L K Advani cracks Volcker whip on PM, Sonia

Indore, Apr 28: Raking up the Volcker report on the Iraqi oil-for-food scam, senior BJP leader L K Advani has said investigating agencies should also question Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

''Former external affairs minister Natwar Singh's pronouncements -- in a TV interview -- on the report constitute internal proof of Congress complicity. The silence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Ms Gandhi can only be construed as admission of guilt,'' he told a news conference here as part of his ongoing 'Bharat Suraksha Yatra'.

Mr Advani claimed that the pronouncements vindicated all that the BJP was saying about the report from the day its ''explosive contents'' were publicised through media last October.

''The Congress and communist parties have a long and sordid record of receiving funds from foreign sources. The BJP believes this is no ordinary form of corruption. It makes these parties and their governments vulnerable to foreign paymasters' pressures.

Worse still, it brings dishonour to India and lowers the global reputation of our democratic system,'' the seasoned leader alleged.

Breaking his silence, Mr Natwar Singh said he was made a scapegoat. Secondly, he found it extraordinary that, while the entire issue was being projected as ''Natwar and Iraq oil,'' there was no reference to the other contact -- the Congress.

''The involvement of Mr Natwar Singh, who had to quit the External Affairs portfolio in the wake of the report mentioning him and the Congress as 'non-contractual beneficiaries' in the scam, is substantiated by further documentary proof,'' said Mr Advani.

Section 4(i) of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act stated that ''no foreign contribution shall be accepted by any political party or an officer of a political party.'' ''Therefore, I said in my April 10 press conference in Mumbai that, both on moral and political grounds, Ms Gandhi owes an explanation to the nation. The BJP reiterates its earlier demand that a case be immediately registered by the CBI against Mr N Singh and the Congress under the FC(R)A and the Prevention of Corruption Act,'' Mr Advani added.

This alone would enable the CBI to dispatch letters rogatory to Swiss and other foreign governments to track the money trail and pinpoint the end beneficiaries in the scam, he said.

UNI