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Author: Editorial
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: February 6, 2006
URL: http://www.samachar.com/features/060206-editorial.html
Now that a newly-launched television channel has foiled the gameplan to let that Italian fugitive from the Indian law, Ottavio Quattorocchi, enjoy the Bofors loot, it seems almost certain that the real conspirators behind the cynical move would sacrifice Law Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj. Some years ago, the same people had made the then External Affairs Minister, Madhavsinh Solanki a scapegoat.
Solanki, it may recalled, had given a letter to his Swedish counterpart asking him to abandon the Bofors probe because, he had claimed, the Government of India was no longer interested in pursuing it. The plain truth is that right from the moment the Swedish Radio first revealed the payoffs scam, the Rajiv Gandhi Government had gone to great lengths to keep a tight lid over but in vain. It was so because the late Prime Minister had known all along the identity of the real bribe-taker.
After all, it was his close family friend, Ottavio Quattorochhi, who had raked in the moolah in the Bofors deal. Indeed, the Government of India had ordered the Swedish gun at the intervention of the Italian middleman. He had enjoyed an unrestricted access to the then Prime Minister's house and office.
It was common knowledge in the corridors of power that Quattorochhi was in the business of swinging deals in favour of his employer, the Italian conglomerate Snamprogetti, before he made his services available to other companies for a hefty commission. The Swedish gun-maker zeroed in on him when the Government of India dragged its feet over placing the order for the Howitzer. The evaluation committee of experts had short-listed two equally qualified guns, one Swedish and the other French.
Quattorochhi was roped in at this stage. Within a couple of weeks, he swung the deal the Bofors way and got twenty million US dollars in illegal commission. Of this, three million Euros and one million in US dollars was frozen by the British Government at the instance of the CBI which produced relevant documents to prove that the above constituted illegal gratification from Bofors.
Where the remainder of the amount paid to Quattorocchi went can only be speculated, though it is not unlikely that certain other Italians who had actually helped him swing the deal the Bofors way had pocketed that money. It is true that various Congress and Congress-supported governments at the Centre tried to bury the Bofors scam a million fathoms deep.
They had no option in the matter considering that the shadow of the Gandhi family loomed large over the Grand Old Party. But even the first genuinely anti-Congress Government of Atal Behari Vajpayee showed no despatch in taking the Bofors probe to its logical conclusion because it too was not free from the taint of corruption. Nor did the courts help in ensuring a fair and quick investigation.
Indeed, in a travesty of justice a judge of the Delhi High Court sullied his own image further when he dismissed the case against the Hinduja brothers in the Bofors payoffs scam. Another collusive order in the case gave a clean chit to Rajiv Gandhi. That order too did nothing to salvage the honour of the acquitted or the acquitter.
Within days the order, the said judge retired and was soon found a sinecure by the Congress Party-led Delhi Government. To return to the latest twist in the long-running saga of corruption in high places, it is clear that Bhardwaj would be sacrificed while his boss at whose instance he had sought to allow Quattorocchi enjoy the Bofors loot would remain unscathed.
It is instructive that Solanki's political career ended after that do-not-investigate- Bofors letter incident. He could not protest. Nor could he reveal the name the person at whose instance he had given that letter to his Swedish counterpart. The fear of the unknown has ensured Solanki's silence all these years. Bhardwaj too can be relied upon to keep his mouth tightly shut. He was made Law Minister in the Narasimha Rao Government at the instance of Sonia Gandhi. And he leaves no one in any doubt that he owes his loyalty and his present job to her.
He would willingly take the rap for the latest fiasco and wait for a sinecure outside the UPA Government. The Prime Minister and, of course, Mrs Gandhi, would like everyone to believe that they learnt of the unilateral request by the lawful representative the GOI to the Crown Prosecution in England from the media like all of commoners.
The PM would like you not to remind him that the Department of Personnel, which sent the Additional Solicitor General, on his secret Quattorocchi mission to London, is headed by one Manmohan Singh. Nor would the PM like to be informed that the Department of Personnel, headed by the same Manmohan Singh, shot down the request send a couple of senior CBI sleuths along with the ASG to London.
Nor would the PM want to be informed that an Interpol Red Corner Notice against Quattorocchi is still valid. And that the next hearing in the fraud case against the Italian fugitive from the Indian law is due next March. Plainly, this PM has abdicated. Let us not blame him for he is so helpless, nay, powerless.
On second thoughts, we might be rather harsh on the PM. Because he is a gentleman. And gentlemen, like monkeys in the famous fable, do not see, hear or do any evil. Give us a crooked PM, any day.
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