Congress president Rahul Gandhi is on the offensive against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale jet fighters deal with French defence giant Dassault Aviation. Launching a frontal attack on the PM, the Congress chief called him corrupt and demanded his resignation.
Rahul Gandhi’s latest aggression was precipitated by a report in a French journal Mediapart, which cited internal documents of Dassault Aviation and claimed that the French defense giant was made to choose industrialist Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence as its offset partner in India as a trade-off for clinching the deal.
Rahul Gandhi’s personal attack on Narendra Modi is reminiscent of what VP Singh, as a rebel Congress leader and former defence minister, did to then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
What VP Singh did to Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi seems to be doing exactly that to Narendra Modi.
Even after three decades of litigation, the Bofors scandal is still in the realm of suspicion. Though Rajiv Gandhi was exonerated in 2004, it was only 15 years after he lost power because of the Bofors scam and 13 years after he was assassinated.
The politics around the Rafale deal seems to be going the Bofors way with Rahul Gandhi apparently taking a cue from VP Singh’s charge against his father Rajiv Gandhi.
Though no charges against Rajiv Gandhi has been proved, VP Singh succeeded in defaming him and creating perception that the Congress government was corrupt. This strategy had catapulted VP Singh to the PM’s post in the 1989 Lok Sabha election.
On March 24, 1986, the Rajiv Gandhi government entered into a Rs 1,437-crore deal with Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors for the supply of 400 155mm Howitzer guns for the Indian Army.
However, about a year later on April 16, 1987, the Radio Sweden claimed that AB Bofors had paid kickbacks to top Indian politicians and defence personnel.
The CBI registered an FIR charging criminal conspiracy, bribery, corruption, cheating and forgery against then president of AB Bofors Martin Ardbo, alleged middleman Win Chadda and the Hinduja brothers on January 22, 1990.
The first chargesheet, filed on October 22, 1999, named Win Chadda, Ottavio Quattrocchi, then defence secretary SK Bhatnagar, Ardbo and the Bofors company. The Hinduja brothers were named in a a supplementary chargesheet which was filed on October 9, 2000.
The Delhi High Court exonerated Rajiv Gandhi in the case on February 4, 2004. It also directed framing of charge of forgery against Bofors.
On May 31, 2005, the Delhi High Court quashed charges against all accused persons.
About six years later on March 4, 2011, a special CBI court discharged Quattrocchi saying the country had already spent Rs 250 crore on his extradition and it could not afford to spend any more.
The case is likely to be heard in the Supreme Court after BJP’s Ajay Agrawal filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court’s 2005 order. Agrawal had unsuccessfully contested against then Congress president and Rahul Gandhi’s mother Sonia Gandhi from Raebareli.
In the absence of clinching evidence, the Bofors case drags even 32 years after India signed the deal for Howitzer guns.
