New Delhi, February 8
The cavalcade of Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Madhvendra Singh screeched to a halt in the portico of Gate Number 11 of South Block as the naval chief jumped out of the white Ambassador car and rushed inside. Two large-sized suitcases were pulled out from the car behind and taken inside.
A posse of well over hundred Indian and foreign mediamen present on the scene was foxed by the development. The reason: the visiting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov and Defence Minister George Fernandes were to hold a joint Press conference at 3 pm and here was the naval chief’s cavalcade entering South Block around 3.15 pm.
The media glare under which the suitcases were taken inside South Block ruled out the possibility of currency notes being inside the suitcases as token advance for Indian defence purchases from Russia.
Defence officials disclosed that the suitcases contained documents and possibly compact discs (CDs) of the Russian weaponry which India was interested in buying. The sudden and unexpected arrival of the naval chief at the Klebanov-Fernandes talks venue demonstrated that the negotiations had got stuck on some technical aspects.
Sources said the Russians lived upto their reputation of being hard bargainers. They adopted their well-known technique of quoting a fantastically low price for the equipment and unreasonably high price for that equipment’s spares.
Not unlike somebody selling a cow for Rs 20 but making it a precondition that the cow would come with the chain which costs Rs 5,000, said an official talking about the Russian negotiation techniques.
The same technique was evident today also as the Russians declared that the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier was a “gift” and entirely free of cost, but this “gift” was available only when the Indians got it retrofitted and equipped from the Russians. The Russians also linked the availability of “Admiral Gorshkov” to the two Russian nuclear submarines which are being offered on five-year lease at an unreasonably high price.
The total worth of the fighter planes, helicopters, AWACS radars and Multi Barrel Rocket Launchers
(MBRLs) which the Russians are offering to India along with the “free” Gorshkov is estimated at well over Rs 20,000 crore. Some estimates put this figure to as high as Rs 32,000 crore.
Sources said the Government of India put its foot down and matched the Russians in skills of hard negotiations. That is why the Gorshkov and nuclear submarines deal could not be finalised today, sources pointed out.
