When Rajiv Gandhi became the prime minister of India in 1984, he was promptly named ‘Mr Clean’. So cherished was the young, articulate prime minister’s reputation that when whispers of kickbacks in an arms deal with a Swedish company named Bofors began to circulate, many could hardly believe it. On 16 April 1987, when this story hit the Swedish radio, twenty-nine-year-old Chitra Subramaniam, a stringer based in Switzerland, decided to follow it. Little did she know that Bofors would consume her life for the next decade, during which she would develop a network of shadowy whistleblowers,unearth a damning paper trail and uncover a 1.3-billion-dollar scandal! Her reporting would be instrumental in bringing down the Congress government in India, changing criminal laws in Sweden and, for the first time, would unveil how international arms dealers used their political connections to close multi-billion-dollar deals.
In Boforsgate, Chitra Subramaniam tells her side of the story for the first time. The book moves from Stockholm, Geneva, Bern and Davos to New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, spanning successive Indian governments, even as Subramaniam struggles with marriage, pregnancy and motherhood. She is also a woman in a man’s world, fighting for herown byline on the pieces she investigates at considerable personal risk.
Written in Subramaniam’s uniquely truthful voice, Boforsgate is more than a courageous memoir. It is an outstanding example of modern journalism, ethics, principles and tenacity. It is simultaneously a very raw exploration of the sacrifices one makes in order to speak truth to power.