STORY OF BOFORS SCAM
This particular
chapter deals with one of the big scandal of Indian political history and it
was Bofors scandal. It was April 1987 when an event occurred and it changed the
face of Indian politics. During that time, it was coming to the public sphere
that few politicians have taken commission while purchasing the Howitzer Gun
from Sweden. Prior to that Rajiv Gandhi became the youngest prime minister of
India in the year 1984. He became the prime minister after the assassination of
her mother cum prime minister of the country Indira Gandhi. few days after the
country had to face the general election and in that election Rajiv Gandhi led
congress party won with the highest margin ever. Rajiv Gandhi talked about revolution
of computer and fight against corruption. It was the centenary for congress
party in the year 1985 and a meeting was organised by the congress party
members where Rajiv Gandhi gave a speech for seventy-five minute and he mentioned
congress party as a mass movement. He documented the vision of the congress
party for the future endeavour. In that
speech he talked about the internal issues of the party and how few congress
leaders are becoming danger for the party itself because of their personal
political ambitions. He was getting the mass support and he was identified as
the Mr. clean of Indian politics. At the same time the working president of
congress party KP Tripathy and few others were writing letter for Rajiv Gandhi.
working president of congress party KP Tripathy sent that letter to Rajiv
Gandhi on 22nd April 1986. The centre of the letter was eyeing on
Rajiv Gandhi and it was only one and half year to Rajiv Gandhi to hold the
Prime Minister post but few congress leaders from the congress party itself
were questioning his ideology. And most importantly the draft of that letter to
Rajiv Gandhi was drafted by president Pranab Mukherjee. When it came to the
public sphere that Pranab Mukherjee has drafted the letter then he was
boycotted from the congress party. It was Arun Nehru’s hand behind this
decision of Rajiv Gandhi’s move to expel Pranab Mukherjee. During that time
Arun nehru’s activeness was quite very much popular in both the party and the
government. Arun Nehru, Arun Singh and VP Singh were the prominent congress
politician at that time. Arun Nehru was the state home minister during that
time but time changed when Rajiv Gandhi changed his cabinet for the another
time after getting elected as the prime minister. And this time Arun Nehru
failed to secure a portfolio in Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet. These were the minimum
issues for Rajiv Gandhi but the original threat for him was caused by his
friend VP Singh. He had served the people of Uttar Pradesh as the chief
minister of the state, Sanjay Gandhi played a big role in his political
stature. After becoming the prime minister Rajiv Gandhi gave the finance
minister portfolio to VP Singh. And VP Singh started a campaign against the
corrupt companies who were not obeying the norms of tax and other things. Due
to these heavyweight steps, he was becoming a popular and loyal politician in
the eyes of the common masses. Then Rajiv Gandhi made changes that he changed
VP Singh’s portfolio. He took the finance department from VP Singh and gave him
the defence ministry. It happens when VP Singh was preparing the budget for
1987. On 6th February 1987 director of enforcement directorate
Vorelal sent a not to revenue secretary Binod Pandey. It was mentioned in that
note that on Vorelal’s way to America he had given task to the spying agency
called Firefox. The work which was assigned to Firefox that to find out the
list of companies which are violating the norms of taxes of government and
engaging themselves in anti-national interest. An emoluments was supposed to
given to Firefox according to their assignments. After sending the note Vorelal
was expelled from the director post and during that time defence minister VP
Singh sent a note to the finance ministry and in that note he mentioned that he
orally ordered Vorelal to give the assignments to the foreign spying agency
Firefox. After that news came into the public sphere few congress leaders
thought that it was a conspiracy to boycott Rajiv Gandhi from the post of prime
minister. People were accusing him for taking the help of a foreign spying
agency without taking permission and consultation from the prime minister. But
VP Singh could able to find the way out of that issue that he picked the issues
related to the purchasing of Panduvi from the HDW company of Germany. It was
for the first during the prime ministership of Indira Gandhi when Panduvi was
purchased and again for the second during the reign of Rajiv Gandhi the
contract was renewed by the India and HDW of Germany. And the government of
Indian has already been given approval of renewal. Then VP Singh wrote a letter
to the ambassador regarding the minimisation of price of Panduvi but he got the
answer from the ambassador that the commission has already been given to the
Indian brokers so the price cannot be minimise. VP Singh has already made up
the mind that to challenge Rajiv Gandhi because he knew the fact that Rajiv
Gandhi is trying to get rid of him. So Rajiv Gandhi formed a two judge bench
committee to enquiry over the Firefox issue and VP Singh was in front of the
committee in the supreme court. Rajiv Gandhi was planning to form the
commission by 6th April but at that time VP Singh played his master
stroke by holding a press conference on the HDW Panduvi issue. And in that
press conference he announced that investigation will be done over the HDW
Panduvi issue. The affinity between Rajiv Gandhi and VP Singh was getting wider
and wider day by day. With that the national politics took a new way. From the
initial time the relation between the president and the prime minister was not
so good and it was made clear when VP Singh met the president Gyan Jail Singh.
