New Delhi, March 17 (IANS) The Rajiv Gandhi government was guilty of a massive coverup in the Bofors arms deal scandal, and while Swedish investigators say there is no evidence of a money trail to the then PM, the role of the rest of his family remains an unanswered question, journalist Chitra Subramaniam says.
“To be fair, to be honest, in the coverup, it was massive, it was a massive coverup… it was a coverup at all levels, it was the destruction, destruction of the judiciary… don’t forget the mandate he (Rajiv Gandhi) had… even the army was not spared… every time we sing patriotic songs.. but the soldiers who stand there at minus 50 with the guns facing… have you ever thought what they are going through, and then you call them names… you destroy the army,” Subramaniam, who investigated the scam for over a decade, told IANS in answer to a question on the role of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
“And what I felt bad was during the contract, there was going to be a manufacturing contract. The dream was that first, you buy the guns and then, you manufacture them (in the country). All that was shattered.”
Subramaniam, whose “Boforsgate: A Journalist’s Pursuit of Truth” chronicles her investigation and its impact on her personal and professional life, says that the scandal had besmirched the country’s image as well as that of the then Prime Minister.
She recalls when she came to know of the scandal when a fellow reporter had shared an agency report on the scandal inscribing it trouble for “Mr Clean”, as Rajiv Gandhi was then known.
“It was terrible (for India’s image)… it keeps coming back to that now. One thing is the corruption itself, fine, but how shameless are we? This was a Prime Minister who had become (PM), taken power under tragic circumstances, and he had said that he would clean the country up… precisely from arms dealers and all these people who hang around. That took a beating,” she said.
“I continue to be ambitious… I was very ambitious for India like he (Rajiv Gandhi) was, and I feel you don’t have to be in political power to be ambitious. All that just fell by the wayside. It was very difficult for me. On the one hand, investigation, and on the other hand, finding that we were a corrupt nation…” she said.
On the role of the other members of the Gandhi family, especially following the involvement of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, considered close to them, Subramaniam, with a shrug, told IANS that this question remains unanswered.
“(Since Quattrocchi) is Italian? Ask yourself this question… let’s ask it the other way. Why would Bofors pay an Italian accountant from Napoli (Naples) who has absolutely nothing to do with arms deals? He was working in the petrochemical industry.”
“So why would they pay, and why would the contract with AE Services linked to him (Quattrocchi), which came in January (1986) say that if I don’t get you the contract by March, you don’t have to pay me? So this is what Sten (her Swedish source Sting, later coming out to reveal his identity as then police chief Sten Lindstrom) said is a political payment.”
“A political payment is when all the numbers are on the table and a very important person comes and takes out the money… and nobody can say anything. Which is not what happened to Win Chadha or the Hindujas… But the political payment just worked for three months, 90 days. So ask yourself this question?” she said.
In her book, Subramaniam also includes a 2012 interview with Lindstrom, when he revealed his identity, where the former Swedish police chief said there was conclusive evidence against Quatrrocchi, who received bribes from Bofors in his account and could take them out since India did not charge him, and “nobody in Switzerland or Sweden was allowed to interrogate him”.
Subramaniam also highlighted the misogyny and character assassination she faced in her investigation, spanning from Switzerland to Sweden, in which Rajiv Gandhi was also guilty of dismissing her airily.
“Mr Rajiv Gandhi told Vir Sanghvi about ‘that girl in Switzerland producing photocopies,” Subramaniam told IANS.
–IANS
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