Opposition on Thursday raked up
the Bofors issue in the Rajya Sabha alleging "cover up" in probe and
"burial" of the case leading to acrimonious exchanges with the ruling
alliance culminating in repeated adjournments.
The
House was adjourned thrice in the pre-lunch sitting over former Swedish
police chief's allegation that payoffs were made in purchase of Bofors
guns during the tenure of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Raising
the issue during Zero Hour, Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley said,
"There were repeated efforts to cover up. The pace of investigation
varied with the colour of the political government in power...we gave a
whole burial to the case."
"....the
fact is clear. Somebody got the contract and somebody got the
kickback....this man (Ottavio Quattrocchi) is so powerful. Entire Indian
state appeared so helpless....this is a textbook illustration of
fraud," he said.
As
Mani Shankar Aiyar (Cong) rose on behalf of the treasury benches to
counter the allegations of Jaitely, Opposition members shouted him into
silence asking why he is being allowed to speak when only leaders of
parties in the House have been permitted to raise the matter.
Through
a point of order, Najma Heptulla (BJP) demanded that Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, who is Leader of the Rajya Sabha, should be present if
the House wanted a discussion.
Naresh
Agrawal (SP) also raised objections to the Chair allowing Aiyar to
speak on the issue saying this amounted to partiality and demanded
everybody should be given opportunity to speak.
Noting
that Jaitley has bemoaned the fact that unsuccessful efforts were being
made to unearth the truth, Aiyar pointedly said, "The reason why we
could not unearth the truth is because the pursuit of truth began with a
series of untruths."
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