Friday 27 April 2012

Bofors: Smoking Again


The ghost of Bofors payoff scam is back. After 25 years it has returned to haunt those who thought they had given it a decent burial. Though in terms of bribery amounts involved, it may be a mere mouse dropping when compared with present day 2G scam. But for the first time in the country's history, it brought to the fore the big bucks and murky dealings that go about in defence procurement.

For the benefit of post-Bofors generation, a quick recap. The union government in the mid-80s decided to buy 150-mm field guns for the Indian army. Various arms manufacturers around the world had expressed interest. Among them Swedish company AB Bofors was chosen, relegating other frontrunners such as Austrian and French manufacturers, for the purchase of 410 guns.

On April 16, 1987 a Swedish Radio broadcast claimed that AB Bofors had paid kickbacks to key Indian policy makers and top defence officials to secure the deal. The news came when Rajiv Gandhi government's honeymoon with the media and the masses was fading. The government went on denial mode.

Soon information started trickling in various newspapers about the bribes being paid, with The Hindu and Indian Express on the forefront. The word 'kickback' became part and parcel of the lexicon of the English newspaper reading Indian middle class.

The names of Rajiv Gandhi, Ottavio Quattrocchi, AB Bofors and its former chief Martin Ardbo, defence secretary SK Bhatnagar and AB Bofors agent Win Chadha figured among the main beneficiaries. Later on it emerged that Quattrocchi was the man who pocketed a major part of the kickbacks through a front organisation called AE Services.

But the long arm of law always developed butter fingers, when it came close to catching him. The last golden chance was in 2007, when Argentina arrested him based on Interpol alert. But CBI followed the lead with two left feet and came up with ridiculously lame excuses like it does not have Spanish translators to go through the Argentine court documents.

By 2009, the Indian Government even gave up the pretence of pursuing Quattrocchi and told Supreme Court about its decision to withdraw the case against him, as he could not be extradited.

While Congress reluctance to nab Quattrocchi was understandable, the non-Congress governments that came to power too, for inexplicable reasons, seemed groping in the dark. Some of them had come to power after stridently using Bofors as a poll plank. Thus the Indian public had resigned themselves to the fact that no matter which government is in power, the truth will never come out.

The recent disclosure by a retired Swedish police officer Sten Lindstrom in a media watch website The Hoot seems to have breathed life into the dead issue. The former police officer said the gun was first rate but procurement was murky. He cleared names of Amitabh Bachchan and even Rajiv Gandhi to some extent. He said the former prime minister was not directly involved in scam, but his government had carried out cover up. His also revealed that the Swedish government too was a willing partner in this game.

What really struck me in his disclosures was the tenuous relationship a whistle blower shares with a journalist. He seemed more impressed by Chitra Subramaniam-Duella than The Hindu, "I would have leaked the documents to you even if you had worked for any other newspaper," he says in the interview. He dismissively calls Hindu's role as that of a "medium of communication" and feels peeved that it carried the disclosures after a long time. Meanwhile, his name started doing rounds in Delhi as whistle blower and it caused him distress. Lucky, he was not staying in India, where whistle blowers become endangered once their identity gets revealed.

An even more striking feature is the timing of the interview on Hoot. It came close on heels of Columbia University listing N Ram for his Bofors expose in "50 great stories". Maybe the university wanted to fete its old student (Ram), but in the Hindu report too Chitra Subramaniam-Duella's name was conspicuously missing.

Interestingly Chitra Subramaniam had left Hindu in not so friendly circumstances and soon took sanyas from journalism. Hence, making a cameo appearance with a very revealing interview with the Bofors whistle blower assumes great significance. A whiff of professional acrimony is very much evident and N Ram seems to belittle her role in the expose, saying she was part of a larger team. Though it was quite evident that minus Chitra, the team would have been like FC Barcelona sans Lionel Messi.

Back in the 80s the expose in The Hindu did create a flutter, as the paper was never known for anti-establishment stand or investigative stories. Jawaharlal Nehru had once remarked that, “The Hindu always reminds me of an old maiden lady ...Very prim and proper, who is shocked if a naughty word is used in her presence. It is eminently the paper of the bourgeois, comfortably settled in life.” The Bofors disclosures was one of the few major deviations this newspaper (founded in 1878) took from its straight-laced "prim and proper" path.

Sunday 15 April 2012

Pup Comes of Age



Amidst all the IPL tamasha and the detention of Shah Rukh Khan in US, what the Indian media had missed out was Australia's heroic and historic win at Barbados against West Indies. For a quick recap West Indies had amassed a decent total (thanks to a century by Chanderpaul) of 449 and declared after 9 wickets in the first innings. But what the Aussies did may seem absolutely bizarre. They decided to declare their first innings after reaching 406 for 9 wickets.

To many it would seem they were handing over 40 runs and an assured win to the West Indians in a platter. Thankfully Indian bookies were busy with IPL, or many would have burnt their fingers betting for West Indies. Days 4 and 5 proved quite a revelation. The youthful Aussie squad proved its mettle, turned the tide in their favour and captain Michael Clarke had the last laugh.

For them the time and not runs was the main factor. Hence they cut short the first innings chase to make room for bowling the West Indians out in the second innings and chasing the total. Clarke thus earned the rare distinction of being the second captain in the history of Test cricket to win a match after declaring behind.

Ever since Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Matthew Hayden retired, the Aussie team was on a 'work in progress' mode. They even seemed vulnerable, especially against teams like England. But now it looks like the boys have turned into men, ready to dominate cricket the way their preceding generation did.
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Now cut to July 10, 2011, India was touring the same West Indies and was already leading the series. On the final day of the last Test at Dominica, India had a fair chance of making it two-nil. But surprisingly, with 15 overs to go and 86 runs required and seven wickets at hand, M S Dhoni decided to call off the match and opted for a draw. Probably he feared the Indian batting may crumble and he would lose the much coveted credit of winning an overseas tour. Sadly, for Indian cricketers chasing an individual statistic takes precedence over winning a match. I need not recall how for Sachin Tendulkar's hundredth-100 we ended up losing to Bangladesh. It is not a new trend either - have been seeing this right from the days of Gavaskar.

