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January 19, 1998

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Congress fears Bofors fallout, thanks to Sonia

George Iype in New Delhi

E-Mail this story to a friend Sonia Gandhi may have elicited overwhelming public enthusiasm during her poll campaign across south India, but the Congress leadership is not enthused over her raking up the Bofors and the Babri mosque issues.

Congress president Sitaram Kesri and his followers are in a state of perturbation after Sonia challenged the United Front government to release the secret Bofors papers.

On Sunday, Kesri convened a meeting of senior Congress leaders, many of whom opposed the party taking up the Bofors scandal as a poll issue. Kesri has explained to his colleagues that Sonia did not have any prior consultation with the party leadership as to what would be the text of the speech she is delivering across the country.

Kesri and his supporters fear that thanks to her, the controversial Bofors gun scandal has unwittingly become a major election issue.

"Sonia is unnecessarily dragging the Bofors issue into the political limelight, and we fear it will hamper our poll prospects as Bofors cannot give us any votes," a Kesri supporter told Rediff On the Net.

He said Bofors was the single issue that brought down the Rajiv Gandhi government during the 1989 Parliamentary election.

"It is not a question of whether Rajiv got bribe money or not. But it is a fact that the Bofors controversy is very much associated with the Congress," he said. "Sonia is indulging in a dangerous game of refreshing people's memories on the eve of elections."

Following Sonia's demand, the caretaker United Front regime has sought legal opinion on whether it is proper to release the Bofors papers. The UF constituents are pressing Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral to reveal the contents of the CBI report on the Bofors scandal.

Many believe that the demand will boomerang on her and the Congress as Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi -- a kingpin in the Bofors payoff scandal -- is said to be a close family friend of Sonia. Quattrocchi is alleged to have got the Bofors contract cleared through his Gandhi family contacts.

But CBI sources said the apex investigating agency has advised the government not to release the sensitive documents till the second set of documents arrive from Switzerland.

In January last, the Swiss government handed over to the CBI secret bank documents containing the names of the recipients of bribe from the Swedish arms manufacturer A B Bofors.

CBI's special investigation team, which scrutinised the documents, submitted its final report to the government on April 30.

On May 12, the investigating agency sought the Union home ministry's permission to prosecute two retired bureaucrats -- S K Bhatnagar and Gopi Arora -- besides former Union minister Madhavsinh Solanki.

The CBI's report also named former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi as one of the accused, though it failed to prove corruption charges against him.

But Congress sources claimed that Kesri has been pressurising the UF government for the last many months to keep the Bofors case under wraps as the party leadership was keen on not getting embroiled in the sensitive controversy again.

But soon after Kesri withdrew support to Gujral, the UF government quickly requested the British authorities to name three Channel Island account holders, who are suspected to have received part of the Rs 640 million Bofors kickbacks.

The Congress leadership is also unhappy that Sonia is raising other forgotten issues like the Babri mosque. In fact, the Congress is all set to apologise to the Muslims on the Babri mosque demolition in its forthcoming election manifesto.

Whether the UF combine and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party will benefit from their anti-Congress campaign on Bofors is yet to be ascertained. But many believe Sonia's campaign trail will not swing many votes, if she reminds the people of Bofors and the Babri mosque every now and then.

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