Indian Navy probes leaked data of Scorpene subs

Indian Navy probes leaked data of Scorpene subs

At midnight on Tuesday, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was woken up by a phone call to tell him that an Australian newspaper had just reported the leakage of key operational details of India’s newest submarines, the Scorpene.

A short while earlier, The Australian, a reputed Melbourne based daily, had broken the news that 22,400 pages of detailed documents relating to India’s Scorpene submarines has been leaked, apparently from the French shipbuilder, DCNS, which is the vendor for India’s six Scorpenes.

The report in The Australian says: “the DCNS documents detail the most sensitive combat capabilities of India’s new $US3 bn ($3.9bn) submarine fleet and would provide an intelligence bonanza if obtained by India’s strategic rivals, such as Pakistan or China.”

ALSO READ: Indian Navy analysing Scorpene data leak

Each page of the leaked documents, which are available on The Australian’s website, is annotated in red with the stamp: “Restricted Scorpene India”.

Parrikar says, upon learning of the leak at midnight, he ordered the navy chief personally to inquire into what this meant for the security of the Scorpene fleet.(more)

Facing sedition charge, Cong leader Ramya refuses to apologise for Pak comment

Facing sedition charge, Cong leader Ramya refuses to apologise for Pak comment

The Kannada actor and Congress member Ramya, who is accused of sedition over her remarks of praising the people of Pakistan after a recent visit, said on Tuesday that there is “no question of apologising.”

She said, "BJP will not do anything to repeal the law, because they are using it to their advantage", Congress leader Ramya on Tuesday refused to apologise for her statement that "Pakistan is a good country, not hell."

The 33-year-old Divya Spandana visited Islamabad to attend Saarc Young Parliamentarians Conference, responded to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s statement, “Going to Pakistan is like going to hell,” with “Pakistan is not hell, people there are just like us. They treated us very well.”

She made the remarks during a rally in her former constituency Mandya, saying how the people of Pakistan went out of their way on making her stay and comfortable after they got to know that she is from India.

Her comments outraged K Vittal Gowda, an advocate from Karnataka, who lodged a “sedition case” in Kodagu in southern Karnataka, around 250 km from state capital Bengaluru.(more)

Ruckus in RS as Manohar Parrikar speaks on AgustaWestland deal

Despite opposition from the Congress, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikaron Wednesday told the Rajya Sabha that he only wanted to give chronology of the events with regard to corruption in the Rs 3,600-crore sale of 12 VVIP choppers to India.

"This matter is not of today, this pertains to year 2002. I just wanted to inform the House, the chronological order of events, without any comments on them, so that the House is aware of when it took place and what happened," Parrikar said in the Upper House.

"Whether they want or don't want, it is for them (Congress)," he added amid uproar in the upper house.

Parrikar, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modiyesterday, had earlier on Monday said that his address in the Parliament would include how and when necessary clauses or provisions were relaxed to suit the company.

Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, has accused the Centre of pursuing a politically motivated campaign to defame the grand old party through the AgustaWestland copter scam.

Meanwhile, former Indian Air Force chief S.P. Tyagi is being grilled for the third consecutive day by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at its headquarter here in connection with alleged irregularities in the Rs. 3600 crore VVIP chopper deal.

As per reports, the former IAF chief is said to have told the CBI yesterday that he met senior officials of Finmeccanica, the parent company of AgustaWestland, while negotiations for the purchase of VVIP choppers were going on.

He also told the interrogators that he had met Finmeccanica's Chief Operating Officer Georgio Zapa in New Delhi on February 15, 2005.

The CBI yesterday quizzed the former IAF chief on the four firms which he and his wife set up after his retirement from service.Read More.