Corruption Within Indian Army

Since the partition of the Sub-Continent in 1947, instances of corruption within Indian Army have periodically surfaced, marking various stages of the country’s military history. Corruption in the Indian Army has proven to be a recurrent issue that erodes public trust. Several high-profile scandals and cases have exposed the depth of this issue, raising major questions about ethical standards and accountability in one of India’s most prestigious organizations. However, in recent decades, the incidence and severity of such occurrences have particularly increased, attracting worldwide attention and criticism.

The statistics paint an even grim picture, between 2000 and 2023, over 1,800 corruption cases were recorded within Indian Armed Forces. The Indian Army alone reported more than 1,080 cases from 2013 to 2022, underscoring the pervasive nature of the problem across all ist branches. Such figures are not mere numbers but indicators of deep-rooted challenges that undermine the very fabric of an institution tasked with defending the nation’s sovereignty and security.

Among the most infamous scandals is the Sukna Land scam of 2008, where senior generals of Indian Armed Forces were implicated in an illegal land transfer near the Sukna Military Base. That scandal not only tarnished the reputation of those involved but also sparked a national debate on the ethical standards, expected out of military leaders. The subsequent fallout from scandals involving procurement irregularities and recruitment bribery further eroded public trust besides raising serious questions about the accountability within the ranks and file of Armed Forces.

Another scam got surfaced in 2010, namely Adarsh Housing Society Scam, including top military leaders, politicians, and bureaucrats, who were reportedly scheming to acquire Mumbai properties for war widows and veterans. However, at the end of the day, flats were given to powerful people only, which sparked public outrage over the mismanagement of military lands and resources.

In a similar episode in 2012, concerns were raised that top Army officials were found involved in irregularities in the acquisition of Tatra trucks, which were meant to transport troops and equipment. The affair sparked questions about inflated pricing and bribes in defence acquisition. Similarly, in 2013, a bribery scandal erupted in which a Lieutenant General was accused of accepting payments for influencing various Army appointments. The controversy highlighted flaws in the promotion system besides raising questions about top officials’ ethical standards.

The Canteen Stores Department (CSD) Scam in 2020 exposed anomalies and mismanagement in the CSD that sells items on discounted rates to military troops. Allegations included inflated pricing, bribes, and favoritism in supplier contracts thus harming the welfare of active and retired staff. Furthermore, investigations carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) in respects of recruiting scams and financial malpractices have exposed systemic flaws in the military’s internal checks and balance system. The revelation that 17 Army officers were involved in a bribery scandal to influence selection procedures is a sobering reminder of how ethical failings may jeopardize the integrity of military operations and personnel management.

Former Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor’s term was tarnished by charges ranging from financial mismanagement to procurement favoritism, showing flaws in leadership control. Such examples not only highlight shortcomings in governance.

In addition to above-mentioned scandals, during the Kargil War in 1999, India received widespread condemnation for a corruption scandal involving suspected payments in the purchasing of coffins for dead troops. Investigations revealed that Indian Government paid exorbitant amounts for coffins, causing public uproar and creating severe concerns about openness and accountability in defence expenditure. The affair highlighted India’s susceptibility to corruption in important national security concerns, undermining its reputation.

Corruption in the military is not a result of individual instances, but rather a reflection of larger systemic flaws. The lack of severe control, along with opaque decision-making procedures, creates an environment conducive to misbehavior. Aside from such high-profile scandals, there have been other cases of financial mismanagement, embezzlement, and other sorts of corruption that have impacted the military’s reputation. From embezzling billions in procurement funding to unlawfully selling guns, these crimes not only breach public confidence, but also risk national security by eroding force discipline and morale. Indian Armed Forces need to reset their moral and ethical compass on prior basis.

Courtesy: South Asia Journal

 

Biden administration accused for Trump shooting

The Kremlin on Sunday said it did not believe the current US administration was responsible for Saturday's assassination attempt on US presidential candidate Donald Trump, but that it had created an atmosphere that provoked the attack.

Trump was shot in the ear during a Saturday rally in Pennsylvania, in an attack now being investigated as an assassination attempt that left the Republican presidential candidate's face streaked with blood.

"We do not believe that the attempt to eliminate and assassinate Trump was organized by the current authorities," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "But the atmosphere around candidate Trump...provoked what America is confronting today.

"After numerous attempts to remove candidate Trump from the political arena - using first legal tools, the courts, prosecutors, attempts to politically discredit and compromise the candidate - it was obvious to all outside observers that his life was in danger."

US President Joe Biden condemned the attack, saying there was no place for that kind of violence in America.

Peskov said there were no plans for Putin to call Trump in light of the incident.

