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Left: Israeli arms makers cock a snook at Indian laws

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Concerned over the manner in which arms deals with Israel are being conducted, the Left parties have urged the UPA government to immediately take action against the errant firms which indulged in “systematic violation of Indian laws.”

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent on Monday, the four Left parties alleged that Israeli manufacturers, including government-owned entities, had been “blatantly violating Indian laws by using middlemen and by giving kickbacks to officials involved in the decision-making process.”

Picking on India’s acquisition of the Barak missile systems, manufactured by the state-owned Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and Rafael corporations, the Left parties alleged that the Rs. 1,300-crore deal was tainted by “procedural violations and outright corruption.”

“Evidence has also emerged in Israel of the bribery and corruption, including payments to agents in India, indulged in by the IAI and Rafael. An Indian agent replaced by another petitioned the Israeli Defence Ministry claiming additional commissions due to him, and the matter has even been referred to the Israeli Attorney-General. All this has led to the arrest and impending prosecution of Moshe Keretz, who headed the IAI for 20 years till 2005, and another agent whose name has been concealed under a gag order of the Israeli authorities.”

Despite all this evidence, the UPA government “has shown a remarkable reluctance to take action against the IAI, Rafael and other Israeli arms companies,” the Left parties said. They demanded that the tainted Israeli firms be blacklisted.

“To add insult to injury, the UPA government has further cemented the alliance with the IAI by signing a massive $ 2.5-billion deal for co-development of more advanced Barak NG and Barak-8 missiles with longer range and for land-based anti-missile applications. How can India proceed with this deal in the face of evident wrongdoing by Israeli firms?”

By turning a blind eye to the “systematic violation of India laws by Israeli firms, India is sending out wrong signals to international arms manufacturers at a time when India is embarking on huge overseas military acquisitions, with the potential to corrupt and derail the entire system.”

The signatories are Prakash Karat (CPI-M), A.B. Bardhan (CPI), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc) and T.J. Chandrachoodan (RSP).

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