Will the BJP’s strategy to pin the blame for the Agustawestland scam on Sonia Gandhi work?
On a hot May morning, with the temperature touching 40 degrees in Lutyens’ Delhi, the Congress party’s communications chief Randeep Surjewala fights sleep and a barrage of phone calls from Congress bigwigs and the media as he crafts a counterattack strategy for the next day’s Parliament session. It has been like this for nearly a week now since a political war of words broke out, with the BJP directly targeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her close advisors in Parliament and outside, hurling a fusillade of bribery accusations in the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP helicopter deal signed with Italian firm Agusta Westland by the UPA in 2010. Surjewala’s late-night discussions over the scam with Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel stretch into the wee hours. He now steels Jyotiraditya Scindia, his party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha, to tackle queries on the helicopter bribery scandal.
The immediate impetus for the BJP’s broadside against the Gandhis was the April 7 judgement of a court in Milan, convicting two executives— former CEO Giuseppe Orsi and head of the helicopter division, Bruno Spagnolini—of Italian helicopter maker Finmeccanica, for bribery. They were sentenced to four-and-a-half and four years in prison respectively for paying out bribes to the tune of 30 million Euros (in a variety of deals involving various countries).
The parallels with the 1987 Bofors scandal are unmistakable: both are defence bribery scandals which surfaced overseas but which had the potential of inflicting grievous domestic political harm. The Milan court’s 225-page judgement painstakingly documented how a ring of middlemen had allegedly bribed family members of the then air force chief S.P. Tyagi and possibly, bureaucrats and politicians, to change tender specifications and knock a rival helicopter firm out of contention.
This story is from the May 16, 2016 edition of India Today.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the May 16, 2016 edition of India Today.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Killer Stress
Unhealthy work practices in Indian companies are taking a toll on employees, triggering health issues and sometimes even death
Shuttle Star
Ashwini Ponnappa was the only Indian to compete in the inaugural edition of BDMNTN-XL, a new international badminton tourney with a new format, held in Indonesia
There's No Planet B
All Living Things-Environmental Film Festival (ALT EFF) returns with 72 films to be screened across multiple locations from Nov. 22 to Dec. 8
AMPED UP AND UNPLUGGED
THE MAHINDRA INDEPENDENCE ROCK FESTIVAL PROMISES AN INTERESTING LINE-UP OF OLD AND NEW ACTS, CEMENTING ITS REPUTATION AS THE 'WOODSTOCK OF INDIA'
A Musical Marriage
Faezeh Jalali has returned to the Prithvi Theatre Festival with Runaway Brides, a hilarious musical about Indian weddings
THE PRICE OF FREEDOM
Nikhil Advani’s adaptation of Freedom at Midnight details our tumultuous transition to an independent nation
Family Saga
RAMONA SEN's The Lady on the Horse doesn't lose its pace while narrating the story of five generations of a family in Calcutta
THE ETERNAL MOTHER
Prayaag Akbar's new novel delves into the complexities of contemporary India
TURNING A NEW LEAF
Since the turn of the century, we have lost hundreds of thousands of trees. Many had stood for centuries, weathering storms, wars, droughts and famines.
INDIA'S BEATING GREEN HEART
Ramachandra Guha's new book-Speaking with Nature-is a chronicle of homegrown environmentalism that speaks to the world
