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... (Interruptions)
MR. CHAIRMAN: Nothing else has been recorded.
(Interruptions) * AN HON. MEMBER: Sir, thank you.
... (Interruptions)
MR. CHAIRMAN: You do not have to thank me.
... (Interruptions)
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* Not Recorded.
SHRI MANI SHANKAR AIYAR (MAYILADUTURAI): Sir, I would like to begin by joining those who spoke before me in thanking our respected Rashtrapatiji for his Address to the Joint Session of both the Houses. In particular, I would like to welcome paragraph 41 of the Address where the Government has stated that the cancer of corruption is eating into every institution of our nation and that the Government is determined to ensure probity in public life. It is a matter of the highest importance that corruption be fought. I would have wanted to stand here and say that I believe that this Government is going to fight corruption. While sitting here and listening to the hon. Member who moved this Motion, I was impressed and moved by his remark भ्रष्टाचार से कोई समझौता नहीं किया जायेगा।But then when it came to a description of what is corruption, जिसके साथ कोई समझौता नहीं किया जायेगाthere was only one matter that was raised by the hon. Member who moved the Motion. It was the issue of Bofors. There was no reference to the large number of other matters which had agitated this House on the front of corruption and which would continue to agitate this House on the front of corruption. There was no reference to the import of sugar from Pakistan when we were in the middle of a war with them; there was no reference to the import of wheat when our godowns were full; there was no reference to the telecom policy being changed by an unrepresentative Government at a time when there was no House to be responsible to; and there was no reference to the case that has been pending for years relating to the destruction of the Babri Masjid. The only point that was raised by the mover of this Motion, in order to establish that their Government is committed to the fight against corruption of which the President spoke was the Bofors case. What did he say? He said: "मुझे आश्चर्य हुआ, जब माधव राव सिंधिया तथा दूसरे अन्य लोगों ने यह कहा कि इसमें से राजीव गांधी का नाम इसलिए निकाल दिया जाये, कयोंकि वे प्रधान मंत्री रहे।" न तो आपने यह कहा, न हमने यह कहा।None of us has ever pleaded that Rajiv Gandhi"s name should be removed from the Bofors chargesheet because he was the Prime Minister. I would like to remind the House what Shri Madhavrao Scindia has said in this House. He said that we are objecting to Rajiv"s name being dragged into this case `without a shred of evidence".

Sir, I have with me a book written by the former Director of the CBI, Shri Joginder Singh in which there is a full chapter of 20 pages starting at page 83 and continuing up to page 103 in which he deals extensively and in very great detail with the Bofors case. This is a book called Inside CBI by Joginder Singh. It is amazing how much the language of the chargesheet follows the language of this chapter in this book. But in one very very important particular what Shri Joginder Singh had to say after having investigated this case as Director of the CBI is not on all fours with the chargesheet which they have filed. In Joginder Singh"s book, there is nowhere that he suggests that late Rajiv Gandhi was an accused or should be regarded as an accused. We know that it was Director, CBI, Shri Joginder Singh who collected those documents which formed the basis of indicting Mr. Quattrocchi, Mr. Win Chadha, and Mr. Martin Ardbo as accused in this case in Column I which would enable them to come to the court and defend themselves. It was Shri Joginder Singh who had stated publicly that he had completed the investigation of the case on the basis of the Swiss documents received in January, 1997. We know that in the month of May, 1997 -- inferentially from this book -- that investigation had been completed, the draft chargesheet was ready and late Rajiv Gandhi"s name was not there in the chargesheet. But what happened next?

"In July-August, 1998, in an internal note, the senior officers including the former CBI Director, Dr. T.N. Mishra had said that the agency should not file chargesheets in the Bofors case or press for sanction for prosecution till there is more evidence to show bribery and the involvement of public servants."

So, this was the first advise tendered to the in-coming new Government of Atal Behari Vajpayee. I am referring to his second Government. The Director of the CBI himself, in an internal note, says that they have not got the evidence. This happened one year after the CBI had finished its processing of the documents received from Switzerland. He says that they have not got the evidence to establish it and he asks not to proceed further in the matter and get more evidence so as to have a water-tight case.

"The Deputy Director of the CBI, who for the last several years had remained the overall in-charge of CBI"s investigations concerning the Bofors case, Shri Navneet Rajan Vasan has been transferred out of the CBI after years of handling the case."

And on the eve of filing the charge-sheet, he was transferred out. Why? It was because he gave a dissent note. I am talking about the Deputy Director who had been handling the case for years. He said:

"CBI"s proposal to file chargesheets in the case against the former Defence Secretary, Shri S.K. Bhatnagar and others accused would not work."