It is evident that India’s stealth submarine project has been severely compromised with the unauthorised leak of over 22,000 pages of original written material about the Scorpene-class submarines that this country is in the process of acquiring. The documents give away the combat and performance capabilities, as well as the frequencies used for intelligence-gathering, their noise levels at different speeds and diving depths, according to The Australian newspaper, which reported the unprecedented leak on Wednesday. The leak concerns the submarines being built at Mazagaon Docks in India in partnership with French company DCNS under a deal signed in 2005 for $3.5 billion. The first of six submarines being built, INS Kalvari, under Project 75, was to be inducted later this year and the remaining five by 2020.
Given the nature of what’s been brought into the public domain, and if the leaked material does indeed give away sensitive classified data, it is a moot point whether INS Kalvari is worth having now even if China and Pakistan haven’t yet got hold of the data that is being passed from hand to hand for a price. In relation to the threat perception, India’s submarine arm is weak and needs rapid strengthening. Ten of the 13 conventional submarines with India are of pre-1990 vintage. Without an iota of information or inkling as to the sources of the leak, defence minister Manohar Parrikar has said it was too early to “assume” that sensitive data and designs had been compromised, and noted that the “claims” would have to be first verified. Fair enough.
But while this theoretical proposition is being underscored, the Integrated Headquarters (Navy) of the defence ministry has gone on to hint that the leak may have occurred at the French end, and the material that has been exposed relates to an early version of the writing done by DCNS on the Scorpene submarines and not the version given by the French company to India. This is a self-serving position to adopt in the absence of an inquiry, and may be seen as an attempt to take evasive action and deflect responsibility. While the government must do due diligence and analyse and investigate, its findings must be submitted for the sake of impartiality to an independent body for evaluation. The government giving a clean chit to itself will not carry any credibility. Leaks and espionage are not new to sensitive government departments, particularly in defence. The government must inform the country how effective are its systems to prevent such undesirable occurrences. Let’s face it — we are possibly speaking of the most sensitive defence-related irregular exposure in India.
