The Great Cover up?-Scorpene and the Scorpion Sting

Former Defence Minister George Fernandes rushed to France and struck the deal for six Scorpene submarines under the name Project 75. Extremely stealthy and lethal, the first Scorpene was supposed to roll out of Mazagon Dock in Mumbai in 2012 and one Scorpene would be launched every year from 2010 through 2017. These plans were made in 2005. Now, fast forward to 2010 and the Project 75 is running 2-3 years late which means the first Scorpene can't be expected before 2015-2020. By the time we get all the six sometime in early 2020s the Scorpenes would not be as valuable as they would be now as technology would have advanced significantly. But more importantly, India is going to retire all of its existing submarines this decade, including the Kilo class Submarines which form the backbone of India's current Submarine fleet! Which means, this decade Indian Navy will be MORE VULNERABLE THAN EVER.


So, Why was the delay?

• The official line of Ministry of Defence is that France increased the price of some critical components and the adamant bureaucrats who handle the payments refused to pay, causing the delay.
• Is there an unseen angle to these happenings? Would India really take a cost hike so seriously that our National Security be compromised? Unlike Gorshkov, the Russian Aircraft Carrier which in the end cost India three-four fold the initial agreement, the Scorpenes are state-of-the-art. Let us peep back into the past and find out what exactly went wrong..........................................................

The Naval War Room Leak Case(2004/05/06)

When Outlook broke the story linking the naval war room leak case and the Rs 18,798-crore Scorpene submarine deal, the defence ministry as well as naval HQ were quick to go into denial mode. The then Union minister of defence, Pranab Mukherjee, was dismissive when he told a TV interviewer that the civilian recipients of the secrets—arms dealer Abhishek Verma, his associates Ravi Shankaran (a relative of the recently-retired naval chief Admiral Arun Prakash) and Kulbhushan Parashar—would not be acted against. Reason: "Why does action have to be taken against them? This is commercial information," he said. Verma and Shankaran, reiterating their innocence, also issued similar denials. Thales, the French manufacturers of the Scorpene, denied any "contractual" relationship with Verma or the Atlas Group that he co-founded. But the CBI's second chargesheet filed in October demolishes many lies. The files recovered by the CBI from Verma and his associates—Kulbhushan Parashar and Commander Vijender Rana—covers a range of defence secrets pertaining to acquisitions by the army, air force and navy, including submarines. These were sourced by Rana and passed on to Verma and Shankaran via Parashar and then to foreign armament companies. The CBI chargesheet is categoric that the information leaked was "top secret" and not merely commercial. Crucially, it reveals that the Thales group did have links with Verma. As many as 369 pages of sensitive documents appended to the chargesheet and handed to the magistrate says it all about Verma, the Atlas Group and Thales. On February 14, 2006, Jean-Paul Perrier, executive vice president, Thales, sent a fax to Admiral Arun Prakash, claiming that "the Thales group has no contractual relationship with Atlas Defence Systems. The possibility of working with this company was examined on several occasions, but no partnership has ever materialised." The CBI chargesheet tells a different story. On page 22 it is specific: "A document recovered from the Jet Flash pen drive (of Rana) is part of a proposal of M/s Thales Communications with respect to the Aerostat Project, which is related to unmanned aerial surveillance mainly in border areas to keep a watch on the activities of enemy countries. It appears to have been generated in February 2004.

Such was the clout of Verma that he "could charter private aircraft" for his foreign clients.

The pen drive also contains a scanned copy of a letter (No. ARDE/BEG/GEM dated November 2004) from K.K. Thaper, scientist with the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE), and addressed to Atlas Defence Systems, 407, Tower B, Global Business Park, MG Road, Gurgaon, regarding the subject 'Aerostat Presentation'. It is thus proved that Kulbhushan Parashar was the contact person with regard to the Aerostat Presentation made by Atlas Defence Systems. The hard copy of this document has also been recovered independently from the residential premises of Kulbhushan Parashar during the various searches. This also establishes the link of Abhishek Verma with M/s Atlas Defence Systems and the Jet Flash pen drive recovered from Rana which contains sensitive information pertaining to national security." Further linkages with the Scorpene deal emerge as documents relating to procurements of submarine equipment have also been recovered. Listed as item 21 in the chargesheet is a note (SA/3098) regarding submarine equipment "to be procured as enclosed in the note dated December 2004". The CBI has also recovered a confidential draft relating to naval staff requirements for underwater communication and sensors. Sources in the CBI also confirmed that when Thales' Jean-Paul Perrier visited India in January this year, he spent a considerable amount of time at Verma's farmhouse on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon road. "There is enough evidence to show that the Atlas group of companies had some ongoing discussions and dealing with the Thales group. The Thales proposal recovered by us of February 2004 is an indication that they must have shared a deeper business relationship," a senior CBI official told Outlook. Such was the clout of Verma and his colleagues that the CBI chargesheet notes they "could charter private aircraft" for their foreign clients and put them up at five-star hotels. What's more, the CBI chargesheet alleges that "Abhishek Verma has received pecuniary benefits from foreign companies in the form of cash remittances. These companies had interest in various defence procurements by the government of India." The CBI has also managed to zero in on huge unexplained remittances into the Atlas' group companies like Atlas Interactive. Could these have been meant as kickbacks? Incidentally, Atlas had also entered into a contract with the Chinese telecom major ZTE to enter "the Indian defence market". A year ago, naval HQ issued two press releases insisting that the leaked information pertained to minor items such as patrol boats, electronic chart displays and breathing air compressors. It also insisted that no operational information was leaked and the government stubbornly refused to take any action. Now, as skeletons start to tumble out, it's becoming certain that there's more to the war room leak than the MoD and naval headquarters wanted everyone to believe.

From the above report it becomes clear that critical information regarding the Scorpene deal was leaked by the traitors. The most vital information about any modern day weapon syatem is about its communication system and that was what the unscrupulous agents sold to foreign players. With that Scorpene deal also slowed down. We can presume that Indian Navy wanted significant modifications in the Scorpene’s communications and that led the French to hike the price more than ever. This is not the first time that espionage has threatened our National Security nor will this be the last such instance. The incident just goes on to prove that it is not just machines but also the people that fight and win wars.