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Prez letter nails George's Barak lie
Published on Wed, Oct 11, 2006 at 16:13, Updated on Wed, Oct 11, 2006 at 20:02 in India section
Tags: George Fernandes, Barak Missile Deal , New Delhi
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New Delhi: After CBI filed an FIR against Geroge Fernandes, his long time political companion Jaya Jaitley and former Navy Chief Sushil Kumar for receiving kickbacks in buying Barak missiles system from Israel, the former defence minister alleged that the deal had the blessing of present President of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.
George Fernandes alleges, "When we decided to buy Barak missiles, it was done with the consent of the present President of India."
But is the former defence minister telling the truth?
Definitely not, because Dr APJ Abdul Kalam had clearly opposed the proposal to buy the Barak anti-missile defence systems from an Israeli company.
Dr Kalam, who had earlier headed the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) and was then the scientific advisor to the defence minister wrote in a letter dated June 23, 1999: "It has been brought to the Raksha Mantri's (Defence Minister) notice that imported anti-missile defence systems has a failure rate of nearly 50 per cent as witnessed by DRDO during trials by the services. Even the cost of failure analysis by foreign suppliers is very high. We will be at the mercy of foreign suppliers for spares and support during the lifecycle of the entire system."
Dr Kalam further wrote: "Importing of any missile system will take one to two years and there is no reason that Trishul cannot be made ready before that."
George Fernandes gave his approval to buy the Barak anti-missile defence system just five days after a note of opposition from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.
The proposal was then placed before the Cabinet committee on security and duly passed - despite Kalam's objections.
Kalam may have been opposed to the Barak deal but the organisation he had created with his own hands, the DRDO had given its consent.
President of The India-Central Asia Foundation, K Santhanam says, "In my recollection, yes, DRDO had agreed to the import of Barak missiles."
It has to be remembered that the issue is not about Barak, which is proving to be a strategically vital acquisition. The CBI investigation is about kickbacks and the reference to Kalam can only help divert attention from the core issue.
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