The multi-crore Bofors gun deal is back on the national radar to haunt the ruling Congress party, as the main Opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, along with its allies, has decided to raise the issue in Parliament. Meanwhile, buoyed by the vindication, the Bachchan family said that the truth had come out at last.
The fresh controversy started after former Swedish investigator Sten Lindstrom clarified that though former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had not received any illegal gratification in the deal, the then Union government had tried to cover up the scandal and didn’t act against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi despite the fact that there was concrete evidence against him.
Blaming the opposition parties for repeatedly making false allegations against Rajiv Gandhi for several years and dragging his name into the controversy even though he had no role in the scandal, law minister Salman Khurshid demanded a public apology for making baseless allegations against the former prime minister and his family members.
“There was a detailed investigation and there were Supreme Court and High Court proceedings, and the decision that came endorsed those proceedings. I don’t think we can continue to reopen these issues,” Khurshid told reporters.
Taking note of the revelations made by the former investigator, senior leaders of BJP parliamentary party met in the morning to discuss how to raise the issue in the House. During the discussion, leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, raised the issue and stressed that the Union government must explain why it didn’t act against Quattrocchi when there was clear evidence against him.
Senior BJP leaders are planning to raise the issue in the Rajya Sabha on May 2 when the House would discuss the country’s defence preparedness.
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The BJP leadership is trying its best to take the issue up for discussion in Lok Sabha in the next couple of days.
“The entire machinery of the government of India at that point in time was out to save Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi and Rajiv Gandhi,” said Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP spokesperson.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) has alleged that the revelations indicate that the Union government had no political will to act against people involved in the scam.
While the opposition parties are trying to target the Congress party, it seems there is little coordination between them as senior members of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) believe that this issue must not be discussed as it 25 years old and there is no merit in the arguments. “We don’t think this issue should be raised in Parliament, and so we have decided to remain quiet when the matter is discussed. Since we are an ally of the BJP, we will not oppose the party,” said a senior Akali Dal leader.
United Progressive Alliance (UPA) member Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) came to the rescue of its ally, the Congress, by categorically stating that there was no case against the Congress or the government and there was no basis to raise these issues.
Meanwhile, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan, who was alleged to have received kickbacks during the investigation decided to break his silence on the issue after Lindstrom stated in an interview that Indian investigators had tried to falsely plant stories against him.
“Time for the fact and the truth to prevail. Many an incident has passed by in my life, where the accusation, the improbable was tested against reality. It looked and felt and was believed for that moment in the worst. Fighting a storm at its worst fury would be stupidity,” Bachchan wrote on his blog.
Bachchan was then a Member of Parliament of the Congress party, but he resigned after his name cropped up during the investigations. Though the actor was a close friend of Rajiv Gandhi, the differences between the two cropped up during investigations.
“I want to know how to erase those things which were written about him then, and for which he resigned. How will you erase those things? This should serve as a lesson that nothing should be done in haste. Justice takes its own time and God has his own time to reveal the truth,” said Jaya Bachchan, wife of Amitabh Bachchan and Samajwadi Party MP.