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When I first saw the news report in The Times of India of 11 December 2001 on the CAG Review of Kargil related defence procurements, I was taken aback by the headline,
"Money was made even from Kargil coffins, says CAG"; I knew from personal knowledge that there were no aluminium caskets during Kargil or just thereafter - the bodies of our
jawans had arrived in New Delhi in wooden caskets, some emitting odour, disgracing the national flag draped on to the coffins.
References in the news report to weight, aluminium, die press, price tags of 1994, welding, current prices, etc. roused my curiosity. Indian newspaper reporting on this kind of mix has been a regular source of mirth to many. I know the Indian Press. I also know George
Fernandes.
Also, I have a fairly good idea of how constitutionally erected bodies like the CAG function in our times: they too, like other government departments, are staffed by
babus who are committed mostly to themselves, thus inevitably, slowly and steadily rendering less credible the organisations they work for. It is happening all over. Yet, there was shock in store even for this cynic in the short few paragraphs on Aluminium Caskets in the CAG Review: traces of malice. But no wrongdoing by the Army or the MoD, nor any scam.
A re-reading of the CAG Review and the news report about it in The Times of India and in the other newspapers the following day, utterly convinced me that the CAG Review was miserly on truth and profuse in conclusions, and the newspapers were exaggerating and lying. It was obvious to me that no newspaper had questioned the Review, hardly anybody had asked the Ministry of Defence to see the case documents which had justified the need to purchase these aluminium caskets. No one from the CAG appeared to have seen the casket; no journalist had examined the casket about which they were writing. Few knew of Victor Baiza, the American mortician in Somalia in the mid-90s, who introduced the reusable aluminium casket to the Indian Army - a sentimental person, he was persuaded by the Army to supply aluminium caskets since the Army had failed to find any supplier. Wonderfully, few journalists seemed to know when the caskets arrived in India - before, during, or after Kargil, or when the Kargil war ended! All this pushed me to pen - and
that's How, this little booklet.
The seeds of suspicion of irregularity the CAG Review has tried to sow in Mr Fernandes' yard had no hope whatsoever of sprouting: the man is a patriot and too proud to fiddle. In the event, a little digging for facts produced illuminating titbits - the usual, form Indian negligence here and there, some minor bureaucratic goof-ups, and the officials' steely determination to save their own skins - no matter what that inflicts on, others --- was all that was wrong about the caskets purchase.
But the CAG wanted to be needlessly censorious, and the Press seemed to want a scam. And as a consequence what flowed from that scandal-mongering by the Press was a day of infamy for the Indian Press, as your will soon read in. this booklet. The politicians fared no better.
The handling of the short Kargil war was a fine example of Indian statesmanship and soldiering. The MPs should be knowing when the intruders came, were detected and when expelled, if not how the bodies of our soldiers killed were shipped to New Delhi. They knew George Fernandes and his famed probity in public life. As such there was need for them to be cautious about the bodies and the caskets, and the MoD in regard to
The Times of India report. But, "Money was made even from Kargil coffins, says the CAG" was too much of a killer opportunity to miss for the Opposition, decorum, truth, facts, etc. notwithstanding. So the MPs walked into the Parliament flaunting copies of
The Times of India in hand. What followed was two days of defaming of the defence establishment, based only on untruths and distortions, too painful for me to recount here. I hope this little booklet will induce them now to do
mea culpas. The appropriate mea culpa could be to press the imported caskets into use to give due respect to the mortal remains of servicemen who sometimes die while they serve. And an apology to George
Fernandes.
I want to thank the Ministry of Defence for their help with documents in establishing the truth. Jawans and officers dying for us deserve the type of reusable aluminium caskets the, United States Military is using since 1963. Our country should be giving the mortal remains, while in transit, of those who die while securing the disturbed areas and protecting our borders the highest respect and dignity which only hermetically sealable aluminium caskets the Army has received provide. The families of those who die for us are entitled to no less. To that end, this little booklet.
-RVP
New Delhi
7 January 2002 (For the very slightly revised 2nd edition in 2 days)
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