NEW DELHI: Union Commerce Minister Arun Nehru appears to be on the way out with fresh evidence of his involvement in the Bofors gun kickbacks scandal surfacing.

Prime Minister V.P. Singh promised to examine the documents published by the Bombay based English daily, Independent, linking Arun with the questionable deals the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi allegedly entered into with a Swedish gun manufacturing company.

Arun Nehru has not only been in contact with Rajiv for quite some time but has been publicly ridiculing the V.P. Singh Government’s investigations into the Bofors gun deal and other deals of the previous government of which Arun Nehru was a member.

Noted criminal lawyer and Janata Dal MP. Ram Jethnalani has called for Arun Nehru’s resignation from the Union Cabinet alleging that there was sufficient evidence against Arun Nehru.

‘Addressing newsmen Jethmalani said that the criminal part of the Bofors deal had been executed by Nehru and Rajiv through the office of the Minister of state for Defence Arun Singh. “If Nehru could resign on such an issue as Meham, the present situation loudly calls for his resignation”, the Janata Dal M_P. said.

Meanwhile Nehru denied rumours of his resignation. On the contrary he made it a point to attend to his official duties. He appears to be working hard to control influential sections of the Braham in dominated Indian media so that reports of his involvement in the scandal were not played up. Thus Indian Express and The Statesman, in the words of Jethnalani, suppressed the reports and evidence against Nehru. He had even been issuing statements through The Times of India even before the documents were published certifying his innocence in the Bofors scandal which, in the opinion of Jethmalani, indicated that the editors of Indian Express and The Statesman gave the documents to Arun Nehru instead of printing these documents.

It is also evident that Arun Nehru is not only opposing VP. Singh’s policy of reserving 27 per cent posts in public services to the members of backward castes but is also encouraging agitation against the measure by upper castes all over the northern States. No wonder some of the top authorities in the States and Union territories are openly conniving at with the antiMandal Commission agitators.

If Prime Minister V.P. Singh is not being kept in dark about Arun Nehru’s activities and the former is aware of the goings on, it could safely be predicted that drastic political developments may take place in the next few days.

Documents will be examined, says PM

The government will inquire into the documents that allegedly link the Union commerce minister. Mr Arun Nehru with the controversial Bofors gun deal. The Prime Minister. Mr V.P. Singh said this while returning from Ahmedabad, in response to a question about demand from some quarters for Mr Nehru’s resignation following the publication of documents linking him with the Bofors deal.

The Prime Minister said, “When a document is there it has to be inquired into. We have asked the Sweden for all the documents and they will all be examined. Asked when the government hoped to provide information on the recipients of the Bofors commission, Mr Singh said the government was proceeding in that direction adding that the previous government had even been unable to freeze the Swiss bank accounts into which the commission had been paid.

The Prime Minister said that although some people hid appealed to the courts in Zurich regarding the accounts the courts had rejected their appeals and upheld the claims of the Indian government. Asked whether his government will bring back into the country the homes paid by Bofors as commission in the Howitzer deal he reapplied we will do whatever the lay of the land dictates”.

INDOPAK RELATIONS responding to a question about a tension on the IndoPak order the Prime Minister said that things seemed to have nor malised after the shelling incident of the past few weeks.

3 seamen killed

KUALA LUMPUR: Three Indian seamen were killed by poisonous fumes while cleaning a tank on board a Penang bound ship in the Bay of Bengal.

Their bodies were brought to Penang for post mortem.

Article extracted from this publication >> September 7, 1990