Advani seeks FIR against Natwar and Congress

Mumbai, Apr 10 (UNI) Senior BJP leader L K Advani today demanded that the CBI file an FIR against former External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and the Congress under the Foreigners Contribution (Regulation) Act and Prevention of Corruption Act in the Oil-for-Food scam to enable the investigative agency to send Letters of Rogatory to Swiss and other foreign authorities to pinpoint the end beneficiaries.

Asking Congress President Sonia Gandhi to explain to the people her party's role in Iraq's Oil-For-Food Programme (OFFP), Mr Advani told newspersons that it was important to understand what forced the head of the UN probe committee Paul Volcker to name the Congress Party as a 'non-contractual beneficiary'.

He said the very fact that Mr Natwar Singh was removed after being named by the UN probe report was an admission that the report was 'substantially correct'' and the Congress cannot hope that the people will forget about the OFFP deal by its stoic refusal to make any public comment on the its role.

''After all somebody has to be made accountable in the Congress Party,'' he added commenting on yesterday's news paper reports of Mr Singh, under the scanner of the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, who had written letters to Iraqi authorities, Mr Advani wondered who signed the letter and added that Ms Gandhi as the head of the Congress was bound to calrify her party's stand on these issues.

On the Congress and Communist parties allegedly receiving foreign funds as revealed by KGB agent Mitrokhin, Mr Advani said the records found in the possession of the intelligence agency could not be discarded as Soviet Union was a friendly country.

At least on one occasion, a secret gift of two million rupees from Moscow to Congress was personally delivered after midnight, the agent had revealed and said the KGB subsidised the election campaigns of 21 politicians including four Cabinet Ministers in the Parliamentary elections.

Mr Advani said in his Bharat Suraksha Yatra meetings he would be highlighting corruption as the biggest enemy against good governance and said the BJP and NDA would not relent and would raise the issue in and outside the Parliament. Asked about the role of the NDA in getting back Italian fugitive Ottavio Quattrocchi, Mr Advani said he was allowed to leave the country by the Congress regime and despite best efforts, it was not possible for the government to get him extradited from Malaysia.

In the issue relating to terror suspect Abu Salem's case, it was possible to get him extradited from Portugal because of the agreement but at the same time, efforts to get Dawood Ibraham, the kingpin of the Mumbai blasts did not yield fruit.

To a question on the BJP's stand on reservation for the OBCs in the Indian Institutes of Management, Mr Advani said his party would take a stand on the issue after serious consultations among the leadership.

As far as the Election Commission's notices to Human Resources Minister Arjun Singh was concerned, the party would wait and watch the developments and his reply to the E C.

When his attention was drawn towards BJP president Rajnath Singh expressing his intentions to make the BJP flag totally saffron giving up the green colour, Mr Advani said he had a telephonic talk with him and added that Mr Singh had clarified that he had issued no such statement.

UNI