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In 1989 elections, gun shot fired by Bofors throws Congress out of Power

What was Rajiv Gandhi’s fatal error in politics? It does not
need a seer to say that it was his claim to honesty — branding
himself as ‘Mr Clean’ — that proved fatal to him. Indira Gandhi was
his contrast. Asked about corruption in her government, she said
nonchalantly, ‘it was a global phenomenon’. This was in 1983. An
honest Delhi High Court judge even lamented how could corruption be
controlled when someone holding such a high position had almost
rationalised it. The result, no one could ever charge Indira Gandhi
with corruption, because she never claimed to be clean. But,
ambitious to look ideal, Rajiv proclaimed honesty and so provoked
scrutiny; in contrast, Indira, opting to be practical, immunised
herself against scrutiny. Eventually, Rajiv’s claim to honesty
became the very cross on which he was crucified in the 1989
elections when the Bofors gun shot the Congress out of power. The
lesson to the political class was: don’t claim to be honest, if you
really are not so. The hard lesson seems forgotten now by the
Gandhi family itself. Sonia Gandhi, instead of following Indira’s
safe path, is wrongly caught on Rajiv’s risky steps. The
consequences seem to be ominous. Will the politics of 1987 to 1989
repeat?
Following Rajiv and forgetting Indira, Sonia Gandhi proclaimed
‘zero tolerance’ to corruption at a party rally in Allahabad in
November 2010. She repeated it at the Congress plenary in Delhi
weeks later. Asking the cadre to take the corrupt head on, she said
that her party was ‘prompt’ in acting against the corrupt; ‘never
spared the corrupt’ because corruption impedes development’. This
was almost how Rajiv Gandhi spoke in the Congress centenary in
Mumbai 25 years ago. Two crucial differences marked Rajiv away from
Sonia. First, when Rajiv claimed to be ‘Mr Clean’, he had no scams
to defend against. But, Sonia claims to be honest amidst huge and
continuing scams — CWG, Adarsh, 2G Spectrum allocation scam…. Next,
Rajiv had a clean slate to begin with, with no known skeletons in
his cupboard till the Bofors scam smashed his ‘Mr Clean’ image. In
contrast, Sonia’s slate is full of credible exposures of bribes and
pay-offs in billions of dollars secreted in Swiss bank accounts,
not counting Quattrocchi’s millions from Bofors. To make it worse,
for almost two decades now, she has not dared to deny the exposures
or sue the famous Swiss magazine or the Russian investigative
journalist who had put out evidence of bribe against the Sonia
family. Seen against this background, Sonia’s vow to act against
the corrupt seems like a suspect hooting ‘catch the thief’ and
scooting away. This is the main story that unfolds here.
$2.2 billions to 11 billions! : A stunning
exposure on Sonia Gandhi’s secret billions in Swiss banks came,
surprisingly, from Switzerland itself, where the world’s corrupt
stash away their booty. In its issue of November 19, 1991,
Schweizer Illustrierte, the most popular magazine of Switzerland,
did an exposé of over a dozen politicians of the third world,
including Rajiv Gandhi, who had stashed away their bribe monies in
Swiss banks. Schweizer Illustrierte, not a rag, sells some 2,15,000
copies and has a readership of 9,17,000 — almost a sixth of Swiss
adult population. Citing the newly opened KGB records, the magazine
reported ‘that Sonia Gandhi the widow of the former Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi was controlling secret account with 2.5 billion Swiss
Francs (equal to $2.2 billion) in her minor son’s name’. The $2.2
billion account must have existed from before June 1988 when Rahul
Gandhi attained majority. The loot in today’s rupee value equals
almost Rs 10,000 crore. Swiss banks invest and multiply the
clients’ monies, not keep them buried. Had it been invested in safe
long-term securities, the $.2.2 billion bribe would have multiplied
to $9.41 billion (Rs 42,345 crore) by 2009. If it had been put in
US stocks, it would have swelled to $12.97 billion (Rs 58,365
crore). If, as most likely, it were invested in long-term bonds and
stocks as 50:50, it would have grown to $11.19 billion (Rs 50,355
crore). Before the global financial meltdown in 2008, the $2.2
billion bribes in stocks would have peaked at $18.66 billion (Rs
83,900 crore). By any calculation the present size of the $2.2
billion secret funds of the family in Swiss banks seems huge —
anywhere between Rs 43,000 plus to some Rs 84,000 crore!