Mind you this is the same Dhoni who comes in a TV ad (proxy for a liquor brand run by Vijay Mallya) and brags how he thought 'differently' and helped India win T-20 and one-day world cups. He always wore his small town upbringing on his sleeve and used to project himself as a street smart guy who came up the hard way. But sadly on July 10, 2011, all that professed derring-do was missing. 

After this 'feet of clay' performance, it was one free-fall for India with nightmarish thrashings, first at the hands of England and then Australia.

Monday 9 April 2012

Nuggets Among Junk Mails


The much maligned junk mail (or spam) folder is always worth a peek. Once in a while among the maze of these worthless stuff some surprise may be lying in wait to be discovered. Sometimes mails of known persons, writing to me for the first time, show up there. So checking junk is kind of a necessary evil, though as rarely fruitful as booking a Kingfisher airlines ticket and getting airborne.

During the early days of junk mail I used to receive you-have-won-a-lottery type mails and senders ranged from well known names like British Petroleum, Yahoo and Microsoft to some seedy types (don't remember them). The prize money was always in 500,000 to million plus range in US dollar and UK pounds. They expect us to fill a form seeking personal details. To me it all seemed as incredible as Montek Singh Ahluwalia's Rs 26 below poverty line limit. But was surprised to know from newspapers that people are gullible enough to fall for it. News stories of online lottery fraud used to crop up from time to time and most accused happened to be Nigerians.

Later on there was a flood of mail ranging from matrimonial sites to sale of viagra. But what used to interest me most was the hidden treasure mails - the ones which says they have some huge fortune tucked away in some tax haven and they need your address etc. Quite often the sender claims to be from Burkina Faso, mostly a woman, and says her father's treasure is there in some tax haven and her life is in danger and is seeking someone to 'safekeep' the fortune.

But, I must say these fraudsters seem to be quite abreast of the events. When the Satyam scandal broke out they came up with mails claiming to be someone close to the CEO Ramalinga Raju and had some fortune that needed safe keeping. Later on when the Sri Lanka-born US hedge fund wizard Raj Rajarathnam scandal broke out I got a mail from his 'wife' seeking to preserve her hidden fortune.

However the one I got recently takes the cake - any day 100 times more interesting than Sachin Tendulkar's hundredth 100. The sender claimed he was RBI Governor D Subbarao (full transcript copy-pasted below) and had a proposal which could change the lives of both of us. Mind you this is the first time I am getting something like this from a serving person and that too in first person  - so far I got letters from the kin of businessmen and dictators after they were either out of power or disgraced by scandals. 

The mail talks of some Ben Morris a Canada-based contractor, who died six years ago. A sum of Rs 5.8 crore was supposed to be paid to him and risks confiscation by Indian government if nobody comes forward to claim it. The RBI governor says neither he nor his relatives can claim money and hence he wants me to send my personal details so that he can supplant me as the real owner!! Later we could share it fifty-fifty. The whole thing seemed as bizarre as saying Coca-Cola can cure baldness. But I am sure the sender's inbox may be flooded with mails from interested suckers.

Sender’s email: drsubbarao@hotmail.co.in

Transcript of the mail

RESERVE BANK OF INDIA
CENTRAL OFFICE MUMBAI
400001

ATTENTION:
FROM THE DESK OF
DR D SUBBARAO
GOVERNOR RESERVE BANK OF INDIA
CENTRAL OFFICE MUMBAI

I wish to contact you for an urgent business which i know you will keep the secret for the best of us.I am DR D SUBBARAO THE GOVERNOR OF RESERVE BANK OF INDIA MUMBAI CENTRAL OFFICE.While am writing to you is to inform you of a good business that can change your life and mine also, There is (5.8 CRORE) which is supposed to be paid to one MR BEN MORRIS as a contractor but i find out that he died on his way to his country CANADA about 6years ago and the money is about to be confiscated by Indian present governments since the owner has not come up to cash the money.So please i want you to stand as the owner of the money so that the money will be transfer to your own bank account for both of us to share it because since i am the governor in charge here i cannot use my name or my relatives account to transfer the money, All you need is to feed me back with the details below so that i will change your name as the real owner of the money.

Please note that you will stand as the full owner of the money during the transfer of the money because i will not be among the transfer TEAM, So you are the one to speak with the HEAD OF THE TRANSFER TEAM may be on phone during the time of the transfer. Any money you spend during the transfer will be remove from the money while we share the REST 50-50

NB; PLEASE DO KEEP THIS DEAL BY YOURSELF ALONE TILL THE BUSINESS IS OVER

BELOW ARE DETAILS NEEDED FROM YOU

1) YOUR FULL NAME:
2) ADDRESS, CITY, STATE .
3) PHONE, FAX AND MOBILE
4) COMPANY NAME (IF ANY) POSITION AND ADDRESS
5) BANK NAME
6) BANK ADDRESS
7) ACCOUNT NUMBER
8) SWIFT CODE/ ROUTING NUMBER
9) PROFESSION, AGE AND MARITAL STATUS
10) COPY OF YOUR INT'L PASSPORT/DRIVERS LICENSE

As soon as these information is received i will send them to our bank LAWYER to do the change of ownership with your full name and address as the rightful owner of the money.


YOURS FAITHFULLY
DR D SUBBARAO
GOVERNOR RESERVE BANK OF INDIA
MUMBAI CENTRAL