But, stunned by the development and its disastrous consequences, this government ran out of ideas. It opted to suppress the news of arrest so that as much of the time limit of 30 days to apply for extradition to fetch Q here is lost.

This non-strategy lost relevance once the news of the arrest got leaked. The leak set off a media onslaught charging the government with 'cover up' and a 'conspiracy.' The government is on the run to show how determined it is to get Q extradited!

As the entire nation is agitated about Q's arrest and cover up, a news item titled 'Sonia is silent on Ottavio detention' says that in the first rally Sonia addressed after the news of Q's arrest became a controversy, she remained silent on the issue.

Sonia does not speak even to the Prime Minister who is just a stone's throw away from her but writes letters to him instead. Despite her natural propensity not to speak, has she never spoken about Q at all in public? No, she has; and spoken resoundingly in defence of Q!

In August 1999, after she was baptised into politics, she was questioned by the media on Q's guilt in the Bofors case. See how she defended Q then. ''The CBI has said he is a suspect. We have never seen the papers naming him in the deal. They (the NDA Government) should show the papers establishing he is guilty.''

It needs no genius to nail this as a blatant lie. When Sonia was asking for proof of Q's guilt in Bofors, there were already four judicial orders - one by a Swiss court in September 1996 and one by the Delhi High Court in August 1998 and two more by the Supreme Court in February and March 1999 - against Q indicting him in the Bofors case.

The CBI had raided Q's residence in 1997 and got issued a warrant to arrest him. This was followed by the Interpol Red Alert on February 17, 1997, which Q unsuccessfully challenged before the Interpol Advisory Board. He challenged that order before the Delhi High Court.

But, in August 1998, the court found him guilty of 'fraud committed in the Bofors deal' and said he was 'required to be arrested and interrogated.' Q then moved the Supreme Court and committed to the Court on February 23, 1999, that besides appearing before the Special Court on March 15, he would be available for CBI interrogation for two weeks. On March 26, the SC condemned him for breach of his undertaking.

All this was in the public domain when Sonia asserted that there were no papers to show Q's guilt. The most critical order is of course the Swiss court order. Only where conclusive evidence of wrongdoing exists Swiss courts unveil bank secrecy.

As the order against Q opens his bank secrets to India, it is obvious that the Swiss Court sees the evidence against him unimpeachable. The order establishes five critical facts that prove Q's guilt and call Sonia's lie.

First, AB Bofors did pay $7.3 million to AE Services Ltd, a shell company, and this money was shifted to different secret numbered coded accounts from time to time. The payment $7.3 million was 20 percent of the total commission of 3 percent of the contract value, namely $ 36.5 millions.

Second, the different coded bank accounts were operable only by Q or his wife Maria and none else and thus the amounts were paid to Q only. Third, Bofors paid these millions, not for love of Q, but in consideration of his guarantee - yes, guarantee - that the Rajiv Gandhi Government would give the gun contract to Bofors on or before March 31, 2006.

Fourth, on page 7 of the order, the Swiss court says that it had notified its decision to Q who, it says, had no explanations to give. Fifth, on page 15, the Swiss court notes that 'Q had relationships in India at the highest level.' Who, other than Sonia and through her, Rajiv, is that highest-level contact of Q in India?

See how Q's highest-level contact worked to clinch the gun contract for Bofors by the guaranteed date. The chronology itself is proof. In September 1985, Q promises that, come what may, Bofors would get the Indian gun contract by March 31 1986.

Indian records show that from June 1984 to early February 1986, the Negotiating Committee for the gun contract, in its 17 sittings - yes, 17 sittings in as many months - had consistently preferred the Austrian gun to the Swedish gun.

In its 18th meeting, the committee suddenly reversed its choice and put Bofors gun ahead of the rest! In the next three days, signatures of 11 officials and that of Rajiv Gandhi were obtained and the gun purchase order given to Bofors, 10 days ahead of the guaranteed date! The close contact of Q and his wife with Sonia was not a surmise or conjecture.

When the CBI raided Q's premises - of course after allowing him to slip out of India - they seized diaries, family photos, and telephone records, which established his and his wife Maria's close links with Sonia and Rajiv.

So, despite four court orders fixing and proving Q's guilt in the Bofors gun deal, Sonia resoundingly defended her friends Q and Maria in 1999 after Q ran away. But why is she deafeningly silent now when Q is caught?

Courtesy: www.newindpress.com, February 27, 2007