Congress joins United Front in asking for Bofors papers to be tabled in Parliament!

The Congress joined the United Front constituents in the Rajya Sabha asking the government to table the Swiss bank papers relevant to the Bofors case in Parliament.

The Congress initiative on this issue comes a day after Mani Shankar Aiyar briefed members of the Congress Parliamentary Party for an hour about the Central Bureau of Investigation's recent revelations in the case. The Congress, Aiyar is reported to have told the CPP members, has nothing to fear on this score and must go on the offensive to clear its late leader Rajiv Gandhi's name.

The government must authenticate all the relevant documents received from the Swiss government and table them in the House, senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee said. He said there should be a structured debate on the issue in the House so that the nation could know what the government proposed to do in the matter.

The issue was raised during Zero Hour by Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) who regretted that no action had been taken so far against the recipients of kickbacks in the Bofors deal though the controversy surfaced some ten years back. ''There has been an inordinate delay in the investigation. Attempts have been made from time to time to hush up the matter,'' he said, demanding that the papers should be tabled in Parliament.

Dasgupta asked why the Congress government had allowed Ottavio Quattrocchi to leave the country in July 1993 when there were allegations that he was one of the recipients of the kickbacks. The CBI confirmed last week that the Italian businessman was one of the recipients. .

The CPI MP also referred to the failure of a CBI team to secure Quattrocchi's extradition from Malaysia. ''Why is the government depending on a CBI team to seek extradition?" he asked. "Why is a diplomatic initiative not being taken?"

Mukherjee alleged that the papers were being leaked to create confusion. Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, he said, had already stated that he had no hesitation in tabling the papers if MPs so desired. The Congress leader was of the view that the matter could not be disposed of during Zero Hour and that there should be a proper debate on it.

Agitated Congress members in the Rajya Sabha objected to certain derogatory remarks made by Biplab Dasgupta (CPI-M) about the Joint Parliamentary Committee which scrutinised the Bofors gun deal.

As soon as Dasgupta made the remarks, S S Ahluwalia, Ajit Jogi and John Fernandes (all Congress) were on their feet, saying the Marxist MP had lowered the dignity of Parliament by casting aspersions on the JPC.

Deputy Chairman Najma Heptulla pointed out to Dasgupta that he could not cast aspersions on the JPC and asked him to withdraw his comments or she would have to expunge them.

To this, Dasgupta said the JPC had been boycotted by the Opposition and its conclusions had brought disrepute to Parliament.

After continued protests from the Congress benches, Dasgupta finally withdrew his remarks.

An effort was made in the Lok Sabha to take up the Bofors issue but Speaker Purno A Sangma deferred the discussion to Monday, saying Zero Hour submissions could not be allowed on Fridays which were scheduled to discuss private members's business.

Nirmal Kumar Chatterjee (CPI-M) sought a discussion on Bofors but Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi (Congress) said the Swiss bank papers should be tabled in the House along with a statement from the government about the progress of the investigation. No one, the former Union minister said, could be maligned in the name of Bofors without the entire document being secured by the government. One tranche of Swiss bank papers is still awaited from Berne.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has fixed February 28 for hearing a special leave petition against a 1992 order of the Delhi high court quashing a nonbailable warrant issued against Win Chadha, another alleged recipient of the kickbacks in the controversial Bofors gun deal.

A division bench comprising Justices J S Verma and S P Kurudkar, said the petition should be heard along with a similar matter involving fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his associates.