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| Congress party intensifies anti-Jaswant campaign | | |
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, AUG. 1: The controversy over the former External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh's book has further deepened, with the decision of the Congress party to intensify its anti-Jaswant campaign.
In a swift turn of events, Sonia Gandhi-led party has asked Jaswant Singh to either provide the name of the mole to the nation or change the name of his book to 'A Call to Dishonour'. Abhishek Singhvi, Congress spokesman, said in the course of an informal chat with EARLY TIMES that Jaswant Singh had resorted to "misinformation in order to boost the sales of his book".
The Congress party, which is the oldest organisation in India, cannot be expected to keep quiet on the "false" tale of the mole being sold by the BJP leader, Jaswant Singh. Abhishek Singhvi seemed to be of the opinion that the so-called mole in former Prime Minister, PV Narasimha Roa's government "is his (Jaswant's) own brain child". His mole, he said, "is still in his (Jaswant's) mind and is struggling to come out".
Singhvi charged Jaswant Singh for destroying the reputation of certain individuals. "He is gulity of criminal misconduct as he kept the information to himself and did not share it even with his own Prime Minister. He resorted to falsehood," Singhvi alleged.
When contacted for his views, BJP's parliamentary spokesman, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, told EARLY TIMES that whatever was to be said on the issue had been said by Jaswant Singh on the floor of the House and the chairman of Rajya Sabha, Bhairon Singh Shekhwat, was seized of the matter. He would consult with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Jaswant and set up time and date for a debate on the letter issue involving the mole. Malhotra reiterated: "The party (BJP) stands by his statement".
Sitaram Yechuri, CPI(M) leader, took at a dig at Jaswant Singh by saying that if the author of the book did not know about the identity of the so-called mole, then how could anyone like him (Yechuri) know the indentity of the American spy in the Prime Minister's Office in 1996. |
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