According to a shocking revelation by the lawyer of AgustaWestland middleman, Christian Michel, the repeated mentions of a certain ‘Mrs Gandhi’ in the papers related to the deal might be a reference to Sonia Gandhi. Christian Michel, one of three main middlemen in AgustaWestland scandal wrote a letter to Peter Hulet, India region head of the company on 15th March 2008 saying “Dear Peter, since Mrs. Gandhi is the driving force behind the VIP, she will no longer fly with MI8. Mrs. Gandhi and her closest advisers are the aims of the High Commissioner, senior adviser Prime Minister Manmohan Singh obviously the main figure, then there’s Ahmed Patel Secretary.” Now it is revealed by his sister that Mrs. Gandhi mentioned in the case may be former Congress president Sonia Gandhi. It was also reveled in CBI investigation that Michel’s father was a friend of Indira Gandhi, former prime minister of India and mother in law of Sonia Gandhi. “His father knew late Indira Gandhi since 1970s and was very close to Gandhi family,” read the CBI document.
The UPA government signed a deal with AgustaWestland in February 2010 to purchase 12 VVIP helicopters in 3,600 crore rupees for use by top officials of Indian government like the president, prime ministers, and other important functionaries. However, the deal was scrapped in 2014 when it turned out that middleman hired by the company paid bribes worth Rs. 423 crores to top UPA government officials, other functionaries like Ahmed Patel and Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi. AgustaWestland is a wholly owned subsidiary of Italian company Leonardo S.P.A. which was previously known as Finmeccanica.
The middlemen involved in the deal were Christian Michel, Guido Haschkle and Carlo Gerosa. Michel was arrested in UAE in February 2017. He was brought to India with the guidance from National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval and is now being investigated by agencies.
The revelation by Christian Michel is a big blow to Congress party. The party was not ready to accept the fact that the repeated mention of ‘Mrs. Gandhi’ in the conversation and documents is related to Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. However, all the facts indicated towards direct involvement of Sonia Gandhi because no other lady with Gandhi surname held prominent positions in UPA government. The AgustaWestland case proves the corruption at the upper echelons of Congress party. When back to back many corruption charges were proved on UPA government, Congress said that its allies are involved in corruption but upper management of the party is clean. Congress used former prime minister’s clean image to communicate that upper management of the party is honest.
Now Congress party and Sonia Gandhi herself is exposed to be involved in a major corruption. It is very clear that the uppermost management of the party including the former president of Congress is not ‘clean’.
The timing of the revelation could not be worse for the Congress as it desperately tries to build a narrative of fictional ‘Rafale scam’. They want to make Rafale deal, ‘a Bofors scam’ moment for the BJP in order to gain relevance but so far they have only suffered abject failure in their efforts. Extradition of Michel would add salt to their injuries. The interrogation of the middleman by the Indian agencies would be revealing details about the scam that the Congress has tried to hide. The fresh revelations by Michel would bring huge embarrassment for the Congress party ahead of 2019 general elections. It would put them on the back-foot at a crucial time. The revelations would give the BJP an issue to target the Congress party that too based on solid pieces of evidence.