The newspaper also claimed that the ambassador had asked it "to retract sections of the interview and warned that otherwise "the planned state visit was at risk of being cancelled."
An embarrassed government had asked the Swedish newspaper through its ambassador in Sweden to delete references to the Bofors gun deal from the interview of President Pranab Mukherjee. Swedish newspaper 'Dagens Nyheter' on Wednesday claimed Indian ambassador Banashri Bose Harrison had put pressure on it to remove the Bofors references in the interview given by Mukherjee on the occasion of his visit to Sweden from Sunday.
Though, ministry of external affairs (MEA) here chose to remain quit and the ruling BJP also exercised caution since it involved the office of President, Indian ambassador to Sweden, shot off a letter to the newspaper, claiming the portion of interview referring to Bofors were off-record. "It was both unprofessional and unethical on your part to include in the report an off-the-record correction by the President after the interview had ended, about a slip-of-the-tongue during the interview," said the letter.
The newspaper also claimed that the ambassador had asked it "to retract sections of the interview and warned that otherwise "the planned state visit was at risk of being cancelled."
Sources in the ministry claimed the interview was fixed through the ambassador and she was acting only on the request from the President's office to ensure his off-the-record comments on the Bofors controversy are not published in the interview.
"I find the ambassador's reaction regretful. It is surprising that someone representing the world's largest democracies is trying to micromanage which questions we should ask a head of state, and which answers should be published," said Peter Wolodarski, the paper's editor-in-chief.
Allegations that the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was among the politicians who were bribed by Bofors for the Rs 1,500-crore purchase had cost him the national election in 1989, though Delhi High Court ruled out in 2004 any evidence to establish involvement of Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991.
The President is scheduled to travel to Sweden on Sunday. Ahead of that, he was interviewed in Delhi and said the Bofors deal which saw India buying artillery guns from the Swiss defence manufacturer, should not be referred to as a scandal. "No Indian court has given a verdict on it, the process of trial is going on, and unless some authoritative institutions describe it as a scandal and punish it, how could you say that it is a scandal?" he said in the interview.
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