NEW DELHI, March 20: In a piquant situation several foreign arms manufacturers who have come here to participate in the nation's only private defence exhibition are now cooling their heels due to resistance from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to grant permission for the show to go on.Sat Expo, the New Delhi-based private exhibition organiser has gone to court to obtain permission and the co-respondents are the MoD's Department of Defence Production & Supplies (DP&S) and the Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO).In international arms exhibitions the world over, the organisers collect the full payment from participants in advance and are not obliged to refund any money even if for some reason the programme cannot be held. The exhibition organiser has to obtain permission from the ITPO which seeks the views of the nodal ministry in this case the MoD. Only thereafter Sat Expo gets customs clearance to release the exhibit samples of armaments and combat support systems.Now the exhibitors are minustheir exhibits and the organisers are in a quandary. The India International Civil & Defence Equipment Systems (IICDES) Exhibition 1998 has been held every year since 1995 but has run aground in its fourth attempt this year.Despite the Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat making a keynote address and some senior serving Army officers addressing the participants at a seminar the Indian Air Force (IAF) has objections. The IAF has instructed its officers that they go only with the concurrence of their respective Principal Staff Officers. The organisers claim that they are only attempting to infuse transparency in the arms procurement process by serving as a platform to bring together military personnel who are the end users of equipment and the armament manufacturers. South Block sources on the other hand opine that direct interaction between military officers and the arms manufacturers could result in scope for corruption in determining the type of systems.
