Congress dismisses allegations; come clean says BJP.
The Swedish contacts of Rajiv Gandhi are once again haunting the Congress, even 22 years after his death. Earlier the party lost power in 1989 due to alleged pay offs to a Swedish artillery manufacturer Bofors. The latest revelations relate to Wikileaks documents that Rajiv was an alleged middleman of a Swedish company in 1970s trying to sell fighter aircraft to India.
Rajiv, son of then prime minister Indira Gandhi was just a commercial pilot and had not even plunged into politics when Swedish firm Saab-Scania engaged him as its ‘main Indian negotiator’ as his ‘family’ connections were seen as valuable, says a WikiLeaks leak in the release of the latest tranche of the US diplomatic cable during Kissinger period between 1974 and 1976.
The BJP sought an explanation from Congress on the “serious” accusations made in the Wikileaks cables while the CPI sought a probe by independent agencies like the Vigilance Commission.
Congress chief spokesman and general secretary Janardan Dwivedi was quick to slam the report blaming sections of media, for believing in sensational news. The ruling party has earlier too sneered at the leaks by the WikiLeaks.
Dwivedi accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of “spreading lies and falsehoods” and asked the media not to fall for “temporary gains” (of circulation) by publishing such lies. “We are very hurt with the news,” he said while dismissing questions on any legal action by the party.
Asserting that WikiLeaks has lost the credibility it enjoyed in initial years, he said, “An agency, which had sometime back collected a lot of so-called information or got it somewhere and published quoting American Embassy.... Till date it has not been verified. I do not understand what is the basis of what has been published in the newspaper.”
Picking holes in the leaked US diplomatic cable, Dwivedi said, “Having noted what the Swede has said, the cable makes the comment that there was no additional information to either refute or confirm the information. The foundation of the whole story falls flat here.”
He also blasted the BJP for raking up the issue saying it only proves the Congress allegation that the BJP “creates an atmosphere of suspicion in the country, promotes a propaganda of untruth, create an atmosphere of hatred, create such conditions in which Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were killed.”
Dwivedi went on to remind the BJP that another WikiLeaks cable accused a senior leader of the NDA of taking money from the CIA and if it did not desist from stretching the matter further, it would it would be presumed that all this had happened in the knowledge of all the BJP leaders as well as Jayaprakash Narayan, who had led the anti-Congress movement in the 1970s.
“If it is accepted that there is any truth in this suspicion (about Rajiv Gandhi). Then just below that cable it is one more report in which the name of a ‘big’ leader of the NDA figures I do not want to take his name or level any accusation against him because of the condition in which he is. But is it also true that he used to get money from the CIA or had he demanded money from the CIA,” he said.
The cable dated October 21, 1975 sent out by the US Embassy in New Delhi to Kissinger says that the “Swedish Embassy official has informed us that main negotiator with Swedes on Viggen (a fighter aircraft) at New Delhi end has been Mrs Gandhi’s older son, Rajiv Gandhi. Latter’s only association with aircraft industry (to our knowledge) has been as pilot for Indian airlines and this is first time we heard his name as an entrepreneur.”
@dna
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