[Arun Jaitley, the
leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in the upper house of
Parliament, called the
incident the “first such case of state-sponsored deception and
state-sponsored abduction.” He alleged that the Indian government was complicit
in the situation.]
By Hari Kumar
 |
Anindito Mukherjee/European Pressphoto Agency
A protest near the Italian embassy in New Delhi on Wednesday, against Italy’s
refusal to send back two Italian marines charged with killing two Indian
fishermen last year.
|
NEW DELHI— A serious diplomatic incident appears to be brewing between
India and Italy, at least as seen from this side of the Arabian Sea.
The Italian government
said this week that it would not send two marines back to India to face a
murder trial. The marines were granted permission to visit Italy to participate
in elections on the basis of a written pledge they would return, which was
given to the Supreme Court of India by the Italian ambassador.
India’s government,
politicians and media have reacted sharply to the news they are breaking their
pledge to return to India. India’s relationship with Italy is shadowed by the
fact that Sonia Gandhi, the ruling Congress Party president and one of the most
powerful politicians in the country, was born in Italy.
The relationship is
further complicated by a recent Italian investigation into bribery at
Finmeccanica, which focuses on a helicopter deal with the Indian government. On
Wednesday, the former chief of India’s air force was accused of
corruption in connection with the deal.
As Congress Party
politicians rushed to criticize Italy over the marines, the opposition rushed
to blame the Indian National Congress party.
The Italian
government’s decision to allow the marines to remain home violates “every rule
of diplomatic discourse,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a speech on
Wednesday in Parliament.
“Our government has
already made it clear that these actions of the government of Italy are not
acceptable,” he said. (The speech was also paraphrased on his Twitter feed.) “If they do not keep
their word, there will be consequences for our relations with Italy,” he said.
Arun Jaitley, the
leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in the upper house of
Parliament, called the
incident the “first such case of state-sponsored deception and
state-sponsored abduction.” He alleged that the Indian government was complicit
in the situation.
The Italian ambassador
to India, Daniele Mancini, told journalists Wednesday that Italy wants to
resolve this issue by “consensual means.”
Massimiliano Latorre
and Salvatore Girone, the two marines, face murder charges in the February 2012
shooting of two Indian fishermen who were on a fishing boat in the Arabian Sea,
off the southern Indian coast. India said the shooting occurred in Indian
waters, so any trial should occur in its country, while Italy contends that it
happened in international waters.
In January, India’s
Supreme Court ruled that the two men could be tried in India in a special
federal court.
The marines were
granted permission to go to Italy to celebrate Christmas, and they returned
promptly. Earlier this year, they were granted permission to go to Italy again
for four weeks to participate in national elections in late February.
The Italian Foreign
Ministry told the Indian Foreign Ministry on Monday that the two men would not
return.
“Italy takes this
opportunity to inform the Indian government that, given the formal
acknowledgement of an international dispute between the two states,
Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone will not be returning to India upon
expiration of the leave granted them,” the Italian
government said in a statement.
India’s Ministry of
External Affairs issued a relatively mild statement Tuesday
in New Delhi saying the “government of India states firmly that it does not
agree with the position conveyed by the Italian government on the return of the
two marines to India.”
That now seems like an
understatement, given Mr. Singh’s speech in Parliament on Wednesday.
Perhaps that’s because
the national news dailies carried the story on their front pages Wednesday with
belligerent headlines. “Italy’s betrayal on marines stuns India,” The Hindustan
Times said. The same paper called Italy’s decision an “undiplomatic
sleight of hand” in an editorial, which concluded that “New Delhi
should read the riot act to Rome over the deception in the case of the
marines.”
The Times of India
said that Italy’s ambassador “may get marching orders,” while an editorial
chided the Indian government for being “a soft state.”
CORRUPTION CHARGES FILED AGAINST FORMER AIR CHIEF
[Bribery allegations in the $750 million purchase of 12 helicopters by
the Indian Air Force first surfaced last month after the arrest of
Giuseppe Orsi, chief executive of Finmeccanica. The arrest resulted
from an investigation into violations of Italy’s corruption and bribery laws.]
By Pamposh Raina
NEW DELHI — The former chief of the Indian Air Force, Shashi Prakash
Tyagi, has been accused of cheating, conspiracy and bribery, in connection with
a 2010 helicopter deal with AgustaWestland.
India’s chief investigator, the Central Bureau of Investigation, or
C.B.I., on Wednesday filed a criminal case against Mr. Tyagi, 12 other people
and six companies, Dharini Mishra, a spokeswoman from the C.B.I., told India
Ink.
Raids are being conducted at the homes and offices of people in
several locations including Delhi, Chandigarh and Gurgaon, she said.
A statement issued by the C.B.I. Wednesday evening
alleged that, “in the procurement process some persons acted as middlemen,” and
they “allegedly influenced the deal” in favor of AgustaWestland, a subsidiary
of the Italian aerospace company Finmeccanica that is based in Britain. It
further said:
It is also alleged that Italy based company paid commission in terms
of several millions of Euros to the middlemen. The middlemen from their share
of commission allegedly paid huge sums of money to some Indian Nationals in the
garb of engineering contracts with two India based companies.
Bribery allegations in the $750 million purchase of 12 helicopters by
the Indian Air Force first surfaced last month after the arrest of
Giuseppe Orsi, chief executive of Finmeccanica. The arrest resulted
from an investigation into violations of Italy’s corruption and bribery laws.
Mr. Tyagi, who served as the chief of the air force from 2004 until
2007, last month denied allegations that he received kickbacks
in the deal and dismissed accusations that he had been bribed through his
relatives to grant AgustaWestland the contract.
