New Delhi: It seems that the ghost of Bofors still seem to be haunting the Indian Military and its deals. Even after 25 years of its controversial corruption case, every official still fears a new gun deal and the anti-corruption shadow still holds strong on the deals. The recent event happened between the Government - to - Government deal of latest Ultra Lightweight Howitzers.
The deal was set to be in the final stages that the option got delayed due to court order. Purchase of another artillery system, towed guns, too has run into trouble with the government ordering legal vetting if the tender from an Israeli firm was an effort to circumvent its tough anti-corruption stand. Both these deals have affected negatively on the Indian Army agenda, who were planning to finalize the deal by this year and start the field tests by next year start. Both these targets will now be derailed.
The Bofors deal happened in 1986 when Government of India signed a deal with Bofors, an artillery company from Sweden. A year later allegations arose on corruption in the deal and the whole nation was shook on the no corruption stance and it had also swept Rajiv Gandhi, the prominent leader of congress off his seat in the 1989 elections. Since then there has been no considerable deals happening in the country and all efforts have run aground in past 25 years.
For this year, army was expecting to sign the Foreign Military Sales deal or the FMS deal for ultra light howitzers, also it is mentioned that the government had assigned billions of dollars for the deal in this financial year.
