How Sonia Gandhi, Enslaved Loyalists, and Pliant Media have Betrayed India All the Time

How Sonia Gandhi, Enslaved Loyalists, and Pliant Media have Betrayed India All the Time

For far too long India has been a bought country.  Foreign products, ideologies and agendas have been pushed either by force or lure or simply under the garb of mending the native regressive ways.

While weakness of character, resolve and battle-readiness has made us slaves of colonial militaries; money and worse, self-hatred has pushed us towards intellectual slavery. This Intellectual Slavery has been institutionalized in India via the academics and journalists, both in print and TV. They have been bought and have served their masters well.

As we see one of most shameful saga of a scam of immense proportion unfold, we see that no one – from the top power center to the many media people and Defence Services brass – has been left untainted.  But, will the guilty be punished?  To understand the present, one must know the past.  What we will see is something totally shocking.  Highest office facilitated plunder and treason and everyone acquiesced.  Not one media person took anyone to task.

Let us first take a brief look at the bottom line of the scandals-business in India.  The Media Management.  Or Purchase of Journalists.  Presstitutes as they are so rightly called.  With enough money, anyone – as the Italians said so clearly in AgustaWestland – can purchase their integrity and loyalty.  This case of large-scale corruption – nay, treason – was brought up three years back.  See here and here.

The Present Saga of AgustaWestland

Interestingly, someone in the media was aware of the #AgustaPatrakars purchase – because of being one of the beneficiaries? And, this is how the purchase was characterized.

Barkha Dutt Tweets in 2013 on Agents of Agusta
Barkha Dutt Tweets in 2013 in an Attempt to Justify Agents’ Commissions (Media included?) of Agusta

How the media subverts the news.

AgustaWestland is a case where all the top brass of Congress party – including Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, Oscar Fernandes and Manmohan Singh have been named by the Italian court.  Sonia Gandhi has been named as the Driving Force.  Yet, the media – which was obviously bought by the company is trying its best to manage the fall of Sonia Gandhi.  It does it through Machiavellian wordsmithing.  When the issue is of high treason.  Of obvious plunder of the country, they make it seem as if Sonia Gandhi and Congress is “wrongfully under siege”.  Almost as if they aren’t the perpetrators of crime, but the victims!  Read these headlines for yourself.

Media Trying to Save Sonia
Media Trying to Save Sonia Gandhi

Simply speaking, Sonia Gandhi-the-victim is a hapless crusader against the aggressive BJP.  One needs to ask – since when did AgustaWestland become an issue about BJP?  And not Sonia Gandhi and her high treason?

AgustaWestland scandal has brought forward to the public – specifically the new generation – the power and influence that is wielded by Sonia Gandhi and her coterie.  But this is not the first demonstration of her treason of India.  It has happened before.  And, the whole process was managed by exactly the same power center in Congress.  The show was managed in such a way that not only were the bribes taken, released from frozen accounts for the criminals, but the Indian legal and intelligence machinery was completely subverted to facilitate the criminals to go scott-free!

Albert Einstein once said – Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Sadly and unfortunately for the lunatic Indian public, the Congress power coterie and the media has been able to do the same thing with the same results!  Same treason and same public amnesia at being ripped and raped by the same power centers.  Sonia Gandhi and her coterie.

Sonia Gandhi and Quattrocchi: How Dealers got embedded into Indian PM House

Proximity of Quattrocchi and his wife to Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi was clearly brought out by the IB officer Naresh Chandra Gosain in front of CBI on March 29, 1997. He served as the Personal Security Officer of Sonia Gandhi between 1987 and 1989!

In his testimony Gosain says, “Mr Ottavio Quattrocchi and his wife Ms Maria Quattrocchi were very close to Mr Rajiv Gandhi and Mrs Sonia Gandhi. When Shri Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister, Mr Quattrocchi and his family members used to visit PM house and the family members of Shri Rajiv Gandhi also used to visit the house of Mr Quattrocchi.” (Source)

Gosain had discussed the extent of closeness between the families which led to throwing away of all the norms and rules associated with the PM office.

