Pranab Mukherjee President of India has said that the Bofors scandal was a media trial. In an interview just days ahead of his state visit to Sweden, President Mukherjee told a Swedish daily that it is yet to be established that the Bofors gun deal was a scandal. Talking to Swedish national daily ‘Dagens Nyhetter’, Mukherjee said, “First of all – it is yet to be to be established that there was a scandal. No Indian court has established it. 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.” The President was asked if he thought Bofors had been a media trial. 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. Asked if the Bofors scam 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.”
