Everybody knows who got the Bofors money, Gujral blasts Congress for the first time
Prime Minister I K Gujral on Thursday
alleged that the Bofors issue was being raised during the
election to scuttle the ongoing inquiry in Switzerland into the
Rs 640 million kickbacks scandal.
Addressing an election meeting in the commercial town of Davengere in Karnataka, he
said the issue was being raised to provoke him to reveal the names
of the beneficiaries in a bid to stop the inquiry, which would
unveil the secrecy surrounding the payoffs.
Gujral, without naming Congress star campaigner Sonia
Gandhi, asked who was raising the issue. Most of the people know
who the beneficiaries were, he said.
"Shor kaun kar raha hai? (who is making the noise?)," he asked in an
obvious reference to the Congress.
Gujral, speaking in Hindi, said the inquiry
into the Bofors gun deal began in the middle of November as the
government wanted to find out who the beneficiaries were, and after that his
government was toppled.
Making a scathing attack on both the Congress and the Bharatiya
Janata Party, he said the former had no moral right to speak
about corruption as most of the ministers in the P V Narasimha
Rao government were involved in one scandal or the other. Almost all
of them were facing inquiries of some kind or the other. They had
made the country the eighth most corrupt nation in the world. "We
have to hang our head in shame."
Ridiculing the Congress plank of stability, he asked why
did they not allow the United Front to complete its full term.
Twice support was withdrawn, he pointed out, and added the
achievements in 45 years of 'stable' governance was not
noteworthy. The Congressmen would neither allow the country to be
stable nor the party. They were trying to cheat the people on the
stability plank, he charged.
Referring to the apologies being offered by the Congress for
various mistakes committed by the party during its rule, he asked
why did they take so long, why did they keep quiet when innocent
Sikhs were murdered after the assassination of former prime
minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.
He also lashed out at the Congress for forcing the country into
another election costing billions of rupees. On election expenses
alone, the government would have to spend Rs 10 billion
"What about the expenses incurred by nearly three thousand
candidates?" he asked.
Gujral said the same amount could have been spent on poverty
alleviation programmes in the country.
Turning to the BJP, he cautioned the people
that the party would divide the country on religious and linguistic
lines, affecting the secular character of the country.
In an apparent reference to the BJP, he said one party had
demolished a mosque and was bent upon doing so at two more places.
They want to impose one language formula and the party was being
guided by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, and the country would
disintegrate if its policies were implemented.
Coming down heavily on the BJP for assuring a corruption-free and
stable government, he pointed out that the corrupt had been made
ministers in Uttar Pradesh, and candidates with criminal records were
given party ticket for the Lok Sabha election.
When the crowd grew restive over his address in Hindi and wanted
a translation in Kannada, he said the beauty of this country was unity
in diversity. Various languages had coexisted. What was needed
was a government that could ensure the continuance of unity in
diversity.
UNI in Davangere, Karnataka
Elections '98
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