Congress ka lafda hai, Natwar to bakra hai: Advani

Although both the government and the Opposition had debated the Volcker report last week, the fresh revelations by the Congress functionary Aniel Mathrani had reopened the debate, he said, adding, ‘‘This particular oil scam is getting murkier and murkier with every passing day, and consequently, for the government, the situation is becoming more and more slippery.’’

He also slammed the government for the manner it had treated the former ambassador to Croatia, alleging that Mathrani had been whisked away by ED officials from the ‘‘tarmac of the airport itself’’ as soon as he landed and had been taken to an undisclosed destination for interrogation.

The manner in which Mathrani was treated and the way the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha had not been allowed to speak reminded him of the ‘‘midnight knocks’’ of the Emergency era, Advani said.

Claiming that the present mood in the Congress was to ‘‘somehow put blame on one person so that the party can get out of it’’, Advani repeated the BJP’s old demand that Sonia Gandhi, too, step down from her post as NAC chairperson pending conclusion of the probe into the Volcker report. While the alleged involvement of a minister of the UPA government in the oil scam was bad enough, ‘‘ the Congress being named is even more serious’’.

He also demanded a discussion on the Mitrokhin Archives in Parliament. Both the Volcker Report and the Mitrokhin Archives have drawn attention to the same thing—‘‘that some parties and leaders have no qualms about using foreign money for domestic politics,’’ Advani said.

CPM guns for Reliance

New Delhi: CPM leader Nilotpal Basu on Monday described Reliance as the biggest non-contractual beneficiary of oil-for-food programme and said this aspect of the Volcker report needed to be looked into.

‘‘Ultimately all this money belongs to the people of Iraq,’’ he said while talking to mediapersons along with party colleagues Basudeb Acharia and Roopchand Pal.