Rajiv Gandhi was honest, but surrounded by wrong people: Governor Satya Pal Malik

PATNA: Bihar governor Satya Pal Malik, who had quit Congress in 1987 over Bofors scam, created a flutter on Friday by saying that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was a good and honest person but his colleagues were involved in the Bofors scandal.
Speaking at a seminar organized by state labour resources department in Patna, Malik said, “Rajiv was an innocent and honest person. I will not name, but three to four corrupt persons around him suggested him to do something for himself. But he was firm on his principles. Rajiv had no role in Bofors scandal, rather a few people around him made money in the scam.” Malik was referring to the influence of wrong people in bringing a person down in public life.

Political observers said the Malik’s comments would provide a new weapon to Congress against the BJP. Many BJP leaders have repeatedly targeted Congress over Bofors scandal, which surfaced during the regime of Rajiv Gandhi, who died in 1991.

Malik was elected to the Lok Sabha on a Janata Dal ticket from Aligarh in 1989. It was the Janata Dal which had raised the Bofors scam issue. Malik later joined BJP in 2004 and got elevated as its national vice-president in 2009 and again in 2014.

Bihar Congress functionaries promptly thanked Malik and took a dig at the BJP. “I am really thankful to the governor that he has such thoughts and respect for Rajiv Gandhi, who had an impeccable probity. Such remarks show that despite his long association with BJP, he is basically a samajwadi (socialist),” Bihar Congress’s officiating president Kaukab Quadri told TOI.

Quadri said by acknowledging the honesty and integrity of Rajiv in public, the governor has followed the Indian tradition of respecting one’s adversaries. “Even Atal Bihari Vajpayee (BJP leader and former PM) once called Indira Gandhi ‘Durga’. And, it is in pursuance of the same tradition that no Congressmen has ever spoken ill of Vajpayee. However, the tradition is sadly being demolished by the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre,” Quadri said.