“At No. 5 & 7 Race Course Road, private cars were not allowed to enter inside the bungalow. Only the ferry cars of SPG, after severe security checks, used to carry such visitors from reception to porch and back. Mr. Quattrocchi and Mrs Maria Quattrocchi were very close to Shri Rajiv Gandhi’s family and they got free access to the PM’s House.” He further added: “All visitors to No 5 & 7 Race Course Road were issued passes at the reception near the alighting point. Every time, a card was kept ready for Mr. Quattrocchi and his family members as and when they visited the PM’s house. Everybody in SPG posted at PM house knew Mr Quattrocchi and his family members. Hence, there was no question of identifying them.” (Source)

This is important to know the history and trend of Italian wheeler-dealers having close proximity to the main power center in the Indian Government with the entry of Sonia Gandhi in the Prime Minister’s house and subsequent usurping of power in Congress (from Sitaram Kesari).

If we don’t learn from the past, then the future will bring the same.

Bofors: Quattrocchi and Sonia Gandhi show via Rajiv Gandhi and “Loyalists”

A scandal broke out in 1987, where an Italian wheeler-dealer named Ottavio Quattrocchi was the kingpin of a purchase of Bofors guns by the Indian Army against the advise of the experts.  Amongst the guns in the competition, the ones from Sofma French were judged to be the most suitable as they had been proven to be able to shoot almost 30 kilometers.  This was one of the main conditions of the Indian army.  Despite the protest from the Indian Army, the contract was instead awarded to Swedish company Bofors.  Their gun had a maximum range of just over 20 km.  It all started because a Swedish radio broke the news of investigations where the company Bofors had paid huge bribes (by standards of those times) to Indian politicians and Army brass to sell their guns.  A note was found in the diaries of an executive from Bofors saying:  “The involvement of Q could be a problem due to his proximity to R.”

Q, here was Quattrocchi and R, was Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

CBI Subverted by Congress

As the case went on in the Indian courts, Quattrocchi shuttled between different countries – Malaysia to Italy and then to Argentina as the CBI pursued him everywhere.  Or so it seemed.  Basically CBI was being gamed to facilitate his freedom even when he seemed tobe on the run.  CBI continued to present weak cases for extradiction and also commit irregularities as Quattrocchi got saved everywhere!  In Malaysia, when the CBI tried to extradict him, the court put the case aside saying that the “charges were ambiguous“.  Before an appeal could be filed, the guy had left Italy.

In June 2007, the Argentian court also threw the extradiction case from CBI out.

In a repetition of what happened in Malaysia four years ago, an Argentinian court rejected the Central Bureau of Investigation’s request to extradite Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi from Argentina in the Bofors case. After hearing arguments from both sides, Judge Harichi Doi of the First Court in Argentina said that the court’s reasons for turning down CBI’s plea would be revealed on June 13. (Source)

What as the ammunition in the hands of Quattrocchi’s lawyers?  Literally, gifts from the Indian government!

Mr Freeland during his argument had presented the verdict of the Malaysian Court that had ruled against the CBI’s extradition plea in 2003, the recent defreezing of Quattrocchi’s London accounts and the Delhi High Court order dropping bribery and corruption charges before the Argenitian court. (Source)

Quattrocchi’s Money Released… and Withdrawn

In 2006, the Indian Government had taken off the freeze on Quattrocchi’s bank accounts and before anything could happen, the money was taen

In 2003, it emerged that he and his wife Maria held two bank accounts in London containing several million euros. The accounts were frozen on CBI demand, but they were released by Indian government mysteriously in 2006. Opposition blamed the Congress led UPA government of scuttling the Bofors investigations. (Source)

This is how it happened:  CBI Director Vijay Shankar allowed (or ordered) the bank accounts of Quattrocchi to be released in January 2006.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is reported to have asked Britain to de-freeze two bank accounts of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, whose extradition India has sought for his alleged role in the Bofors payoff scandal.
CBI Director Vijay Shankar, however, refused to confirm this, saying he had just taken over and was yet to “study the file”.
“It is important to establish whether there is a link between the Bofors case and Quattorocchi’s London bank accounts,” Shankar told IANS. (Source)

And, immediately the two bank accounts, 5A5151516M and 5A5151516L, held by Quattrocchi and his wife Maria with the BSI AG bank, London, containing Euros 3 million and $1 million – were emptied!