KGB papers : The second exposé, emanating from the
archives of the Russian spy outfit KGB, is far more serious. It
says that the Gandhi family has accepted political pay-offs from
the KGB — a clear case of treason besides bribe. In her book The
State Within a State: The KGB and its Hold on Russia-Past, Present,
and Future, Yevgenia Albats, an acclaimed investigative journalist,
says: “A letter signed by Victor Chebrikov, who replaced Andropov
as the KGB head in 1982 noted: ‘the USSR KGB maintains contact with
the son of the Premier Minister Rajiv Gandhi (of India). R Gandhi
expresses deep gratitude for the benefits accruing to the Prime
Minister’s family from the commercial dealings of the firm he
controls in co-operation with the Soviet foreign trade
organisations. R Gandhi reports confidentially that a substantial
portion of the funds obtained through this channel are used to
support the party of R Gandhi’.” (p.223). Albats has also disclosed
that, in December 2005, KGB chief Victor Chebrikov had asked for
authorisation from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union, “to make payments in US dollars to the family
members of Rajiv Gandhi, namely Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Ms
Paola Maino, mother of Sonia Gandhi.” And even before Albats’ book
came out the Russian media had leaked out the details of the
pay-offs. Based on the leaks, on July 4, 1992, The Hindu had
reported: “the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service admits the
possibility that the KGB could have been involved in arranging
profitable Soviet contract for the company controlled by Rajiv
Gandhi family”.
Indian media : Rajiv Gandhi’s sad demise delayed
the Swiss and Russian exposé on Sonia being picked up here. But
Indian media’s interest in it actually coincided with Sonia Gandhi
assuming leadership of the Congress. A G Noorani, a well-known
columnist, had reported on both Schweizer Illustrierte and Albats’
exposés in Statesman (December 31, 1988). Subramanian Swamy had put
out the photocopies of the pages of Schweizer Illustrierte and
Albats’ book in his website along with the mail of the Swiss
magazine dated February 23, 2002 confirming that in its article of
November 1991 it had named Rajiv Gandhi with a total of Swiss Franc
2.5 billion ($2.2 billion) in secret account; it had also offered
to supply a original copy of the magazine to Swamy. These facts
were again recalled in my article in The New Indian Express (April
29, 2009) written in response to Sonia Gandhi speech at Mangalore
(April 27, 2009) declaring that, “the Congress was taking steps to
address the issue of untaxed Indian money in Swiss banks”. The
article had questioned her about her family’s corrupt wealth in
Swiss banks in the context of her vow to bring back the monies
stashed away abroad. Rajinder Puri, a reputed journalist, has also
earlier written on the KGB disclosures in his column on August 15,
2006. Recently, in India Today (December 27, 2010) the redoubtable
Ram Jethmalani has referred to the Swiss exposé, asking where is
that money now? So the Indian media too has repeatedly published
the details of the secret billions of the Gandhi family
investigated by the Swiss and Russian journalists. Amal Datta
(CPI(M)) had raised the $2.2 billion issue in Parliament on
December 7, 1991, but Speaker Shivraj Patil expunged the Gandhi
name from the proceedings!
Self-incriminating : But, what has been the
response of Sonia or Rahul, major after June 1988, to the
investigation by Schweizer Illustrierte and Albats and to the
Indian media’s repeated references to their investigation? It can
be summed up in one word: Silence. Thus, apart from the exposés,
the deafening silence of the Gandhis itself constitutes the most
damaging and self-incriminating evidence of the family’s guilt.
When Schweizer Illustrierte alleged that Sonia had held Rajiv
Gandhi’s bribes in Rahul’s name in Swiss banks, neither she nor the
son, protested, or sued the magazine, then or later; nor did they
sue A G Noorani or Statesman when they repeated it in 1998, or
later; nor would they sue Subramanian Swamy when he put it on his
website in 2002; neither did they sue me, or the Express when the
article was carried in April 2009. When major papers, The Hindu and
The Times of India included, had carried the expose on KGB payments
in the year 1992 itself adding that the Russian government was
embarrassed by the disclosures, neither of the Gandhis challenged
or sued them; nor did they sue Yevgenia Albats when she wrote about
KGB payments to Rajiv Gandhi in 1994. Neither did they act
against Swamy when he put Albats’ book pages on his website
or when Rajinder Puri, a well-known journalist, wrote about it in
his column on August 15, 2006. However, a feeble but proxy suit was
filed by Sonia loyalists to defend her reputation when Albats’
exposé was made part of the full-page advertisement in The New York
Times in 2007 issued by some NRIs to ‘unmask’ Sonia to the US
audience, as they claimed. The suit was promptly dismissed by a US
court because Sonia herself did not dare file the suit. Shockingly
even that suit did not challenge the $2.2 billion Swiss account at
all!
Imagine that the report in Schweizer Illustrierte or in Albats book
was false and Sonia Gandhi did not have those billions in secret
accounts in Rahul Gandhi’s name or the family was not paid for its
service to the KGB as alleged. How would they, as honest and
outraged people, have reacted? Like how Morarji Desai, then retired
and old at 87, responded in anger when, Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer
Prize-winning investigative journalist, had mentioned in his book
that Morarji Desai was a ‘paid’ CIA mole in the Indian Cabinet.
