Author: Virendra Kapoor
Publication: Afternoon Despatch & Courier
Date: January 23, 2006
URL: http://www.cybernoon.com/DisplayArticle.asp?section=fromthepress&subsection=editorials&xfile=January2006_insidestory_standard139&child=insidestory
Bhardwaj was making a statement in front of
TV cameras that he alone had authorised Dutta's London mission; a confession
he would regret later..
The Prime Minister was completely taken by
surprise when a newly-launched TV news channel broke the story about the Government,
of which he was but only a notional head, wanting to defreeze the ill-gotten
funds of the Italian fugitive, Ottavio Quattorocchi. Only after serious implications
of the TV disclosure had sunk in did the PM's equally clueless aides make
frenetic efforts to gather requisite information from the dramatic personae
involved in the enrich-the-Italian scam in order to post their boss with the
astounding developments.
When an aide remonstrated with the Union Law
Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj for the embarrassment his action had caused Manmohan
Singh, the latter thought he would do the PM a favour by publicly owning up
sole responsibility for having dispatched the Additional Solicitor General
B. Dutta to London to free the locked up Bofors loot of Quattorocchi.
Soon Bhardwaj was making a statement in front
of television cameras that he alone had authorised Dutta's London mission,
a confession he would regret later since a change of plot called for the CBI
to take the rap for the initiative in unfreezing the two bank accounts of
the Italian.
Incidentally, Bhardwaj could not have done
what he did in helping Quattorocchi get his hands at the Bofors loot without
a signal from his boss in 10 Janpath. As he himself proclaims from the housetops
he "draws his power directly from the power house in 10 Janpath and even
though there are many in my own party who want my job, so long as I have her
on my side nobody can remove me..."
That Bhardwaj, formerly a briefless Tis Hazari
lawyer, is an old loyalist of Mrs Gandhi ought to be clear from his own public
confession that he was made Law Minister in the Narasimha Rao Government at
her specific request. As he put it, " for the first few months Rao distrusted
me but after a while he came to repose confidence in me even though I was
made Law Minister at her request."
The reason why Sonia Gandhi wanted him as
Law Minister was of course to ensure that Bofors was buried a million fathoms
deep. First Madhavsinh Solanki, External Affairs Minister in the Rao Government,
had sought to put a tight lid over the scandal by asking in writing his Swedish
counterpart not to investigate any further the trail of bribe-takers. Now,
it was the good old family retainer Bhardwaj who had made sure that Quattorochhi,
a close family friend of the Gandhis, came to enjoy the fruits of the ill-gotten
Bofors loot.
Who approved the London Bofors mission?
Here is more on the latest Bofors fiasco for
the Prime Minister to chew on. As per the laid down drill, foreign travel
by everyone high and low in the government needs to be cleared in advance
by the screening committee of secretaries. In particular, the approval of
the Expenditure Secretary in the Finance Ministry is required before any foreign
tour can be undertaken. Therefore, the Additional Solicitor General, B. Dutta
could not have gone to London for forwarding the Bofors loot onwards to the
Italian bribe-taker without prior approval. It is commonsense that without
mentioning the purpose of the visit requisite expenditure cannot be sanctioned.
In other words, did Dutta go to London without
securing the go-ahead from the screening committee of secretaries in general
and the Expenditure Secretary in particular? Or did the latter endorse the
visit even though its objective was patently unwholesome, if not anti-national?
Incidentally, the Expenditure Secretary in question, namely, Adarsh Kishore,
has since been promoted as full-fledged Finance Secretary.
