Amitabh and Ajitabh in London |
Description & Facts: Amitabh and Ajitabh in London Court, fighting for Bofor Case 1990-1991.The backlash began in the mid-80s when, following the assassination of Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, he tried his hand at politics. As a result of his huge popularity, not to mention his close association with the Gandhi family, he was elected to parliament with a huge majority in his home city of Allahabad. But the stint in politics didn't last long: he was implicated by a newspaper in the Bofors scandal, which involved millions of pounds of kickbacks allegedly being paid to senior politicians, officials and arms agents as a bribe for the import of weapons.In 1990 and 1991, the new government headed by VP Singh was obsessed by Bofors. Letter Rogatories were sent to Switzerland, assorted investigators made several trips between Delhi and Geneva and much noise was generated. But nothing came of the investigations.Nothing happened till the spring of 1987, when Swedish Radio, which was investigating the Bofors company, revealed that Bofors had paid bribes to secure the Indian deal. This announcement created a mild stir in India, largely because there was already a controversy over another defence deal (the HDW submarine deal). But the Opposition scented blood when the Rajiv Gandhi government suddenly began to overreact. Instead of simply denying the charge of corruption, it made the wholly unnecessary claim that there could be no question of bribes because there had been no agents in the deal. When