 

The world must help Israel stop Iran and its proxies, not appease them

President elect of Iran, has outlined his policy in an open letter to the world leaders. Pressure is building on Israel to stop genocide in Gaza and the United States is also openly asked to stop supply of lethal arms to Israel. Under the prevailing circumstances Israel’s daily The Jerusalem Post has written an anti-Iran editorial prove that Iran and its proxies are real threat for Israel and the world.

Following is the text of the Editorial:

As the war against Hamas rages on and attempts are made to reach a new hostage deal, we should never forget who the primary sponsor of terror against Israel is – Iran. Its proxies include “the 3H” – Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

We should also not turn a blind eye to the fact that Iran is edging closer and closer to becoming a nuclear power, which could pose an existential threat to Israel. This cannot be allowed.

After the latest NATO Summit in Washington, Foreign Minister Israel Katz posted Thursday on X that one of the main topics discussed by the foreign ministers attending the summit – including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken – was the need to increase pressure on Tehran.

“Israel, NATO, and the entire world share a common enemy – the Iranian regime,” Katz wrote. “We must stop Iran now before it’s too late.”

No one seems to know the status of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, including the United States. On Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham wrote a letter to Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, accusing the administration of being in violation of the law by failing to report to Congress, as required by legislation Graham himself drafted every six months about Iran’s nuclear progress.

In the letter, Graham notes that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently censured Iran for failing to cooperate with it and escalating its uranium enrichment up to 60% purity in May. This, he says, is only “a small technical step away from weapons-grade 90% purity” and brings Iran that much closer to building a nuclear bomb.

In response, White House national security spokesperson James Kirby said on Thursday that President Joe Biden remained committed to making sure that Tehran would never develop nuclear weapons but denied a claim by Iran’s acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, that the US and Iran were holding indirect nuclear negotiations mediated by Oman.

“No active negotiations are going on right now with respect to Iran’s nuclear ambitions,’ Kirby said. “I won’t speak or can’t speak to channels of communication with Iran one way or the other, but there are no active negotiations going to restore the 2015 nuclear deal.”

Kirby made it clear last Monday that the US would not resume nuclear talks with new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, citing Tehran’s support of terrorism as a significant obstacle.

According to IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi, Iran has exceeded uranium enrichment limits and is now “weeks, not months,” away from having enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon.

Iran's looming threat

Stopping a nuclear Iran, which has always been a top priority for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will surely be high on the agenda of his visit to Washington later this month when he is due to address a special joint session of Congress.

But Israel and the US cannot deal with the Islamic Republic alone. An international alliance is necessary to curb the Iranian regime’s nuclear program, led by the United Nations via bodies such as the IAEA and NATO. It must also enlist the support of the European Union and key players in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia.

Besides closer supervision of Iran’s nuclear program, the international community must enforce tighter economic sanctions against Tehran.

Ways must be found to stop it from funding Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. And its funding of anti-Israel protests in the US, as Haines warned last week, must be thwarted. But this is not enough. Only decisive action will show Iran that it cannot get away with terrorism.

“Candidate objectives to be attacked should include Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps installations, Iranian naval assets, critical energy infrastructure, and even nuclear weapons development facilities with strike packages that are more destructive than any launched by Iran’s proxies,” he said. “Iran’s religious leaders must feel the ground shake under their own feet, both politically and militarily. If this threat is not made manifest in their minds, they will continue to feel free to attack American interests wherever and whenever they wish.”

On the other hand, as Haines concludes, if the US – and the rest of the world – continue to appease the ayatollahs, “there will be no peace.”

 

 

Israel adamant at erasing Gaza

A new report from the British medical journal, The Lancet, estimates that the death toll in Gaza could reach 186,000. The world may be shocked by this figure, but it seems harsh reality.

This new expert assessment is in line with the figures Ralph Nader has put forward earlier this year when he estimated as many as 200,000 have been killed by Israel in Gaza.

It must be kept in mind that bombs and bullets are not the only weapons that kill in war.

From the beginning, the Israeli occupation forces have weaponized hunger and disease by choking off food, electricity, and water. They have intentionally bombed and raided hospitals, set drones to take out ambulances trying to retrieve the wounded, and withheld or destroyed medical supplies.

Israeli forces have collapsed entire apartment buildings full of frightened families and continue to fire on schools.

When they forced the last Gazans into crowded, tent-city refugee camps in one tiny corner of the strip – they even bombed the tents.

It is known from the beginning that the death toll published by the Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) was lower than the real number.

The GHM numbers are simply the confirmed, recorded deaths documented in hospitals and morgues.

