The bigger scandal

It is said that morality and political power are incompatible. That may be true, but degree also matters. Even the most unctuous will therefore allow those in power some moral latitude while conducting the affairs of state and party. Nowhere does this become more apparent than in the use of middlemen, those morally challenged creatures who act as oil in the wheels of politics, power and governance. An academic paper called Towel Over Armpit: Small-time Political Fixers in Indian States by James Manor, an old India hand, puts the role of middlemen in perspective. These "fixers", says Manor, "bring three important things to the political process "" knowledge, skills and attitudes." Ottavio Quattrocchi clearly had all three, which would explain his extraordinary usefulness to those in power. That said, there is a rule that keeps the middlemen in check. It says that beyond a point all bets are off and protection will cease. But in the case of Mr Quattrocchi, the Indian state has, time and again over 19 long years, come to his rescue as if he were a national asset.

Everyone knows there can be only one reason for this. His proximity to the family of the current president of the Congress party, not to mention his involvement in below-the-water deals in which politicians from other major political parties have been involved, has ensured an unprecedented degree of protection. For example, when Mr Jain of the Jain hawala scandal was questioned by the CBI 12 years ago, he said it was Mr Quattrocchi who had introduced him to a leading figure in the hawala business. Mr Jain's diaries, it will be recalled, had contained the names of several politicians from many political parties, which may be why, when the BJP-led NDA was in power, it also failed to nail Mr Quattrocchi. It did, however, have a red corner Interpol alert issued against him, an alert that has been ignored by all countries that the man has entered and exited. That includes Britain and Switzerland, and of course his native Italy.

This is in spite of the fact that Mr Quattrocchi was an important beneficiary of the Bofors payoffs. He was the man who controlled a Swiss bank account into which money was paid by Bofors, namely, A E Services. This was established long ago in 1988. In 1993, however, the Indian government, then a Congress one, allowed Mr Quattrocchi to leave the country. Last year his accounts in London were de-frozen at the instance of the government, which used the Central Bureau of Investigation, quite unmindful of the fact that it was the CBI in the first instance that had requested that the accounts be frozen. The result was that Mr Quattrocchi got away with around Rs 20 crore. Earlier, in 2000, he had been arraigned in Malaysia but (during NDA rule) the CBI managed to fumble to his benefit. In 2003, he went back to his native Italy and since then the Italian government has been protecting him. Why? Now the CBI says the Swiss government will not cooperate because the case is 'too old'!

But accidents will happen. So some nameless immigration officer in a small Argentinian town who had never heard of Mr Quattrocchi before, had him arrested on February 5. The Indian government kept this under wraps for almost three weeks, till the man was out on bail. Few will take the bet that Mr Quattrocchi will be put on a plane back to India to face the charges against him. And that is what makes this scandal bigger than the original Bofors pay-offs.