Before the 2-G and the coal scams, there was Bofors. It was the biggest swindle of its time. Which thoroughly singed the Rajiv Gandhi Government despite his commanding a two-thirds majority in Parliament. The Swedish howitzer guns were preferred over the French Sofma, though the latter had emerged first in the rigorous field tests conducted by the army. Admittedly, even the Swedish gun was first-rate, but it was only preferred because Ottavio Quattorocchi, the New Delhi-based Italian middleman who was a close friend of the Gandhis, had committed to ensure its purchase on payment of hefty bribes. And, never mind what the congenital liars and other purblind doormats of the Family say, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was fully in the know about Quattorocchi’s illicit commission from the Bofors deal long before the Swedish Radio first broke the news about the scandal to the world. Once the scandal hit headlines, the Opposition pounced on the Gandhi Government, virtually paralysing it. From then on, the Government was engaged full-time in the Bofors cover-up, which in itself was a scandal of grotesque proportions. Quattorocchi, who had free access to the Gandhi household and dictated terms to Congress ministers, was allowed to flee the country by the Narasimha Rao Government, a favour Sonia Gandhi most ungraciously refuses to acknowledge to this day. Had Rao been hostile, as she has all along indicated she was towards him, he could have virtually paid put to the overlordship of the Gandhi family over the Congress Party by arresting the Italian middleman. Many more scams of equally horrendous proportions in which he had acted as a commission agent would have tumbled out and thus put in jeopardy the claim that the Gandhis were above suspicion in all such scandals. How and with whom the Italian crook shared the loot made from the Indian government contracts is a bigger scandal. Suffice it to say that the Gandhis were not risking their own reputation for purely charitable purposes. The Bofors fire cost the Congress party the 1989 Lok Sabha election. Yes, the Congress Government conspired to have Quattorocchi released when he was detained in Argentina on the basis of a red corner alert issued by the previous Vajpayee Government which the subsequent government in New Delhi had forgotten to withdraw. It also arranged to get a clean chit from a Delhi High Court judge who within weeks was rewarded with a sinecure by the Shiela Dikshit Government. But despite these contrived exonerations, the strong stink of scandal in the Bofors deal was hard to smother. Any Indian true to his conscience would dismiss with contempt these so-called clean chits. The entire system was made complicit in ensuring that the crooks who had lined their pockets with bribes were allowed to go scot free. Too much was at stake for the Gandhis if one of the bribe-takers in the Bofors scam was caught and brought to justice. Indeed, Rajiv Gandhi’s long-time friend and Minister for Defence Production in his Government, Arun Singh, was dumped for suggesting that the Swedish gun-makers be made to reveal the names of the bribe-takers at the pain of the outright abrogation of the contract. The mere thought of disclosure of Quattorocchi’s name sent shivers down the spine of the late prime minster and he went to extreme lengths to protect him.
Anyway, the reason why we have had to recount the Bofors saga is the reported claim of President Pranab Mukherjee made on the eve of his State visit to Sweden. Whether off or on the record, Mukherjee ought to have avoided the remarks about Bofors, knowing how these would stir up a controversy here in India and in the country he is scheduled to visit from May 31. For the Swedes too were equally shocked that one of their State-owned companies should pay bribes to secure a purchase order. As the Head of the State, Mukherjee is entitled to due deference, but, equally, he too is obliged to keep a certain reserve. His gratuitous reference to the scam, which despite everyone involved getting scot free due only to the active complicity of the entire system of governance, including, yes, the higher judiciary, was nonetheless a huge corruption scandal. We are convinced that even Mukherjee is fully aware that there were bribes involved in the Bofors deal. Therefore, he ought to have preferred silence in the matter. Having said this, the Indian Ambassador in Stockholm need not have taken the trouble to protest the publication of Mukherjee’s remarks. Indians know where Mukherjee himself comes from.
