'Bofors scandal marked several watersheds in India'

Permanent spot: Bofors accused, Italian businessman QuattrocchiLate in the evening of April 16, 1987, Swedish Radio broadcast a story which created a political earthquake in India and which would prove to be a watershed not merely in Indian politics but also in Indian journalism.The story claimed that Bofors had won the $1.3 billion howitzer contract by paying bribes to senior Indian politicians and key defence officials in secret Swiss bank accounts. V.P. Singh had recently resigned as finance and then as defence minister for having commissioned a US-based investigative agency, Fairfax, to probe the illegal forex transactions of Reliance and then asked the Indian Embassy in Germany to inquire into the HDW submarine deal. Coming on its heels, the Bofors scandal finally destroyed Rajiv Gandhi. After two years of smooth sailing as prime minister, it was Bofors which led to his undoing. He was never the same smooth and confident man who had seemed to be a breath of fresh air in a political scene haunted by septuagenarian and octogenarian leaders.The official response to the radio story was on familiar lines. It said that the story was, "false, baseless... and one more link in the chain of denigration and destabilisation of our political system". It also said that the government had, in fact, banned all agents and commissions in defence deals.However, the story kept unravelling with Swedish Radio giving more details of the payments. This forced the Swedish government to institute an inquiry through the Swedish Audit Bureau. Though considerable parts of the Bureau's report were blacked out by the Swedish government, it did confirm the payment of commissions to several people, including Win Chaddha, who was the previous agent for Bofors in India.The Indian government then constituted a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to inquire into the matter. The JPC was dominated by the ruling party and went on to take almost a year to give a whitewashing report. By this time, Bofors had become the most keenly followed story by the media. The swirl of revelations and allegations that surfaced led the chief district prosecutor of Stockholm, Lars Ringberg, to begin an independent investigation in August 1987. This led to the seizing of various bank records and other documents relating to this deal, as well as the diary of Bofors president Martin Ardbo. Ringberg's probe led to one of the most remarkable investigative journalistic scoops in India.Chitra Subramaniam, a reporter working for The Hindu, along with associate editor, N. Ram, sent investigative reports, revealing the details of the commission agreements of Bofors with the middlemen and the payments made to various Swiss accounts. This flood of revelations could not be stemmed by the crude cover-up of the JPC and the CBI, which also began a sham investigation.The rest is history. Rajiv lost the next election in 1989 to V.P. Singh who made Bofors and corruption the main election issue. The scandal thus marked several watersheds in India. It marked the beginning of a new genre of Watergate style investigative journalism in India, which relies on a painstaking cultivation of reliable official sources and a patient and accurate revelation of that information, without compromising the source. It also marked the beginning of an era of politics where corruption in high places came to dominate political issues.Though Bofors brought corruption to the top of the public agenda, it has not stemmed its tide in India, judging from the scams that have regularly erupted since then. Perhaps the new Right to Information Act will make a difference. (The writer is a noted public interest litigation lawyer)Published By: AtMigration Published On: Dec 26, 2005 00:00 IST--- ENDS ---

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'Bofors scandal marked several watersheds in India'

"Corruption in high places came to dominate political issues."

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