<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Runaway Romans </b>
Sandhya Jain
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's obvious complicity in the Government's appalling 17-day silence over the arrest of Italian fugitive Ottavio Quattrocchi is far more serious than ordinary suppression of information or contempt of the Supreme Court. Now that so much is known about the two-decade-old scandal, it is apparent that Bofors is not a simple saga of corruption in high places.
It cuts to the heart of national sovereignty, and exposes the fact that Italian intruders have been playing games with the polity from the time Ms Sonia Gandhi landed in the household of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. This calls for a thorough inquiry into the activities of Mr Quattrocchi throughout his 25-year stint in India as representative of the Italian public sector Snam Progetti, as he did not just suborn the Indian tendering system to get lucrative contracts; <span style='color:red'>he penetrated the top political, bureaucratic and even defence circles, and was entertained solely for his proximity to a foreigner married into a powerful family. </span>
Since Mr Quattrocchi's relationship was always with Ms Gandhi, and he never became personally close to Mrs Indira Gandhi,<span style='color:red'> it stands to reason that Ms Gandhi was a covert but active player in the politico-economic life of the nation in her so-called housewife years. </span>This sheds new light on Rajiv Gandhi's entry into politics after the death of his brother, and explains Ms Gandhi's dogged determination to be politically relevant after her husband's assassination.
Some of Snam Progetti's contracts generated great controversy and ruined several political and bureaucratic careers. We need to know if Mr Quattrocchi used his eminence to secure contracts for other Western companies. This is pertinent because Bofors has revealed that this employee of an Italian Government agency, basically engaged in construction work, became one of the biggest recipients of kickbacks in a defence purchase deal.
Strangely, this purely private transaction by Mr Quattrocchi has not raised eyebrows in his native land in the decades since the scandal broke. Senior journalist MJ Akbar has pointed out that after spending some years in Malaysia, Mr Quattrocchi returned to Milan and lived there undisturbed, though Italy is presumably a member of Interpol and would be aware of his wanted status in India. This suggests that both Mr Quattrocchi and Ms Gandhi were crucial to certain Western corporate and perhaps even political interests in India, and this gave him his otherwise inexplicable immunity.<b> It is also likely that the Vatican nodded to Italy to ignore the Red Corner notice. None of this bodes well for India's status as a sovereign republic, and a commission of inquiry is clearly the need of the hour</b>.
According to Mr BM Oza, Indian envoy to Sweden between 1984 and 1988 when the Bofors controversy erupted, the tender for buying the Howitzer guns was opened and evaluated barely a week before Mrs Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984. At that time, the French Sofma gun was judged best in terms of price and some extra incentives; yet, Bofors was unethically allowed to alter its bid without re-tendering the contract. Subsequently, the murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme came to be widely linked with his knowledge of the Bofors truth; hence it may be pertinent to ask if India should re-examine the larger circumstances in which Mrs Gandhi came to be assassinated by men who had once been removed from her inner security cordon.
This brings us to the abiding reality of Ms Gandhi's foreign origins, her enduring allegiance to her Western friends (or masters), and her misuse of her mother-in-law's and husband's office to bestow unwarranted favours upon Western corporate entities. Her current abuse of her status as Congress president to ensure Government silence over the arrest of Mr Quattrocchi merely continues a habit spanning over two decades.<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'> With most security experts and political analysts of the view that India will fail to procure Mr Quattrocchi's extradition, there can be no doubt that Ms Gandhi represents a serious threat to India's sovereignty and national security. In the fitness of things, her citizenship should be re-examined, and the issue of whether naturalised citizens should be allowed to contest parliamentary elections and offer themselves as candidates for high office, debated afresh.</span>
Both Ms Gandhi and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi, who have maintained a deafening silence since the controversy broke out, should inform Parliament if they are the ultimate beneficiaries of the Bofors kickbacks. If not, why was the entire Government machinery compromised to give the contract to this company? Why was Bofors asked to dismiss representative Win Chadha and appoint instead AE Services, a Britain-based company fronting for Mr Quattrocchi? Finally, and most pertinently, since Mr Quattrocchi had no expertise in the armament business, whose idea was it to make him the 'unofficially Government-sponsored middleman' in the deal? Whose hand steered this brainwave to its ultimate fruition?
<b>Whose hand guided Additional Solicitor General B Dutta when he met the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) officials in London on December 22, 2005, and conveyed Government permission to defreeze Mr Quattrocchi's accounts, and let him run away with Rs 21 crores? What was Mr Quattrocchi's son, Missimio, doing in Delhi when his father was in detention in Argentina? He claims to have been a part (albeit invisible) of the Italian Prime Minister's delegation, and to be a frequent visitor to India for legitimate business interests which have nothing to do with his father. An enterprising journalist has revealed that his firm's website lists his father as a business adviser!
In these circumstances, it may be appropriate to ask Congress heir apparent, Mr Rahul Gandhi, some pertinent questions. To begin with, his true educational qualifications remain an enigma; he has not responded to questions about his Italian citizenship under old Roman law, nor revealed if he has an Italian passport.
But most worrying is his relationship with a girl from a dubious Latin American family. Three years ago, the lady had a vacation with the entire Gandhi-Vadra family, a highly unconventional action. Since then, she has been spotted often enough for questions to be raised about the MP's marital status. Does the lady serve any corporate interests and nurture political ambitions? What was her role in Mr Gandhi's shameful detention at a US airport some years ago? These questions must be answered.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sandhya Jain
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's obvious complicity in the Government's appalling 17-day silence over the arrest of Italian fugitive Ottavio Quattrocchi is far more serious than ordinary suppression of information or contempt of the Supreme Court. Now that so much is known about the two-decade-old scandal, it is apparent that Bofors is not a simple saga of corruption in high places.
