New Delhi: Late Rajiv Gandhi may have been the “main Indian negotiator” for Swedish company Saab-Scania, when it was trying to sell its Viggen fighter aircraft to India in the 1970s, reveal US diplomatic cables leaked on the website WikiLeaks.
An Oct 21, 1975, cable from the US embassy in New Delhi details information given to it by a diplomat in the Swedish embassy. “Mrs Gandhi’s oler [sic] son’s only association with the aircraft industry (to our knowledge) has been as a pilot for Indian Airlines and this is the first time we have heard his name as entrepreneur.”
Rajiv Gandhi was then an Indian Airlines pilot and his mother Indira Gandhi the prime minister.
The cable goes on to say, “Mrs Gandhi (according to the Swedish info) has made the personal decision not to purchase the British Jaguar because of her prejudices against the British. The decision would be between the Mirage [Dassault Mirage F1] and the Viggen.”
According to the cable, the negotiator for French aircraft maker Dassault’s Mirage fighter was the son-in-law of the air chief Air Marshal O.P. Mehra. “Swedish Emboff says that Dassault has Son-in-Law of Indian Air Marshall Mehra as its chief negotiator for mirage sale,” The Hindu newspaper, which accessed the cables as part of a collaboration with WikiLeaks, said quoting the cables Monday.
In another cable, the Swedes said they “understood the importance of family influences” in the final decision.
The cable adds: “Our colleague describes Ranjiv Gandhi [sic] in flattering terms, and contends his technical expertise is of a high level. This may or may not be. Offhand, we would have thought a transport pilot [is] not the best expert to rely upon in evaluating a fighter plane, but then we are speaking of a transport pilot who has another and perhaps more relevant qualification.”
The Hindu
says the Viggen pitch to India was of immense interest to the US. As one cable said, the aircraft “contains a large number of parts and components of U.S. origin which are therefore subject to USG control in third-party sales.”
Another cable says that “Mrs Gandhi’s advance toward dictatorship is now irreversible, and that French Prime Minister Chirac was unhappy with the idea of appearing to condone this development through his official visit”.
The British SEPECAT Jaguar eventually won the race, from which Saab was forced to withdraw by the US, The Hindu said.
The Congress however trashed reports based on WikiLeaks. Making it clear that the allegation against Rajiv Gandhi has no basis whatsoever, party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi referred to the last line of the particular cable to emphasise that there was no foundation to the allegation and and accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of “spreading lies and falsehoods.” He also urged media not to fall for “temporary gains” and added “we are very hurt with the news” but dismissed questions on whether the party will resort to any legal action into the matter. “Having noted what the Swede has said, the cable makes the comment that there was no additional information to either refute or confirm the information.
The foundation of the whole story falls flat here,” he said quoting parts of the cable.
Rubbishing the report, Dwivedi said, “Today a reputed newspaper of the country has published a peculiar report. What is a matter of deep regret is that those sections of media, in whose wisdom, most people in the country rely have also now begun to believe in sensational news.” Questioning the credibility of WikiLeaks, the Congress general secretary said, “An agency, which had sometime back collected a lot of so-called information or got it somewhere and published quoting American Embassy…. Till date it has not been verified. I do not understand what is the basis of what has been published in the newspaper today.”
Raising doubts about the intentions of Assange, Dwivedi accused him of “spreading lies and falsehoods” and said he himself wants to form a political party. As the BJP launched a stinging attack on the Congress over the latest cable issue, the Congress general secretary also reminded the opposition party of another WikiLeaks cable, which spoke of a big leader of the NDA taking money from the US intelligence agency CIA, a reference to George Fernandes.
Suggesting that the matter should “not be stretched further”, Dwivedi said otherwise it would be presumed that all this had happened in the knowledge of all the BJP leaders as well as Jayaprakash Narayan, who had led the anti-Congress movement in the 1970s. “If it is accepted that there is any truth in this suspicion (about Rajiv Gandhi). Then just below that cable it is one more report in which the name of a big leader of the NDA figures. “I do not want to take his name or level any accusation against him because of the condition in which he is. But whether that is also true that he used to get money from the CIA or he had demanded money from the CIA,” he said.
He asked “should we stretch this story to the extent that the BJP and all its leaders were involved in it, who supported the agitations going on and the vandalism that took place then.
Should I stretch it to further and say that all this took place in the knowledge of Jayaprakash Narayan.” Dwivedi said that people in the BJP, who were raking up this, should also think where they want to take the politics of the nation. “What do they want after all. They forget all decorum.” He said that these are the situations which prove Congress’ allegations true that the BJP “creates an atmosphere of suspicion in the country, promotes a propaganda of untruth, create an atmosphere of hatred, create such conditions in which Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were killed.”
Maintaining that the Congress never surrendered its principles for power, Dwivedi said that the BJP has been changing tracks for a long time — merging the party and then creating a new party unlike Congress, which has completed a journey of 127 years. (Agencies)