Indian standstill over coffin uproar

Scores of Indians have died in skirmishes with Pakistan

NEW DELHI, India -- India's parliament has ground to a standstill after a fierce uproar broke out over reports the government tried to make money from coffins.

Opposition lawmakers on Tuesday demanded the government explain the purchase of overpriced coffins for Indian soldiers killed during a skirmish with Pakistan two years ago.

"Coffin thieves! coffin thieves!" opposition MPs shouted in both houses of parliament, forcing the suspension of both chambers without any progress on legislation, including a tough new anti-terrorism law.

"Soldiers shed blood, government takes commission," Reuters news agency cited opposition legislators as yelling.

The uproar follows a damning official report on the Defense Ministry's purchase of 500 coffins and 3,000 body bags from a U.S. firm during bloody fighting in 1999 to repel infiltrators from Pakistan in the Kargil region.

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The government-appointed Comptroller and Auditor- General found the ministry had ordered the coffins at a very high price and without any preliminary evaluation.

Almost 500 Indian soldiers died on the icy slopes of Kargil during a 10-week offensive to repel infiltrators from Pakistan in the summer of 1999.

The bloody faceoff brought the nuclear capable neighbors to the brink of a third war over Kashmir.

It was also India's first television war in which images of soldiers struggling on steep slopes to fight intruders entrenched on the heights were beamed to millions of homes.

Caskets too heavy

The report released on Tuesday said the Defense Ministry contracted to buy the caskets and body bags at a cost of $1.5 million, but did not go through the proper process to buy them.

"Despite this being a new purchase, no acceptance test and evaluation was carried out," the report said.

In March, lawmakers fought over an arms scandal

The contract was later cancelled after the caskets arrived and were found to be too heavy and discarded.

"The transaction achieved little, other than to benefit the supplier," the report said.

Opposition lawmakers, waving copies of the report, demanded the government resign.

In the upper house, Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh offered a discussion on arms procurement policies, but was shouted down.

Scandal-hit ministry

This is the second time this year that the Indian ministry has become embroiled in scandal.

In March, two journalists posing as arms dealers secretly filmed a string of politicians, military officials and bureaucrats accepting money for a fictitious arms deal.

The scandal -- which many said exposed a culture of corruption in the country's secretive defense ministry -- led to the resignation of George Fernandes as defense minister.

Fernandes, who was not directly implicated in the video, returned to the ministry in October.