 |
|
Vajpayee should apologise, says Cong New Delhi, April 9 A joint statement issued by senior Congress leaders condemned the Prime Minister’s remarks, saying it was nothing but an attempt to malign Mrs Sonia Gandhi and influence the people at the height of an election campaign. The PM’s suggestion, according to the Congress, is a blatant attempt at influencing the investigating agency to act in a manner that would suit them politically. The statement was signed by senior leaders Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh, K. Natwar Singh and Ahmed Patel. According to them, Mr Vajpayee had actually committed an indiscretion when he said that fresh evidence had surfaced in the Bofors gun deal while referring to media reports on this issue. No fresh evidence has emerged as suggested by the PM and it certainly does not call for any action by the CBI, especially since it had failed to do so for the past five years. While Dr Manmohan Singh lashed out at the BJP for raking up the Bofors issue which is “dead and buried”. The Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal wondered why Mr. Vajpayee had not responded similarly in the scams involving Judeo, Rudy and Bangaru Laxman. More recently, Mr Sibal said the Congress had demanded the arrest of Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani for the manner in which the home ministry had purchased AK-47 guns from a Bulgarian firm, Kintex, whose frontman is among the most wanted international illicit gunrunner and illegal arms-trafficker. “Why doesn’t the Prime Minister ask the CBI to look into these charges,” Mr Sibal said.“Does the government of India have any explanation as to why it chose to be associated with a company that has such globally wanted fugitives,” Mr Sibal added. The Congress spokesperson said if Mr Vajpayee is a man of principles, as he claims to be, then he should ask the CBI to interrogate Mr Advani in the AK-47 gun deal. He said Mr Vajpayee had called for a CBI enquiry against Mrs Sonia Gandhi, who is not an accused in the Bofors case, but was silent on Mr Advani whose ministry had purchased arms in the grey market.  |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | National Capital | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
