The BJP brought Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the line of fire on the alleged kickbacks in the VVIP chopper purchase and raked up the Italian origin of the company as political parties demanded scrapping of the Rs 3,600 crore deal.
The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) Ship 'Sajag' was commissioned by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
'The air force continues to be short of planes.' 'So, more than a decade after the last selection round got under way, the same process is about to start again for the same kind of aircraft, naturally with the same likely bidders,' points out T N Ninan.
Speeding up the military modernisation process, the defence ministry on Friday cleared procurement projects worth over Rs 7,000 crore including the long-pending acquisition of 145 Ultra Light Howitzers from the United States under a Rs 3,000-crore deal.
Malik believes he can solve the problems of farmers and is sending signals to the government to give him a chance.
'Landmark developments herald the end of two decades of stagnation in the army's modernisation plans,' notes Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
In his hard-hitting speech at a gathering of ex-servicemen, the prime minister referred to the Bofors scam, AgustaWestland chopper scam, Rafale issue and inordinate delays in procurement of critical military platforms and ammunition by previous government.
Lashing out at the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday for its stand on the coal controversy, the Congress alleged that there was a clear similarity between the anti-Bofors campaign and the present one on the coal blocks allocation. "Between 1985 and 1990, there was a campaign after the CAG report on Bofors against Rajiv Gandhi, with foreign journals also publishing articles. There is a similar pattern to it from 2009 to the present times," said Digvijay Singh.
Any Indian government at this juncture would have voted and spoken exactly this way. It isn't just about the vast Indian dependence on Russian-origin military equipment. It is also about trust, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's parliamentary body on Wednesday decided to rake up the Bofors pay-off issue in Parliament in the wake of fresh allegations that then prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi may have 'soft-pedalled' the probe to protect Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi.
A peek into the Indian Army's Exercise Topchi exercise at the School of Artillery in Deolali
Rediff.com's exclusive peek at Indian Army's Topchi exercise at the School of Artillery in Deolali
Congress has repeatedly alleged a "scam" in the purchase of Rafale fighter jets claiming the cost per aircraft in 2012 was agreed at Rs 526.10 crore while the one signed by the Modi government costs 7.5 billion (Rs 1,670.70 crore per aircraft).
Four Hinduja brothers -- Srichand, Gopichand, Prakash and Ashok -- had in 2014 signed on a document saying the assets held by one brother belong to all, and that each of them will appoint the others as their executors. But now family patriarch Srichand Hinduja, 84, and his daughter Vinoo want the letter to be declared of "no legal effect" and the family's assets be separated as per his wish of 2016.
Calling upon "honest" people within the Congress to act the way VP Singh had done on Bofors, Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Wednesday said they should show the same courage in getting back black money stashed abroad by Indians.
Situated at a height of 15,200 feet above sea level, the pass sits on the top of a craggily formed Himalayan range that separates the Tibetan plateau from the Indian sub-continent.
In a freewheeling chat with Rediff.com readers former CBI director and author Joginder Singh talks about issues haunting the probe agency, the challenges it faces and its limitations.
'Some of his decisions were not so good, but his intentions were always guided by a deep national interest.'
After four failed attempts in the last 25 years, the Army has issued a fresh global tender for 400 towed artillery howitzers, the first to be acquired after the controversial Bofors deal.
Two aborted missions, three different ministers, multiple rule changes and two decades later, Indian taxpayers will no longer have to pay Rs 20 crore per day to keep the loss-making Air India flying. While opposition Congress expectedly attacked the decision as selling the family silver, DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said what Tata is getting is not a cash cow but an airline which is bleeding where money needs to be pumped in to refurbish obsolete aircraft and dust up strangled ones while being unable to touch any employee for one year and only be able to resize staff after paying a VRS. "It won't be a very easy task there. Only advantage is they (new Air India owner) are paying the price which they think they can manage. "They are not taking the excessive debt accumulated to fund years of losses. We are continuing it as an ongoing concern.... This process has also saved huge amount of taxpayers money going forward," Pandey told PTI.
Two days after the Centre decided to close the case against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the Bofors gun deal, an application was on Thursday moved in a Delhi Court seeking rejection of any closure report that may be filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
'These naval sailors should have been given due respect as freedom fighters.' 'February 18, 1946 should be as important as January 26 because that date changed everything.'
A preliminary inquiry has found that the explosion took place due to faulty ammunition supplied by the Ordnance Factory Board and a further probe into the matter was on, the sources said.
BJP leaders also took a dig at the former Congress president after the apex court asked him to be careful in future while closing a plea for contempt case against him for wrongly attributing certain comments on the Rafale deal to it.
The barrel of the US-manufactured gun exploded during field trial in Pokhran.
In a major milestone, India successfully tests new advanced towed artillery gun system.
Taking on the Congress over the Rafale deal, the defence minister asserted that 'there is something different between defence deal and deal in defence.'
Arun Nehru's image of a political strategist, dealmaker and trouble shooter never allowed him to become a political leader of people, says Sheela Bhatt
Is anyone in the BJP listening -- to what Nitin Gadkari had to say, but possibly left unsaid? asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
The BJP chief also came down heavily on the Congress, which had seized on the report to attack him as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Bofors trail: India to approach Switzerland in Quattrocchi case
The Law minister told reporters that the two bank accounts of the Italian businessman in London were not frozen permanently.
The political-electoral calculus favours spending thousands of crores on vanity projects like Sardar Patel's statue and the Central Vista over building up our military to handle the confrontations and conflicts that loom large, points out Ajai Shukla.
Central Bureau of Investigation said on Tuesday that it would examine the Delhi High Court judgement quashing all charges against Hinduja brothers.
When we bought weapons-like the Bofors gun previously purchased, no one went and brought them while showing off, Kharge said.
'Didi' became the real 'Dada' as she got past the post, on a wheelchair and a foot in cast, a souvenir from the Nandigram battle against former protege-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari.
The Congress has alleged irregularities in the deal for 36 aircraft and claimed that the Narendra Modi government is buying them at a price much higher than the one that was being negotiated by the previous government. The party has also been accusing the government of favouring Anil Ambani's firm in the deal.
The court quashed charges against them under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The Italian businessman is one of the main accused in the Bofors payoff scam.
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