ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

Government looks to Bofors to counter Congress onslaught

George Iype in New Delhi

Rattled by the raging controversy in Parliament over Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat's dismissal, the government is planning to rake up the Bofors scandal in a bid to embarrass the Congress.

Soon after he took over as prime minister on March 19 last year, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had pledged to complete the inquiry into the kickbacks scandal and take strict follow-up action.

But he has kept quiet since, leading many to believe that he had struck a deal with Congress president Sonia Gandhi (click to related report).

Though the special investigation team of the Central Bureau of Investigation submitted its decisive report on the sensational gun deal in May 1997, it has been gathering dust in the prime minister's office.

But now that the Congress and the other Opposition parties have paralysed Parliament by demanding a joint parliamentary committee to probe Bhagwat's dismissal, the government might release the CBI report and other Bofors-related documents in a bid to silence Sonia, sources said.

To begin with, the government is expected to take a final decision within the next two weeks whether to sanction the prosecution of two retired senior bureaucrats in the case.

The CBI's request to prosecute S K Bhatnagar, former defence secretary, and Gopi Arora, former special secretary to then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, is still pending with the Union Cabinet.

The United Front government did not give permission to prosecute these retired bureaucrats as it felt the charges against them were flimsy and would not stand judicial scrutiny.

But a crucial Cabinet meeting is likely to be held later this week to decide on the issue as the government is keen to make known the truth about the scandal during the month-long parliamentary which begins on Friday, March 19.

A committee comprising the secretaries of defence, personnel, and law and headed by former Cabinet secretary T S R Subramanyam had studied the Bofors report and submitted its observations to the PMO last year. The Cabinet will study that report as well.

"There is no reason why the government should withhold crucial Bofors papers from the public when the Congress is hammering Vajpayee on the Bhagwat issue," an official in the home ministry told Rediff On The NeT. The papers are now being scrutinised by the home ministry.

One CBI official said if the government decides to release the secret Bofors documents, it will embarrass the Congress president. "The chain of circumstantial evidence that is found in the CBI report proves that Rajiv Gandhi was involved in covering up the scandal," he told Rediff On The NeT.

Though the CBI has been unable to question or act against elusive Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi all these years, the official said the documents with the agency clearly point to his involvement in the scandal.

Quattrocchi, now based in Malaysia, is alleged to have been the front man of a British company, AE Services, that helped strike the Bofors deal in November 1985. CBI investigations so far prove that the money received by AE Services found its way to Quattrocchi's account.

The CBI inquiry has also revealed that US $ 9.2 million was transferred from the Geneva account of the Union Bank of Switzerland to Inter Investment Co, another front company allegedly promoted by Quattrocchi.

Quattrocchi, a close friend of the Gandhis, has time and again denied being involved in the Bofors deal or receiving the payoffs.

But the government is said to be veering round to the view that releasing the Bofors documents is the best way to embarrass the Congress.

Congress sources said a section of the party had warned Gandhi against taking up the Bhagwat issue in Parliament as it could boomerang on her through Bofors.

But the party chief was stubborn, and said she was ready to face the onslaught.

Many believe, however, that if the government does make the Bofors report public, it will engulf the Congress in a political storm.

Bofors: The Smoking Gun

The Bhagwat Dismissal

Tell us what you think of this report