When public service became big business

Will Sten Lindstrom’s revelations make a difference in Amethi? No. But, he has got closer to pointing a finger directly at the Gandhi family than anyone else. When the finger-pointing comes from Sweden’s principal investigator into the Bofors payoffs it is a lot more serious than V P Singh shooting his mouth off or loose NDA canons, like George Fernandez, firing blindly.

Lindstrom’s article in The Asian Age is unambiguous. ‘‘Ottavio Quattrocchi, the Italian middleman who negotiated the political payoff through A E Services, must be interrogated. Sonia Gandhi must be questioned. All else is detail.’’ Sad but true. Sonia and her sycophants have gone to great lengths to distance Quattrocchi from her but the question nobody answers is why Bofors would pay Quattrocchi unless he was in a position to deliver. To quote Lindstrom, ‘‘Who introduced Ottavio Quattrocchi to Bofors officials? What was Ottavio Quattrocchi’s value proposition that led him to assure Bofors contractually that he need not be paid if the deal was not closed in their favour? Why did Bofors pay Ottavio Quattrocchi? What services did his company A E Services offer?’’

To these questions we need to add one more. Who ordered the Narasimha Rao government to allow Quattrocchi to flee the country within 24 hours of his Swiss bank account being revealed?

Would he have been allowed to escape if everyone in Delhi did not know that the Quattrocchis were closer to the Gandhis than anyone else? So close that Sonia’s parents used to stay chez Quattrocchi, so close that they had unlimited access to the Prime Minister’s house once Rajiv took over, so close that the families holidayed together and the Quattrochis have a daughter they named after Priyanka.

There are those who say we should let the ghost of Bofors rest now. What is a paltry payoff of Rs 64 crores, they say, compared to the hundreds of crores that have been siphoned off by other political leaders in other deals? But, Bofors does not go away because it is special. It was, for a start, the first time the Indian public realised that money was being made by our political leaders for purposes other than politics. We knew politicians and political parties took money from big business at election time but it was generally thought that most of it went back into the system since it was spent on politics. Bofors was the first evidence of Swiss bank accounts. It was special also because it made politicians, and ordinary people, realise that the quickest way to make money in India was through politics. Is it any wonder that everyone from criminals and thugs to bimbos and movie stars wants to get to the Lok Sabha no matter what? Is it any wonder that there is almost not a single political leader left in India who does not hand over his seat or his party to one of his children? A political constituency is now treated as a family estate.

Bofors paved the way for politics to become big business instead of public service and the reason why it took a Swedish policeman to reveal more about what happened than anyone in India is because there is almost not a politician left who would want to throw the first stone.

They all know that given half a chance in government they would like to make one really big deal so why should they grudge Sonia what she and her friend Quattrocchi may have made from Bofors?

Unfortunately, the only losers in the game are you and I. We, so proud as we are of our democracy, trot off every election to vote for people we hope will do something for us and for the country. We hope they will help India become a rich and prosperous country in which our children can look towards the future with hope and what do we end up getting every time? A bunch of elected representatives who see the Lok Sabha as nothing more than a means to make that one big deal and a career in politics as a means only to set up a family business.

Will this depressing state of affairs ever change? Yes, but only if our policing and investigative agencies become as vigilant about their duty and their role in public life as Sten Lindstrom. We need to be grateful that he has come forward with his revelations even if it could affect the survival of the oldest political family business in the country.

Write to tavleensingh@expressindia.com