Rafale deal overtakes Bofors scam
There are two things that BJP uses as a defence to escape its responsibilities. One is that Indira Gandhi imposed emergency during her tenure as PM of this country. Another one is Bofors, a political and defence scandal involving former PM Rajiv Gandhi’s name. Congress is paying heavily for these mistakes since a long time. The first person to speak against Bofors was former PM V P Singh, who was in Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet. He quit Congress and waged a war against it.
Bofors scandal cost Rajiv Gandhi very dearly. His reputation of ‘Mr Clean’ suffered a massive set back. He was forced to bear the brunt of mistakes committed by someone else. Rajiv Gandhi was a political visionary who took India to another level with his foresightedness as far as IT is concerned. Even courts have denied the role of Rajiv Gandhi in Bofors scandal. But then, BJP has continued its tirade against Congress using this topic.
BJP also refers to emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi quite often. Ironically enough, PM Narendra Modi has brought in emergency-like situation in India since the last four years. Common people and media have got a taste of this. Just the way as the press and commoners were targeted during emergency and sounded a death knell to anyone who spoke against Indira Gandhi or the government, the same situation exists even now with Modi at the helm of affairs. No media can dare criticize the government or ministers now. The journalists who have exposed the government’s misdoings are being threatened in different ways.
The IT raid and attempts to stop NDTV was a ‘caution’ issued for having criticized the government. Three journalists ABP channel had to lose jobs owing to their expose against the government.
That common people had to queue before the banks to get their own hard earned money is the darkest phase of post-independence Indian history. People didn’t have to face this even during emergency period.
Law on sale of cattle is another sort of emergency for sure. Goondas and rowdies have been reaping benefits of this new order which denies the farmers their right on their cattle. This law can even provide impetus to killing of a farmer if he takes his cattle for sale. Mob lynchings have become an order of the day in Modi’s India. Having landed the country at this juncture, Narendra Modi does not have any right to criticize the days of emergency. More than anything else, BJP government is using Bofors as its defence even after Congress was proved innocent in the matter. Modi government has been holding this out, while being so unmindful of its own involvement in Rafale deal, which is way bigger than Bofors. This is not the first time NDA govt is being caught in a defence deal. In a sting operation carried out by Tehelka tabloid, NDA led by Vajpayee was caught in a very sorry state of having accepted bribe for the defence deals. The desh bhakts were caught in a very compromising situation. A scandal in the deal of buying coffins for martyrs was also unearthed.
But looks like Rafale deal will overtake all of them in sheer size of corruption. This deal with France-based company to provide war planes is being currently termed as the bigger corruption than Bofors in its size and magnitude. Government entered into an agreement with France to buy 36 war planes at a cost of Rs 58,000 crores. Though Rahul Gandhi kept referring to this time and again, the media was successful in keeping this topic under wraps.
But now, former BJP leaders Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha have spoken against this. There is a huge difference between opposition leaders talking about this and former senior partymen speaking against this issue.
Arun Shourie was in the forefront when Bofors news appeared in the press in 1989. Now, the same man says “Rafale deal is much bigger than Bofors.”
Modi government has blundered more number of times as far as mingling with the army is concerned. They politicised surgical strike and opened doors for FDI in defence sector. Now Rafale issue has cost them quite a bit of reputation. Though such a massive scam is being levelled against the government, Modi isn’t opening his mouth at all. If Narendra Modi is innocent in all of them, the same could have been issued as an order. But Modi thinks such false allegations are something he must wear on his shoulder.
If Rafale is not a transparent deal and the country has been lied to, it is equivalent to anti-national behaviour. This would have massive impact on the psyche of soldiers who are working to safeguard the country. Audit of this deal is a must to protect reputation. Modi must offer an explanation to this issue and in complete consciousness of the fact that Bofors cannot be a reason to defend to Rafale deal.
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UK Professor Nitasha Kaul's Overseas Citizenship of India cancelled
Academician decries move as "transnational repression"
London/New Delhi: Professor Nitasha Kaul, a London-based academic, announced on May 18, 2025, via a social media post that her Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card has been cancelled by the Indian government. She described the move as a "bad faith, vindictive, cruel example of transnational repression" intended to punish her for her scholarly work critical of the Modi government's policies concerning minorities and democracy.
The cancellation follows an incident in February 2024 when Professor Kaul, who holds a British passport and held an OCI card, was denied entry into India upon arrival at Bengaluru airport. She had been invited by the then Congress-led Karnataka state government to speak at a conference on "The Constitution and Unity in India."
According to an image of the letter shared by Professor Kaul, the Indian government stated that it had been "brought to the notice of the Government of India that you have been found indulging in anti-India activities, motivated by malice and complete disregard for facts or history." The letter further accused her of regularly targeting India and its institutions on matters of India's sovereignty through "numerous inimical writings, speeches and journalistic activities at various international forums and on social media platforms."
Professor Kaul, who is a Professor of Politics, International Relations, and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at the University of Westminster, London, vehemently rejects these accusations. She stated she had provided a 20,000-word response to what she termed the government's "ridiculous inanity about ‘anti-India’," but the OCI was cancelled through a "rigged process."
In her social media posts, Professor Kaul lamented the decision, questioning how the "mother of democracy" could deny her access to her mother in India. She characterized the action as stemming from "thin-skinned, petty insecurity with no respect for well-intentioned dissent."
The February 2024 denial of entry had already sparked controversy. At the time, immigration officials reportedly cited "orders from Delhi" without providing formal reasons, though Professor Kaul mentioned informal references to her past criticism of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The Ministry of External Affairs had then responded by stating that the entry of foreign nationals into India is a "sovereign decision." Unofficial government sources had indicated that a "preventive lookout circular" was issued against her due to her alleged "pro-separatist" and "anti-India" stance on Kashmir.
The BJP in Karnataka had criticised the state government for inviting her, labelling her an "anti-India element." Conversely, the then-Karnataka government and various international human rights organizations and academic bodies had condemned the denial of entry.
Professor Kaul has been an outspoken commentator on Indian politics, including the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, and has testified before international bodies such as the US Congress on human rights in the region. She maintains her work is academic and pro-democracy, not anti-India.
The cancellation of her OCI card effectively bars her from entering India, a country to which she has personal and academic ties. This incident adds to a growing list of academics, journalists, and activists of Indian origin whose OCI status has been revoked or who have been denied entry to India in recent years, raising concerns about freedom of speech and dissent. Reports indicate that over 100 OCI cards were cancelled by the Indian government between 2014 and May 2023. Furthermore, in 2021, new rules were introduced requiring OCI cardholders to obtain special permission for activities such as research and journalism.
