Hyderabad: Congress today backed the reported controversial remarks of President Pranab Mukherjee on Bofors issue to a Swedish daily and said allegations of kickbacks were levelled by opposition parties to defame the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
During an interview, ahead of his visit to Sweden beginning May 31, Mr Mukherjee had said Bofors wasn't a scandal, but rather a publicity "trial".
"I think he (Mukherjee) is correct. The President of India has said what we all (Congress) have been saying for the past 30 years," senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told PTI in Hyderabad.
"Those were mere allegations to defame Rajiv Gandhi.
Allegations that kickbacks were paid in the procurement of 155mm howitzer field Bofors guns from Sweden had plagued the Rajiv Gandhi government in the late 1980s and had become big election issue in 1989 in which the former Prime Minister had to face defeat.
During an interview, ahead of his visit to Sweden beginning May 31, Mr Mukherjee had said Bofors wasn't a scandal, but rather a publicity "trial".
"I think he (Mukherjee) is correct. The President of India has said what we all (Congress) have been saying for the past 30 years," senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told PTI in Hyderabad.
"Those were mere allegations to defame Rajiv Gandhi.
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Allegations that kickbacks were paid in the procurement of 155mm howitzer field Bofors guns from Sweden had plagued the Rajiv Gandhi government in the late 1980s and had become big election issue in 1989 in which the former Prime Minister had to face defeat.
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