Morarji Desai forthwith filed a libel suit. Commenting in The
American Spectator, Rael Jean Isaac wrote in 2004, five years after
Morarji Desai had passed away, that Hersh habitually indulged in
character assassination; and in his attempt to do down Henry
Kissinger, Morarji Desai became the victim. Isaac added that Desai,
87, calling it a “sheer mad story”, reacted in outrage with a libel
suit seeking $50 million in damages. When the suit came up, as
Desai, 93, was too ill to travel to US, Kissinger testified on
Desai’s behalf, flatly contradicted Hersh’s charge and stated that
Desai had no connection to the CIA. That is how even retired and
old persons, honest and so offended and outraged, would act. But
see the self-incriminating contrast, the complete absence of such
outrage, in Sonia, who is reigning as the chairperson of the UPA
now, neither retired or tired like the nonagenarian Morarji Desai,
being just 41 when the story broke out in Schweizer Illustrierte.
Imagine, not Sonia or Rahul, but Advani or Modi had figured in the
exposés of Schweizer Illustrierte or Albats. What would the media
not have done to nail them? What would the government of Sonia not
have done to fix them?
Rs 20.80 lakh-crore loot : The billions of the
Gandhi family being both bribes and monies stashed away in Swiss
banks, they are inextricably linked to the larger issue of bringing
back the huge national wealth stashed abroad. All world nations,
except India, are mad after their black wealth secreted in Swiss
and like banks. But India has shown little enthusiasm to track the
illicit funds of Indians in Swiss and other banks. Why such
reticence?
When during the run-up to the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP
leader L K Advani promised to bringing back, if voted to power,
Indian monies estimated between $500 billion and $1.4 trillion
stashed abroad, the Congress first denied that there was such
Indian money outside. But when the issue began gathering momentum,
Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi had to do damage control and
promise that the Congress too would bring back the national wealth
secreted abroad. Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a non-profit
institution working against global black funds, has recently
estimated that the Indian wealth secreted away is about $462
billion, approximately equal to Rs 20.80 lakh-crore. The GFI says
that more than two-thirds of it was looted away under the
liberalisation regime. This is what the GFI says about the
character of the loot: “From 1948 through 2008, India lost a total
of $213 billion in illicit financial flows (or illegal capital
flight)” through “tax evasion, corruption, bribery and kickbacks,
and criminal activities”. Does one need a seer to say under what
head would the $2.2 billion in Sonia family’s secret account (which
would have grown to $9 to $13 billion by now) fall? But accretions,
if any, from the loot in 2G and CWG where the numbers are even
bigger are not still accounted. Now comes the more critical, yet
practical issue. When the Sonia Gandhi family is among the suspects
who have secreted away monies abroad, how will it affect the
efforts to bring back the wealth stashed away by others?
Looters safe : Just a couple of examples will
demonstrate how the government is unwilling to go after Indian
money secreted abroad. As early as February 2008 the German
authorities had collected information about illegal money kept by
citizens of different countries in Lichtenstein bank. The German
finance minister offered to provide the names of the account
holders to any government interested in the names of its citizens.
There were media reports that some 250 Indian names were found in
the Lichtenstein Bank list. Yet, despite the open offer from
Germany to provide the details, the UPA-II government has never
showed interest in the Indian accounts in Lichtenstein Bank. The
Times of India reported that “the ministry of finance and PMO have,
however, not shown much interest in finding out about those who
have their lockers on the secret banks of Liechtenstein which
prides itself in its banking system”. But under mounting pressure
the Indian government asked for details not under the open offer
but strategically under India’s tax treaty with Germany. What is
the difference? Under the tax treaty the information received would
have to be kept confidential; but, if it were received openly, it
can be disclosed to the public. Is any further evidence needed to
prove that the government is keen to see that the names of Indians
who had secreted monies abroad are not disclosed?
The second is the sensational case of Hasan Ali, the alleged
horse-breeder of Pune, who was found to have operated Swiss
accounts involving over Rs 1.5 lakh-crore. The income tax
department has levied a tax of Rs 71,848 crore on him for
concealing Indian income secreted in Swiss accounts. This case is
being buried now. The request sent to the Swiss government was
deliberately made faulty to ensure that the Swiss would not provide
details. Some big names in the ruling circles are reportedly linked
to Hasan Ali. That explains why the government would not deepen the
probe. It is Hasan Alis and the like who transport through hawala
the bribes of the corrupt from India. If Hasan Ali is exposed, the
corrupt will stand naked. This is how the hawala trader and the
corrupt in India are mixed-up.
Is it too much to conclude that thanks to Sonia family’s suspected
billions in Swiss accounts the system cannot freely probe the $462
billion looted from India at all? Tail-pieces: The total wealth of
both Gandhis, as per their election returns, is just Rs 363 lakh,
Sonia owning no car. Sonia lamented on November 19, 2010, that
graft and greed are on the rise in India!! Rahul said on December
19, 2010, that severe punishment should be given to the corrupt!!!
Amen.
- S. Gurumurthy ( Chartered Accountant, Journalist and co-convenor
of the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch )
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