It cuts to the heart of national sovereignty, and exposes the fact that Italian intruders have been playing games with the polity from the time Ms Sonia Gandhi landed in the household of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. This calls for a thorough inquiry into the activities of Mr Quattrocchi throughout his 25-year stint in India as representative of the Italian public sector Snam Progetti, as he did not just suborn the Indian tendering system to get lucrative contracts; <span style='color:red'>he penetrated the top political, bureaucratic and even defence circles, and was entertained solely for his proximity to a foreigner married into a powerful family. </span>
Since Mr Quattrocchi's relationship was always with Ms Gandhi, and he never became personally close to Mrs Indira Gandhi,<span style='color:red'> it stands to reason that Ms Gandhi was a covert but active player in the politico-economic life of the nation in her so-called housewife years. </span>This sheds new light on Rajiv Gandhi's entry into politics after the death of his brother, and explains Ms Gandhi's dogged determination to be politically relevant after her husband's assassination.
Some of Snam Progetti's contracts generated great controversy and ruined several political and bureaucratic careers. We need to know if Mr Quattrocchi used his eminence to secure contracts for other Western companies. This is pertinent because Bofors has revealed that this employee of an Italian Government agency, basically engaged in construction work, became one of the biggest recipients of kickbacks in a defence purchase deal.
Strangely, this purely private transaction by Mr Quattrocchi has not raised eyebrows in his native land in the decades since the scandal broke. Senior journalist MJ Akbar has pointed out that after spending some years in Malaysia, Mr Quattrocchi returned to Milan and lived there undisturbed, though Italy is presumably a member of Interpol and would be aware of his wanted status in India. This suggests that both Mr Quattrocchi and Ms Gandhi were crucial to certain Western corporate and perhaps even political interests in India, and this gave him his otherwise inexplicable immunity.<b> It is also likely that the Vatican nodded to Italy to ignore the Red Corner notice. None of this bodes well for India's status as a sovereign republic, and a commission of inquiry is clearly the need of the hour</b>.
According to Mr BM Oza, Indian envoy to Sweden between 1984 and 1988 when the Bofors controversy erupted, the tender for buying the Howitzer guns was opened and evaluated barely a week before Mrs Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984. At that time, the French Sofma gun was judged best in terms of price and some extra incentives; yet, Bofors was unethically allowed to alter its bid without re-tendering the contract. Subsequently, the murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme came to be widely linked with his knowledge of the Bofors truth; hence it may be pertinent to ask if India should re-examine the larger circumstances in which Mrs Gandhi came to be assassinated by men who had once been removed from her inner security cordon.
This brings us to the abiding reality of Ms Gandhi's foreign origins, her enduring allegiance to her Western friends (or masters), and her misuse of her mother-in-law's and husband's office to bestow unwarranted favours upon Western corporate entities. Her current abuse of her status as Congress president to ensure Government silence over the arrest of Mr Quattrocchi merely continues a habit spanning over two decades.<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'> With most security experts and political analysts of the view that India will fail to procure Mr Quattrocchi's extradition, there can be no doubt that Ms Gandhi represents a serious threat to India's sovereignty and national security. In the fitness of things, her citizenship should be re-examined, and the issue of whether naturalised citizens should be allowed to contest parliamentary elections and offer themselves as candidates for high office, debated afresh.</span>
Both Ms Gandhi and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi, who have maintained a deafening silence since the controversy broke out, should inform Parliament if they are the ultimate beneficiaries of the Bofors kickbacks. If not, why was the entire Government machinery compromised to give the contract to this company? Why was Bofors asked to dismiss representative Win Chadha and appoint instead AE Services, a Britain-based company fronting for Mr Quattrocchi? Finally, and most pertinently, since Mr Quattrocchi had no expertise in the armament business, whose idea was it to make him the 'unofficially Government-sponsored middleman' in the deal? Whose hand steered this brainwave to its ultimate fruition?
<b>Whose hand guided Additional Solicitor General B Dutta when he met the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) officials in London on December 22, 2005, and conveyed Government permission to defreeze Mr Quattrocchi's accounts, and let him run away with Rs 21 crores? What was Mr Quattrocchi's son, Missimio, doing in Delhi when his father was in detention in Argentina? He claims to have been a part (albeit invisible) of the Italian Prime Minister's delegation, and to be a frequent visitor to India for legitimate business interests which have nothing to do with his father. An enterprising journalist has revealed that his firm's website lists his father as a business adviser!
In these circumstances, it may be appropriate to ask Congress heir apparent, Mr Rahul Gandhi, some pertinent questions. To begin with, his true educational qualifications remain an enigma; he has not responded to questions about his Italian citizenship under old Roman law, nor revealed if he has an Italian passport.
But most worrying is his relationship with a girl from a dubious Latin American family. Three years ago, the lady had a vacation with the entire Gandhi-Vadra family, a highly unconventional action. Since then, she has been spotted often enough for questions to be raised about the MP's marital status. Does the lady serve any corporate interests and nurture political ambitions? What was her role in Mr Gandhi's shameful detention at a US airport some years ago? These questions must be answered.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->