"Not Established Bofors Was a Scandal," President Pranab Mukherjee Tells Swedish Newspaper

New Delhi:  In an interview that could ignite a political controversy, President Pranab Mukherjee has told a Swedish daily that it is yet to be established that the Bofors gun deal was a scandal.

“First of all – it is yet to be to be established that there was a scandal. No Indian court has established it,” Mr Mukherjee has said in an interview given to Swedish daily Dagens Nyhetter at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

In 1986, when the Congress was in power, Swiss arms manufacturer Bofors landed a Rs. 1,500 crore contract to supply Howitzer guns to India. The Swedish media reported that the company had paid massive kickbacks to Indian politicians and defence officials. The case cost the Congress and then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi the general election in 1989.

Mr Mukherjee, who became President of India in 2012, has been finance minister and defence minister in Congress-led governments.

“I was the defence minister of the country long after Bofors, and all my generals certified that this is one of the best guns we are having. Till today, Indian army is using it. The so-called scandal which you talk of, yes, in the media, it was there. There was a media trial. But I’m afraid, let us not be too much carried by publicity,” Mr Mukherjee said in the interview.

Asked whether he believed the Bofors case was just a media scandal, he said, “I do not know. I’m not describing it, you’re putting that word. Don’t put that word. What I am saying is that in media it was publicised. But up to now, no Indian court has given any decisive verdict about the alleged scandal.”