Commentary/ Saisuresh Sivaswamy

Bofors and the art of political maintenance

In ancient India, seven was a sacred number, which explains the seven swars, the seven rishis. But go only a little beyond, and one ends up with saade-saati, that unique Indian concept when ill-luck returns in that time-frame. None can escape the consequences, it is said, and it certainly seems that Indian politics, particularly politicians, is in for its round of the inauspicious phase, as the Bofors conundrum returns to the subcontinent seven-and-a-half years later.

For those who came in later, when Vishwanath Pratap Singh, affectionately called the Raja of Manda when that feeling ran deep for him in these parts, replaced his former friend and leader Rajiv Gandhi using the Bofors scam as his, well, artillery gun, it was almost before the time-frame we are looking at.

Never mind he promised in the run-up to the most acrimonious general election witnessed in India that if chosen prime minister he would unravel the Bofors in 30 days -- one could put it down to either ignorance of the arcane Swiss banking laws on the part of the ex-finance minister or to an early, unnoticed trend of pulling wool over those who voted for him. Pick your choice, mine is the latter.

But yes, if at all the Bofors documents are here, if at all the nation is finally to get to know the names of the recipients of the kickbacks, it is largely due to the exertions of the government headed by Singh. However, rather than look at the past, at who did what and who didn't do what, it should be far more interesting to look at the fortunes since then of the main players in Indian politics's equivalent of Santa Barbara and Dynasty combined.

The main accused -- and I use this phrase not in the strict, legalistic sense but in the sense of him having become the main focus of the entire scam, and well, the buck did stop with him since he was the chief executive of the nation -- Rajiv Gandhi, of course, needs no recap, he having met a fate one wouldn't wish on one's worse enemies.

The Raja of Manda -- permit me to address him so, albeit there is not a drop of affection in me for a man who couldn't look the nation in its eyes in his telecasts -- in his shrewd manner used the scandal to further his own means. After denouncing power, he saw no contradiction in embracing it. The tremendous goodwill he had earned, he squandered in no time, was relegated to the fringes of Indian politics, had a brief shy at power when the UF staked its claim to New Delhi's throne, and thankfully is nowhere near where it matters.

Arun Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi's cousin and ex-hatchetman, who was expelled from the Congress party along with Singh, became minister for some time in the Janata Dal government, but today is nowhere in the picture.

The Hindujas, who the nation accused of being one of the conduits to the Gandhi household, have since flourished, thank you. They have invested their fortune in India since then, and no one can readily accuse them of being unpatriotic if their names are among those who spill out from the parcel Central Bureau of Investigation chief Joginder Singh will bring from Berne. And there is nothing to stop them from grandstanding and offering to pay to the country whatever they may have made on the deal. Rs 640 million? Surely they must have made much more since then in India.

Win Chaddha had a rough time, for serving his masters faithfully. His wife passed away, and I don't think he has been able to bring her ashes to the country in whose eternal rivers she would have liked to have them immersed.

Steadfast officials of the then regime, like Gopi Arora, have had their day in the sun. So, when one talks of the seismic political consequences after the names are out, let's not kid ourselves, we are talking about the Gandhi family, and of course the Congress party.

The connection to the Gandhi family must obviously come from Ottavio Quattrochi, who is supposed to be a longstanding friend of Sonia's family and who is supposed to be one of the recipients. That perhaps should make the family jittery, but why should it make the party so? After all, the man himself is dead and gone, isn't he? And, pray, where are the jitters on the part of the family? If anything, it is going ahead with the forthcoming marriage of Priyanka Gandhi with apparently nary a care in the world.

Perry Mason remarks in his characteristic style: Facts are facts, you cannot change them. My own addition to that is that you can draw various inferences from available facts.

The facts in this case are indisputable. Kickbacks, or commissions if you want to call them, were paid. Obviously they were paid to secure the deal with Bofors AB. And before we proceed further, let's be clear about one thing: this is not a phenomenon peculiar to India or the Third World. Leaders of the so-called first world from USA to Japan have been caught doing worse.

My own inference is that the money was received in India, not to line the Gandhis's Mehrauli farmhouse swimming pool with Italian ties or to provide Priyanka with a mind-boggling marriage years later. It was taken on behalf of the Congress party, very clearly. Sonia knows it, so do the bigwigs of the Grand Old Party of India, which explains the jitters for one and none for the other. Earlier I had referred to those whose lives have been affected by the Bofors scandal; there was an omission in that.

There was a Union minister of state for defence in Rajiv Gandhi's regime by the name of Arun Singh. At the height of the Raja's hate campaign -- galli galli mein shor hai Rajiv Gandhi chor hai -- he had launched a blistering defence of his childhood friend in Parliament. Charged with emotion he had stated that to knowledge that neither Rajiv nor anyone in his family had taken the Bofors money. Surprisingly, he resigned soon after, quit the cesspool of politics, retired to Kumaon in Uttar Pradesh, where he lives a reclusive life to date. The visitors he seems to be encouraging are the avian variety, apart from the occasional burglar.

He is one person whose life has been changed upside down by the shadow of the Swedish arms manufacturer. He knows the truth; he did not know it when he defended his friend, but subsequently. If it was indeed his friend or his family, Singh's reaction would have been far more extreme, as would be the case with men who wear their probity on their sleeve. Singh knows the money was for the party on whose ticket he had once contested -- hence such a reaction. Hopefully, his self-invited saade-saati should end soon.

Saisuresh Sivaswamy, formerly executive editor, Express Newsline, will contribute a regular column to these pages.