Saturday, January 19, 2019

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'National Security comes first' that was published in Newsband


National Security comes first
The controversy over Rafale deal should be put to rest in the interest of national security, said the Ministry of Defence (MoD). It further said that the steep price escalation in the deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets is “factually inaccurate”.
The apex court had not found “anything adverse in the deal” and had refused to order an investigation. The Comptroller and Auditor General [CAG] has been given access to all the files related to the Rafale deal. It is best to await the report of an authoritative agency like the CAG. The Defence Minister has eloquently spoken on it in Parliament and the CAG has access to all files. Yet some are using this for their own political ends.
After this clarification, if the Congress is still maliciously raising the issue, it is only for a political purpose, for which they are also sidelining national security. Chidambaram is taking advantage of the government's strict adherence to national security concerns. In this case the need to keep the details of sensitive weaponry etc associated with the combat aircraft ordered, top secret lest the enemy will take advantage eventually rendering the huge investment on 36 invincible war machines a colossal waste. Let us not play ourselves into the hands of our enemies
The more pertinent and relevant question to ask: over the course of 70 plus years of political freedom, why did not our political establishment, build up indigenous capability to manufacture aircraft in general and fighter aircraft in particular? Thousands of fighter aircrafts have been imported and multiple technology transfer agreements struck: yet HAL is unable to manufacture fighter aircraft on its own. Why is this? What has been the role of the political establishment, the bureaucracy, the media and the judiciary in this? If only HAL or any other PSU was alllowed to develop this capability, there would be no need for a discussion on the Rafale deal now.
This is just an attempt to tarnish Modi’s image. Despite feverish attempts the opposition members are unable to pinpoint a scam. If Congress is politicising issue of Rafale, then, what were they doing all these years? Was that all in national interest? They played Hindu vs Muslim card, dalit vs pandit, Lynching vs Cow, Demonetisation vs counterfeit, Assam vs Migrants, Jobs vs jumla, Farmers vs GST, Verma vs Asthana, Patel statue vs Chinese, and so on. All they do is politicise issue etc. All they have been doing is create controversies all these years. IAS officers should be made PMs, CMs and governers of our country. Otherwise we will be at the mercy of mediocres.
All these allegations by Congress is a lame attempt to implicate Modi and Parrikar on false corruption charges. Hope the power crazy dynasty and the head line grabbing media start thinking in the national interest for once during their lifetime.
The opposition wants to paint the govt as corrupt and inept since there are multiple cases against many opposition leaders who were in power that would be discussed in the election speeches of NDA. So an illusory case has been carved out for propaganda to bamboozle the people. But interestingly the people are very shrewd to see through all the power games in play. The media is least neutral and talk for one or the other party according to its choice. Still we have to wait and see people’s reply in the ballot box. Till then let us enjoy the wise guys in full steam to get to the national coffers.

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