NEW DELHI: Allegations of kickbacks paid to middlemen in purchase of Bofors artillery guns led to one of the worst electoral defeats for Congress party in the late 80s, and since then the Army has been unable to purchase even a single new artillery gun for over the past 25 years.
But there is a yet unheard of twist to the Bofors scam, it now emerges. Sources said the blame for Army's stalled artillery modernization may lie closer home, with the government sitting on the transfer of technology that permits India to manufacture the Bofors gun in the country.
As the military top brass desperately look around for solutions to the crippling shortage of artillery guns, they stumbled upon the fact that India actually has the entire drawings of the Bofors guns, and had paid for the transfer of technology to manufacture the gun in India. But the Ordnance Factory Board sat on the drawings all these years, never attempting to make the gun in India.
A senior official, not very amused at the turn of events, told TOI that they have now asked OFB to manufacture six prototypes of the Bofors artillery guns within the next 18 months. "If we had indigenous capability, then all these years of effort to buy foreign guns and such crippling shortage in capabilities wouldn't have been there," he said.
Once they are ready, the Army would put them through extensive field trials and once cleared, OFB could then resort to mass production, one of the officials said.
This is Epic Failure of Our Defence Ministry
