Ranjit Devraj Allegations of bribery in a deal to buy Swedish artillery peaked all of 18 years ago, but continue to threaten the fortunes of India’s opposition Congress Party and that of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty in the current election season. Congress Party leaders are now questioning the timing of devastating statements made by a Swedish investigator, Sten Lindstrom, and published on Apr. 8 by the ‘Asian Age’ newspaper as its main lead, two weeks before India is set to go into the first phase of a staggered four-stage elections on April 20.

In the statement, Lindstrom suggested that Sonia Gandhi, president of the Congress Party and heir to the Nehru-Gandhi political mantle, be questioned on who exactly benefited from alleged kickbacks in the $ 1.2 billion deal. His statement has thrown the Congress Party into disarray. Already, the party is busy fending off a political campaign against Sonia Gandhi’s possible candidature for the prime minister’s job, on the grounds that the Italian-born politician is of foreign birth. Gandhi also accused the ruling and right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of raking up the Bofors issue to cover up for the “inability of the Vajpayee government to solve the real problems facing the country”.

The issue first surfaced in 1987 when Swedish Radio revealed that the then ailing Bofors company had paid bribes to unnamed Indian figures to secure the deal. It seemed there was nothing Rajiv Gandhi could do to avoid making the charges stick. Gandhi was known to have favoured the funding of the Congress Party through commissions on arms and other government purchases. Whatever Rajiv Gandhi’s intentions were, the massive scandal raised over the Bofors deal cost him and the Congress Party the 1989 general elections and the political pre-eminence it has enjoyed through most of its 115-year-old history. Out of power, Gandhi declared that he was ready to come clean on the whole deal and also rid the Party of “power brokers’. But he was assassinated at an election rally in 1991. Curiously, the Swedish prime minister the time of the Bofors deal, Olaf Palme, was also assassinated, leading to the widespread speculation that both leaders had fallen victim to ruthless players in the international arms bazaar. The Bofors curse was later to touch Prime Minister Tony Blair when the British press linked him to one of the alleged agents of the howitzer deal, the London-based Indian arms dealer family of the Hindujas. Although logically, the Bofors scandal in India should have ended with Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991, the case has dragged on interminably with each twist and turn either helping or harming the Congress Party. It was just on Feb. 3 this year that the Delhi High Court finally absolved Rajiv Gandhi of personal involvement in the deal. But the celebrations were to be short-lived. The month’s statements by Lindstrom have brought the Party back to square one. This especially because Lindstrom has named Ottavio Qattrochi, an Italian businessman and close friend of the Gandhi family, as one of the recipients of the Bofors kickbacks. There are now calls from top BJP leaders that Sonia Gandhi be taken in for questioning by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the country’s premier sleuthing agency. So far, the bureau has made no move to question her and Ram Jethmalani, an eminent lawyer who served as law minister

in the Vajpayee cabinet, has described the episode as a clear gimmick designed to damage the Congress Party and its leader. — IPS