New Delhi: Refusing to comment on President Pranab Mukherjee's remarks that that the controversy surrounding Bofors acquisition was a "media trial", Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday described the quality of the Swedish guns as "good".
"I can only certify that Bofors guns are good. I do not make any statement on President's statement. If you ask me about quality of Bofors guns, then they are good," Parrikar said.
Mukherjee was quoted by a Swedish daily as saying, "It is yet to be to be established that there was a scandal. No Indian court has established it. I was the defence minister of the country long after Bofors, and all my generals certified that this is one of the best guns we are having. Till today, Indian army is using it. The so-called scandal, yes, in the media, it was there. There was a media trial. But I'm afraid, let us not be too much carried by publicity."
The scandal of procurement of 155mm howitzer field Bofors guns plagued the Rajiv Gandhi government in the late 1980s and became a big election issue in 1989 in which the former Prime Minister had to face defeat.
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