THE F O R T N I G H T THAT WAS

Jofors is noordinary issue.In the end, itis a scandal thathas succeeded intainting all of Indiaand all its people.

Cycle of ShameCAN this ever change? This remorseless cycle of crisis and conflict, of scandal

and shame, of desperation and deceit. It may have resurfaced in the fortnightthat was, but now seems to have been with us forever. There is a permanence

about the present situation that is sadly self-sustaining; one lie feeding on another,one crisis precipitating a larger one, one pebble amassing an avalanche.

Once again, there is a conflict of crisis, a leadership under renewed siege, the re-turn of a scandal that refuses to let go. And once again, there is an aura of deceit anddesperation as a government battles with its conscience—and its compulsions. It isnow abundantly clear that Bofors is no ordinary issue. For, in the end, it is a scandalthat has succeeded in tainting all of India—and all of its people.

More than any other issue, it is this that has destroyed the credibility of thepresent government—and raised the level of public cynicism. No matter how

convincingly the Government reacts to each new revelation, it has nowentrapped itself so intricately in its own contradictions that even the denialshave become an embarrassment.

But finally, the shame, and the sham, reflects on us all. It is not, in theend, the Government of Rajiv Gandhi that has soiled its stature but theGovernment of India. What is more crucial is the fact that the IndianGovernment has allowed itself to be compromised by one foreign com-pany—and that too for the sake of a mere Rs 64 crore. That is a cross every In-dian will, perforce, have to bear.

The former chief of army staff has forcefully reminded us of somethingthat seems to have lost its true meaning: 'national honour'. It is preciselythat which is being compromised, and with such unrelenting regularity. At

any other time, Bofors would not have been as incendiary an issue as it now is. Butthere is today a discernible lack of faith in the institutions that sustain—andprotect—that fragile thing called national honour.

It is for this reason that Bofors is no longer an issue of corruption alone. It is anissue that affects this country's pride and its image in the larger world. And yet, theGovernment has adopted a strategy that is as fatal as it is facile: any attack on theprime minister is an attack on India. Now, with an election at hand, that strategy isalready acquiring a sadly familiar theme; of conspiracies, of traitors and of foreignforces out to destabilise the country.

The real reason once again comes back to Bofors. Ensnared in a crisis ofleadership, the Opposition has just one gun, albeit a powerful one, to fire atthe ruling party—Bofors. But in their desperate bid for power, oppositionleaders are using Bofors to denigrate not just the Government, but the armedforces and the effectiveness of the weapon itself. That is a despicable game.

And all this because of just one wretched gun, one single scandal, one cy-cle of shame that never seems to end. Bofors cost the country Rs 64 crore. Theeventual price is already unbearably high.

—DILIP BOBB

T,here is todaya growing lackof faith in theinstitutions thatsustain that fragilething callednational honour.

SEPTEMBER 30. 1989 » I N D I A TODAY 21