The Italian ‘connection’
The Milan Court of Appeal cites a certain ‘Signora Sonia’ in a 225-page judgement that holds two former officials of AgustaWestland and its parent company Finmeccanica guilty of corruption and unlawful financial transactions in securing a deal with India for the sale of 12 AW-101 helicopters meant to be used for ferrying VVIPs in India.
The embarrassment notwithstanding, Sonia Gandhi, the Congress Party president, has so far kept a straight face and has brushed aside all allegations of any involvement whatsoever in the Agusta deal. But the problem for her is that the Milan court’s judgement sheet has generously cited notes related to the helicopter deal that mentions several Congress functionaries and draws allusions to “FAM”, which is widely believed to be a reference to the family members of the then air chief marshal S.P. Tyagi, and one “AP”, which is thought to be a reference to Sonia’s political secretary Ahmad Patel.
If Sonia’s Italian roots and her proximity to Italian middleman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the Bofors kickbacks scandal in the late 1980s put paid to her public image and that of her late husband, former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, then the current allegations of bribery over the Agusta helicopter deal threaten to be no less an embarrassment for Sonia and her party. More so, since this time around, ‘Signora Sonia’ has been cited by none other than a court.
The ‘AP’ factor
What Makhan Lal Fotedar was to Indira Gandhi, Jitendra Prasad was to Rajiv Gandhi, so is Ahmad Patel to Sonia Gandhi. That is why, when the Milan court cited references to one “AP” in its judgement on the AgustaWestland bribery case, Sonia’s long-time trusted lieutenant for sure had a lot of explaining to do.
While it is true that there is still no conclusive evidence to prove that “AP” indeed is a reference to Patel, for Sonia’s political secretary, this indeed is rush-hour inside the penalty box.
Patel, like Sonia, has rejected all allegations, but the tension is all too palpable when one notices Patel distancing the Congress Party and its president from the Agusta deal, by referring to it as a “decision taken by the government”.