It is known that at every step, Israel has sought to decimate Gaza’s infrastructure and deny them the chance to survive by any means at all. We don’t have to guess at their intent – they’ve told us, repeatedly.

Biden and Nethanyahu partners in genocide

The Biden administration's decision this week to lift a pause on the transfer of 500-pound bombs to the Israeli military drew outrage from the US peace advocates who warned the weapons would be used to commit additional war crimes in the Gaza Strip, which has been pulverized by nine months of relentless Israeli attacks.

Sara Haghdoosti, executive director of Win Without War, said in a statement Thursday, "We utterly condemn" the administration's decision to release a shipment of 1,700 500-pound bombs to Israel's military, which has killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza since October 07, 2023 attack. The shipment was paused in May as Israel prepared to launch its deadly assault on Rafah.

"We are dismayed because these bombs will almost certainly be used to kill more innocents in Gaza, where indiscriminate bombing continues and where a starvation crisis only worsens," said Haghdoosti. "And if they are not used there, they risk being used to terrible effect in Lebanon, where civilians would again bear the brunt of a disastrous possible war between Hezbollah and the Israeli government."

"We are perplexed because the White House is, yet again, using arms transfers to directly undermine its stated policy aims—both to secure a cease-fire and protect civilians in Gaza, and to avoid a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah that would devastate the region," Haghdoosti continued. "Releasing this transfer signals to the Israeli government that, if cease-fire talks again stall, the war in Gaza can continue and that a massive conflict with Hezbollah can begin, with no real US pushback."

President Joe Biden "must reverse this decision, which makes no sense as politics or policy," she added.

Biden, who is facing mounting calls to drop his reelection campaign, was not asked about the reversal during his closely watched press conference at the conclusion of NATO's 2024 summit in Washington, DC late Thursday.

The administration's decision to lift the pause came following what The Washington Post described as "a pressure campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and pro-Israel lobbyists in the United States, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, demanding the resumption of all weapons shipments regardless of their lethality."

Last month, Netanyahu—who is facing a possible arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC)—released a video complaining that the administration was "withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel."

The US is Israel's top arms supplier and has sent Israel billions of dollars worth of weapons and other military equipment since October 07—weaponry that Israel has repeatedly used to commit atrocities in Gaza.

An unnamed administration official the US was mostly concerned about the 2,000-pound bombs that were part of the initially planned shipment, rather than the 500-pound bombs. The 2,000-pound bombs will remain on hold, the official said.

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) joined Win Without War in demanding that the Biden administration walk back its decision to lift the pause on the 500-pound bombs, warning that "providing such massive, explosive weapons with wide-area effects despite Israel's systematic and deliberate deployment of such bombs in built-up civilian areas throughout Gaza further exposes US officials to liability for war crimes prosecution."

"This week alone, Israel used US weapons to strike a school during a soccer game killing scores of children, and ordered the forced evacuation of hundreds of thousands of desperate civilians from Gaza City," said DAWN senior adviser Josh Paul, who resigned from the US State Department last year over the Biden administration's continued arming of Israel.

"Lifting a suspension on the delivery of 500-pound bombs meant to prevent the invasion of Rafah, only to then send Israel those bombs to enable the further destruction of Gaza City, is not only an act of perversity but a lawless one as well," Paul said.

Raed Jarrar, DAWN's advocacy director, called on the ICC to "investigate US officials for their complicity in the genocidal atrocities in Gaza, insisting on providing Israel with some of the most lethal weapons in the world despite full knowledge that Israel is using them unlawfully against Palestinian civilians."

"The Biden administration is fully culpable for the slaughter of civilians in Gaza, and should be held accountable for its role in aiding and abetting Israel's shocking war crimes and crimes against humanity," Jarrar added.

 

Pakistan clinches a new deal with IMF

In a most anticipated event, Pakistan authorities have reached Staff Level Agreement (SLA) with International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a new 37 months Extended Funded Facility (EFF) of US$7 billion. This new program aims to strengthen the macroeconomic stability and set the road for resilient and inclusive growth. This agreement will now be followed by board approvals which normally takes couple of weeks after the SLA.

Our note of dissent

We are of the opinion 1) Pakistan already suffers from unsustainable debt servicing and the new agreement would never enable the country to come out of debt circle. Pakistan will keep on borrowing and repaying through the nose, 2) Hike in electricity and gas tariffs will further erode competitiveness of the local manufactures and adversely impact exports, 3) the country does not have infrastructure to workout cost of crops and in turn income of farmers, the proposed 45% rate would be meaningless, 4) the breach of “confidence deficit” will widen further 5) the hatred against “ruling elite” is already on the rise and 6) in case anti-government demonstration start, these could turn violent and create serious law & order situation.

