Parrikar downplays President Mukherjee's remark on Bofors scandal

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday avoided commenting on President Pranab Mukherjee's remark that the Bofors arms scandal was more of a 'media trial' and none of the charges have been proved in any Indian court.

"I can't comment on that. You will have to ask him (President

Mukherjee) under what condition he was in when he spoke. If you ask me, the quality of Bofors is good," he said.

President Mukherjee, had earlier in an interview with Dagens Nyheter newspaper ahead of an official visit to Sweden next week, said that the Bofors scandal had had not been proven to be a scandal in a court of law.

"First of all - it is yet to be to be established that there was a scandal. No Indian court has established it. I was the defence minister of the country long after Bofors, and all my generals certified that this is one of the best guns we are having. Till today, Indian army is using it. The so-called scandal which you talk of, yes, in the media, it was there. There was a media trial. But I'm afraid, let us not be too much carried by publicity," said President Mukherjee, who was earlier the country's Defence Minister.

"I do not know. I'm not describing it, you're putting that word. Don't put that word. What I am saying is that in media it was publicised. But up to now, no Indian court has given any decisive verdict about the alleged scandal," he added when asked if the Bofors scam was just a media scandal.

The Bofors scandal was a USD 285 million contract between the Indian Government and Swedish arms company Bofors, signed for supply of 155mm howitzer field guns in 1986.

The Bofors gun was used during the Kargil conflict with Pakistan and the gun proved very effective and it is still one of the main artillery weapons of the Indian Army.