On the 31st anniversary of the Emergency today, the BJP said the Congress-led UPA government had created an ‘‘Emergency-like’’ situation in the country, with the recent controversies surrounding the office of profit bill, the Volcker scandal and the Navy war room leak case.Leader of Opposition LK Advani, at a function here in the Capital, said, ‘‘We must know that the clamping of Emergency was not an accident, not a whimsical decision by an unpredictable leader. Two factors contributed to the making of the Emergency mindset in the Congress party.’’The first factor, he said, was ‘‘serious political and legal crisis for the leader of the Congress party. The atmosphere of personality cult and sycophancy had led Congressmen to believe that the Nehru-Gandhi family was the natural leader of the nation and, therefore, if the Constitution had to be subverted to protect their leader, so be it.’’The second factor, he said, were corruption scandals dogging the leader and her colleagues in the party and government. Drawing a parallel with the office-of-profit bill, he said: ‘‘We have seen recently how the Congress-led government abruptly curtailed Parliament’s budget session in order to introduce an ordinance to save its president from disqualification in the office-of-profit controversy. It is only when the Congress leadership realised the high risk involved in doing so that it quickly changed its strategy and enacted the sacrifice drama yet again.’’• On Bofors: ‘‘How the UPA government enslaved the CBI and subverted other institutions of governance to gift Ottavio Quattrocchi, the Italian fugitive, not only freedom but also Rs 20 crore of impounded money in the Bofors scam is brazen beyond words.’’• On Volcker: ‘‘In Iraq’s food-for-oil scam, neither the Congress president nor any party office-bearer has so far broken their silence on how the Congress party’s name figured in the Volcker report.No less a person than the country’s former external affairs minister, whose name also figured in the report, has publicly complained that he has been made a scapegoat. Shri Natwar Singh has pointedly asked why no one from the Congress party has been questioned in the scandal.’’• On the war room leak: ‘‘This is very ominous. The CBI has also raided the offices and farmhouse of a well-known businessman who, according to in-depth media investigation so far, is the mastermind both in the war room leak case and also in the Scorpene submarine deal. The CBI itself has confirmed that the war room leak is part of a much larger conspiracy.What is this larger conspiracy? The people have a right to know.will the government now accept that the war room leak is linked to the Rs 18,000-crore Scorpene submarine deal?’’‘CBI not allowed to work independently’BANGALORE: BJP president Rajnath Singh on Sunday alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was not allowed to independently probe the naval war room leak case, a ‘‘major threat to the country’s defence’’. Addressing reporters here, Singh said the CBI had conducted raids in connection with the case only four months after the first information report was filed. He alleged that the delay was caused due to ‘‘powerful people acting behind (the scenes) to destroy evidences and the CBI is not allowed to act independently’’. He said the Centre should convene an all-party meeting to find an alternative to CBI investigating the issue. Singh also charged the UPA government with holding back the testing of the Agni missile for the past two years and demanded an explanation from the defence minister.
