Antony in Left's line of fire for IAI deal

NEW DELHI: The ministry of defence���s deal for Air Defence Missile Systems with Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) has drawn flak from the Left. The CPM and the CPI on Tuesday sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh���s intervention to stop the contract saying the proposed missiles to be developed by IAI was ���inferior��� to the DRDO-developed Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missiles on technical, cost and operational readiness counts.

���This deal again brings out the unfortunate influence that Israeli arms manufacturers, including government owned entities assert on India���s arms purchases. Nothing else can explain why IAI, which is seriously implicated in corruption in India and in Israel, should be favoured in this way,��� CPM and CPI general secretaries Prakash Karat and AB Bardhan said in a joint letter to the prime minister.

The Left, which has been demanding scrapping of strategic ties with Israel, had petitioned the prime minister last year about about ���kickbacks and use of middlemen��� in the Barak deal in violation of Indian laws. Mr Karat and Mr Bardhan said it was surprising that government was entering a contract with the IAI despite that.

���The amount involved is around Rs 10,000 crore for the supply of around 12 such systems,��� they said and recalled that India had blacklisted firms such as Bofors, Sweden and Denel, South Africa for similar cases of kickbacks and middleman.

Besides this, they said the deal involves systems that have yet to be even developed by IAI ���let alone manufactured and test proven.��� The Left leaders said the DRDO has already developed and field proven DRDO's AAD missiles capacity which is capable of destroying incoming enemy missiles as well as aircraft whereas aircraft the proposed IAI missile can deal only with enemy aircraft.

It is capable of intercepting even ballistic missiles at altitudes upto as high as 18 km, they said claiming that these appeared superior to the proposed missiles sought to be developed by IAI. ���To give a ���cover��� of indigenous involvement and content, DRDO has been forced to enter into a so-called joint development of the IAI Air Defense Missile even when it already has its own superior AAD missile,��� they said. They asked the prime minister to ensure that the DRDO���s indigenous missile programme was not subverted.