{"id":321187,"date":"2020-03-20T06:41:13","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T06:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=321187"},"modified":"2020-03-20T06:41:16","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T06:41:16","slug":"from-tehelka-archives-april-18-2001-suspicions-raised-by-tehelka-confirmed-by-cvc-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/from-tehelka-archives-april-18-2001-suspicions-raised-by-tehelka-confirmed-by-cvc-report\/","title":{"rendered":"From Tehelka Archives April 18, 2001: Suspicions raised by Tehelka confirmed by CVC report"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Former army chief General Shankar Roychowdhury has said the report of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on defence deals since 1986 indicated that suspicions raised by the Tehelka <\/em>expos\u00e9 were not baseless.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis (CVC) report promises to be an immensely more authentic \u2018tehelka\u2019 regarding dirty tricks in the defence procurement business,\u201d Roychowdhury said, in an article in the forthcoming issue of Indian Defence Review.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said that the secret report indicated the involvement of bureaucrats, politicians and arms brokers, which showed that \u201cthe suspicions raised by the Tehelka Tapes were not baseless.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Roychowdhury, who is also an independent Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament from West Bengal, asked the <\/span>government to \u201cprove its bonafides by following up the wrong doings which find mention in the N Vittal (chief vigilance commissioner) document and follow these up relentlessly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Stating that the Tehelka expos\u00e9 was a \u201cwatershed in terms of ethics and moral values\u201d in the army, Roychowdhury said, \u201cThe tapes have confronted the army with a battle for the heart and minds of its own people and it is a battle it cannot afford to lose.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Army personnel had been \u201cdeeply disturbed at the obscene spectacle of senior army officers consuming free scotch whisky provided by fly-by-night carpetbaggers chaperoned into their presence by the clerical cadre of the defence ministry,\u201d the former army chief said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to expect the Bollywood to get into the act now, by adding senior army officers to its portfolio of screen villains, which so far by and large had remained restricted to politicians, businessmen and senior police officers only,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Roychowdhury quoted a Major serving on the Line of Control (LoC) as saying, \u201cWe too watch the television and read newspapers…we know the <\/span>army does not spare anyone who is involved in the most minor instance of wrongdoing. We are waiting, sir, to see whether the senior people who are <\/span>involved will be treated likewise, or will they get away with their misdeeds.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Describing the Major\u2019s reaction as \u201cgrave\u201d, he said it indicated the reaction to the entire <\/span>episode within the \u201creal army, and provides a glimpse of the suppressed <\/span>anger within a proud organisation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Stating that the prestige of the army and its personnel had \u201csunk to an <\/span>unprecedented low,\u201d he said that restoration of self-esteem and redemption of \u201cizzat\u201d <\/span>(respect) would require a determined effort.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

letters@tehelka.com<\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former army chief General Shankar Roychowdhury has said the report of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on defence deals since 1986 indicated that suspicions raised by the Tehelka expos\u00e9 were not baseless. \u201cThis (CVC) report promises to be an immensely more authentic \u2018tehelka\u2019 regarding dirty tricks in the defence procurement business,\u201d Roychowdhury said, in an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":321194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,2205],"tags":[5632],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321187"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321197,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321187\/revisions\/321197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/321194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}