchi. In the years of investigation the
Italian businessman has never appeared in any of Indian court. Such poor
form of investigation has seriously hampered the country's image. It is known
fact to the world now that no matter how serious would be the level of crime
in India; one can get out through the Indian process by greasing the palms
and those being guilty will never be punished.
The only way to stop such scandals is to form an independent investigation
team with power and reaches at International platforms for the investigation
purposes. It should be assigned to look into such deals and keep an eye on
every member involved in all such defence deal. If the matter is of
international dimension it should be handled by forming a committee involving
members from the concerned country. It can coordinate faster with concerned
country's administrative body to push the trial case against the accused. This
in turn will lead to speedy disposal of such trial cases under a defined time
frame. It is very much visible that CBI is not able to reach to depth of the
defence scandal due to the pressure from high level politicians involved in
such scams. This problem is there because CBI itself falls under the
hierarchy of the ministers in the government.
It's very sad that previously nobody was found guilty in the defence scams.
In the fit of the things it is therefore an independent body is urgently is
required to look into matter of defence deals and prevent the recurrence of
such scams in the future. It will also help in providing necessary direction to
plug in any such loopholes. Politicians instead of playing blame game should
stop playing against the security of the country. Independence is hard fought
battle by our freedom fighters. This freedom has taken blood and life of many
people, so no one has the right to bargain on matters of freedom and security
of our country.
Serious punishment against guilty on such cases will improve the image of
the nation and give strong message to the world that we are not going to let
these middlemen play with the lives of the millions of citizens of India.

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