Responding to Rahul Gandhi’s statement on the Rafale deal, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that unlike the Congress, the BJP did not indulge in scams. Sitharaman said, “I don’t want to talk about Bofors because that is a scam and not Rafale. Bofors brought you down. Rafale will bring Modi back to have a new and transforming India and remove corruption which is stinking around the Congress.”
But, What Is The Bofors Scam?
The biggest proverbial albatross around Congress’s neck, the ghost of which haunts the party to this day, Bofors was Rajiv Gandhi’s biggest defense purchase. It soon became the unofficial campaign symbol of the BJP in the elections of the late eighties.
Other Scams Before Bofors
In the run up to Bofors, there had been a number of other smaller scandals mainly around Fairfax and the HDW submarine. To explain briefly, Fairfax centered around the appointment of VP Singh as the defense minister. Singh had became notorious for his ‘raid raj’ where the American detective agency Fairfax was asked to investigate illegal hoarding of cash in overseas banks by Indians. As Rajiv Gandhi transferred Singh from the Defence to Finance ministry, it was seen as proof of him trying to protect Amitabh Bachchan whose name figured on the list.
This was followed by the HDW scandal where India wanted to purchase few additional submarines from a German shipyard but at a discounted price. The shipyard refused saying they would have to pay seven percent commission in all circumstances. VP Singh ordered an enquiry without the PM’s permission and angered the cabinet since the contract had been made during Indira Gandhi’s tenure as defense minister. In face of this criticism, VP Singh resigned.
The Bofors Breaks
On April 16, 1987, news of the Bofors scandal broke via Swedish media. According to estimates, an equivalent of 60 crores had been paid in bribes to officials and Congress party members to gain the contract for 410 howitzer guns.
Indian media, especially the Indian Express and the Hindu, launched attacks on Rajiv Gandhi and his family. The president of India Gyani Zail Singh found in this an opportunity to settle scores with the Prime Minister. He said that the PM had not respected the office of the president by not consulted him on matters related to Punjab and the Mizos. Lured by the hope of a second term, he became the center of the conspiracy against Gandhi. The opposition and some within Congress wanted Gandhi dismissed on charges of corruption and for disregard of the constitutional precedent of keeping the President informed. Zail Singh refused and what would have been a major catastrophe in Indian democracy was averted.
Bofors refused to die, and in 1989 it became an election issue. The Joint Parliamentary Committee Report and CAG more or less cleared his name. But the opposition took it up and mass resignations followed from the lower house of the Parliament, which was an embarrassment for the ruling party.
The stink of Bofors has since then refused to die down. Rajiv Gandhi entered the 1989 election with allegations and a malicious personal campaign was launched against him by VP Singh. Thirty years later the Narendra Modi-led Bhartiya Janata Party enters the election campaign with full thrust of allegations heaped against them by the Congress.
The big question remains, is Rafale going to be Narendra Modi’s Bofors?