The still smoking gun

HOW THE BOFORS AFFAIR TRANSFORMED INDIA - 1989-1999: Lt. Gen. (Retd.) M. Mayadas; Lancer Publishers & Distributors, 56, Gautam Nagar, New Delhi-110049. Rs. 395.

LIKE THE ghost in Hamlet, the ``smoke'' from the Bofors issue just refuses to go away. At a time when the final set of documents has reached the CBI and the case enters a decisive stage, Lt. Gen. Mayadas (Retd.), who headed the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) to assess the various guns on offer, has come out with this book to throw more light on the controversy.

Without any reservation and with the full backing of his committee report and enquiries, the retired Lt. General has bared all in this book. Unfortunately, he has chosen to ramble far outside the purview of the ``smoking gun'' and discusses the whole canvas of corruption in the Indian polity.

It is doubtful if the Bofors gun deal was the first major issue of corruption in India. Nor is it the last. The present Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, has ordered a full-fledged investigation by the Chief Vigilance Commissioner into all the defence deals since 1985, to identify any irregularities or malpractices. The probe will go into the latest purchase of arms and ammunition for the Kargil war and also lay down norms and procedures for future defence deals.

The author gloats over the fact that the Bofors gun deal became the central issue in the 1989 election and Rajiv Gandhi and his Congress Party lost power because of the needle of suspicion. But, the retired General makes it clear, time and again, that it was the former Army Chief, Gen. Sundarji, who pushed for Bofors and made it suddenly the first in a list of four field guns that were under consideration.

Despite the fact that his TEC brought Bofors back to the third place, giving the Austrian and the French guns the top two slots, the author was shell-shocked to know when the Government finally decided on Bofors. In an appendix, he details the grounds on which his committee made the selection.

What is puzzling and raises serious doubts about where the orders came from, he traces the history of the purchase of the field guns. Starting from the mid-1970s, the Indian Army was looking for a suitable gun. But suddenly, when the author took over as the Director-General of Weapons and Equipment in 1985, there was a rush to decide on the issue. He could not understand the haste. Even now, the problem of mobility for the Bofors gun has not been solved because the Swiss did not fit it with a self-propelled vehicle. The author has also briefly dealt with the mockery of the Joint Parliamentary Committee set up to go into the Bofors issue, which rocked the Parliament following the disclosures in the media.

If only the author had stuck to just the Bofors issue and provided a more comprehensive appendix along with the published documents relating to the deal, this book could have emerged as a ready reference on the scandal. But he enjoys looking at the political canvas and expressing his anguish at the corruption all round - the corruption of the entire system. He is particularly appalled at the state of the administration in Bihar. He has also referred to the nexus between various lobbies, which have entrenched corruption in high places and down the hierarchy. Can anything in the Government - from the village to the national capital - be done without greasing somebody's palm?Looking at it more dispassionately, it is not just the system, but the people who are responsible for this sorry state of affairs. It is not only the corrupt who must be blamed and punished, but also those who thrive by corrupting those in need and those in power. Corruption has become a shortcut to reach the destination, a way of life not just in India, but all over the world.

V. JAYANTH

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