BJP MPs blow up chance to grill Congress

NEW DELHI, MARCH 11: On a day the Parliament was rocked by charges of corruption in defence deals, the BJP today avoided embarrassing the...

NEW DELHI, MARCH 11: On a day the Parliament was rocked by charges of corruption in defence deals, the BJP today avoided embarrassing the Congress on the Bofors issue even when a starred question on the subject came up in the Rajya Sabha.

There is speculation in political circles that the BJP does not want a detailed discussion on the issue at this moment because it could pre-empt some “new disclosures” in the case. Also, it was waiting for a “more appropriate” opportunity to strike.

Two senior BJP MPs were not present in the Rajya Sabha today when a starred question–on the Bofors kickbacks–listed against their names came up for discussion. So Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who was present in the House during question hour in the morning could not reply in the absence of his own party members.

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One of the two MPs was Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Chief Whip of the BJP Parliamentary Party. He was in the forefront of attacking the Congress on the Bofors issue. The other MP was Raghavji of MadhyaPradesh.

According to procedure, only those MPs can ask the starred question in their respective Houses against whose names the questions are listed. The other MPs can ask only supplementaries.

Since none of the two MPs was present, Minister of State for Personnel K M R Janarthanan laid the written reply on the table of the Rajya Sabha. He said that following the registration of the Bofors case, a part report was submitted to the government by the CBI. “It has not been possible to complete the investigation into the alleged kickbacks mainly due to protracted litigation by some of the accused in Swiss courts against transfer of documents from Switzerland to India, and other legal steps taken by them.”

When contacted, Malhotra explained that he had undergone an operation last Saturday and was discharged only yesterday from the hospital so he could not attend. However, he did not say why the other MP of his party (Raghavji) hadn’t been asked to be present in the house. Neither Raghavji nor Mahesh ChandraSharma, deputy chief whip of the BJP, available for comment.