Why is Congress upset by SP Tyagi’s arrestIJ
There is no reason to play politics over the arrest of former chief of the Indian Air Force, Air Marshal SP Tyagi, in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland deal. It is unfortunate that the Congress has questioned the motive behind the arrest. Its leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi wondered about the development's timing: “The BJP never did anything in the case for the last three years. Why the arrest nowIJ This is a diversionary tactic.” One can turn around and ask of the Congress what the Government it led until May 2014, had done in the matter. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a case in March 2013, when the Manmohan Singh regime was in power. Based on the CBI’s complaint, the Enforcement Directorate had booked Air Marshal Tyagi and a few other people. But thereafter, a good 12 months went by without the probe agencies making any serious headway. It was only in July 2014, after the Narendra Modi Government assumed charge, that the Enforcement Directorate finally moved to register a case under the Prevention of Money laundering Act, against Air Marshal Tyagi and a bunch of others allegedly involved in kickbacks. By calling the arrest “diversionary”, the Congress is alluding to the inconvenience faced by people due to the Government's demonetisation decision. But it has got the plot wrong. Far from seeking to divert public attention from demonetisation, the Government has gone the full length in publicising the decision's medium-to-long-term benefits for the country. By all accounts, the people, despite the hardships they have faced at banks and ATMs, have remained supportive of the move. Thus, there is really no need for the Government to ‘divert' public attention. Perhaps the reason the Congress is jittery over Air Marshal Tyagi's arrest — Singhvi even went to the extent of saying that if the former Air Force chief is convicted, it would be a “sad day” — is that Air Marshal Tyagi has squarely told the Delhi court he was produced before, that the authorities involved in clearing the lowered specifications for the VVIP helicopters were, among others, those from the Prime Minister's Office (during the Manmohan Singh-led coalition Government). Air Marshal Tyagi's counsel told the court, “The PMO then advised to keep the minimum mandatory requirement of the service ceiling of the helicopters to 4,500 metres (from the earlier 6,000 metres).” The accused's defence has been that, given the other decision-makers, he alone cannot be held responsible for the changed specifications.
It's not as if the Modi Government made up a case against Air Marshall Tyagi in a bid to arrest him and ‘divert' public attention. His name in the AgustaWestland deal was first flagged by an Italian probe report in February 2013. The report said that, as the Air Force chief, he had, along with a few others including family members, played a role in swinging the deal in the company's favour. The CBI since then has found prima facie material to work on the allegation that Air Marshal Tyagi had “entered into a criminal conspiracy” with the other accused and, in 2005, “conceded to change the Indian Air Force's consistent stand” (on the service ceiling height of the helicopter). The CBI is investigating the matter, and we must let it do its work. It's not wise to jump to conclusions.