Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: January 4, 2011
URL: http://dailypioneer.com/308050/So-Bofors-did-pay-bribes!.html
And Ottavio Quattrocchi was the beneficiary
Truth can be suppressed for some time through
deceit and subterfuge, but it has a habit of surfacing, often with a bang
and when least expected by those who want it to remain buried forever. So
also with the Bofors scandal whose stain the Congress has tried to whitewash
for more than two decades now. The Congress had come to believe that the ghost
of Bofors, which had haunted the party ever since the scandal of illegal commissions
being paid to 'agents' in the Howitzer field gun deal came to light in the
mid-1980s, had been buried forever when the CBI sought a closure of the case
during UPA1's tenure. The CBI, in it stunning submission, had claimed that
it had no evidence against the accused, namely Ottavio Quattrocchi, the Italian
middleman whose proximity to the first family of the Congress is common knowledge.
On that occasion, Prime Minister had sought to justify the patently illegal
action of the CBI by saying that it was a "shame" to file charges
against Quattrocchi; it would appear that Mr Manmohan Singh had had sleepless
nights worrying about a bribe-taker who had been declared an absconder by
the courts and the closure report came as a relief as much for the Italian
fixer as for him. The then Union Minister for Law, Mr HR Bhardwaj, had facilitated
that gross act of crippling the criminal justice system. Earlier, the CBI
had silently allowed Quattrocchi to empty his London bank accounts where part
of the Bofors payola had been stashed and which had been frozen at the initiative
of the NDA Government.
But like Banquo's ghost, the ghost of Bofors
can never really be laid to rest till those who looted the nation are brought
to justice. Hence, it is not surprising that the entire issue has once again
come alive with the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal rejecting the appeal of
the son of the late Win Chaddha, who was the 'official agent' of Bofors and
to whom 'fees' were paid despite an explicit clause in the contract prohibiting
such payment on the instructions of Quattrocchi, to be exempted from paying
tax on the 'income'. The tribunal has also said that the other beneficiary
of the deal, Quattrocchi, should also pay tax on the money that was directly
paid to him, amounting to three per cent of the total amount. In brief, what
has been reiterated, with a total recall of how the ill-gotten money was shifted
from account to account in Swiss and offshore banks to confuse investigators
and cover-up the crime, is that kickbacks were paid and received in the Bofors
deal; the beneficiaries were Chaddha and Quattrocchi; and, the money was stolen
from the people of India. Investigations have clearly shown that Chaddha's
Svenska Inc, registered in Panama, was used for funnelling the bribe, as was
Quattrocchi's AE Services.
After Monday's ruling, the Prime Minister
owes an explanation to the nation as to why he allowed the CBI to close the
Bofors bribery case; plaintive claims of being honest and pathetic comparisons
of himself with Caesar's wife will not suffice. Nor will silence of the variety
that facilitated the Great 2G Robbery answer questions about complicity at
the highest level.As for the Congress, it stands exposed, though not for the
first time, denuded of all scruples. Meanwhile, Mr Bhardwaj should be sacked
from his present job as Governor of Karnataka and prosecuted for his role
in the cover-up operation. After all, as the tribunal has noted, there is
no reason to let crooks believe "India is a soft state and one can meddle
with its laws with impunity".
