The Manmohan Singh government is in the line of fire from the Left over defence deals with Israel. Accusing the government of turning a blind eye towards violation of Indian laws by Israeli companies, the Left parties on Tuesday said such an approach will send a wrong signal to international arms manufacturers.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, general secretaries of the four Left parties sought his intervention to ensure that government take strong action against Israeli firms like Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) and Rafael, which manufactured the Barak missile system, and ensure that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) pursues the Barak scam case to its logical conclusion and brings all the guilty to book.

They said despite all the evidence, the government was showing “remarkable reluctance” in taking action against the errant Israeli companies and cited the Barak deal struck by the Vajpayee regime. They said the original deal for ship-mounted Barak systems worth around Rs 1,300 crore was rife with procedural violations and outright corruption.

“All this has led to the arrest and impending prosecution of Moshe Keretz, who headed IAI for 20 years till 2005, and another agent whose name has been concealed under a gag order of Israeli authorities,” they said.

The Left, which recalled that Swedish firm Bofors was blacklisted after the involvement of middle-men was proved and South African company Denel was similarly blacklisted in 2005 for resorting to agents and kickbacks, demanded that similar action be initiated against IAI and other Israeli firms.

The UPA government has further cemented the alliance with IAI by signing a massive $2.5 billion (Rs 10,000 crore) deal for co-development of more advanced Barak NG (new generation) and Barak-8 missiles with longer range and for land-based anti-missile applications.