NEW DELHI: The infamous
Bofors scandal of the mid-1980s, which brought down the
Rajiv Gandhi government, continues to create ripples.
A subcommittee of the parliamentary public accounts committee (
PAC) has asked the
CBI to swiftly probe all ongoing cases related to the Bofors howitzers contract “without fear or favour,” while slamming the defence ministry for its laxity in the entire matter.
The report, which was adopted on by the sub-committee on Wednesday, said action taken notes on five of the nine paragraphs of audit objections in the 1989
CAG report were still pending 28 years after the report was presented to the Parliament. The report will be considered by the full PAC but it is unusual for the report by a sub-committee to be altered or rejected.
“The committee is distraught to note that the MoD showed unparalleled audacity to brazenly admit to failing to trace the files dealing with the subject, which manifests its callousness towards such sensitive matter of public propriety,” said the report, adding that the entire matter was “conveniently kept on the backburner” by the ministry.
The politically-controversial
Joint Parliamentary Committee, which examined the contractual aspects of the purchase of the Bofors howitzers and submitted its report in April 1988, concluded that no irregularities could be proven beyond doubt. But the CAG report a year later raised several issues, “the majority of which have not been satisfactorily answered” by the MoD, said the sub-committee.