26 October 2012

May all these VVIP helicopters crash.

It's been a while since something grabbed my attention and made me seethe with anger.  Considering this is India, that in itself is an accomplishment for both parties.

The VVIP helicopter purchase scam has come to the fore now, as if the other scams have been sorted out, reversed, done and dusted.  None of that has happened, and yet, this one is particularly disgusting, not because our VVIPs are involved, or in fact, an Army Officer is involved in a bribery.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/army-officer-sought--5-mn-bribe-italy-probe/1022157/

None of this should surprise us anymore, as Indians, as the weasels of the world, as the scum of the earth, as the uncaring sloth filled silent murderers of anything that is sacred or sacrosanct like human dignity.

What should surprise us these days is if anything is devoid of some kind of corruption, some kind of illegality, of illicitness, or outright fraud.  No, India is not a great nation by any stretch, but we really don't have to compete to be the worst either.

Okay, so we need helicopters for our VVIPs.  Let's take a look at who these VVI pricks and pussies are in the first place - politicians!  About 95% of these helicopter rides are going to be used by the ruling class of India, which is unbelievably rich, wealthy beyond anything possible to imagine by most of us working in any enterprise.  I don't grudge them their wealth, if the wealth of the nation has not been stolen for this purpose.

Mother India has been raped, and is a constant rape victim, each time either an illegal mine is being dug or spectrum is sold at prices well below what is fair.  Our Mother is getting raped, because we, her children, participate in this act, willingly, and happily, to get some kind of out of turn favour.  As a result, we have cultivated an entire breed of rape specialists called politicians and bureaucrats, who think everything should belong to them, and basically NOTHING should belong to Mother India.

These helicopters were ordered from AgustaWestland, which is an Italian company, and at this point, we don't quite know if Sonia Gandhi or one of her cronies is involved.  We cannot point fingers to everything that is Italian and illegal and say she is a party to that.  That's not the point of this salvo.

There were bids from Kamov (Russia), Eurocopter (EU) and ostensibly a few others as well.  For some reason, the number in question is 12.  The figure available for this scam is around 3800 Cr rupees.  So the price for each helicopter is 3800/12 = 316 Cr!

Compare that to the Advanced Light Helicopter, made by our own Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, and it is cheap, since the ALH costs approximately 39.3 crores of rupees per unit.  So, at some level, this must be a convincing argument that we got a really bad deal, right?  Indeed, except that it hasn't registered yet!  We are stupid enough to believe in paying ten times the price of our "exceptional, world class" helicopter for an Italian one!

Buying all these helicopters from the HAL, and ordering any number of variants would have cost a lot less, AND the money is being put into our own economy - merely internal Central Government of India paperwork, ultimately.

We have already spent a lot of money developing the ALH, and many foreign countries have bought it from us!  But it is not good enough for our VVIPs?  Why not?  Because you cannot make money through kickbacks if you buy from Government of India FOR Government of India?  Who would pay a bribe to an undeserving vermin, piece of corrupt shit?  Moreover, these scum probably know the ALH, being made by their own corrupt brethren is likely to not live up to expectations.  In other words, the fucking thing might crash!


We were ready to throw a vast amount of foreign exchange at a foreign company that is ostensibly in competition with our own!  Bloody corrupt VVIP vermin!

Now, there is a finding that India changed the technical requirements in order to bring AgustaWestland into contention!  http://www.indianexpress.com/news/chopper-deal-kickbacks-india-changed-tech-requirements-to-help-italian-firm/1024929/

How far would we go to help out our Italian connection?  How far, when Ferrari's Formula One team has no problem "showing solidarity" with two of their sailors being tried in our legal system for murdering our fishermen in open waters?  It gets bloody hard to believe Sonia marrying Rajiv has nothing to do with this.

The absurdity doesn't end here.

When any Government of India employee goes on the paid vacation under the LTC (Leave Travel Concession) scheme, those that are eligible for flights are mandated to buy tickets from Air India, even though it is usually more expensive!  What is the bloody logic behind flying in a loss making carrier, that is usually shoddy with schedules and maintains its planes badly, where staff members are unprofessional and flight staff are likely to have fights in mid-air?  I wonder if the GOI will take kindly to an employee missing a day's work due to an Air India inefficiency and subsequent late arrival after leave.  After all, it wasn't the employee's fault was it?  Besides the point.

The real reason behind not ordering the helicopters from HAL, besides not being able to claim bribes, has to be that the GOI's VVIP pigs do not have faith in the ALH.  After all, it has had its share of crash landings and teething problems, and those things are better left to the military!  Who cares if some army brass or soldiers die in an ALH crash?  It is just a small news item.  Like this one: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/iafs-dhruv-helicopter-crashes-in-uttar-pradeshs-sitapur/article6249690.ece?homepage=true

But if a politician prick crashes, the whole nation is agog with the sad messages pouring in, the marches on the streets, the processions, and news channels whining for a whole day about how exactly the damn thing went down.

A king would have some remorse at this sort of anomaly, because he was required to have a conscience.  Our leaders do not.  Now, why the fuck are we being programmed to accept democracy as some sort of decent option?

- BSK.