The trouble with Indian military shopping deals is that when things go wrong they throw the baby out with the bathwater. Cancelling the deal for the $750 million order for a dozen helicopters from Italian defence group Finmeccanica, because of kickbacks is not the answer. Catch the culprits, keep the choppers.

Why make the equipment guilty? They did exactly the same thing with the Bofors 155 mm shoot and scoot artillery gun, confusing crime with capability and lost millions in taking it out by blocking spare parts, ammunition and maintenance data on the weapon system eclipsed the purchase of an excellent artillery asset.

Totally crazy approach and once more replicated by this shrill display of outrage. Seeing as how three of the helicopters have already been received just get the other nine and then go for the investigation. The Italians have put the scope on the CEO but they haven’t shut the factory down.

So in their infinite if questionable wisdom, India has frozen payments for the other nine AgustaWestland helicopters pending an inquiry after Italian police arrested the head of Finmeccanica, Giuseppe Orsi, in connection with the case. Good, arrest the nasty little fellows but keep the helicopters coming.

Clearly, election year calls for distancing self from scandal and spotting scapegoats to feed the media frenzy.

As for the attack on former four-star chief of the Indian Air Force Tyagi who is being investigated for his role in this dog’s breakfast of a scandal if it is true that his three nephews, Huey, Dewey and Lewy actually fronted for the sale not only is his defence going to be wafer thing but he is going to be a sitting duck. You cannot have family greasing the path and hope to get away with it. That is shooting yourself in the foot. No, no, no, that is plain stupid. And one can only hope he is, like Caesar's wife, above reproach, otherwise it is a damn shame for an air chief to be so indicted.

The fun part is the shrill piety that everyone sprays when we know corruption is part of almost every transaction and we have ministers in India who were sacked years ago sitting in huge mansions and no one says anything about them. We have MPs who become rich in one tenure and no one ever calls them on it. Against all that graft, this is probably financial tiddlywinks but then, there is no humour in this uniform.