MPs cutting across party lines yesterday unanimously demanded in both houses of Parliament that all the papers concerning the Bofors deal, inlcuding the Swiss bank papers recently transferred to India, should be laid on the table of each houses to demonstrate transparency and instil confidence in the people about the progress of the investigations.
The BJP, which has announced its intention to rake up the Bofors issue in Parliament, could not register its demand as BJP MPs boycotted Parliament to highlight the deteriorating law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh. Most of the MPs were in Farukhabad to attend a meeting to condole the death of BJP leader Brahma Dutt Dwivedi, who was killed recently.
However, the BJP and the Samata Party later demanded the setting up of a house committee to examine all papers relating to the Bofors deal. The BJPs deputy Lok Sabha leader, Jaswant Singh, and the Samata Party President George Fernandes told a press conference that the government should approach the Italian government to impound the key accused in the deal, Ottavio Quattorcchi, who is currently in Malaysia. Since Quattorcchi is an Italian, the governmnet should have sought the help of the Italian government to extradite him, they argued.
Congress members were equally vocal in demanding tabling of the Bofors papers - after the demand was raised by left members in the Lok Sabha and the Communist Party of India (CPI) in the Rajya Sabha. Congress members said they were equally interested in arriving at the truth and knowing the identities of the end users of the kickbacks. In the Rajya Sabha, CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta welcomed Prime Minister Deve Gowdas offer to table the Swiss bank papers in case MPs demanded it. This had provided members an opportunity to know the truth in a case which has been lingering for the last ten years, he added.
Congress member Pranab Mukherjee agreed to Dasguptas demand for laying of the papers. However, he stressed that the translation of the Swiss papers be authenticated before they were placed on the table of the House. There should be a structured debate on the issue and the government should also participate, he added.Mukherjee charged the government with selectively leaking the Bofors papers through the press and held that laying of all relevant material on the table would help to unearth the truth. Thie was also true of the third set of Swiss papers, currently held by the Swiss authorites, he added.
SS Ahluwalia alleged that one particular party is bent on establishing that another party is involved in the deal. He said such a thing in the absence of proof would set a wrong precendence in democracy.
Senior CPI-M leader Biplab Dasgupta demanded that there should be no interference from the government in the CBIs investigations into the Bofors deal. All the guilty in the deal should be punished, dead or alive, he held.
When some Congress members objected to this evident reference to late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Dasgupta shouted them down by saying: Dont talk with a guilty conscience.
In the Lok Sabha, Speaker PA Sangma had ruled out any regular zero hour as friday was fixed for private members business, but the CPI-Ms Nirmal Chatterjee pointed out that he had notified his demand seeking tabling of the secret Swiss bank documents.
Congress member Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, objected to the issue being treated as a zero-hour issue and declared his partys support for the demand.
Nothing should be allowed to politically malign anybody, he warned, and said that placing of the documents should not be selective. It was the governments duty to find out the end recipients of the kickbacks money, he added. Mamata Banerjee and Ramesh Chennithala suported Munshi.
CBI seeks SC help for interrogating Chadha
Our Law Correspondent NEW DELHI
The CBI yesterday sought the help of the Supreme Court to secure the presence of the star witness in the Bofors scam, Win Chadha, for interrogation regarding the Rs 64 crore pay-off.
A division bench comprising Justice J S Verma and Justice S P Kurdurkar tagged the petition along with another CBI petition on a similar question regarding issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants against several accused in the 1993 Bombay blast case, including underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
All these persons are reportedly in Dubai and they have to be brought to this country for interrogation. The Supreme Court will take both set of petitions on February 28.
The CBIs new thrust comes in the wake of the receipt of Swiss bank papers last month after a ten-year-old procedural struggle. Chaddha, who fled the country in 1988, is alleged to be one of the five recipients of the pay-offs. The CBI petition challenges the 1992 Delhi High Court order quashing two orders of the special judge directing the issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants against Chaddha.
Attorney General Ashok Desai told the court that both the petitions raised similar questions of law as to whether the designated or special court had the jurisdiction and authority to issue the arrest warrants.
