The real defence scandal lies in massive delay in making military purchases

The defence acquisition system seems paralysed and incapable of change. Why doesn't Parliament hold the government to account on this issue, asks T N Ninan

The Congress effort to make the 36-jet Rafale deal the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Bofors, and to snare Narendra Modi in its exhaust fumes just as Bofors flattened Rajiv Gandhi, may or may not succeed. Not because pay-offs did or did not exist. Almost all defence deals of this kind involve pay-offs at different levels--as anyone who is not a babe in the wood knows. But it is hard to get conclusive facts, and there is no evidence available of bribes in the case of Rafale.

The difference between the two cases is that the Bofors scandal erupted following a Swedish