“SCANDALS BY OPPORTUNISTS” - The biggest Defense scam of Post-Independence Era

The question is, "Are jeeps important to you" ???

The answer is "may be : may be not"

why insurgent thought is talking about it because once it costs close to 195 crore to India post independence in 1948 for booking jeeps & not getting it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this is how it went.....

In the post-independence era when the country is struggling to maintain & develop its financial autonomy, there were incidents happening far from the native land resulting in huge loss to the exchequer.

In 1948, the India army was in need of jeeps due to the political cum defense scenario at that time with Pakistan. Out of the total requirements of nearly 4000 jeeps, 1000 jeeps were purchased from USA & the rest contracted to be bought out within few years. Till now there everything was going well but with time things were about to go messy with the messer's.

In order to purchase the rest of the jeep a high-level committee was formed with top powered employees of the government including defense secretary, financial & legal advisor of defense secretary & various other officials including some from the army.

THE TRANSACTION

The financial advisor of Defense services Mr. AK Chandra & defense secretary of that time agreed to purchase about 2000 jeeps with three-year spare parts. Each jeep cost around 300 pound & was to be delivered within a period of six weeks from date of order & to be completed within 5 months.

The Original Transaction terms of payment were as follow: -

THE REALITY

After a while when the contract was signed, 65% of the agreed payment was made to the supplier irrespective of the inspection certificates. The official inspectors were bypassed & later on the request of seller, another firm was appointed as the inspector. Even after that without any certificates of inspection a big load of money was paid to the supplier mere on the basis of 10% inspection of jeeps at random.

Even after this much hustle, 155 jeeps arrived at the Indian ports & later it was found that all the 155 jeeps were not in serviceable condition & defense ministry refused to accept them, also it was concluded that irrespective of the contract to deliver spare parts of three years only 10% were delivered. After some time of this whole set up the firm cease to exists.

THE DECEPTION

Later when the investigation comes into play Mr. Chandra confronted that neither he nor the legal & financial advisor of the Indian High commission in London were consulted before this deal. Despite being the face of the deal, he did not take part in any of the negotiations & the whole set up was by Mr. Krishna Menon. The company with whom contract worth 80 lakh was signed had a capital of £605.The former India High commissioner to Britain, V.K. Krishna Menon ignored the formal set of protocols to sign the deal & entered into a contract with company called “Anti-Mistantes”. Illegal payments were made without any prior knowledge to Indian government.

In order to investigate the whole matter government set up “Ayyangar Committee” & when the committee deliver its report to Prime Minister Nehru, his reaction was, “that a section of the party old guard was up in arms against Mr. Menon because of his radicalism”. So, he ignored the findings of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament and refused to institute inquiry into the charges against Krishna Menon.

Nehru concluded that "as far as Government was concerned it has made up its mind to close the matter. If the opposition was not satisfied, they can make it an election issue". After a while Menon was the serving defense minister of India.

THE HIDDEN TRUTH

Not Only to the jeeps Mr. Krishna Menon was found in the middle of various unsuccessful deals such as: -

1. Contract with S.C.K. Agencies, London for the supply of 1,007 jeeps at £ 458.10 each with 68 jeeps to be supplied per month. However, Krishna Menon reduced the supply rate from 68 to 12 146 for the first six months, to be increased to 120 jeeps a month thereafter. Actually, only 49 jeeps worth about Rs. 94,667 arrived and the firm backed out.

2. Contract for the purchase of rifles and ammunition with an allied concern messer's J.CJ. Knott Co., whose issued capital was £ 100 for £ 19,44,000. The supply of rifles was to begin within ten days of the contract and end within 120 days.

3. Deal for steel plates whereby Potter took advantage of the situation to make a profit of £ 102,000.

In all of the 4 deals there was an unknown character Mr. E.H. Potter who made profit on various situations & dealt with Mr. Krishna Menon.

This scam was a perfect example of how corruption can lead to promotion.

NOTE: G.S. Bhargava with Surendranath Dwivedi briefly explained this in his work “Political Corruption in India”. However, Dwivedi and Bhargava have quoted from this report because they had access to the report being member at the parliament. The blog is subject to high plagiarism due to extensive help form the words of Dwivedi & Bhargava.

The insurgents within us have thoughts. all for now can be done is to have a knowledge of the road which is not been taken.

ta da!!! until the next mind works for the next thought.