NEW DELHI: Plagued by repeated corruption scandals, India's federal government is now in the eye of yet another corruption storm after the country's top army official revealed last week that a retired senior army official had offered him a bribe to clear a sub standard army vehicle contract. After the Opposition stalled the proceedings of both houses of India's Parliament on Monday, India's defense minister A K Antony had ordered a probe by a top federal investigating agency, the Central bureau of Investigation into the general V K Singh's revelation. On Tuesday, Antony confirmed to the Parliament's Upper House, that a year back the army general had indeed informed him about the veiled bribe offer by a retired lieutenant general. “I remember it happened a year ago … But when I asked the general to initiate action, he said that he ‘did not want to pursue the matter further',” Antony told parliament. V K Singh in an interview to The Hindu, a popular national newspaper, on Sunday had said that a retired senior army official had indirectly offered him a bribe of Rs 14 crore, if he authorised the procurement of below standard trucks for the Indian army. Singh said that he had rejected the overtures and ordered the man out of his room. The official, who was later identified in the media as Lt. General (retd) Tejinder Singh has denied that he had made the offer, but confirmed that he had met V K Singh. Leader of opposition in the Upper House Arun Jaitely of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the government of operating with blinkers said that the ruling Congress-led coalition government was suffering from deficient statecraft ability. “There is definitely something going wrong with statecraft here. If a subject matter comes into the knowledge of the army chief or minister, that a retired or serving general is doing this, then it should have been investigated,” Jaitely said. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/RPxzR Tags: Corruption, featured, Graft, India, Military, Singh Section: Latest News, South Asia
