Cong defends on frontfoot

The BJP’s attack on security-related decisions taken during the Rajiv Gandhi Government got the Congress on the defensive on Bofors sta...

The BJP’s attack on security-related decisions taken during the Rajiv Gandhi Government got the Congress on the defensive on Bofors stating that ‘‘the BJP was keeping the issue alive through insinuations’’. Reacting to BJP spokesperson Arun Jaitley’s charges, based on the revelations in former cabinet secretary B.G. Deshmukh’s autobiography, Congress spokesperson Abhisekh Singhvi said: ‘‘If the BJP has proof that anyone is involved, what is stopping them from convicting those people and sending them to jail.’’

‘‘For the past 16 years, the case did not progress one bit. Why did not Jaitley himself, who has been involved, come out with any proof?’’ he asked and stressed, ‘‘when there isn’t a shred of evidence, how can anyone get convicted in the case?’’ Reacting specifically to the excerpts read out by Jaitley earlier, Singhvi said: ‘‘Someone as senior as the author should have brought up this matter much earlier than now, 15 years after the so-called incident took place.’’

Hitting back on the issue of people of foreign origin occupying high places in the country, Singhvi said: ‘‘What is new in the allegations? Why are they taking shelter behind Deshmukh’s book.’’

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In a new trend, the Congress today also posed five questions on the issue of release of Peter Bleach and five more question on the lowering of fee for IIMs by the Government.

On Bleach, Singhvi asked, ‘‘What are the reasons for Bleach’s release? Considering that his pardon was rejected twice, what fresh material did the Government have to release him? Did, at anytime, the Government attempt to bargain the release of any Indian prisoners in Great Britain? As clemency pardon is given only after all appeals have been exhausted, why did the Government not wait?’’

‘‘Was Bleach an intelligence agent who had become in some way seriously inconvenient?’’ Singhvi asked and added, ‘‘People are entitled to answers about, perhaps, the single such case of arms-dropping in peacetime.”

On IIM fee structure, he asked, ‘‘Did the Government have any examples of students unable to finish the IIM course because of the fee? Can the Government spend so much on higher education, as subsidy, instead of spending it on primary education?”

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