Training its guns on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Bofors pay-offs scandal, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday demanded that he apologise for defending Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochi. "Mr PM, you tried to give a clean chit to Quattrocchi," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters, adding this has been found to be false by an income tax tribunal which said that kickbacks of Rs 41 crore were paid to Quattrocchi and Win Chaddha.
As an income tax tribunal on Monday said Rs 41 crore as commission were paid to late Win Chaddha, an agent of the Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors, and Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrochchi in the gun deal, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday condemned Congress President Sonia Gandhi's plan to fight graft and demanded a Special Investigative Team to look afresh at the whole issue saying there should be no cover-up.
The Bofors ghost returned to haunt the Congress party with an income tax tribunal saying that kickbacks of Rs 41 crore were paid to late Win Chaddha, an agent of the Swedish arms manufacturer and Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the Howitzer gun deal and that they are liable to pay tax in India on such income.
The Congress kept sheltering Quattrochi, and the BJP was more intent on shielding the Hinduja brothers. The fact is that the two roads crisscrossed, and neither the truth prevailed nor did the law take its course, says Mohan Guruswamy.
The Congress, which was not a petitioner before the apex court, wants the Rafale deal to be referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee to go into the price arrived at by the BJP government versus the one negotiated by the previous UPA regime, as also how billionaire Anil Ambani's group with virtually no experience in manufacture of fighter jets was selected as an offset partner for the deal.
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