Jaswant stops short of naming 'mole' in the PMO

New Delhi, July 25 (UNI) In an obvious bid to avoid a legal tangle, senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh today stopped short of naming the 'mole' in the former P V Narasimha Rao government leaking critical information about India's nuclear programme but provided additional clues about him, saying he was a retired civil servant who was currently residing out of India.

Mr Singh, who was to disclose all details and provide evidence in his possession for concluding that somebody in the PMO was leaking information to the US on India's nuclear programme to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today, however did a U-turn by saying that he would share all the information and the unabridged letter at a time convenient for him.

Mr Singh, who was the External Affairs Minister in the NDA government and came out with his book 'Call to Honour', was peeved at the PM's effort to choose to speak to him through the media.

He, however, said he was paying Dr Singh in the same coin by conveying his displeasure through the same media. "After all I am the Leader of Opposition and should be treated as one", he remarked.

He also confided that he came to know of the mole in the PMO in 1996 and had not shared this information with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1996 nor did he find critical enough to refer it to the Delhi Police. ''Our priority was to ensure successful conduct of the nuclear test which we accomplished in May 1998'', he told reporters.

The BJP leader said he could not guess why the US was upset with India conducting Pokhran II tests -- probably because India did it without their knowledge. Their charge was that ''You kept us in the dark", he said.

UNI MCN RP KP1919