{EOP}Indian Navy Officer Caught Having Sexual Relations With Russian On-Duty

A senior Navy officer has been sacked for having sexual relations with a Russian woman in Moscow as head of the Indian team overseeing the refit of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov there.

Commodore Sukhjinder Singh was posted in Moscow between 2005 to 2007 as the Indian warship production superintendent to oversee Gorshkov”s refit when he developed the illicit relationship with the woman. The Navy had to face much embarrassment after Singh’s photographs with a Russian woman became public and a probe was ordered.

Singh, who has at least two years of service left,will have to immediately pack his bags.

Singh”s affair was exposed in April 2010, three years after his posting in Russia when his explicit pictures with the woman were brought to the notice of the Defence Ministry.

Soon after receiving the pictures, the Navy had ordered a Court Of Inquiry against him to establish his relations with the woman and whether the relationship had affected the Admiral Gorshkov deal in any way.

The CoI had established Singh”s relations with the woman but maintained that his  “loose moral conduct” had not”adversely impacted” India’s position during the long-drawn wrangling with Russia over the 44,570-tonne carrier”s refit.

After completing its inquiry, the Navy had sent the file to the Defence Ministry for further action.

Even after returning from Russia, Singh had continued to be associated with the Gorshkov programme as the principal director (aircraft carrier project) in New Delhi tillmid-2009.

He was later relieved of his posting in the defence ministry”s directorate-general of quality assurance.

After repeated Russian demands for higher prices for retrofitting the aircraft carrier, the two sides last year finally settled on USD 2.33 billion as the cost of the warship.

{EOP}Zaid Zaman Hamid: india's information warfare and kashmir

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{EOP}Why Delhi Refuses to Take Action Against the Indian Army for Blowing up Samjhota Express

There is a clear parity between the terror against Bharatis in Mumbai and the terror against Pakistanis on the Samjhota Express. In fact the attack ont he Samjhota Express was more egregious, as it was the official communications link between Bharat and Pakistan. What makes the train bombing worse is the face that a sitting colonel of the Bharati Army was fully involved in the attack, and he used Indian Armyissued plastique explosives to kill and murder. Colonel Prohit of the Indian Army when he went to court was dressed in full Saffron regalia egged on by a crowd of the Hindumahasabah.

On the eve of the talks between the Bharati Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir,Islamabad on Saturday once again criticized Bharat’s handling of the Samjhauta Express train bombing with stinging criticism of Delhi saying that it lacked “courage to unearth culpability of Hindu extremists”.

Samjhauta Express blast dampens Delhi’s holier than thou attitude and placed Bharat on the backfoot in preparation for  Sunday’s meeting  in Thimphu.

“India seems to be lacking courage to unearth culpability of Hindu extremists and their links with some Indian Army personnel,” foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit said in a statement in Islamabad. India’s handling of the 2007Samjhauta Express bombing case “doesn’t inspire much hope”, he said.

The brilliant Basit in his usual eloquence emphasised that India “needs to bridge the gap between what it says and what it does”.He correctly stated that  in the case of the Samjhota Express the attacks the leads were blatent and involvement so clear that the evidence was irrefutable.

Bharat has tried to hedge and point fingures–but the fact remains that Prohit and gang committed the acts of terror and the Bharati Army was caught with its pants down trying to cover it up.

Pakistan is expected to raise the issue of Samjhauta probe at Sunday’s meeting. Pakistan will definitely raise the Kashmir issue. This was the pre-condition for the talks. No talks without Kashmir on the agenda.  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is willing to discuss all outstanding issues with Pakistan in a step-by-step manner.

Neither Pakistan, nor Pakistanis expect much from the talks–which are considered a ‘fools errand”.