India fumes over Bofors reference in Pranab interview

Indian ambassador to Sweden, Banashri Bose Harrison, in a letter to the paper’s Editor-In-Chief Peter Wolodarski, said she has been asked to convey “disappointment of our authorities in Delhi regarding the manner in which the interview was presented. It was both unprofessional and unethical on your part to include in the report an off-the-record correction made by the President after the interview had ended, about a slip of the tongue during the interview.”

In the letter she mentioned, “I am told at that point you sympathised with him and said it can happen to anyone. After that, to include the same in your report in a most condescending manner as you have done does not befit the high standards normally expected from a leading newspaper or a professional journalist.” She also said that President Mukherjee was not shown the “courtesy and respect” that he deserves as a head of state.

The newspaper Dagens Nyheter, in a report on Wednesday claimed that before the article was published, the ambassador asked it “to retract sections of the interview mentioning Bofors”. The paper says in a report today, “She also warned that the planned state visit was at risk of being cancelled.”

“I find the Ambassador’s reaction regretful. It is surprising that someone representing the world’s largest democracies is trying to micromanage which questions we should ask a head of state, and which answers should be published,” said Wolodarski. Allegations that then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was among the politicians who were bribed by Bofors for the Rs 1,500-cr deal cost the leader the national election in 1989. In 2004, the Delhi High Court said there was no evidence of the involvement of Gandhi.