Bofors

President Pranav Mukharjee has started his official visit to Sweden from today. On this occasion, he had given an interview to Dagens Nyheter (Amitabh Bachchan won the defamation case against them in Bofors scandal), a Swedish daily, made some off the record comments on Bofors scandal and ghost of Bofors arise once again.  Over 27 years have passed but the ghost of Bofors is still hovering over India and its polity. Bofors became the synonym to the corruption in India. I have been reading on Bofors last few months. I thought, this is the perfect time to put down something on it.

It is very important give the sequence of events and main actors in this scandal so that readers can understand and connect the dots on their own.

India had floated a tender for procuring guns for its Military in 1984. Bofors of Sweden and Sofma of France submitted bid for it. Military’s requirement was 30 KM of firing range. Sofma gun’s range was 29.1 KM and 21 KM that of Bofors. In spite of objections from military, tender conditions were changed clandestinely and order of 1.3 Billion $ (~1800 Crore Rupees) was given to Bofors on 24-Mar-1986 by Rajiv Gandhi’s Govt.

Swedish authorities were investigating Bofors’ shoddy business with Oman, Vietnam and other east European countries. They stumbled upon few unaccounted transactions to Swiss bank account related to Indian deal. Swedish National Radio on April 16, 1987 reported that kickbacks were given in Indian deal.

Win Chadha’s Svenska was official agent of Bofors in India since 1978. Their legal contract was changed in 1985-86 and their commission was inexplicably reduced from 6% to 3.2%.  AE services of Ottavio Quattrocchi, very close friend of Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi, signed a contract with Bofors in Nov’85 and terminated in Mar'86. The company came into the picture out of the blue, chipped into commissions of Win Chadha and promised Bofors that the contract would be inked within a prescribed period, failing which it need not be paid. Quattrocchi was a very powerful name during those days. He came to India in ’60 as an agent of Italian firm Snamprogetti. During his 30 years stay in India, he won contracts of over 60 fertilizer plants! He was so powerful that Cabinet Ministers of Mrs. Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi used to stand up whenever he entered into their cabin.

Chitra Subramaniam, then reporter of The Hindu in Geneva, first reported this scandal in India. Bomb shell fell on Rajiv Gandhi’s Government. Massive cover up operation started immediately. In his book, Bhupatray Oza, then ambassador to Sweden writes, under pressure from Swedish and Indian media and with the threat of a cancellation of the contract hanging over them, Bofors sent its top executives to India with the one-point task of giving out the names. Nobody of any consequence received them including Rajiv Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi’s close friend Arun Singh protested, resigned from the government and went into exile till date. Arun Singh once said that it is happening to protect only one person!

One whistleblower provided Swedish investigation documents including a personal diary of Martin Ardbo, then Chairman on Bofors, to Chitra Subramaniam. He revealed his identity 25 years later. His name is Sten Lindstrom who was Chief Investigation Officer in Bofors case in Sweden. He revealed that Indian Investigation Team met him only once. 25 years later, he clearly says that there was no evidence of money paid to Rajiv Gandhi and no involvement of Amitabh Bachchan!

In July 1993, the Swiss courts had permitted naming the account and Quattrocchi had been officially named. At this point, CBI sought a permission to impound his passport. However, just before Quattrocchi could be detained, on the night of 29–30 July 1993, he left Delhi for Kuala Lumpur.

During Atalji’s Govt. after 12 years, the first charge sheet was filed against Quattrocchi, Win Chadha, Rajiv Gandhi, etc. on 22 October 1999. Delhi High Court quashed the charges of bribery against Rajiv Gandhi and others on 31 May 2005 during Manmohan Singh’s government. Subsequently, accounts of Quattrocchi were unfrozen and Interpol’s red corner notice on him had been withdrawn.

But Bofors says kickbacks were given, Swiss bank has given the name of account holder. Then where did those 64 crores have gone? This question is still unanswered. By going through above events, readers can connect various dots and infer what might have happened in Bofors scandal.

The official kickback amount is Rs. 64 crores (~3%). But these 64 crores made a lasting impact on Indian politics and it is continuing till today. 1987 onwards Bofors became the political story. The political alignment formed and unformed. Rajiv Gandhi sacked V.P. Singh as a defense minister and it began a long political instability in India.

All socialist groups supported V. P. Singh’s front and formed Janata Dal. The entire opposition united together to oppose Rajiv Gandhi. Janata Dal received the simple majority in 1989 general election. BJP and Communist supported this Government from outside. V.P. Singh became PM in 1989 with the expectation that he would punish the culprits of Bofors. He remained PM till Nov’90. His only contribution to Bofors investigation was falsely framing Amitabh Bachchan in the scandal. He resigned as PM after Mandal agitations. After him, Chandra Shekhar became PM with the support from Rajiv Gandhi. Congress withdrew their support in 8 months and fresh general election was called. Post this untimely and sad assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and Narsimha Rao became PM of India in June 1991.

Since 1987 our defense preparedness is impacted. Armed forces lack latest equipment, be it guns, war plans, navy ships. No major arms deals are signed since then. Bureaucrats, politician, defense became extra cautious in any defense deals.

Why did India’s Bofors story took so prominence when Bofors’ other deals were very shoddy? Who wanted political instability in India? Who wanted India’s weak military preparedness? Who was Sten Lindstrom? Why did he give documents to only Chitra Subramaniam and not to others? Who wanted this scandal to become so big? Who got benefited from this scandal? Was it France who wanted a political revenge as Sweden took away their rightful contract? Is there any Soviet Union’s angle to it? They were exclusive military shop for India. Did they not want India to go to any other defense suppliers? It is interesting to note that there hasn't been a single scandal in defense deals with Soviet and now with Russia. But defense deals with any other countries such as France, Italy and Germany had gone through troubles. Or was is USA?

Many actors in Bofors case are died. CBI has already stopped the investigation. All court cases are closed. But truth of Bofors has not come out. Readers can understand that many are still alive who know the truth. But nobody wants truth to come out. Congress has its own reasons not to tell the truth. But opposition parties (especially BJP) are equally not interested in telling the truth. It helps them in showing Congress as a corrupt party.

As long as the ghost of Bofors is alive, it will impact on India’s military preparedness. It will keep on bringing political unrest. If India wants to progress, bring peace, political stability and become a strong nation, then the ghost of Bofors must rest in peace! Truth should prevail and I am waiting for that day!