Click to play videoNew Delhi: India's abrupt cancellation of a $600 million military helicopter tender has meant different things to different people.
To the Europeans, the disqualification of the Eurocopter Fennec, selected after six years of back-breaking evaluation, has meant commercial heartburn.
To the group of 10 Indian Army soldiers manning the Bana post at over 21,000 feet in Siachen, this decision could make the difference between life and death.
A modern, more powerful helicopter, which the Army has been clamouring for over a decade, was meant to be a lifesaver. But saving soldiers lives was apparently not uppermost on the minds of those who scrapped the chopper tender. They have taken away a lifeline for soldiers on frozen frontiers.
So, the next time an Indian soldier dies at Siachen for lack of proper helicopter support, will Defence Minister A K Antony or any of his mandarins at the South Block be held accountable? Going by past records, it doesn't seem so.
A Eurocopter-type aircraft would have taken off with a 100 kg or twice as much weight as the Cheetah at a heights above 18,000 feet, critical for evacuating a wounded soldier.
The Defence Ministry's belated realisation that it had tested a civilian version of the Eurocopter instead of a military one, which it cited as the reason for the cancellation, did not sound too convincing.
Not one official who was part of the evaluation has been hauled up.
Earlier this year, a five-year-old multi-billion dollar artillery modernisation programme, in which Bofors was the front runner was similarly scrapped without a credible reason.
So, while the military waits for desperately needed equipment, something smells rotten at Defence Headquarters.
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