Congress fears Bofors fallout, thanks to Sonia
George Iype in New Delhi
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.
Tell us what you think of this report
|