The president was purposing VP Singh to be the next prime minister but VP Singh
didn’t agree on the proposal of Gyani Jail Singh. VP Singh was aware of the
fact that he will not be having any portfolio in the next cabinet of Rajiv
Gandhi and he has already decided to leave the cabinet. He prepared his
resignation and finally resigned from the defence ministry on 12 April 1987 but
he didn’t leave the congress party. After four days a news came in the Indian
Radio and that changed the politics of India for time to come. A weapon making
company of Sweden called Bofors gave lakhs of dollar to the Indian politicians
to sell its 155mm Howitzer Gun. This news has already been broadcasted in the
radio of Sweden as well. when this new came to the Indian sphere the budget
session of parliament was going on. After high amount of agitation and protest
Rajiv Gandhi replied that there is no middle man in the deal with Bofors and no
commission has not been taken as well. the point was when the deal was made
between Bofors and India at that time Rajiv Gandhi himself was the head of the
Defence ministry. Rajiv Gandhi had been to the funeral of the prime minister of
Sweden and after the funeral work he met the new prime minister of Sweden and
decided that Indian will be buying the weapons from Bofors. As the news was breked
by the Swedish radio so Indian Government was putting pressure to cancel all
the reports of Bofors Scam. The Swedish government decided not to investigate
anything in regards to Bofors scam and it was made clear that Bofors had not
given any sort of commission to ant any Indian politician. Indian government
was avoiding any sort of Scams. The agitation and protest was getting the
momentum while Rajiv Gandhi decided to hold a rally in Delhi, where he
addressed the masses and in that address he indirectly attacked on VP Singh.
Now the fight was on going on openly and it has already gone a far way. VP
Singh was not only person, who was against of Rajiv Gandhi, there were another
three prominent congressmen like Arif Mohammad, Arun Nehru, VC Shukla. They were
also expelled by the congress party. Then VP Singh resigned from Rajya Sabha
and then he was also expelled by the congress party. Few days back these were
the people who were ruling the government but now they are not in the
government and in the party also. A new angle has come to that story and the
centre of that’s troy was Arun Singh. He was the friend of Rajiv Gandhi. he was
the state defence minister of that time. He sent note to Rajiv Gandhi where he
mentioned that it has already been proved that Bofors had given commission to
the Indian politician. So he was putting pressure on Rajiv Gandhi to talk to
the Swedish government to give the details so that the truth can be revealed.
Arun Singh was demanding the proper investigation of that Bofors issue but
Rajiv Gandhi didn’t give the green signal to that. So on 18th July
1987 Arun Singh resigned from the ministry. But the protest and agitation was
going on so finally a thirty-member committee was formed to investigate that
issue. After the investigation that committee gave clean chit to the government
of India over the issue of Bofors. But legendary journalist Chitra Subramanium
and N Ram published an article in Hindu and few new name came into the open era
like GP Hinduja and the Bofors scam was getting more and more suspense. Then it
was made clear that there were three company who were involved in that scam and
they were Pitko, Swenska and AE services. But it was quite not clear at that
time that who is the owner of AE services. Above all one man got benefitted
hugely from this Bofors scam and he was VP Singh, he became the face against
corruption. Then he fights the election from Allahabad and Rajiv Gandhi posed
Sunil Shastri against of VP Singh. VP Singh backed a big win over congress
party and many other oppositions were giving support to VP Singh. Then the
election came and VP Singh was targeting Rajiv Gandhi’s government over the
Bofors scam and he was directly saying that Rajiv Gandhi is having money in the
name of Lotus in Swish bank. At last in the election 1989 it was a big loss for
congress party. VP Singh made the governed by getting the support from BJP and
other parties. VP Singh became the prime minister and as he was given the word
to the public that to expose the Bofors scam, so he handed over the Bofors scam
case to CBI. But before the result his government was dissolved. At that time a
big news came to the public sphere that AE services belong to the Quattorchi
couple. After that CBI made charge sheet against many people. But the case was dismissed
by the Delhi High court later on. But still it is yet to be revealed that who
is the real culprit behind the Bofors scam?
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