DNA Edit: Bofors returns

The ghosts of the Bofors arms deal refuse to be exorcised, much to the chagrin of the Congress leadership. A new set of details unearthed exclusively by DNA in its recent interaction with the Swedish investigator Michael J Hershman, has recast the spotlight on a series of alleged kickbacks that involved the Rajiv Gandhi government and the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. In 1987, Hershman was appointed by then Finance Minister VP Singh to probe violations of currency control laws, especially the large transfers of assets outside India, when he stumbled upon the arms deal. The sleuth smelt the rat when he came across very large transfers “to the tune of millions of dollars” that were paid as bribes to secure the contract.

Hershman’s revelations after 30 long years are chilling! They show how people at the topmost echelons of the Congress-led dispensation had allegedly abused their power to thwart an investigation, and put a lid over it. VP Singh was removed from the finance ministry, the Mumbai branch of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), which was at the heart of the scam, was reopened immediately after a raid and its officials were released from custody, allegedly at Rajiv Gandhi’s behest. Rajiv, upon knowing that Hershman and his Indian counterpart were probing bribery issues, went out of his way to shield the wrongdoers. In an act of vendetta, the Congress supremo made a concerted attempt to malign VP Singh’s image.

Hershman, who was accused of being a CIA agent, also told DNA that he was offered bribe on three occasions, one of which involved a Saudi Arabian billionaire Adnan Khashoggi and late godman Chandraswami to bring disrepute to Singh. Hershman’s tell-all account spells doom for the grand old party. It has exposed the deep tentacles of corruption that had became institutionalised in the Congress regimes. Taking note of DNA’s report, Union Minister Smriti Irani trained her guns at the Congress, asking the party to end its “convenient silence” and reveal the “involvement of Congress leaders, then and now, in the Bofors saga”. Let’s not forget that the CBI, which had become a “caged parrot” of the Congress, could do little to get to the bottom of a scam that would have torn open the masks of many Congress stalwarts.

In the light of the DNA expose, it now becomes clear why the CBI in 2011 expressed regret at not being able to extradite the arms dealer Ottavio Quattrocchi even after spending 25 years and 250 crore and repeatedly seeking help from Malaysian and Argentinian governments. Back then, Quattrochi’s return to India would have been the proverbial last nail in the Gandhi family’s legacy. The Bofors scam can no longer be wished away. It comes at a time when the Congress’s holier-than-thou attitude vis-à-vis the NDA government is attaining the pitch of a shrill rhetoric. With several state elections in the offing, the criticality of Hershman’s statements cannot be overstated. DNA wants the truth to prevail at all costs. That’s the beauty of fearless journalism.