Will AgustaWestland scam meet Bofors' fate?
The ghost of Bofors howitzer gun scandal haunted the Congress and its First Family for almost quarter of a century - from 1987 to 2011. It lies buried in Delhi courtroom files, as most of its dramatis personae are dead. The last and the main accused Ottavio Quattrochhi, an Italian with direct access to Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, died in 2013.
The case of bribery was established in the Bofors scandal. It brought down the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1989 but the culprits went unpunished.
Will the AgustaWestland helicopter deal corruption scandal meet the Bofors' fate? Will it run its course as a political slugfest and then die down?
The uncanny similarities between the Bofors and AgustaWestland chopper scams indicate that parties use corruption scandals for political benefits and then allow the cases to get buried under cobwebs and files.
There are many similarities between the two scams and they just don't stop at the accusations against the members of the Gandhi family, then and now. Gandhis and Italy are the common link between the Bofors and the AgustaWestland scandals.
 |
| Rajiv Gandhi looked vulnerable for the first time since the Bofors scandal had broken out. |
Looking at the two scandals, one has a déjà vu. The strange feeling strikes when one recalls what Rajiv Gandhi said about the accusations against his involvement in the Bofors scandal, and what the Congress president Sonia Gandhi has said in her response to the AgustaWestland scam.
On August 6, 1987, when Rajiv Gandhi stood in the Lok Sabha to make a statement, nobody had a clue to what he was to say. It was a full, packed House with most of the 400 plus members of the Congress present and waiting in anticipation. Nobody expected Rajiv Gandhi to deny the charges of Rs 64 crore kickbacks in the purchase of Rs 1,700 crore worth Bofors gun against him in the manner he did.
Rajiv Gandhi said: "I categorically declare in this highest forum of Indian democracy that neither I nor any member of my family has received any consideration in this transaction."
This statement was in contrast to what Rajiv had said in the Lok Sabha on April 20, 1987, barely four days after Swedish Radio broke the story, that neither was any middlemen involved nor were any kickbacks paid in purchase of Bofors guns. After having denied the payment of commission, the prime minister was saying that he hadn't received any payment.
He looked vulnerable for the first time since the Bofors scandal had broken out. When he finished his one-line statement, the House was stunned into silence. The Opposition members who were often so voluble and used lungpower to make up for their thin number were too shocked to protest. To the reporters sitting in press gallery (this reporter included), it took time for the import of Rajiv Gandhi's statement to sink in.
Cut to April 27, 2016 and hear Sonia Gandhi. "We have nothing to hide. Let them take my name. I am not afraid of anyone cornering me, as there is no basis to that. All the accusations they are throwing at us are false."
Further the Congress president said, "Where is the proof? They are lying. This is all a part of their strategy of character assassination, a tactic that they have used against us since the very beginning. The government is there for the last two years. What are they doing? There is already an inquiry, why don't they go through it? Complete it as soon as possible, impartially."
Sonia Gandhi is preparing for a political fight because her name has already surfaced in the scam. Rajiv Gandhi's name was added to the charge sheet after his death and was withdrawn.
There was muted criticism of Rajiv Gandhi's statement defending his and his family members within the Congress party because until then nobody had named them; there were just unverifiable rumours. The Opposition interpreted his statement as a sign of guilt and sharpened their attack against Rajiv as the government and the Congress continued to stonewall investigation to fix the accountability in the scandal.
In a bizarre coincidence, the agent of AgustaWestland Christian Michel, who is accused to have collected Rs 330 crore in the chopper deal, has been living in Dubai. Wisheshwar Nath Chadha or Win Chadha, the agent of AB Bofors in India, the accused of having received part of Rs 64 crore commissions, was Dubai-based.
Win Chadha was charge-sheeted in the Bofors case in 1999. He came to India to face trial in 2000 but died a year later.
But Win Chadha was not the kingpin. Ottavio Quattrocchi, representative of Italian firm Snam Progetti was the conduit for kickbacks and a beneficiary too. Thanks to his proximity to the Gandhi family, he wielded tremendous clout among mover and shakers of Delhi.
The CBI charge sheeted him in 1999 as one of the accused after he had escaped from India in 1993.
The CBI failed to get Quattrocchi extradited twice, once from Malaysia in 2002 and then from Argentina in 2007. The case against him was withdrawn after a Delhi court discharged him in 2011, bringing an end to the Bofors saga.
If Prime Minister Narendra Modi is sincere, he must ensure to bring the guilty of the chopper deal to book. But sadly, the Centre's priority seems to be using the scandal more for political mileage than to catch the bribe takers.