India on Wednesday denied that it had asked the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) to retract portions of its interview with President Pranab Mukherjee where he had made references to the Bofors issue, because it could affect the state visit of the President. The denial comes in the wake of DN claiming that India’s Ambassador to Sweden and Latvia Banashri Bose Harrison has said asked for a retraction and said the controversy generated by the reference to the Bofors issue could affect the state visit. The newspaper also claimed that it refused to retract the statement, and stood by its decision to play the portion where Mr. Mukherjee said that since no Indian court has given its judgment on the Bofors issue, it cannot be called a “scandal.”
MEA sources told The Hindu that the state visit will be held as scheduled, Mr. Mukherjee will leave for Sweden on May 31. “This is a case of miscommunication. We did not ask for a retraction on the Bofors issue, we stand by what he has said.”
Swedish paper did not stick to its word: MEA
The Ministry of External Affairs said even though prior to the interview the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter said they would not ask questions on the Bofors issue, they still went ahead with it, but President Pranab Mukherjee answered that question. “The retraction was about the off the record reference where President Mukherjee inadvertently mixed up Sweden and Switzerland.”
New Delhi also asserted that it was “disappointed” that the focus of the visit has been shifted from India-Sweden relations. “The only concern that the government has is that we wanted the focus to be on the President’s visit and not on a story that is very old in India. We wanted to focus on India-Sweden relations in the present. There was never any question of the visit being in any jeopardy. We expect our President will be treated with the same respect as any head of state deserves,” a source in the MEA said.
Following the controversy that has erupted over the President’s remarks, Ms. Harrison had written to the newspaper to register New Delhi’s “disappointment” over the issue.
In the letter dated May 25 to DN, Ms. Bose had said: “It was both unprofessional and unethical on your part to include in the report an off the record correction made by the President after the interview had ended, about a slip of the tongue during the interview.” Underlining New Delhi’s disappointment at the “condescending manner” in which the comment has been included, she has said that the video of the interview posted by the newspaper shows the Bofors question as the opening one, whereas it was third in the list.
While New Delhi has expressed disappointment over the disrespect shown to the President, the newspaper has defended its right to publish what was said during the interview. In a report posted on its website, DN said on Tuesday it received an official letter from the Indian ambassador in Stockholm where she expresses “disappointment” over the interview and said that the paper neglected to show the President the “courtesy and respect” that he deserves as head of state.
‘Direct request’
“In a telephone conversation with DN prior to the publication of the article the Ambassador made a direct request that DN was to retract sections of the interview mentioning Bofors. She also warned that the planned state visit was at risk of being cancelled,” the report says.
It quotes Peter Wolodarski, editor-in-chief of DN as having told the Ambassador, “...that we couldn’t accept her demands. The President became engaged and was upset when Bofors was mentioned during a question regarding how we can avoid corruption today. Of course we had to tell our readers about his reaction.”