In an amazing never-ever action, the CBI arrested a former Chief of Air Staff, S P Tyagi, on December 9, and remanded him to judicial custody. This astonishing development has shocked most people especially those who have proudly worn, or are, putting on this country’s uniform.
The case involves purchase of some AgustaWestland helicopters (since stalled) for the use of VVIPs (very very important people) — a category peculiar to India. These platforms are maintained and operated by the Air Force but their use is determined by the needs of the highest in the land, namely, President and Prime Minister. In this case the user was the Prime Minister and, therefore, his office and its security wing became prime actors. The first step in any such procurement is to decide what is needed. This involves drafting of Air Staff Requirements (ASR). Once possible vendors are ‘frozen’, a request for proposal is made to them. There were quite a few of them in this case.
The Air Force felt that the height ceiling should cover operations up to the higher airfields, stipulating 6,000 metres. This left only Eurocopter (France) in the field. To have more options it was decided to reduce this criterion to 4,500 metres, and brought a Russian offer of M-172 (it later withdrew), Sikorsky (USA) and AgustaWestland (Italy). This was done in 2003 at the behest of then Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Vajpayee and was ratified in 2004 by his successor in the PMO. Thereafter, the SPG desired that the height of the passenger cabin should be increased, which eliminated the French platform. All these decisions to modify the ASRs were taken with the full knowledge and acquiescence of two former Principal Secretaries and National Security Advisers to the Prime Minister. Subsequent negotiations including price were conducted by the Defence Secretary, not the Air Chief, and a contract was signed with Agusta.
Tyagi is accused of tinkering with the ASRs to ensure that Agusta remained the preferred candidate and that he did it for a consideration, read bribe, in league with one or more persons, one of them his cousin. Actually, he was not even in the air headquarters at that time. His one, allegedly dubious contribution to this process, was that in the draft record of discussions of a meeting held in the defence secretary’s office in 2005-06, he modified the phrase ‘two engine configuration’ to ‘not less than two engines’; this did not put either of the two vendors out of the reckoning or give weight to any one of them.
His name was included in a FIR filed by the CBI three years ago. The CBI is now saying — for the first time — that the former Air Chief acquired agricultural land costing 1.60 crore which he did not declare. Tyagi disputes this and says he has documents to contradict. In another twist, while convicting some Agusta people of paying bribes for the deal even as a lower Italian court found Tyagi not complicit, a superior court ‘thought’ that he might have been involved. This is the sum and substance of the case against the former Air Chief. Interestingly the then Defence Secretary has not been named in the FIR.
If investigation and facts show that Tyagi was, indeed, a party to bribes and illegal payments then his arrest and subsequently action, is perfectly in order. But to arrest a person of this stature, without clearly credible proof, is tantamount to seriously degrading the morale of the fighting forces. There is a sense that Tyagi has been taken in to ‘squeal’ against some politicians. All one can hope is that this arrest will lead to early identification and conviction of the real culprits because if it does not then the entire credibility of this government will lie in tatters with the combat capability of the Indian armed forces, heavily dependent on the morale of its men, needlessly put on the block.
At this stage, the former Air Chief appears more sinned against than sinning.
The writer is a former Commander-in-Chief of Eastern Naval Command and has been a member of the National Security Advisory Board
