After Congress' mouthpiece National Herald, in one of its article published on Sunday, referred Bofors as a scam, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit back at the former saying that the guilty conscience could not be suppressed for long.
The Congress mouthpiece on Sunday published a story with the headline: Rafale: Modi's Bofors, thereby comparing the Rafael deal to the Bofors scam that took place during the Rajiv Gandhi era.
In an interview, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said, "I am not surprised, a guilty conscience cannot be suppressed for long. They know they are guilty, therefore it has come out."
"It has come out in a paper (National Herald) which itself is a scam. I think people should know the writing on the wall and act accordingly," he
added.
Meanwhile, Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that the Congress party is echoing its own sins.
"Congress is echoing its own sins. They know that the sins committed by them during their regime since independence, will continue to run after them. This is why they are echoing their own sins, let them do that," Naqvi told.
The Rs. 64-crore Bofors scam, relating to alleged payment of kickbacks in the procurement of howitzer artillery guns, dates back to 1980s and 1990s, when the Congress was in power under Rajiv Gandhi leadership.
The then Central Government had allegedly signed a 1.4-billion dollar defence deal with Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors for the sale of 410 field howitzer guns and a supply contract almost twice that amount.