New Delhi:
In an exclusive interview to NDTV, actor Amitabh Bachchan said that he does not intend to talk about his infamous falling out with the Gandhis after the Bofors scandal. "This is something I need to contain with me and not make it public," he said. "For you it may be a story, for me it's a closed chapter."
The Bofors case dates back to 1986, when Swiss arms manufacturer Bofors landed a Rs 1,500 crore contract to supply Howitzer guns to India. At the time, Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister. Mr Bachchan was his close friend and a law-maker from Allahabad. A year later, Swedish media began reporting that the company had paid massive kickbacks to Indian politicians and defence officials. Reacting to the reports, then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had assured Parliament that that was not the case. The Bofors scandal however cost him the general election in 1989.
Mr Bachchan was among those accused of accepting kickbacks, but was cleared over two decades later. After the Bofors scandal, he quit politics. "I don't know politics, I am not qualified at it...I failed at it. I don't know how to deal with people, I don't know what it required of me," he told NDTV.
On his refusal to comment on the Bofors controversy during the lengthy investigation, he said, "Giving a clarification sounds very defensive. I'd rather wait for the truth to come out. Yes that's painful to wait because it takes a lot out of you but when it will, it will nullify everything that happened before. And that's what happened with Bofors. 25 years later, the Chief Prosecutor said my name was just planted in there. I don't think we were equipped to handle that (telling our side of the story) and we still aren't...at least, I'm not," he said to NDTV.