NEW DELHI: Kalpnath Rai, Minister of State for Power, issued a statement on Tuesday admitting that “commissions” had been paid in the Bofors deal.
The incidental admission that commissions were paid marks something of a new stage in Congress (I) positions in the bofors scandal. First all such reports were dismissed as “false and baseless” Following the findings of the National Audit Bureau in Sweden that money was paid, the government called it “winding up costs” to agents. The Joint Parliamentary Committee echoed this The party and the government denied these ‘were commissions.
The Hindu published documents that what was paid was commission. The government ordered a CBI probe into the documents. No result of any such inquiry has been announced. Now a senior Minister of the government says that it is “admitted by everybody” that commissions had been paid.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 11, 1989