“The money was withdrawn on January 16 itself, the day the bench had passed the order,” Additional Solicitor General Gopal subramanian told a bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice C K Thakker and Justice R V Raveendran.
The bench on January 16 had directed the Centre and the CBI to ensure that the money deposited in the two London bank accounts of Quattrocchi, who is an accused in the Bofors pay off case, should not be withdrawn.
“…The money could not have remained restrained unless there was an order of restraint de novo (starting from beginning),” CBI said in the affidavit. (Source)

On December 22, 2005, the Indian Law Ministry under Hansraj Bhardwaj suddenly sent the additional solicitor general of India, Mr. B. Dutta, to London with one aim.  To release the frozen accounts of Quattrocchi.  Even the CBI was never consulted!

What was the reason for doing this?  Well, Bhardwaj, the Gandhi loyalist had apparently suddenly decided that the case against Quattrocchi was not in “National interest”.

Mr Datta conveyed his instructions on behalf of the Government of India, the Ministry of Justice and the Central Bureau of Investigation that no useful purpose will be served by maintaining the Restraining Order dated July 25, 2003, as there is no longer any reasonable prospect of the case against Mr Quattrocchi proceeding to trial. (Source)

And, something that obviously had the stamp of power and authority of Sonia Gandhi was made to look like a suo moto action in haste by a “loyalist” by the senior Congress ministers.  One brushed it aside by saying “Hansraj Bhardwaj can do it. He can go to any extent!”

That was it.  With this Sonia Gandhi and her coterie, including the entire machinery which was behind the Bofors scandal, was saved.   Interestingly, some Congress stooge has updated the Wikipedia with “From Bofors to office of profit and the failed attempt to remove Navin Chawla as election commissioner, were all deftly handled by the Congress veteran to the satisfaction of the Prime Minister and party leadership” in Hansraj Bhardwaj’s biography!

From the Mainstream media to the brigade which is active on social media, Congress has paid for and used everything to subvert the Indian discourse!

Quattrocchi Bank Accounts
Quattrocchi Bank Accounts Saga (Courtesy: India Today)

Case closed.  Thank you very much!

Finally, the case against Quattrocchi was dropped on the insistence of CBI.  The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav gave the order in March 2011.  Yadav brought the most important scandal’s saga to a close as he started his order by reciting lines from the popular Sahir Ludhianvi song from Gumrah: Woh afsana jisse anjaam tak laana na ho mumkin, usse ek khoobsurat mod dekhar chhodna hi achha.  With that he held the withdrawal of the case by CBI against Quattrocchi valid and in India’s national interest.

“spending through the nose for about 21 years, has not been able to put forward legally sustainable evidence with regard to conspiracy in the matter. Further, in the case of Mr. Quattrocchi, as against the alleged kickback of Rs.64 crore he received, the CBI had by 2005 already spent around Rs.250 crore on the investigation, which is sheer wastage of public money.” (Source)

The Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde was to remark after the Coal scam – “Earlier the Bofors was a talking point. People forgot about it. Now it is coal. This too will be forgotten.”

With help from a media which was all-too-pliant and easy to forget the great scandal that hit at the heart of India’s Defence preparedness and opened the Prime Minister’s office to diabolical influence of the global criminals.

Now, that the same Sonia Gandhi and her team has been instrumental in subverting the Indian national interest yet again, it will be important to see how the bought Indian media and loyalists will save her and if.. IF the public will wake up to its own interest and save the country from further ruin?

More Information on Bofors

Here are some articles that you may like to read for more details: This is not about Bofors . How The UPA Buried The Case Against Q

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