The press release issued by IMF conditions this agreement to timely confirmation of necessary financing assurances from Pakistan’s development and bilateral partners.

Some of the key milestones or reforms that Pakistan has already taken or will take over the course of the program are:

Increase in tax to GDP ratio by 300bps: 

1-      Under this 37-months program, the Government has to enhance tax to GDP ratio by 300bps. Measures to achieve half of this target (150bps) are already taken in FY25 budget by removing various exemptions and broadening the tax base.

2-       Taxing the untaxed and undertaxed: 

Under this program, Government has also changed tax regime of exporters from 1% of turnover full and final regime to normal tax regime, wherein exporters will now be paying tax equal to other corporates at 29% of profit before tax plus applicable super tax. Also, in a bold move, Government has taxed retail sector and plans to introduce tax on agriculture income from January 2025.

3-      National Fiscal Pact to be signed: 

The new national fiscal pact is likely to be signed between provincial and federal government for fair fiscal balance between federal and provincial units. Through this, provincial governments will be required to spend higher on education, health, social protection, and regional public infrastructure investment, enabling improved public service provision. This will result in lower expenditures of federal government in above areas. However, there is no timeline given for such measure.

4-      Monetary Policy: 

On monetary policy stance, IMF has noted, it will continue to focus on supporting disinflation.

5-      Privatization: 

On privatization side, it is noted that, highest priority is given to most profitable State Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

6-      Other Measures: 

Few other important measures are, phasing out of agriculture support prices, phasing out incentives granted to special economic zones, refraining from new regulatory or tax based incentive, or any guaranteed return scheme including those projects which are channeled through Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC).

Some of the key measures which Pakistan took before clinching this deal were: 1) increasing the power tariff, 2) increasing the gas rates, 3) approval of budget FY25, and 4) amendment in SOEs law, as per news report. It is believed that some of these measures were taken as part of the prior actions of the new deal.

 

China becoming uncontrollable might

The United States may need to take further and "more creative" actions beyond tariffs to protect US industries and workers against China's growing excess industrial capacity, the US Treasury's top economic diplomat said on Wednesday.

Jay Shambaugh, Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs, told a Council on Foreign Relations event that China's production has become "untethered" from its own demand or demand in the global economy, unleashing exports that threaten jobs in the US and other countries.

He said the traditional trade defense toolkit, including the "Section 301" tariffs that President Joe Biden recently increased, may not be sufficient to deal with such challenges.

"More creative approaches may be necessary to mitigate the impacts of China’s overcapacity," Shambaugh said.

"We should be clear: defense against overcapacity or dumping is not protectionist or anti-trade, it is an attempt to safeguard firms and workers from distortions in another economy."

Shambaugh did not elaborate on further steps that may be necessary or under consideration by the Biden administration.

A group of bipartisan lawmakers and steel producers earlier on Wednesday called on Congress to pass new legislation that would apply US anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on Chinese goods to those produced by Chinese companies in third countries.

The "Leveling the Playing Field 2.0" bill sponsored by Representative Terri Sewell, a Democrat and Representative Bill Johnson, a Republican, also would allow China's "Belt and Road" subsidies for projects in other countries to be counted in anti-subsidy cases.

The Biden administration also on Wednesday unveiled a new effort with Mexico to combat China's circumvention of US steel and aluminum tariffs, instituting a new North American "melted and poured" standard for steel imported into the US from Mexico.

Shambaugh's remarks amplified concerns voiced by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on a trip to China in April, when she warned that Beijing's overinvestment and excess production capacity in key industries was unacceptable.

The trip foreshadowed Biden's steep tariff hikes on an array of Chinese goods, including electric vehicles, solar panels, semiconductors and critical minerals.

He defined China's overcapacity as "production capacity in excess of domestic demand and untethered from global demand," stemming from persistent overinvestment that is facilitated by extensive state support.

China's production capacity in some industries far exceeds global demand projections, including for solar panels, lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles, he said, adding that China's factory utilization rates were falling, while the share of money-losing firms was rising, reaching 28% of publicly traded Chinese automakers.

"These conditions would not appear in a normal, market economy. What we are seeing is a fundamental distortion, driven by government policy," Shambaugh said.

It would be better for China to work with other countries to address their concerns and rein in excess capacity to boost efficiency and productivity, expand its social safety net and boost domestic demand efficiency.

"We will take defensive action if needed, but we would prefer for China to take action itself to address the macroeconomic and structural forces that are generating the potential for a second 'China shock' for its major trading partners," Shambaugh said.